■Members of the Northampton Jaycees have put the finishing touches on a food booth they constructed at David Wright ballfield. Money was raised through the July and August recycling projects to offset expenses of materials which were not donated. Plumbing work still must be completed.
■City officials have decided to take a harder line against bomb scares after false reports of bombs at three of the city’s schools yesterday. Following the actions taken by school officials yesterday, another bomb hoax was phoned in to Northampton High School at 11 this morning.
■A decision this week by state education officials to test literacy in all public school third-grade pupils in Massachusetts, with serious consequences for those who fail, has surprised many local educators, who say the proposed tests will be either redundant or an intrusion on teaching time.
■Christopher Brennan, a 10-year veteran of the English department at Northampton High School, and a former head of the department, has been named the first-ever vice principal for academic affairs at the school. Superintendent Bruce E. Willard said Thursday he picked Brennan from among six staff people from within the system, most of them high school teachers who had applied for the temporary position.
■An Easthampton developer is taking steps to build a nine-house residential development off Paul Street. David Garstka Builders LLC, of Easthampton, hopes to create nine building lots off a cul-de-sac that would extend from the end of Paul Street at its intersection with Beechwood Avenue off South Street.
■The Roundhouse building behind Pulaski Park is the new corporate headquarters of CleanSlate Centers, a nearly 2-year-old company that runs four opioid addiction treatment clinics in Massachusetts and Connecticut. The company, formally known as Total Wellness Centers, specializes in treating patients with Suboxone, the brand name for a narcotic medication designed to wean addicts off heroin and OxyContin, among other substances.