■ Workmen and fair officials are busy putting grounds and facilities in shape for Northampton’s Three County Fair, set to begin Sunday and to run for a full week. Exhibition halls, livestock barns, food booths and the grandstand and stage are all being given a final once-over in preparation for the 154th annual fair.
■John T. Flynn, 79, a prominent and well-respected veteran Northampton firefighter, and husband of Gertrude C. (Forsander) Flynn, of 17 Corticelli St., died Sunday. He was a veteran of World War I, having served with Co. I of the 104th Infantry and saw action in the battles of Apremont, Chateau-Thierry, Saint-Mihiel, and Verdun.
■The Northampton First Night festival is now in the hands of a new leader. Marjorie Spillman of Northampton has been selected as the director of First Night. Spillman signed a contract last week and will be paid $2,100 for the task of organizing the gala that ushers in a new year with entertainment at many venues downtown.
■Thunderstorms lashed the region with a kind of geographic precision yesterday, dumping torrents of rain and hail on Northampton and Williamsburg, but sparing many other communities. The Northampton, Williamsburg and South Hadley areas were hit the hardest, with an estimated 5 to 6 inches of rain.
■For the first time in recent memory, an independent federal mediator will be called in to help Cooley Dickinson Hospital and its registered nurses find their way to agreement on a new contract, eight months after the last one officially expired. That step comes as the hospital grapples with what its president calls “a rapidly changing external environment we can’t control or change.”
■With forecasters calling Hurricane Irene the most powerful storm to zero in on western New England in over two decades, Pioneer Valley residents hurried Friday to make preparations for the storm, pulling boats from the Connecticut River and flocking to hardware and grocery stores to stockpile supplies in anticipation of the inclement weather.