■Americans throughout the country Thursday will witness an historic event when the Post Office Department breaks 200 years of tradition to become the United States Postal Service. Northampton, Easthampton, and Amherst Post Offices will issue a new 8-cent stamp bearing the Postal Service emblem.
■“I am, of course, delighted,” President Lewis O. Turner of Greenfield Community College said today, “that the Legislature and the governor have given their approval for the construction to begin on our new building.” The new campus, which it is hoped will be ready for occupancy in the fall of 1973, is located off Colrain Road in the Greenfield Meadows.
■John E. Burruto, principal of the Amherst-Pelham Regional Junior High School, has been offered the job of principal of Haverhill High School. Reached at home last night, Burruto confirmed he’d been offered the job and was thinking it over but declined any further comment.
■Sales of strawberries last week in several U.S. markets plummeted as the fruit was blamed for spreading a parasite that left people violently ill with stomach cramps and vomiting. Now there’s a new possible culprit: raspberries, which may be to blame for spreading Cyclospora, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned.
■A businessman long active in the Northampton area hospitality trade, and who had recently made a significant comeback with the reincarnation of Page’s Loft, died over the weekend in Vermont. George W. “Bo” Page Jr. was remembered today as an honest businessman, a good friend and one who could never stop moving, always looking forward to the next challenge.
■Diane St. Martin of Hidden Acres Farm in Southampton has been awarded the Continental Kennel Club’s 2011 Breeder Merit Award for her work with American mastiffs. St. Martin received the award to mark her commitment to advancing the breed and her dedication to ensuring that her pups are healthy and well socialized before they are sold.