■Western Union plans to close its local office if the Federal Communications Commission approves its application. A lack of business was cited as the reason. Most telegram business is now conducted by telephone, officials said, with a small number of people walking into the office to do business in person.
■Mr. and Mrs. Leroy E. Rogers of 57 Mann Terrace, Florence, have announced recently that their son, Airman First Class Leroy F. Rogers, will leave for Cam Ruhn Bay, South Vietnam, Jan. 17. He will stay there for a year as an active security policeman.
■Facing an uncertain economy and tough competition from other retailers, the owner of the Ann August store on Main Street will close the Hampshire Mall branch by the end of January. Jeffrey Lipston yesterday blamed economic factors and a slump in the women’s ready-to-wear business for the Hampshire Mall store’s closing.
■The owners of the City Cafe are getting back into the food business, with plans to sell barbecue in what now is a vacant storage area. City Side BBQ, scheduled to open in January or February, will be a place large enough to fit Fred Flintstone-sized baby backs, with 15-foot ceilings and plenty of elbow room.
■Northampton is poised to install its largest photovoltaic system to date next month, a 108-kilowatt solar array at Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School. The roughly 500-panel system will be installed on the school’s old tennis courts that overlook Cooley Dickinson Hospital’s parking areas.
■Rummaging around for 1- and 2-cent postage stamps when postal rates go up is heading the way of the Pony Express. Beginning in January, all new stamps good for 1 ounce of first-class mail will be marked as “forever.” The move is designed to help customers cope with postage increases.