■Tobacco growers in the Connecticut Valley face potential disaster this year with 20% of their crop already plowed under as the result of unseasonably wet weather. The valley’s tobacco farmers, who produce leaves that turn out the country’s cigar wrappings, will have to struggle the remainder of the summer to recover from delayed plantings and a wet spring and reach a break-even point, agriculturalists say.
■A resolution urging the Board of Health to start fluoridation was tabled by the Northampton City Council last night, but the debate over the issue shows no signs of fading away. “I’m going to push this issue,” said Councilor William Ames, who introduced the resolution and saw it quickly tabled until the council meeting Sept. 7. “I think this kind of controversy is good for the community.”
■Northampton High School Vice Principal Frank E. Tudryn Jr. has agreed to serve as the school’s interim principal for the 1997-98 academic year, starting today, Superintendent Bruce E. Willard has announced. “Frank is the best choice because he knows the school, the curriculum, the budget, the staffing, the long block schedule, all those factors,” said Willard.
■An exodus of doctors that began last year with the merger of Kaiser Permanente and Community Health Plan continues. Six physicians who work out of a Hadley office of the combined HMO will affiliate with Baystate Health System in Springfield starting Oct. 1. However, the change in who employs the physicians will be largely invisible to their current patients, who will have the option of continuing to see their doctors.
■Northampton’s Salon 241 has been named a Salon of Distinction in the “Salons of the Year” interior design competition sponsored by Salon Today magazine. The salon and spa at 241 Main St., owned by Katie Clifford and Andrea Waller, was one of 20 winners and is featured in the June 2012 issue of Salon Today.
■Alexei Levine and Valerie Hood realized a seven-year dream this spring when they opened the Art Bar Café in a large space on the first floor of the historic Memorial Building in Easthampton. “We wanted a place where adults could come and meet friends, relax and talk and have a drink or simple, healthy food,” Levine said in a recent interview at the café.