■A Battle of the Bands winner, first place winners in ox drawing contests, a record racetrack handle, and attendance of 12,477 highlighted the fourth day of the Three County Fair yesterday. Cricket Hill, a five-member rock band from Conway, took first prize after three nights of heavy competition in the Battle of the Bands at the new Midway stage.
■An investigation of the possibility of stockpiling leaves collected by the city’s new leaf vacuum at the city’s sanitary landfill was agreed to by the Solid Waste Management Committee last night. The city’s new leaf vacuum probably will be in operation by Oct. 15, William Warren of the city Department of Public Works said.
■Faced with a crowd of young people who come to party on the front lawn of the First Churches in downtown Northampton, its pastor, The Rev. Peter Ives, is calling for the community to help tackle the thorny problem. People using the church’s lawn have destroyed its grass, and litter is a chronic problem.
■By design, a new cadre of “master teachers” in Northampton will be drawn from the best and brightest in city classrooms. It is the administration’s hope, according to a memo by Associate Superintendent Jeffrey Korostoff, that the new posts, approved by the School Committee last week, be regarded as a “high honor.”
■State Sen. Stanley Rosenberg of Amherst said Thursday that he expects to continue working part-time during five weeks of treatment for a common form of skin cancer. He announced that he was diagnosed earlier this week with squamous cell carcinoma while undergoing a routine procedure in Boston.
■Despite the rain this week, artists set out to paint outdoor scenes around the city for the fourth annual Easthampton Paint Out. Over 40 painters took out their easels, paintbrushes and in some cases, their umbrella, as they created works for the weeklong contest organized by the Nashawannuck Gallery on Cottage Street.