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Salem Derby, Visible Comets, Monte's costume preview

Last month we got to talk with the mayoral candidates for Northampton before their primary, and this month we’ll look at the three candidates for the neighboring city of Easthampton who didn’t have a primary because they use ranked choice voting.

First up is the person who moved into the mayoral seat after former mayor Nicole LaChappelle vacated: Salem Derby. The last person to declare their candidacy, Derby has served on Easthampton’s city council for almost the whole millennium, and we’ll chat with him about his change of heart regarding the position, and more.

We’ll also head to Great Falls, where the seeds of the 16th March for the Food Bank are sprouting and visions of costumes are dancing in the heads of the creative team at Swanson’s Fabrics. We’ll get a glimpse of who Monte might be dressed as on his 43 mile trek from Springfield to Greenfield.

And Mr. Universe, Kainaat Studios and Hampshire College's Salman Hameed, wants us to go outside and look at what in ancient times would have been portents of catastrophe, but now we know they are just wicked cool comets you can see this time of year (provided of course the skies clear up).

Christopher “Monte'' Belmonte is host and executive producer of NEPM's The Fabulous 413. He was born and raised in Massachusetts and has been a radio host in western Massachusetts for the last 20 years — the last 17 of them as host of Mornings with Monte on The River 93.9/WRSI.
Kaliis Smith is a radio host and producer for NEPM's The Fabulous 413.