A crowd gathers at an open house at the Plant Connector in downtown North Adams. Press photo by Kate Abbott

Jobs

Here are the Hill Country Observer’s articles about jobs, listed from newest to oldest. Questions about local economies surface in The Hill Country Observer as we follow movements in co-ops, small businesses, nonprofits and sustainable ways to make a living in our rural communities and support kinds of work that fulfill workers and local needs.

  • Issue:

    Study backs passenger rail for southwestern Vermont

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    By EVAN LAWRENCEContributing writer   Carrie Snyder photo   NORTH BENNINGTON, Vt.A study released earlier this year by the Vermont and New York transportation departments concludes that passenger train service should be restored to southwestern Vermont after an absence of more than 60 years. Consultant Vanasse Hangen Brustlin Inc., in a study paid for by read more

    Study backs passenger rail for southwestern Vermont
  • Issue:

    A new model for saving farmland

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    Investor group plans agricultural center in Columbia County By JOHN TOWNESContributing writer   COPAKE, N.Y.A large tract of open land in the central hamlet of Copake, once the proposed site of a controversial affordable-housing development, has now been earmarked for preservation as working farmland. The 122-acre property, a short distance off Route 22 and just read more

    A new model for saving farmland
  • Issue:

    In lieu of plastic, mushrooms

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    Cambridge mycologist helps company develop fungi-based products By EVAN LAWRENCEContributing writer   CAMBRIDGE, N.Y.Sue Van Hook is convinced that fungi hold one of the keys to saving the planet from choking on plastic. A professional mycologist and a retired Skidmore College senior teaching associate, Van Hook has embarked on a new career as chief mycologist read more

    In lieu of plastic, mushrooms
  • Issue:

    Planning for our car-free youth

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    As a generation shuns driving, towns push for better transit options By DAVID SCRIBNER Contributing writer When Massachusetts legislators were debating an ambitious multi-year transportation funding bill last year, longtime state Rep. William F. “Smitty” Pignatelli was asked whether he supported a push by Gov. Deval Patrick and others to restore passenger rail service between read more

    Planning for our car-free youth
  • Issue:

    Farm to office — new destination for agricultural deliveries

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    By TRACY FRISCH Contributing writer As a teenager in the Champlain Valley of New York, Adam Hainer sold vegetables from his home garden at a farmers market.   But he didn’t imagine farming could ever provide his livelihood until he met Melody Horn, his future partner, at a now-defunct microgreens farm. They wound up starting read more

    Farm to office — new destination for agricultural deliveries
  • Issue:

    Small theaters struggle to convert before film reels disappear

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    By THOMAS DIMOPOULOS Contributing writer   “Wait a minute! Wait a minute! You ain’t heard nothin’ yet.” The movie industry is arguably experiencing its biggest technological revolution since Al Jolson spoke those first words, in “The Jazz Singer,” to usher in the era of the talkies in 1927. By the end this year, the major read more

    Small theaters struggle to convert before film reels disappear
  • Issue:

    Building a grass-fed future

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    Beef farmers band together for access to new markets and new hope By TRACY FRISCH Contributing writer   HEBRON, N.Y.At first glance, Sarah Teale seems an unlikely person to organize an agricultural cooperative for small-scale producers of grass-fed beef. She lives in Manhattan, where she has a successful documentary filmmaking career and her own production read more

    Building a grass-fed future
  • Issue:

    Town green for a localvore era

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    Owners aim to turn old fairgrounds into center for local agriculture By DAVID SCRIBNER Contributing writer   GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass.At the town’s southern gateway on U.S. Route 7 lies the derelict Great Barrington Fairgrounds, a complex of ramshackle stables and barns, an overgrown racetrack with vine-shrouded stewards’ towers, a crumbling grandstand, and ticket booths encased read more

    Town green for a localvore era
  • Issue:

    Growing greens all winter long

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    Grants help farms meet an all-year demand for local produce By CRAIG IDLEBROOK Contributing writer     POWNAL, Vt. Unlike many crop farmers in New England, Lisa MacDougall doesn’t hibernate. Even when the weather turned bitterly cold for a week in January, she was still busy picking spinach and kale for her community-supported-agriculture program and read more

    Growing greens all winter long
  • Issue:

    Helsinki on the Hudson

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    Three years on, club is at center of city’s growing music scene By JOHN TOWNES Contributing writer   HUDSON, N.Y. When Club Helsinki closed its intimate, eclectic performance space in Great Barrington, Mass., and moved west to Hudson a few years ago, its owners hoped to play a role in the ongoing revitalization of their read more

    Helsinki on the Hudson