50 Years Ago
- Joseph T. Fennessey, manager of radio station WHMP, was recently honored by the Massachusetts Broadcasters Association as one of two dozen broadcasters in the state who have been “on the air” for at least 20 years. Fennessey, who started with a New Jersey radio station in 1948, and worked for WACE in Chicopee in 1949, has been with WHMP since the station opened in December 1950.
- The $16. 3 million Fine Arts Center at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst opened Friday with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Seiji Ozawa. Some 2,000 people witnessed the inaugural event in the massive new building.
25 Years Ago
- After 23 years of helping women extricate themselves from abusive relationships, Necessities/Necesidades has given itself a new name, Safe Passage, that supporters say more aptly describes what the agency does. The new name was unveiled at Smith College’s Mendenhall Center for the Performing Arts, in an event marking National Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
- For the first time, Northampton school officials say they will be forced to use an unpredictable source of income — school choice funds — to pay for essentials rather than for extras such as additional classroom materials. This year, facing a nearly $300,000 budget deficit, the schools have been forced to dip into the money to pay basic bills.
10 Years Ago
- Area school officials are exploring what it would cost their districts to send students to Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School if the school were to become a regional school district. In June, local leaders formed a group that will decide on a new governance model for Smith Vocational on the heels of a state-funded study on the financial structure of the school.
- Sporting hard hats, Northampton Police Chief Jody Kasper and Fire Chief Duane Nichols toured the unfinished grounds of a new assisted living residence on Village Hill Friday afternoon. Expected to open in early November, Christopher Heights of Northampton will feature 83 apartments, just over half of which are earmarked for low-income seniors.