■An estimated 20,000 spectators lined both sides of the 2¼-mile parade route yesterday in the “highly successful” conclusion to the Whately Bicentennial celebrations that left officials highly pleased and in the words of one resident, “glad that it was and that it was over.”
■State laws have set up new air pollution standards and a result has been a ban on outdoor burning. The ban was to have gone into effect last year but because of the financial hardship this would have worked on some communities, a delay was given until July 1, Thursday, by which time communities must stop burning or have plans for a sanitary landfill or other suitable method of trash disposal.
■An educator from Maine who says he wants to develop closer ties with parents, students and staff in a smaller school district will be invited to become Hatfield’s next schools’ chief. Members of the School Committee today chose Arthur “Chip” Hanson, superintendent of schools in Waterville, Maine, to replace William J. Contreras, who left in May to take a post in Avon.
■In a near-unanimous vote School Committee members from throughout the Hampshire Regional District last night hired Pupil Personnel Director G. Anthony Ryan as the new assistant superintendent. Ryan will begin Monday. Administrators hope to have a new pupil personnel director by the fall.
■After selling antiques in the Pioneer Valley for 36 years, Bruce and Megan Cummings, proprietors of Southampton Antiques on College Highway, have decided the time has come to retire. They are selling their home and business site, vastly downsizing their collection of antiques and moving to Saratoga Springs to be closer to their son who lives there.
■New York’s move to legalize same-sex marriage is another important step toward marriage equality nationwide, local observers said Monday. “This is the big time. New York is a big state,” said Suzanne Seymour, executive director of Northampton’s Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Coalition of Western Massachusetts.