50 Years Ago
- Reversing its earlier position, the City Council last night unexpectedly voted 8-1 to support the Hampshire County Commissioners’ request for 38.5 acres of “surplus” state hospital land for a new jail. City and county officials expressed relief that the deadlock on the jail site had been broken.
- A student at the University of Massachusetts has been awarded the Bronze Star for Valor twice for his actions as a U.S. soldier in the Vietnam War. David W. Bennett, of 11 Bedford Court, was given the award by the U.S. Army for two separate incidents at Bu-Prang in Vietnam. He is a captain in the army.
25 Years Ago
- Frank R. Llamas, interim superintendent-director of Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School, Monday was named the permanent superintendent of the 476-student regional school. Llamas, 60, was appointed interim superintendent in January when Raymond Cooke retired.
- The excavation phase of the multimillion-dollar restoration of the Lyman Plant House at Smith College is under way. The project, to take 18 months to two years, will include an underground addition and rooftop garden.
10 Years Ago
- As Northampton readies to replace over 2,000 streetlights with energy-efficient, LED fixtures, a citizen petition circulating argues that the new bulbs do not go far enough in reducing light pollution. But city officials say the new bulbs are far better than the LEDs that have been installed by other communities and are a big improvement over the existing traditional lights currently in use by the city.
- The Forbes Library board of trustees filed a complaint against the city on Friday, requesting a judge to declare that the library and its trustees exist separately from the city’s government. The trustees claim they have operated independently since the library was established in the late 1800s.