■The Easthampton Lions Community Center Steering Committee has announced plans for a community youth and civic center. Though it is too early to reveal the full scope of this proposed complete community center, according to committee members the purpose will be to service every age level.
■Prospects for a state-funded $1 million enclosed swimming pool or skating rink at Arcanum Field and a proposed 1971 local recreation budget of $76,528.20 were among new topics coming before this week’s monthly meeting of the Northampton Recreation Commission.
■After four years of planning and four previous defeats, the Chesterfield-Goshen school district has finally agreed to build a new two-town elementary school. Goshen voters yesterday decided the fate of the project when they approved a debt-exclusion override of Proposition 2½ by a narrow vote of 162 to 158.
■In a surprise vote meant to put a tourniquet on a continuing fiscal crisis, the Northampton School Committee this week eliminated the positions of all curriculum coordinators and department heads, effective July of 1996. The School Department currently faces a $100,000 deficit in its $15.4 million budget.
■Eva Schiffer, a longtime member of the Amherst Select Boar and professor at the University of Massachusetts, died at home after a yearlong battle with lung cancer Wednesday. She was 85. Friends remembered her as an ardent environmentalist and animal rights activist, a lover of the outdoors and an Amherst “icon.”
■Only a month into his retirement, former Amherst town manager Larry Shaffer is seeking new employment – in the state of Michigan. Shaffer is listed as one of five finalists for the position of city manager in Essexville, Mich.