■An increase in Northampton’s property tax rate is inevitable next year, Mayor Sean M. Dunphy said Saturday. Dunphy said that he did not know where additional funds could be found to offset the budget rise. This year’s tax rate was $56 per thousand.
■Ely Chinoy, 53, Mary Huggins Gamble Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at Smith College, died shortly after 5 p.m. Monday from head injuries suffered in a one-car accident on the Massachusetts Turnpike. Chinoy was returning from speaking at a meeting of the Massachusetts Bicentennial Social Needs Committee in Boston when the accident occurred.
■To help promote the city and attract new businesses, Mayor Clare Higgins intends to hire an economic development coordinator to work out of her office, replacing the position of executive assistant to the mayor. Higgins had listed the hiring of an economic development coordinator as one of her goals during her election campaign last fall.
■Northampton hopes to provide a low-income family with affordable housing and residents with another way to reach 80 acres of municipally owned open land, as part of a plan to develop a building lot on Ryan Road. The building lot is part of an 80-acre parcel that borders the Saw Mill Hills Conservation Area.
■Smith College police had to close down an event in Scott Gymnasium late Friday night after the crowd became too large and additional people were trying to enter the building. The student event attracted a full house but just after midnight an estimated 200 people were outside trying to get in as well. The event was shut down due to safety concerns.
■Senate President Stanley Rosenberg says Massachusetts should use its purchasing muscle to help ensure that a key drug used to reverse heroin overdoses remains affordable. Rosenberg said that he’s concerned about what he called the drastic increase in the price of naloxone — also marketed under the brand name Narcan.