■Mayor Sean Dunphy went to the Congress of Cities in Indianapolis last week and reports that it was “like going to school.” The only regret he had about the four-day conference of mayors and city councilors from around the country was that he was not accompanied on the trip by any members of the Northampton City Council.
■The virtually completed Northampton Industrial Park “holds the key to the city’s economic future,” says Patrick Kenney, an administrative aide to the Northampton Redevelopment Authority. Kenney made the remarks at a meeting of the authority last night at which final plans for attracting businesses to the park were discussed.
■Northampton officials are leaving no gray areas in a proposed ordinance that would ban the posting of handbills downtown. The proposed ordinance is clear: There will be no posting of any handbills anywhere, at any time.
■It’s lights out for a proposed illumination system at the softball field at the renovated Northampton High School. The vote would appear to ease concerns of neighbors over disturbances they had said could accompany evening games.
■The state announced Wednesday that it is giving seven Hampshire County communities just over $2.1 million in grants to buy and preserve a combined 361 acres of land and to develop a pair of recreational parks.
■Over 200 parents, teachers, students and community members turned out on Tuesday evening for a “Town Hall Meeting” on the effects of alcohol, drugs and technology on the developing adolescent brain. This is our inaugural event of this kind,” Northampton Prevention Coalition Director Karen Jarvis Vance said, as crowds of people streamed into the cafeteria of Northampton High School.