■Readers of the Daily Hampshire Gazette have voted overwhelmingly in favor of retaining the County Courthouse and its related functions on a Main Street site. Comments received with the ballots indicate strong opposition to the proposal of the County Commissioner to build a new Courthouse on Pleasant Street.
■The Wroughts will perform at the Undercroft Coffee House at St. John’s Episcopal Church Friday evening. The group is one of the few in the area which specializes in four-part vocal harmony and originality in rock, jazz and blues. Members of the group are Brian Johnson, Terry Gray, Ron Bovat, John Yeskie and Joe Graveline.
■Jackson Street School will add staff to meet the needs of a burgeoning population of foreign-language speakers and to create a novel “two-way” bilingual kindergarten class, said to be a first for the Northampton school system.
■The arrival of a hefty number of bids on 14 sub-contracts for JFK Middle School project bodes well for the ultimate buyers — city and state taxpayers. The number of bids is considered high and should help to keep costs within budget, according to architects on the project.
■An apparent standoff between the Board of Public Works and the City Council is slowing action on a proposed landfill expansion. While both sides downplay the stalemate, the decision about whether to expand the Glendale Road facility or begin prepping it to close is mired in process. Each body is waiting for the other to act.
■Worst winter ever? The second blizzard in less than a week buried the most populous stretch of the East Coast under nearly a foot of snow Wednesday, breaking records for the snowiest winter and demoralizing millions of people still trying to dig out from the previous storm.