■Long a dream of many people, the new Hampshire County Hospital in Leeds is taking shape. The new complex, which will bed 120 patients, is replacing the old hospital that was opened in 1914 as the western county tuberculosis sanatorium.
■A new 600-800-pupil elementary school to open in 1973, some secondary additions by 1976, and a new comprehensive high school and four 600-800-pupil elementary schools will be needed by 1980, Ronald Fitzgerald, Amherst superintendent of schools said last night when he presented the master plan for school buildings needs to the Regional School Committee.
■About 30 percent of the departments at the university of Massachusetts would be affected — many with reductions — in a restructuring plan unveiled this week by Provost Patricia H. Crosson. The plan, which could take as many as five years to fully implement, has some members of the faculty reeling as they consider its implications.
■With a “heavy heart,” Jackson Street School Principal Philip O’Reilly late yesterday morning ended the suspense: After more than two years, he’ll leave the 460-pupil school in February to lead a new elementary school for 100 pupils in Heath.
■Amherst poet Martin Espada has been awarded a $50,000 grant for artistic excellence from the national artists’ advocacy organization United States Artists (USA), based in Los Angeles. Espada is one of 50 artists from across the nation who have been selected as the 2010 USA fellows.
■Because of a changed launch date, astronaut Catherine “Cady” Coleman of Shelburne spent her 50th birthday on Earth — in frigid Kazakhstan, awaiting the Soyuz launch into outer space, which took place at 2:09 p.m. Wednesday. Coleman and the other crew members were headed to the International Space Station for a six-month mission.