■Goshen selectmen last night appointed 19-year-old Kim Dresser to the Hampshire Regional School Committee to finish out the term of Rene Tetreault, who resigned because of poor health. Dresser, who graduated from Williamsburg High School in 1971, is employed in his father’s business, Telectrad Service Center in Goshen.
■Stripe-O the clown, smeared with a bright red smile and carrying a bag of tricks, delighted bleachers filled with youngsters Tuesday at the Three County Fair. Decked in a red and white striped, balloon-legged suit with a shocking pink collar, Stripe-O evoked laughter and clapping during his performance on Kiddie Day.
■Bill Nagle’s Honor Court is no longer cleaning the sidewalks and parts of the streets of downtown Northampton, after negotiations to win more financial support from the city and merchants stalled. Mayor Mary L. Ford said she has ordered the Department of Public Works to prepare to take over part of the agency’s former downtown work.
■The City Council unanimously appointed four members to the city’s Arts Council Thursday night. Two of the members, Richard Hardie and Lisa Houck Leary, are current members and will serve another three years. Donald Clark and Barbara Fingold were appointed as non-voting associate members.
■The long-awaited reconstruction of the Norwottuck Rail Trail is due to start next spring or summer and be finished by September of 2014, state officials said at a public hearing Wednesday. “I thought this day would never come,” said Andrew Morris-Friedman of Hadley, vice chairman of the trail’s advisory committee. “To see the finish line is really exciting.”
■Cooley Dickinson Hospital expects to shed some jobs and add others in a staffing shift aimed at addressing what hospital officials call an “unprecedented period” in health care. The city’s largest employer said Wednesday that, like other hospitals, it is experiencing declines in inpatient care and increases in the demand for outpatient services.