Franklin County News

It's time to get out and enjoy Franklin County's parks. So many towns have pretty impressive parks, where children can play and adults can sit, relax or read ... whatever you feel like doing.

In the wake of federal spending cuts and a need to increase quality, anti-poverty agency Community Action is reorganizing its "Head Start" program - resulting in 129 fewer poor children across the Pioneer Valley who will be able to enroll in the free or discounted preschool/childcare service this fall.

GREENFIELD - Joshua Matthews, 24, formerly of Athol and most recently of Keene, N.H., was sentenced in Franklin Superior Court on Monday to seven to 10 years in state prison to be followed by 10 years of probation after having been convicted by a Franklin County jury in April on two counts of forcible rape of a child.

Dateline the region: We can't say that we're surprised that Franklin Regional Transit Authority will be ending its service to Athol.

Recorder/Trish Crapo David Korpiewski, 7, assembles a styrofoam glider during Sunday's Father's Day Fun Fly held at the Turners Falls Airport.

Scattered showers have been moving into western Massachusetts late this afternoon, mainly up in Franklin County for the time being.

Community Health Care Initiative is a group of residents concerned about local access to quality health-care services in Franklin County, specifically at Baystate Franklin Medical Center.

With completion of a "Sustainable Franklin County" plan that calls for the region to protect farmland and expand local food supplies, a new $74,000 grant will advance "strategic food system planning" over the next year to help build "a resilient regional food system."

Recorder/Paul Franz A car marked as an Indiana Sheriff's Dept. vehicle sits outside The Wok in the north end of Deerfield where crews were filming a scene for "The Judge" in Thursday's rain.

A motorcycle accident on Interstate 81 in Franklin County sent a Massachusetts man to the hospital by Life Lion.

The Franklin County Radio Control Club will present a Father's Day Fun Fly from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, June 16, at 140 Industrial Boulevard.

A man, possibly homeless, may be missing after entering the Green River in Greenfield.

Most people who have been in the armory agree it's in disrepair: carpets need cleaning; mice run amok in the cupboards, and the walls and ceiling are crumbling.

Out of the billions of petroleum-based plastic water bottles purchased each year, only 29 percent are recycled in the United States, according to Mohawk Trail Regional School sophomore Caitlyn Wilkins of Heath.

The airfield will fill this weekend with the hum of airplane engines, propellers churning the air, and the angry whine of much smaller aircraft doing the same.

Governor Deval Patrick unveiled a plan Monday to push lenders to provide 10,000 mortgages over the next five years for first-time home buyers who have modest incomes.

It must be a field of dreams, this hotel invasion of the corner of Dan Fox Drive and the ugliest strip of commercialism in the Berkshires.

County leaders are looking to partner with Franklin County for economic development along Route 2. The Berkshire Regional Planning Commission gave the OK on Thursday to partner with the Franklin County Community Development Corp. to increase business assistance along the highway that was severely damaged by Tropical Storm Irene in 2011.

Think about those clear nights where you look up and are bedazzled by the twinkling stars and planets.

Recorder/Paul Franz Participants brave the rain to walk the Survivors Lap at the Relay For Life at the Franklin County Fair Grounds on Friday evening.