■The two millionth passenger on the Look Park train is expected to step aboard Sunday, when the park opens for the first time this season. The miniature train, a popular item with families and other visitors to the park, made its first run in 1948. The lucky two millionth rider will receive gifts from the park in honor of the occasion.
■The Florence Civic and Business Association met at the civic center Monday, when Charles DeRose, publisher of the Daily Hampshire Gazette, announced that a Florence office for the paper would open in the immediate future. DeRose explained that the new office would serve not only as a center for reporting of Florence events and human-interest stories, but also would handle classified advertising.
■The Northampton School Committee will wait until fall to continue debating a plan to ensure that elementary schools are racially balanced. The task force was formed after 1997-1998 school enrollment figures at Jackson Street School showed it had a 48 percent ethnic and racial minority population, compared to 13 to 15 percent in other city schools.
■Hampshire Life magazine took first place recently in the features category in the Sunday Magazine Editors Association’s annual writing, photography and design competition. The award was given for the third installment of a long-range look at the struggle of a Shutesbury couple to educate their autistic son.
■A trash truck traveling south on Interstate 91 in Northampton Monday morning burst into flames near Exit 19, forcing police to close the highway’s southbound lanes for most of the morning and snarling traffic on King and Bridge streets as drivers navigated through the city.
■Plans to redesign the Bridge Street School playground cleared a final hurdle earlier this month when the School Committee voted to accept a $165,000 grant for the project from the city’s Community Preservation Fund. Supporters are now working to raise the remaining $35,000 to help transform the school playground from hard-packed dirt to a new rubber surface.