■The plant of the Daily Hampshire Gazette competed very well with the United National as far as guided tours go last night when “Freedom of the Press Day” was celebrated with an open house. Four hundred and eighty-one visitors were taken through the various departments with staff members acting as guides.
■Neil Martell will serve as the unit director for the Junior Boys Day Camp for the 1970 season, replacing Edward Shaughnessy, announced Benjamin S. Mysorski today. Because of unexpected developments, Shaughnessy has had to change his plans for the summer and resigned from the post of unit director.
■The Deerfield Planning Board this week approved plans for a large new museum building that will allow Historic Deerfield to put the vast majority of its collection on permanent display. The Collections Study Center — a sandstone-sided building that will echo the shape of nearby tobacco barns — is slated to be constructed starting in 1996.
■The Wally Byam Airstream trailers have already started arriving on the UMass campus. Thousands of the trailers are expected for the Wally Byam Caravan Club International convention June 28-July 4 rally.
■Former school Superintendent Alberto Rodriguez is blasting what he sees as Amherst’s “systemic resistance to change and transparency” and charging that the town pays “lip service” to racial diversity. Rodriguez, who lives in Florida, stepped down March 8 after eight rocky months as superintendent.
■Parishioners in Easthampton’s three Catholic churches will become part of a new parish, Our Lady of the Valley Church, located in the building that now house Immaculate Conception Church, starting next month. The news, announced at Sunday Masses, evoked mixed emotions.