50 Years Ago
- The entire stage floor of the Academy of Music will have to be replaced and reinforced in order to ready the stage for live shows, Academy trustees learned yesterday. Architect Leon Pernice, who reported to the trustees on stage renovations, said he was not sure how much the additional work on the stage floor would cost.
- Sports Farm, Inc., was granted a special permit last night by the Northampton Zoning Board of Appeals to operate a summer sports camp on 46 acres off Bridge Road. The zoning permit was granted after three years of attempts by Sports Farms to receive permission to run a camp in this area.
25 Years Ago
- More than 40 firefighters from nine towns responded to an early morning fire today at Villa DiMaio restaurant in Whately but couldn’t save the building. Fire Chief Randy Sibley said strong winds made the fire especially difficult to extinguish. The building is considered a total loss.
- The Cooley Dickinson Hospital was forced to crank up all its generators Sunday afternoon to keep the lights on — and for several hours had to send patients to other hospitals — due to a fire in the main electrical switching unit.
10 Years Ago
- Peter I. Hechenbleikner will begin serving as Amherst’s temporary town manager Feb. 1. The Select Board Wednesday announced that the retired Reading town manager and former Norwell interim town administrator — who has 44 years of town government experience — was chosen following negotiations this week.
- Nine sixth-grade students from the Smith Campus School will ask the Northampton City Council on Thursday to change Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day. Inspired by what they have learned in classes with teachers Tom Weiner and Joe Golossi, the students ask, “Why are we celebrating a man who brought slavery to America!”