■Elizabeth Lapan and Viola Bergeron, both longtime employees of the Grants Department Store in Easthampton, were honored recently at a gathering at the Terry Club on the occasion of their retirement.
■Two appointments in the editorial department of the Daily Hampshire Gazette were announced today by co-publishers Charles W. and Peter L. DeRose. Edward K. Shanahan has been named editor and Milton H. Cole will become sports editor and will assist Shanahan in editorial operations.
■Thousands of people turned out despite threatening skies yesterday to take in Chesterfield’s 49th annual Fourth of July parade. People lined the streets, five deep in some places, to see Hampshire County’s only small-town parade.
■An isolated quarry off Turkey Hill Road in the city’s West Farms section was the site of two arrests on heroin charges late last month. But in recent years, according to police and neighbors, the quarry’s status as a premier party spot has been downgraded, thanks in part to vigilant neighbors and to a stronger police presence in the area.
■Forty-eight immigrants were sworn in as U.S. citizens on Monday as part of an Independence Day naturalization ceremony in Northampton. The event, conducted by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Department in partnership with the nonprofit Center for New Americans, transformed the lawn off Main Street into a federal courthouse, where newcomers from 25 counties swore an oath of allegiance to the United States.
■Thousands of enthusiastic spectators from near and far turned out on Monday morning for Chesterfield’s 64th annual Fourth of July celebration. Flags decorated the tree-lined parade route on South Street and Main Road and parade-goers relaxed in chairs and on blankets as they cheered on the stream of public officials, veterans, bands and a variety of floats as they passed.