■Gov. Francis W. Sargent was in Northampton yesterday, the guest for lunch of Smith College President Thomas C. Mendenhall and the presidents of the other four colleges of the Pioneer Valley. “It was a getting-to-know-one-another session,” the governor said. “I had met the presidents individually previously,” he added, “but found it good to sit for a relaxed meeting over lunch.”
■Recycling paper, glass and aluminum will be collected at the Board of Public Works yard on Locust Street on Saturday. The volunteer agency sponsoring this catch-up recycling day is once again the Hawley Junior High School Ecology Club.
■The only needle-exchange project in western Massachusetts is steering 45% of its clients into substance-abuse recovery after its first year and improving the health practices of local drug users, according to officials who run the project. Northampton was the second city in the state to begin a needle-exchange program.
■A little more than halfway through its first year with a budget and a staff person, the nonprofit Family Center at Jackson Street has taken steps to meet its goals of enhancing the education of children at the Jackson Street School. It is running programs to support parents and guardians as partners in education and to enhance community life in the neighborhoods served by the school.
■Amherst College has offered to continue funding the Little Red Schoolhouse if the preschool program expands its hours to better accommodate the needs of college faculty with children. Based on the Amherst campus for 75 years, the Little Red Schoolhouse is facing eviction in June, when the college plans to begin construction of a new science building.
■Police are putting local store owners on notice to keep an eye out for products marketed as incense or bath salts but used by some as a synthetic alternative to marijuana. Police have contacted about 30 stores that may carry the products, advising them to voluntarily remove those items from their shelves.