Land Records on Line - Hampden

Hampden County Registry of Deeds provides on-line access to public land
records - including 'free access' where a certified deed copy is not
required.

The Land Registry also maintains a 'blog' for recent filings (ie within
the last 60 minutes). Hampden County, like most land recorders, is
back encoding for computer use and available computerized records go
back to 1960 on line.
Site is easily usable and works with most browers.

<a href=http://204.213.242.147/alis/ww400r.pgm>-Main Menu Page
-Computerized Land Records ---
http://204.213.242.147/alis/ww400r.pgm</a>

<a href=http://registryofdeeds.co.hampden.ma.us/related.htm>Main SIte &
Links - http://registryofdeeds.co.hampden.ma.us/related.htm</a>

Food Festivals - Tastes of the Town

West Springfield Massachusetts
'Taste of West SIde'

June 9-12
<a href=http://www.westsidestaste.org/home.shtml>Westside's Taste </a>

<a href=http://www.virtualcities.com/ons/ma/p/as/map71a11.htm>Virtual
Cities List of Five Colleg Area Events & Fairs -- Tastes & Food Fairs
too</a>

Fish Ways

Western Massachusetts Fish-Way's which save the migrating anadrynous fish (salmon, shad etc) are open for public viewing variously this time of year. Holyoke Dam's FishWay (actually a fish elevator) is open through Father's Day.
Open this Saturday June 5 only is the Southworth Dam at Mittineague in West Springfield from 10 am.
The fish-ways also fish ladders are an opportunity for young and old conservationists to see migrating fish in the special channel and lifiting apparatus .. and to help with the count.
Free of charge.
Holyoke's Fish Ladder here

Please notify this blog of other WMASS fish ladders.

Western Massachusetts County Government

Massachusetts can consolidate costs by county government and save town government.
County government options are not onerous choices for Western Massachusetts towns and cities seeking to save money and share costs. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 34 (link above) outlines existing charter powers for county government. With approval of the legislature .. towns and cities and citizens can seek a form of county government and embue it with powers. No city nor town need be abolished in government -- but may consolidate powers and functions.

So, towns and cities needing government to cover the costs of greater parks & recreation, schools, police, or wastewater systems may create a county government -independent of them and transfer those powers to it as a united government for their county -- and save their town and city identity by a lesser government.
Each municipality may choose to join in whole or part by such a system.