■For the last three weeks Eric Erickson has stood in the back room of the County Law Library and filmed 60,000 pages of town, city, and county records. Erickson is a Mormon, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Since many Mormons originally migrated west from New England, the church has been busily microfilming town, city, and county records all over New England and the eastern part of Canada.
■Gordon A. Woodward Jr., of Northampton, was elected president of the Hampshire County Board of Realtors Inc. at the annual meeting at the Bluebonnet Restaurant, Northampton, recently. Woodward is treasurer of the Woodward, Law & Grinnell Insurance Agency Inc. and partner of Woodward, Law & Grinnell Real Estate.
■A leader of a national grassroots movement to improve education told a city audience last night he is dubious of another “education reform” movement abroad in the land – standardization. “I’m skeptical of sweeping and standardized critiques of education, and sweeping and standardized practices,” Theodore R. Sizer, founder and chairman of the Coalition of Essential Schools, told 100 parents and teachers at Northampton High School yesterday.
■Goodwill Industries will receive 80 rooms worth of furniture, thanks to continuing renovations and redecorating efforts underway at the Inn at Northampton. The owners of the Inn are spending $2.5 million on hotel renovations they expect to complete sometime next spring.
■Fearing a nurses’ strike, Cooley Dickinson Hospital has lined up a national firm which is ready to bring in a team of nurses should a work stoppage occur, although some union members say the move is a scare tactic designed to win over nurses at the bargaining table.
■Hampshire College will roll out the welcome mat next spring for former Vice President Al Gore, who is scheduled to give the keynote speech at the inauguration of President Jonathan Lash. Gore’s visit will highlight a weekend of events welcoming Lash as the college’s sixth president. Lash has been at Hampshire since July.