Charlemont News

After mounting an Internet-enhanced write-in campaign, a former selectman bested incumbent Selectman Winston Healy by a greater than 2-to-1 margin in Tuesday's annual town election.

No one argued that the town doesn't need a shuttle service for river tubers, but the idea of creating a parking area on the edge of a newly restored Hawlemont playing field raised hackles this week.

The Occupy Wall Street movement may have garnered plenty of media attention last year, but it's in town halls that the grass-roots movement has paid off this spring: Half of Franklin County's 26 towns have either voted to reject the U.S. Supreme Court's giving corporations the same rights as people or are scheduled to do so.

A local business's proposal for a river livery and shuttle service for tube riders will be discussed at a Planning Board public hearing Thursday night, beginning at 7:15 p.m. The plan, submitted by Frank and Jennifer Mooney, managers of Crab Apple Whitewater Inc., is to provide a river shuttle and rental service for river tubers and safety gear to ... (more)

For boaters, as for anglers, the Deerfield River's a changed river since Tropical Storm Irene.