■The snowstorm that started Friday continued through Sunday, leaving about 9 inches of snow and giving indications there would be more on Wednesday. More than 100 cars were towed in the city during the weekend as plowing crews reported the vehicles blocking their path.
■The report of the County Courthouse Building Committee recommending a $5 million project to replace inadequate court facilities with a new building on Pleasant Street included a large amount of detailed information. The site of the new facility is a 13.1-acre plot bounded by Pleasant Street on the east, the railroad tracks on the north, a brook on the west and Pound Lane on the south. It would also require the demolition of 44 buildings.
■Assistant City Solicitor Joe M. Cook will head the Law Department for at least a month, while Mayor Mary L. Ford decides how she will fill the city’s top legal position. Ford has not yet announced a replacement for City Solicitor Kathleen G. Fallon, whose last day is Dec. 29.
■Two churches will join forces beginning tonight to offer temporary shelter for the homeless on Thursdays, allowing the Hampshire County Interfaith Emergency Cot Program to expand from six to seven nights a week. Under the joint arrangement, volunteers from St. Mary’s Church will provide a shelter at neighboring Edwards Church on Thursdays.
■After a year of negotiations, some of the city’s most pristine farmland is permanently protected thanks to a series of transactions this month. Most of the former Bean and Allard farms’ land in Florence is now protected in a deal involving the Trust for Public Land, the Bean and Goulet families and the city and state.
■The price of the Manhan River fish ladder has shot up 53 percent — nearly $500,000 — raising questions about when the project will be completed. The city of Easthampton is preparing to rebid the upper dam portion of the project, with the hope that a lower price will be submitted by a different contractor.