■The newest selectman in Williamsburg is to be a woman, town residents decided yesterday. Mrs. Jean Hemenway, realtor and insurance broker, was elected by a wide margin over Robert Smart of Valley View Avenue. Mrs. Hemenway assumes the unexpired term of Philip V. Morin, who has accepted a position in another area of the country and is leaving Williamsburg.
■City Councilor William B. Steidler of Leeds is out to do what he can to have the old Main Street mill razed. The factory, once called the button shop and later the Nonotuck Silk Mill, has not been used as a factory for many years. The structure poses a threat to the safety of citizens of the neighborhood, Steidler said.
■A coalition of bankers, business leaders, tenants, city officials and housing experts is being formed to keep affordable homes at Hampton Gardens and eliminate the need for rent control, the mayor said last night. “It’s not 100 percent certain that it (new financing) will happen, but we have a very good shot at it,” Mayor Mary L. Ford said.
■Local documentary filmmaker James Ault hit the jackpot last week to the tune of $379,000. That’s the amount of a grant given to him by the Pew Charitable Trusts, a private foundation based in Philadelphia, to complete his latest film, a project on African Christianity.
■Western Massachusetts communities — namely Holyoke, Amherst, and Northampton — are on the forefront of the solar energy movement in the state, according to a study released Tuesday. “The message from this report is clear: In western Massachusetts, solar power is booming,” said Johanna Neumann, regional director of Environment Massachusetts Research and Policy Center.
■After a confidential two-year review, the Boy Scouts of America on Tuesday emphatically reaffirmed its policy of excluding gays, angering critics who hoped that relentless protest campaigns might lead to change. The Scouts cited support from parents as a key reason for keeping the policy and expressed hope that the prolonged debate over it might now subside.