■A proposed $500,000 construction and renovation project will change Hadley’s Hutch Inn into a complex of shops and professional buildings, owner Mac Gress of Jewett Farm, Hadley, has announced. After unsuccessful attempts to attract college-age crowds with big name rock ’n’ roll bands, the Hutch Inn closed a year ago and has since been abandoned.
■Ten Northampton High School track team members ran a total of 217 miles during a 24-hour benefit run and raised $1,100 for the children’s ward of Belchertown State School. The event was organized by co-captain Glenn Stone.
■Hampshire County towns, as a group, posted a net gain in restaurant jobs between Jan. 1, 1993, and Dec. 31, 1995, despite smoking bans that cost jobs elsewhere in the state, a trade study says. Northampton, Amherst and South Hadley recorded sizable increases in the number of restaurant jobs after their smoking bans were approved, according to the study by the Massachusetts Restaurant Association, which opposes smoking bans.
■Two local businessmen have signed a purchase-and-sale agreement to buy the Stanhome building in Easthampton. The buyers, Milton Howard of Hatfield and Will Bundy of Northampton, said they plan to offer manufacturing, retail, office and possibly residential space in the building, which they will rename Eastworks.
■In the aftermath of the devastating storm on Oct. 29, which one local public works boss called the worst he’s seen in 37 years, area communities are scrambling to clean up tons of tree debris that pose a danger to the public and will cost millions of dollars to remove.
■A U.S. Postal Service plan to save $14 million a year by shutting down its first-class mail processing center in Springfield could impact the jobs of 169 area postal employees and slow delivery by as much as two days, a study indicates. The proposal comes in response to dramatic changes in the way the public uses the Postal Service.