■The pillars were restored to the front of City Hall yesterday by Peter Payne, local cabinetmaker who built the new pillars to match those removed a year ago after they were found to be rotted. Funds raised by citizens interested in preservation of historical architecture in Northampton, headed by Mrs. Richard Holden, helped make the replacement of the pillars possible.
■Thanksgiving Day 1970 will have special meaning for the William Drozdal family of 115 Oak St., in Florence. Sgt. Robert Drozdal, 23, came home Saturday after spending 13 months in Vietnam. All of his Vietnam time was spent in the field except for hospitalization when he was twice wounded in the fighting, and for his normal rest and relaxation breaks.
■A first-ever school-by-school breakdown of spending should enable them to better locate savings, school officials hope. The approach represents a “sea change” in fiscal planning, which traditionally has been done from the top down, Assistant Superintendent Joseph P. Misterka told principals and parent leaders last week.
■The son of Russian novelist Alexander Solzhenitsyn, along with two passengers, was injured early this morning on Interstate Route 91, when the vehicle he was driving hit a guardrail and flipped before landing in the median strip. State police said that Ignat Solzhenitsyn, of Cavendish, Vt., was traveling north on I-91 when he lost control of the vehicle near where the Mill River flows underneath the highway.
■The Berkshire Electric Cable Co. in Leeds will double its employees to about 70 after it was sold this week to the Champlain Cable Corp. of Vermont. Executives at both companies said that Champlain Cable wants to use Berkshire Electric’s knowledge of electric wiring used in hybrid automobiles.
■Saying she’ll raise the bar for prosecutions in the region’s district courts, Northwestern District Attorney-elect David Sullivan has named Rosemary Tarantino to his senior staff. A Haydenville resident, Tarantino currently is deputy chief of the state attorney general’s western division.