Weekly Food Photo Contest: This week’s winner: Patricia Riggs of Leeds

State Police search for two suspects evading law enforcement

HOLYOKE — Police are searching for two suspects who fled a traffic stop in Hadley before crashing their car and taking off on-foot in Holyoke Tuesday evening. State Troopers from the Northampton Barracks assisted Hadley Police in an attempt to pull over an Acura sedan with an allegedly fradulent license plate at around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, according to an email sent to the Gazette by State Trooper Brandon Doherty. The vehicle, Doherty wrote, failed to stop and traveled onto Interstate 91 southbound, where it exited the highway on the Exit 15 ramp in Hokyoke. “The vehicle then exited the highway at […]

Former Kmart to become Walmart Supercenter in Holyoke

HOLYOKE — What has been known as the Kmart Plaza for about eight decades is on track to become the Walmart Plaza. Earlier this week, Dallas-based developer Cypress Acquisitions expressed its plans to city officials to build a Walmart at 2201 Northampton St., where a long-vacant and deteriorating Kmart has stood since the 1960s. The […]

Easthamtpon moves to pause data centers

EASTHAMPTON — The city is weighing a temporary ban on artificial intelligence (AI) data centers as the technology continues to be ridiculed by critics across the country and municipalities grapple with regulations. The potential ban smoothly jumped its first hurdle Tuesday night, with the Planning Board showing unanimous support for the draft moratorium. The meeting was […]

Mount Tom venue Tavern on the Hill sold in Easthampton

EASTHAMPTON — The Tavern on the Hill has officially closed after being the city’s most scenic dining destination for years, sold to a buyer planning to renovate the property into luxury condominiums. The property located at 100 Mountain Road was put up for sale last fall by husband-wife owners Amy and Lawrence “Larry” Guyette, priced at $995,000. However, the property was officially sold last week for nearly half that amount, $475,000. The broker for the sale, Paul Gallagher of Gallagher Real Estate, said the price drop is a sign of the times. “Bars and restaurants are struggling tremendously,” Gallagher said, a trend […]

Small art, big adventure: New Northampton festival turns downtown into a tiny art scavenger hunt

A typical outdoor art festival has big works — paintings, sculptures and the like — on display in rows and rows of large booths clustered together. At an upcoming art festival in Northampton, however, participants have to find the art themselves – it’s hidden, on purpose. Fun Sized: A Tiny Public Art Festival will make […]