WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — First-year Town Manager Jason Hoch was given high marks by the Board of Selectmen on Monday.

The board held its final vote on a weeks-long process that began with the development of a comprehensive technique for performing the evaluation and ended in a 5-0 decision to approve a report that found Hoch, "has shown himself to be a thoughtful, intelligent and articulate manager who comes with significant expertise in his field and the ability to learn quickly as new issues arise."

When it began the evaluation process over the summer, the board grappled with the fact that none of them had engaged in a thorough evaluation in the past. Longtime, now retired

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PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Margo Chevers remembers the night she was called to take in her two granddaughters, once almost 10 months, the other 23 months.

She wasn't prepared for the physical and emotional toll or the financial needs. It was, she said, a wake-up call.

"I dropped $50 just to get through the night," Chevers said of the supplies she had to get - diapers, food, pajamas. And there was the "mental calisthenics of how I'm going to get through the day."

Within two years she was facing a major health crisis, and saw

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STAMFORD, Vt. — A local woman avoided injury when her Chrysler Town and Country crashed into a tree on Saturday morning shortly before 11.

 Karen Wheeler, 57, of Readsboro was southbound on Route 100 in her 2005 van when she experienced a mechanical malfunction with her steering wheel, according to State Trooper Lauren Ronan. The van left the highway near Lincoln Road, collided with a guardrail and then a tree.  

There was extensive damage to the guardrail and vehicle, which is considered totaled. Wheeler was wearing a seat belt and no one was injured in the crash. The conditions were dry and sunny.

A second accident later that day in Pownal involved two motor vehicles

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Fall Foliage Festival extravaganza: It's Fall Foliage week, and with that comes lots of news, notes - and pleas for help.

First, the pleas: The North Adams Chamber of Commerce is in need of six cyclists to help power its human powered vehicle for the Oct. 2 parade. Email Phil Sellers at phil@riverhillpottery.com. Remember, the parade kicks off at 1 p.m. from the Ocean City Job Lot parking lot. All of this week's events can be found online.

Now, some news: Before the parade, Greylock Federal’s Fall Classic 5K Road Race will begin at noon at the top of Main Street near the North Adams Public Library and travel west down Main, then south on (Route 8) State Street before

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Outlet additions: Popular apparel retailer Guess has opened a factory store at the Lee Premium Outlets, and Toys 'R Us Express and Ten Thousand Villages are open at the center through the fall and holiday shopping seasons.

Guess offers a full range of denim, apparel and accessories for women, men and kids and, with a presence in over 80 countries, is a truly global brand that will appeal to the shoppers from far and wide who visit Lee Premium Outlets. The store is located on Main Street at the center, between Johnston & Murphy and Lindt.

Ten Thousand Villages, open through Dec. 31, showcases handmade gifts, jewelry, home decor, art and sculpture, textiles, serveware and personal

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ADAMS, Mass. — The rumble of engines echoed through Adams on Sunday morning as more than 1,000 motorcycles queued up at Bowe Field for the 60-mile Fall Run motorcycle ride.

Mike Roberts, owner of Custom City Cycle Shop and co-founder of the annual fundraiser, said although the 35 years marks a milestone for the run, it almost marked the end of Bike Night.

"The biggest issue we had this year was there was no Events Committee in Adams, they disbanded recently," he said. "They helped organize Bike Night and that was a big hit to

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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The goal of the annual recovery vigil has been to shine a light on a scourge that's affected families and communities across the nation: Addiction.

"I have kept my demons at bay for 13 years and six months," said Rebecca Dodge, recalling her fall into drug abuse in the early 2000s. But many of her friends haven't been as successful, she told the gathering Noel Field Athletic Complex for the Voices of Recovery event on Saturday afternoon.

Her friend, Hope Benoit, succumbed several years ago leading her to found the Have Hope Initiative. But just

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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Berkshire Regional Transit Authority is considering a new loop in North Adams as a way to get its riders where they need to go in a faster and cost-neutral manner.

Dubbed "Route 65" for the moment, the loop as currently proposed would start and end at the Walmart Supercenter on Curran Highway every hour starting at 6:30 a.m. Route 1 from Walmart south would continue until 6:30 p.m.

The loop route would hit the Ocean State Job Lots plaza (turnaround), Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, Main Street, two stops at Mohawk Forest, Berkshire Medical Center

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Investors have been waiting all year for that elusive interest rate hike promised by our central bank. September proved to be another false start. Once again, markets rallied on the news, the dollar fell, and investors were happy. So what's new?

As we have written so many times in the past, investors and markets are fixated on a Fed rate hike. Now everyone's attention is on December. Janet Yellen, the Fed chieftain, indicated that she could see at least one rate hike this year — if the data warrants it. The problem is the economic numbers are, at best, inconclusive.

Even the central bank, in this last go-around at the FOMC, lowered its forecast for the future, long-term,

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