■Santa Claus took a bad spill yesterday afternoon and is recovering in Cooley Dickinson Hospital. Thomas C. Mendenhall, president of Smith College, suffered a head cut, fractured clavicle and concussion yesterday while playing Santa Claus at a Christmas party at the college. He was thrown from a horse-drawn buggy while riding across the athletic field.
■Suzanne Korpita of Southampton, a senior at Easthampton High School, was crowned Easthampton Junior Miss before a capacity audience at the sixth annual Junior Miss Pageant held Saturday at the Middle School auditorium. Miss Korpita was also the winner in two of the judging classifications, poise and appearance, and scholastic achievement.
■A nearly two-year effort to protect Northampton’s historic downtown through a new regulatory body is dead, after a measure failed by one vote last night to get the two-thirds support it needed from city councilors. A 5-3 vote by councilors last night, which capped a round of emotional speeches, effectively ends the long debate, its supporters acknowledge.
■A city pastor said yesterday he will occupy a building at the former Northampton State Hospital on Christmas Eve, unless the governor approves use of that space for the city’s Emergency Cot Program. The Rev. Peter Kakos, pastor of the Edwards Church, made the demand to Gov. William F. Weld in a Dec. 11 letter — and gave the governor until today to respond.
■Joan Schuman, executive director of the Collaborative for Educational Services in Northampton, recently received the Justus A. Prentice award in honor of her work at the helm of the Northampton-based nonprofit agency. She was nominated by the collaborative’s board chairwoman, Lisa Minnick, who said that under Schuman’s leadership the agency has “become one of the most respected, exemplary ESAs in Massachusetts.”
■The Hitchcock Center for the Environment, a regional leader in nature education, is planning a new $4 million energy-efficient building on the Hampshire College campus. It will replace the Hitchcock Center’s home since 1975 off South Pleasant Street, a drafty former carriage house that lacks adequate space for the expanding staff and programs, said executive director Julie Johnson.