Palmer News

The University of Massachusetts reports it has given $1 million in research and economic development grants to faculty members at the school's five campuses.

That will be good news to people who patronize the local racino, said Jamie Hartman, executive vice president and chief operating officer.

By NANCY GONTER ngonter@repub.com PALMER - A suspicious blaze that appears to have started in a vehicle parked outside a car restoration company in the MapleTree Industrial Center Sunday did not spread far into the building because the sprinkler system was in operation, Fire Chief Alan J. Roy said Monday.

By NANCY H. GONTER ngonter@repub.com PALMER - The Town Council will hold its first meeting to discuss the report of the Palmer Citizen Casino Impact Study Committee on July 8, Council President Michael R. Magiera said recently.

Several local businesses were damaged in an industrial park fire late Sunday afternoon.

Those against a proposed one billion dollar casino project took to the streets on Saturday, dropping their picket signs and picking up the keys to their cars.

PALMER, Mass. - A group of casino gambling opponents took to the streets of Palmer in their cars to protest a proposal to put a casino there.

By LORI STABILE lstabile@repub.com PALMER - Converse Middle School students, upset that band and chorus won't be offered next year, started a petition to convince administrators to keep the subjects.

Authorities say the man charged with killing a security guard at the Holocaust Memorial Museum will likely survive the injuries he suffered when other museum guards returned fire.

Paul E. Burns stood in the Shell station parking lot at the Massachusetts Turnpike exit entrance, across from where Mohegan Sun wants to build a $1 billion casino on Thorndike Street.

By NANCY H. GONTER ngonter@repub.com PALMER - The Town Council supports the concept of creating a rail stop in downtown, a parking lot for rail passengers and recreational park next to the Quaboag River.

By LORI STABILE lstabile@repub.com PALMER - The casino debate will hit the streets Saturday with supporters and opponents trying to sway public opinion.

No decision has been made yet on casinos in the Baystate, but that has not stopped people from voicing their support and their concerns.

Police served the warrant on McGarrett Tuesday, and his bail was set at $2 million.

A St. Paul's School teacher is accused of assaulting a female student he was tutoring in his residence located on school grounds.

Palmer Anti-casino group plans demonstration PALMER - The Quaboag Valley Against Casinos group will hold a traffic simulation from 11 a.m. to noon Saturday in the center of town.

By LORI STABILE lstabile@repub.com PALMER - Palmer police are investigating an armed robbery at the O'Connell's Convenience Plus store on Thorndike Street Friday morning at 3 where a woman told the clerk she had a gun.

Police are looking for a possibly armed woman who robbed the O'Connell's Convenience Plus store, located at 144 Thorndike St., around 3 a.m. Friday morning.

By NANCY H. GONTER ngonter@repub.com PALMER - The union representing teachers at Pathfinder Regional Vocational Technical High School has declined to make contract concessions and layoffs are expected, Superintendent Gerald A. Paist said.

The town of Palmer remembered its war dead today with a show of respect. Veterans with tears in their eyes proudly marched by accepting the applause and affection from several generations of Eastern Hampden County families.