The owner of a fast-food restaurant in Hadley will open an “inexpensive, family-style” restaurant in the now vacant Cohen Bros. Store in downtown Northampton. Keith Johns of Amherst said he will open the 120-seat restaurant Aug. 1. He said it will be the first of three “Old King Cole” restaurants he plans for the area.
The First Church Board of Deacons has announced the appointment of the Rev. R. Leroy Moser as interim minister of the church, effective Sept. 8. Mr. Moser will temporarily succeed the Rev. Walter L. Rudy who has resigned as minister of the First Church after six years to accept a position with the First Congregational Church in Bristol, R.I.
Rescue workers pulled nine people from the Deerfield River Sunday after they became trapped by strong currents and had to cling to partially submerged trees while awaiting help. The nine people had been out in three kayaks and six rubber tubes for a recreational trip down the Deerfield River.
The many delays in rebuilding the Coolidge Bridge have pushed the cost of the project up by some 49 percent to $17.5 million, according to estimates from the engineers designing the project. Though still considered safe, the bridge has deteriorated since planning began for its expansion and more repairs will be needed when work begins on building a fourth lane.
About 1,000 acres in the Mount Holyoke Range will be added to a preservation program, bringing the total acreage of protected land in the Mount Holyoke and Mount Tom areas to 11,000. The newly preserved land includes farmland, wetlands, and forests. Preserved parcels are in Amherst, Granby, Hadley and South Hadley.
A couple who graduated during the late 1960s from the University of Massachusetts Amherst have donated $5 million to their alma mater to support Judaic studies, as well as programming and resources for Jewish students. The gift, from longtime university supporters Pamela and Robert Jacobs, came through the $300,000 UMass Rising fundraising campaign.