Jim Bridgman

50 Years Ago

  • To encourage off-street parking, there will be no charge to motorists who park at the metered Armory Street lot any time within the next three weeks. The action comes on the heels of city council approval of the TOPICS plan, which will eliminate on-street spaces in favor of off-street parking.
  • The state Department of Public Works (DPW) announced last week a $138,562 grant to Northampton for a bicycle path between State Street and Bridge Road. The bikeway would extend from the northern end of State Street at the rear of the Kingsgate Plaza to Bridge Road opposite Look Park.

25 Years Ago

  • Hilltown residents are mourning the death of Harold T. Mollison, a Goshen patriarch devoted to the town he lived in all of his life. He was also a regular Mr. Fit-It, who volunteered his sharp mechanical skills to his town, even keeping its official clock running on time.
  • The North Street building that housed a family dry cleaning business for 80 years has sold to city real estate investor Michael Sissman for $500,000. Robert Raymond, whose family ran the Twin Cleaners business for three generations, sold the 32,000-square-foot brick building to Sissman on August. 6. Sissman said a top-to-bottom renovation has begun, which he estimated could cost up to another half-million dollars.

10 Years Ago

  • After sitting dormant since 2014, the Sunderland fish hatchery has been revitalized and given a new mission. On Monday, the University of Massachusetts announced that, along with state and federal agencies including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, the school is working to renovate the hatchery as a research and educational facility.
  • A Northampton educational services group is set to expand the reach of a successful program that encourages teachers to use primary sources in the classroom thanks to a new grant from the Library of Congress. The nonprofit Collaborative for Educational Services received the $201,000 grant, renewable for three years, for its Teaching with Primary Sources program.