■Plans for the official opening of Northampton’s Muskie-for-President Headquarters on Strong Avenue were announced today by John J. Rockett Jr., local coordinator of Citizens for Muskie. Rockett, who served two terms as city councilor from Ward 7, has long been active in local Democratic politics and civic affairs. He is the principal of the Florence Grammar School.
■The curtain goes up tonight for the first official Miss Northampton Scholarship pageant at Northampton High School. Miss America, Laurie Lea Schaefer of Ohio, will attend and reign over the pageant. Miss Massachusetts, Deborah Ann O’Brien, will also participate.
■Northampton has at long last received the deed to an open lot of land on Vernon Street — more than 30 years after the plot was first offered. And now, plans to build an affordable housing duplex on the property can begin in earnest. A student work crew from the Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School will build the house, which will sell for between $85,000 and $100,000.
■The next step in snagging unpaid property taxes in Northampton will be unprecedented in the city’s tax-collecting history. City Solicitor Janet Sheppard says that the city may sell to a private company the liens the city has against 24 landowners who have not paid their property taxes. That private debt collection company can then use high-pressured tactics to attempt to force the tax delinquent into paying.
■The Elm Street Historic District is on the verge of an expansion that would include a portion of picturesque Round Hill Road and the Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech campus. The expansion is being sparked in part by the pending redevelopment of the school property but is something the Historic District Commission has eyed for years.
■After 18 years of service on the Williamsburg Select Board, Jeffrey Ciuffreda has announced he will not run for re-election at the end of his term in May. Ciuffreda said that he had considered stepping down over the past year, finally making up his mind not to run for re-election. Paul Dunphy, a longtime resident of Haydenville, has expressed interest in filling the seat.