■“Johnny Lightning” miniature raceway competition began at the Hampshire Regional YMCA last Saturday. The “Y” winner will be entered in the competition for a region-wide champion. If successful in the postal race, the winner will then enter the national championships. The grand prize is an all-expense paid trip to the Indianapolis 500.
■Mayor Sean M. Dunphy announced last night the beginning of what he termed “the toughest, hardest-hitting campaign in the history of the city to collect back taxes.” The mayor said, “At this moment there is outstanding some $500,000 in uncollected real estate taxes, some $200,000 in uncollected motor vehicle excise taxes and some $60,000 in uncollected water and sewer charges. This situation will not be tolerated.”
■A consultant says it would cost half as much to build a proposed gambling casino at a former amusement park on Mount Tom as in downtown Holyoke. But neither option would be cheap, according to the Tighe & Bond engineering firm, which was hired to examine the sites.
■A meeting to discuss plans for a new Jewish day school in Northampton will held at Congregation B’nai Israel on Sunday. The school is an affiliate of the Solomon Schechter Day School movement, the day-school arm of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.
■A new, privately run transfer station on Route 10 is open, though public works officials said Monday that it remains unclear what role the new facility will play for residential trash disposal. Armand “Buddy” Duseau, a consultant for Valley Recycling and the former owner of Duseau Trucking in Hatfield, said the new transfer station is open now for commercial haulers, and posed to begin accepting residential trash and recycling in May.
■Philipp Naegele, a longtime music professor at Smith College, died at his city home Sunday at age 83. Naegele was one of the first young musicians to participate at the Marlboro Music School in Marlboro, Vt., when it was founded 60 years ago, according to his obituary.