■The college bells rang out early this morning announcing that today is Mountain Day at Smith College. This is the day when the student body takes to the highways and byways to enjoy the fall countryside. The date on which this happy event is celebrated is always kept a deep dark secret until the very last minute.
■“It’s loud, it’s flashy, but the kids dig it,” is the way Russell Carpenter, director of development and community relations for the new Public Television station, Channel 57, described one of its programs, “The Electric Company.” Guest speaker for the October dinner meeting of the Zonta Club of Northampton, Carpenter backed his words with a taped showing of a coming segment of the program.
■The New Hampshire-based corporation that owns Kellogg Brush Manufacturing Co., Easthampton’s second-largest industrial employer, says it will shut the Pleasant Street plant and move to Mexico. Officials cited economic woes in announcing the decision. Kellogg Brush employs about 220 people.
■In a new belt-tightening move, Cooley Dickinson Hospital on Tuesday closed its laundry department and laid off 10 people. The move to end in-house laundry services and contract instead with an outside firm is expected to save the hospital $110,000 a year.
■As winter approaches and people begin to look with unease toward flu season, area residents accustomed to relying on their local health board for a free flu vaccination may have to look elsewhere. Feeling the squeeze from cuts in federal funding, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health will be distributing less free influenza vaccine this year.
■At the September meeting of Springfield Toastmasters, Phil Hayes, of Deerfield, was officially named sergeant-at-arms. Hayes is a vice president at Merrill Lynch in Springfield and has been with Toastmasters for four years.