image description — Superintendent Aaron Dean stands with principal Erin Beaulac.

Hoosac Valley Elementary Unveils New Sign

12:37PM / Saturday, May 18, 2024Print Story | Email Story

The school community gathered Friday morning on the school's front lawn.

ADAMS, Mass. — On Friday morning the Hoosac Valley Elementary School community gathered on the school's lawn to welcome the school's first sign.

Nearly seven years ago, Cheshire Elementary School and CT Plunkett Elementary School joined together to become Hoosac Valley Elementary School. After the closing of Cheshire Elementary School, the school district voted to rename CT Plunkett as Hoosac Valley Elementary School.

"At HVES, we share the importance of identity and belonging in every classroom as part of our Responsive Classroom approach," Principal Erin Beaulac said in a statement Friday. "Every student is called by their name and everyone is a part of our community. With that being said, we felt it was very important for our school's exterior to match our school's interior. There hasn't been a sign of the school's name on the outside of the building. This morning, all of that changed."

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Hoosac Valley Train Car Catches Fire

Staff ReportsiBerkshires
07:12PM / Saturday, October 24, 2026

ADAMS, Mass. — A malfunctioning heating pad is the suspected cause for a fire at one of the Hoosac Valley Service's train cars.

The fire broke out about 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, and posts to Facebook show heavy flames and smokes on the side of the historic Budd Car 41.

"We got dispatched to a train on fire, and when we got here, that's exactly what it was. It was a train on fire," said Fire Chief David Lennon. "We did have flames showing. We did have information from dispatch that there were no people on board. It was locked."

The incident is still under investigation but he said the best guess was the heating pad to keep the lines warm malfunctioned and the drip pads underneath ignited.

Melanie Seiden, executive director of the Berkshire Scenic Railway Museum, said the weekend rides had been completed for the day and only some staff were still at the Adams Station.

The rides are approximately an hour and the last one is usually completed around 4 p.m. The last two weekends have been fall foliage rides and a Halloween one is scheduled for next weekend.

Seiden said car will be taken out of service and that scheduled rides will go on.

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