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:

    A hard act to follow — Hubbard Hall

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    As founder’s retirement looms, Hubbard Hall seeks a new leader By EVAN LAWRENCE Contributing writer CAMBRIDGE, N.Y.Hubbard Hall, the 19th century opera house that was reborn more than 30 years ago as a performing arts center for southern Washington County, is facing some big changes. Benjie White, the executive director of Hubbard Hall Projects Inc., read more

    A hard act to follow — Hubbard Hall
  • Issue:

    Cows giving way to sheep, alpacas

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    Tour celebrates rise of ‘fiber farming’ in Washington County By EVAN LAWRENCE Contributing writer CAMBRIDGE, N.Y. Dairy cows may predominate on the farms of Washington County, but over the past two decades there’s been a quiet resurgence in fiber farming: raising animals for their wool or fur rather than meat or milk. The transformation will read more

    Cows giving way to sheep, alpacas
  • Issue:

    Homegrown from goat’s milk

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    Kitchen science lesson evolves into skin-care business By STACEY MORRIS Contributing writer   STILLWATER, N.Y.A typical day for Hal Mayes involves making upwards of 1,200 bars of goat’s milk soap at his Saratoga County farm and manufacturing plant. Not so typical is the fact that his homegrown business regularly fields orders from virtually every continent. read more

    Homegrown from goat’s milk
  • Issue:

    Banking for the common good?

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    Group aims to grow alternative financial system in Mass. By EVAN LAWRENCE Contributing writer Consumers angry at the U.S. banking system could soon have an alternative way of saving and pooling their resources for the good of the community – at least if some people in western Massachusetts have their way. Common Good Finance, a read more

    Banking for the common good?
  • Issue:

    Children of industry

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    By JUDY BERNSTEIN Contributing writer   BENNINGTON, Vt.Looking at the canvas, you can almost hear the enormous machines whirring and clanging and feel the cotton lint hanging in the air of the mill room as you, a child, work. In another, you see “the overseer,” an ominous, shadowy presence. Maybe he’s there, or maybe he’s read more

    Children of industry
  • Issue:

    Farm-to-plate’s newest frontier

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    By JOHN TOWNES Contributing writer   HUDSON, N.Y.The ideal of farm-fresh ingredients has taken the restaurant business by storm over the past decade or so, but now the newly reopened stainless-steel diner on Hudson’s main street is taking the farm-to-table concept to a new level. At Grazin’, as the classic 1940s diner is now known, read more

    Farm-to-plate’s newest frontier
  • Issue:

    A grand church saved by the arts

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    Spa City landmark finds new life as performance space By STACEY MORRIS Contributing writer SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. The massive brick edifice that became the Universal Preservation Hall never crumbled to the ground in the physical sense, but it has become known in the past decade as a phoenix of a structure. When the grand old read more

    A grand church saved by the arts
  • Issue:

    State pushes to limit Housatonic cleanup

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    Mass. backs GE’s call to restrict scope of PCB removal By DAVID SCRIBNER Contributing writer LENOX, Mass.From Canoe Meadows, the 285-acre Audubon wildlife preserve in southeast Pittsfield, the Housatonic River winds its way south in a coil of oxbows through a floodplain flanked by farms and wetlands, creating one of the most diverse wildlife habitats read more

    State pushes to limit Housatonic cleanup
  • Issue:

    Fast track to a smart grid

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    Some raise privacy, health concerns as wireless meters arrive in Vermont By JUDY BERNSTEIN Contributing writer RUTLAND, Vt.Supporters say it’s a big leap forward for energy conservation in Vermont: Over the next few months, utility customers across the state are set to receive new, wireless electric meters. Power companies say the new “smart meters” will read more

    Fast track to a smart grid
  • Issue:

    Liquid gold – restaurant oil as fuel

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    Use of restaurant oil as fuel sets off ‘grease wars’ around region By JUDY BERNSTEINContributing writer QUEENSBURY, N.Y.The barrel of used cooking oil behind a local restaurant wasn’t much to look at. But it was enough to light up the face of Eric Ovitt, a driver for one of several cooking-oil collection companies fighting over read more

    Liquid gold – restaurant oil as fuel