■The property at No. 84, 86, and 88 Pleasant St. has been foreclosed by the Nonotuck Savings Bank. The property will be auctioned off at 10 a.m. Jan. 26 for a starting price of $2,000. The building now houses the Pleasant Pharmacy and an income tax consultant.
■Northampton has tentatively scheduled a recycling center next week for those people whose cellars and garages are bulging with material saved since the last recycling operation in November. The center will be held at the DPW yard on Locust Street if weather permits.
■Main Street Records will no longer have a Main Street address come February. Following through on the pledge he made in October, owner Kenneth Reed said he plans to close his 213 Main St. storefront at the end of February and relocate to a space on the outskirts of town.
■Northampton’s First Night celebration kicks off today at 12:30 p.m. with a children’s parade up Main Street and concludes sometime after 2 a.m., with pan-African dancing at the Northampton Center for the Arts. At midnight, with revelers gathered in the streets, the New Year’s ball will rise up a pole atop the Hotel Northampton.
■City Councilor-elect William H. Dwight is seeking the post of City Council president, saying he wants to modernize and streamline its operations to create “more efficient and efficacious” city government. Dwight, who will be sworn in Tuesday as an at-large councilor, previously served as Ward 1 councilor for eight years before deciding against re-election in 2005.
■Poet Christian McEwen, a Northampton resident and author of “World Enough and Time: On Creativity and Slowing Down,” will kick off the winter Coffeehouse Series at the Old Creamery Grocery in Cummington with a free reading and book signing on the title’s subject: slowing down as a way to better enjoy life and explore your creativity.