Petersham

The next phase in the craft alcohol movement has arrived in Central Massachusetts.

Five organizations in Boxborough and Stow received a combined $232,209 as part of nearly $600,000 awarded in Central Massachusetts and $1 million statewide from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection grants to small public water suppliers.

The Petersham location of Gardner-based Heywood Healthcare’s addiction treatment facility The Quabbin Retreat has sold to development company, Waterstone Properties Group, Inc. of Needham for $3.3 million, according to the Worcester District Registry of Deeds.

Heywood Healthcare, one of the last independent community healthcare systems in Central Massachusetts, has agreed in principle to join the UMass Memorial Health system, seeking to become part of the network with facilities in Worcester, Marlborough, Leominster, Clinton and Southbridge.

Fueled by communities near I-495 and the Massachusetts Turnpike, the Central Massachusetts region grew 8.1% in population from 2010 to 2020, outpacing both the state (6.0%) and nation (6.5%), according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Decennial Census of Population and Housing.

It isn't beer, but hard cider and spirits – rum, vodka and the like – Americans are drinking more of.

As mental health providers in Central Massachusetts have expanded services to meet a growing need, they bump up against a capacity strained by funding and staffing limits.

Slowey/McManus Communications, a strategic communications firm based in Boston, has opened a small Worcester office in an effort to branch out to clients in Central Massachusetts.

Petersham town officials are again looking to take the burden of the 30,000-square foot, 118-year-old Nichewaug Inn and Academy property off its books.

The first phase of Heywood Healthcare's new dual diagnosis unit in Petersham is now up and running, and outpatient services are now available for adults with both mental health and substance abuse disorders, the system announced Monday.