■Amid a rising controversy about the state takeover of county-run reservations, the state secretary of environmental affairs, Evelyn Murphy, is expected to visit the Mount Tom Reservation to discuss the issue. Under new legislation, on July 1 the state is scheduled to begin administering six state-owned reservations in Western Massachusetts presently under county control.
■Leslie Taft checked in for work at the Amherst Police Department last Wednesday and promptly became the area’s first woman “dog catcher.” Ms. Taft, 28, was selected from a field of 48 men and women applicants for the job of assistant dog officer in Amherst. She is a graduate of Radcliffe College with a degree in art history.
■City officials have been enjoying high-seed Internet access the past week and expect students will too, when they return in September. A T1 line was installed in the Puchalski Municipal Building last Friday. Since then, the technology has been up and running at City Hall, much to the delight of those who work there.
■The brief thunderstorm Thursday evening had special fury at the Oxbow section of the Connecticut River. Witnesses say winds hit the area of the Oxbow Marina with enough power to topple a two-ton houseboat, shear trees and send young soccer players tumbling.
■A longtime nonprofit leader and Peace Corps alum will serve as interim CEO at the Hampshire Regional YMCA. The board of directors has chosen Steven McCafferty to replace David Marks, who left the post earlier this month after serving as CEO for nearly a dozen years.
■Charles “Charlie” Moran III, who played a pivotal role in shaping the University of Massachusetts Amherst writing program during his nearly 50 years in the Pioneer Valley, died of acute myeloid leukemia Sunday at the age of 78. Kay Moran, 72, his wife of 51 years, said her husband received the diagnosis in March and chose to live out the rest of his life at home with hospice care rather than suffer the effects of chemotherapy.