■Ground was broken yesterday by the Clarke School for the Deaf for a new $1.5 million dormitory. The new building will house 30 girls and as many boys and will include accommodations for 13 supervisors and eight domestic staff members. The dining room will have space for 100.
■The annual Soap Box Derby parade will get underway tonight, forming in front of John M. Greene Hall and marching down Main Street, heralding the annual Soap Box Derby. It will be friend against friend on Sunday, when Northampton’s Mayor Sean M. Dunphy goes against Rep. Edward A. McColgan, D-Northampton, in keen competition for the oil can trophy.
■“What we have here is just the beginning,” said Aaron Lansky yesterday at the dedication ceremony celebrating the completion of the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Building of the National Yiddish Book Center. An estimated 2,000 people attended the ceremony near the site of the new center on the Hampshire College campus.
■Downtown Northampton’s other Main Street — the rows of shops on several levels within Thornes Marketplace — may be poised to get even busier. A new bookstore and an arts and crafts boutique are in place. On top of that, several existing businesses in Thornes are expanding, all with hopes of offering more to the typical influx of new customers during summer months.
■Beth Choquette will lead the Bridge Street School starting July 2. Superintendent Brian Salzer announced Thursday that he had chosen Choquette out of the three finalists to replace Principal Johanna McKenna, who is retiring this month after 18 years to pursue research and teach at Elms College in Chicopee.
■Jones Library officials will move forward with purchasing and installing security cameras this summer. The Jones Library trustees Wednesday unanimously signed on to the Security Camera Policy, which they said will serve to maintain the privacy rights of patrons.