■Fire Chief James C. Murray, at a budget hearing before the City Council’s Finance Committee recently, recommended that some thought be given to the safety of the Florence Fire Station. The cellar of the 100-year-old building looks like a forest, there are so many posts supporting the old wooden floor built to accommodate horse drawn vehicles.
Francis L. Gougeon, teacher of history at the Northampton High School, has been appointed principal of the Smith-Northampton Summer School, it was announced today by Raymond A. Ducharme, coordinator of the summer School. Gougeon has had six years of teaching experience and is presently serving as president of the Northampton Teachers Association.
■A children’s fishing derby, pancake breakfast and hefty discounts at local businesses all are part of the sixth annual Florence Spring Fever Sale Days, which began yesterday and continues today. The event, sponsored by the Florence Mercantile Association, features sales at two dozen businesses in the village.
■Two city residents will lead a neighborhood clean-up today — Earth Day. David Lalima and Georgie Thomas, who live on Vernon St., are again heading up a neighborhood Earth Day clean-up effort. They’ll be collecting trash from the banks and the middle of the Mill River.
■Hampshire Mosque’s effort to convert a former school building on Harkness Road into its new space for worship continues to face challenges as traffic concerns were again repeatedly raised by neighbors in Amherst and Pelham at a Planning Board hearing Wednesday.
■Gov. Deval Patrick sought to paint a picture Thursday of a state that had emerged from the recent economic downturn in a speech at the University of Massachusetts, declaring that “our commonwealth is headed for great things over the next few years.” The governor’s remarks were billed as a lecture in the Sidney Topol Distinguished Lecture Series.