■Sgt. Michael S. Benedisuk, son of Mr. and Mrs. E. Benedisuk of Pleasant Street, has been wounded in Vietnam. He is currently confined in Japan at a general hospital. Sgt. Benedisuk has been attached to the 196th Infantry and has been in Vietnam since June. His brother, former Staff Sgt. Daniel Benedisuk, also served with the 196th Infantry. Both boys have received Purple Hearts while on duty in Vietnam.
■An educational television station for western Massachusetts is a topic that has been discussed for about five years, but as of Nov. 1, it now appears, western Massachusetts residents will start receiving one. That word came today from Jack Caldwell, operations manager for the educational station WGBH-TV of Boston, which has plans to establish Channel 57 in Amherst and Springfield next year.
■More confirmed cases of giardia, a gastrointestinal disease, are being reported, as steps to pinpoint a suspected source of infection got under way today. The two new cases increase to eight the number of confirmed cases — with five of them suspected to have stemmed from exposure to water at the David Musante Beach in Leeds.
■With only two weeks remaining before the Hilltown charter school’s planned opening, trustees must now find replacements for two full-time staff members who last week resigned. According to Western Massachusetts Hilltown Cooperative Charter School administrator Claudia Lefko, the two classroom teachers cited different school issues as among their reasons for leaving.
■ “Tent City” is now a ghost town. Six Fish & Wildlife personnel spent three hours Thursday removing trash from the former homeless encampment off Hockanum Road in the Meadows section of the city, said U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service spokesman Tom Alvarez.
■The city is hiring an independent consultant to help settle a dispute with a neighborhood group over whether saving an historic Leeds dam and harnessing its water for hydropower is financially feasible. Mayor Clare Higgins has asked the city’s energy and sustainability officer, Chris Mason, to hire a third-party engineering firm to analyze the data provided by the opposing sides to come up with an independent recommendation by early September.