50 Years Ago
- Some 2,000 city voters have signed petitions asking the City Council to rescind its approval of the controversial TOPICS program, or, if that fails, to put the question on the November ballot. Some merchants and others object to the plan because it will remove some 80 parking spaces from Main Street.
- The Northampton School Committee confirmed the salaries offered to the new special education director and vice principal of John F. Kennedy Junior High School when they were hired two weeks ago. Paul F. Caouette will receive $22,300 for the special education position, and Sister Mary Magdalen Ward’s salary will be $18,725 for the vice principalship.
25 Years Ago
- A little drizzle didn’t keep the crowds away from the last day of The Taste —Northampton’s Food Festival on Sunday, when vendors and organizers say the 11th annual event wrapped up in good form. “It’s a great day,” Suzanne Beck, executive director of the Greater Northampton Chamber of Commerce said Sunday.
- Organizers of Big Brush II say they fell short of their goal to beat 1,500 people brushing their teeth together Saturday morning in a quest to recapture a record set in Phoenix, Arizona two years ago. While the community brushing technique was spectacular and spirted, brushers fell short of their goal to reclaim a world record.
10 Years Ago
- After spending over a month in a holding cell in Greenfield, a 12-year resident of Amherst was deported to his native El Salvador on Wednesday. Jose Alfredo Ramirez Arias, 38, was a chef at Bistro 63 and the Monkey Bar since 2004, when he fled violence in El Salvador.
- This year, for the fourth time, a group of mostly men will converge on Hatfield for a celebration of reclaimed youth and uncovered treasure, a celebration of BMX bikes. The Hatfield BMX Show and Swap Meet, founded in 2013 by MBX enthusiast Steve Holloway, gives these people a chance to trade parts, win prizes and meet other hobbyists.