Top News Stories of 2024: Part 3

Editor’s note: As part of the Greenfield Recorder’s end-of-the-year features, we are publishing in three parts our choices for the top dozen news stories of 2024. They are listed in no particular order.

Gun law signed

In August, Gov. Maura Healey signed into law a sweeping gun bill that requires live-fire training, criminalizes bump stock and trigger crank possession, prohibits 3D-printed and unserialized “ghost guns,” and expands the state’s red flag laws to allow police, health care workers and school officials to alert the courts if they believe someone with access to guns is a danger and should have their firearms at least temporarily taken away.

Gun enthusiasts and experts in this area expressed support over the 3D-printed and ghost gun prohibition, but have been critical of other provisions in the bill.

“When new technology or things pop up I think we need to be nimble enough to address them,” Franklin County Sheriff Christopher Donelan said in September, adding that 3D and ghost guns are an attempt to circumvent a system of firearm registration and required training. “Where I … part with the people from Boston is when you start to put restrictions on the firearms used by hunters.”

State Rep. Susannah Whipps, who represents the 2nd Franklin District as the only unaffiliated member of the House, was one of the 33 “nays” in the House on a 124-33 vote. Meanwhile, the bill flew through the Senate by a tally of 35 to 5. Eight Democrats joined all Republicans in opposition.

“As a gun owner who is proficient, safe and licensed, I was disappointed with this bill,” Whipps said in a statement. “I don’t feel it was necessary and from the contacts I received from constituents, they didn’t think it was necessary either. I also don’t think that it will address gun violence in the commonwealth.

“The prohibitions and barriers placed on out-of-state hunters, business owner[s] who live outside of Massachusetts and seasonal residents are not terribly welcoming,” she continued. “The added burdens placed on businesses, sportsmen and women and law-abiding citizens will have zero effect on violent crime. Also, there’s no money attached to this bill, which makes the work of implementing regulations and issuing licenses even more slowed than it is now.”

The new law prompted a lawsuit from the Gun Owners Action League, a Massachusetts affiliate of the National Rifle Association, which insists the new law is unconstitutional. The suit asks the federal court to issue a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction barring the state from enforcing the “burdensome licensing regimes on the possession and carry of firearms for self defense.”

Meanwhile, volunteers with the Civil Rights Coalition set to work gathering voter signatures in an effort to place a question on the 2026 ballot about repealing the law.

— Domenic Poli

Friendly’s closes, making way for future Starbucks

The Friendly’s restaurant on Mohawk Trail in Greenfield closed its doors in September after it was announced earlier in the year that the business would close and a Starbucks would take its place.

This is the first Starbucks to be built in Franklin County, joining other locations in western Massachusetts both east and south of Greenfield. The closure of the Friendly’s, which had operated in Greenfield for 42 years, leaves only a few remaining locations across western Massachusetts.

In March, an application from the coffee chain was presented to the Greenfield Planning Board, and the board unanimously approved the proposal for a Starbucks with a 14-vehicle drive-thru under the conditions that the company landscape the site’s facade with native plants and install two-way drive-thru exits and entrances at both the north and south ends of the property to prevent a line of vehicles from backing onto either Route 2 or Robbins Road.

Friendly’s closed its doors on Sept. 15, and since then, construction crews have been preparing the site of the former restaurant for the new coffeehouse.

While it was previously reported that Starbucks would open this fall, the location is still under construction, and a hiring sign for Starbucks is hung on the chain-link fence surrounding the site.

— Erin-Leigh Hoffman

Fraud case impacts Orange

While town officials discovered Orange had lost $338,000 in September 2023 by paying fraudulent invoices, the crime became the center of public discussions in early 2024 as the town began crafting its fiscal year 2025 budget.

Town Administrator Matthew Fortier said he and other members of the town’s finance team discovered the problem in early September 2023. Though the total was more than $800,000, the banks were able to stop some of those payments. The fraud put the town in dire financial straits and officials temporarily contemplated closing the libraries to save money. Officials reported in May that the matter was being investigated by the Orange Police Department, the Northwestern District Attorney’s Office and the FBI, which assigned an agent to the case.

“The stuff that this gentleman can do on his laptop, as far as chasing money down, is staggering,” Police Chief James Sullivan told Selectboard members at a meeting in May. “I’m encouraged. We know where a bunch of the money’s gone. We know where it is, or where it was, and he’s going to be working on chasing it down and he’s going to be working on helping us build a case.”

Fortier has declined to disclose what the fraudulent invoices pertained to. Efforts to reach the Orange Police Department and the FBI for an update on the case have been unsuccessful.

— Domenic Poli

Multiple people killed by trains

Franklin County and North Quabbin region saw three instancesinvolving residents being struck and killed by trains.

On Jan. 31, police were called to South Royalston after 95-year-old Rhea LaRoche of Westminster was killed by a train that collided with her car. Police said LaRoche had gotten lost while driving home, ended up in a railroad crossing and was not seen by the train engineer, as her vehicle’s headlights were off.

On June 11, Greenfield resident Jennifer Jarvis, 45, was intentionally struck by a Berkshire & Eastern Railroad freight train near Bardwell’s Ferry Bridge in Shelburne.

Following Jarvis’ death, her brother Matthew shared the family’s story with the Greenfield Recorder, emphasizing the importance of helping people through their struggles with mental health. Jennifer’s mother, Patricia, spoke to the outpouring of community support the family received following the tragedy.

A 43-year-old Deerfield man died after being struck by a passenger train in South Deerfield near South Main Street and Thayer Street on Nov. 28. The Northwestern District Attorney’s Office did not release the name of the victim.

— Madison Schofield