Jim Bridgman

50 Years Ago

  • The Northampton Civil Defense department and medical facilities in the area will stage a “disaster” Thursday, blocking off side streets entering Bridge Street and those entering North Elm Street between John F. Kennedy Junior High School and The Cooley Dickinson Hospital. The disaster exercise will be based on what would happen if a tornado hit John F. Kennedy Junior High School at the same time that a liquid propone gas tanker overturned on Bridge Street.
  • Russell Cooper was elected president of the Northampton chapter of Dollars for Scholars at the first annual meeting this week. Other officers to serve for the coming year are: vice president, Kathleen Sheehan; clerk, Atty. William St. James; corresponding secretary, Katherine Finn; treasurer, Dorothy Donahue; and public relations, Frances McNulty.

25 Years Ago

  • Area human-rights advocates are voicing concerns about the local implications of a Supreme Court decision upholding the right of Boy Scout groups to ban gay scout leaders. Meanwhile, the Northampton School Department is reconsidering its practice of allowing the Great Trails Council, the regional branch of the Boy Scouts of America, to distribute its literatures via city schools.
  • Members of the Northampton High School crew team will rake instead of row over the next two weekends in a two-day effort to raise money for the team. Called “Rent-a-Rower,” the project asks for a $50 contribution in exchange for two hours of labor by a pair of hard-working rowers.

10 Years Ago

  • The Clarion Hotel & Conference Center, at 1 Atwood Drive, will close in two weeks as plans advance to build a new office building and demolish the Clarion to make way for another hotel or office building and a restaurant. The Hampshire Hospitality Group, which owns the Clarion and other hotels in the area, announced Monday that the hotel will close Nov. 16.
  • Parties, fights, strangers entering homes and college-age people wandering town streets while consuming alcohol made for a busy Halloween weekend for Amherst Police, who arrested or summoned to court 42 individuals and handled 324 calls for service. In one incident, a woman reported being awakened by three men with flashlights going through her belongings.