■“We’re now at the point of decision” regarding the fate of Northampton’s 121-year-old City Hall, said City Council President Edward P. Gross at last night’s City Property Committee meeting. The decision referred to was whether to build a new city hall or to invest enough money in the present structure to make it usable for many years to come.
■Perhaps nothing symbolizes the arrival of spring quite as much as the stocking of area streams and ponds for the future enjoyment of fishermen. Trout were dumped into Nashawannuck Pond in Easthampton yesterday, just one of several bodies of water that were stocked.
■A “speak-out” attended by some 50 students representing all cliques and factions at Northampton High School Thursday has helped quell racial tensions that arose in the wake of Tuesday’s beating of a student on Elm Street, according to staff and student leaders.
■Taking a one-year leave as coordinator of childcare for Smith College, Cathy Reid will in July take over as acting supervising principal of the college’s Campus School. Reid, 45, will replace Martha Batten, 49, who, after 23 years on the Campus School staff and 11 years as supervising principal, plans to leave the school at the end of June.
■Police broke up a disturbance at Meadowbrook Apartments late Wednesday during which one person brandished a BB gun that looked to onlookers and police like a semiautomatic pistol. Despite the commotion, police said no crimes were committed and no charges will result.
■One by one, House Democratic fence-sitters began choosing sides Friday, and the long-turbulent struggle over landmark health care legislation tilted unmistakably in President Barack Obama’s direction. The president all but claimed victory, “We are going to fix health care in America.”