A Look Back, April 15

50 Years Ago

■The Northampton School Committee Thursday night voted unanimously to deny the high school band permission to play at this year’s Smith College commencement because of an objection from Local 220, American Federation of Musicians. The local union said that the high school band should not replace professionals in the “limited musical engagements” available in the city.

■Northampton and Hampshire County officials were told Saturday that unless they reach a compromise on their conflicting plans for using 300 acres of surplus state land at Northampton State Hospital, the state will give neither party the land. The city’s plan calls for using all of the land for recreation and conservation. The county’s plan would involve taking half of the property for a site for a new Hampshire County jail.

25 Years Ago

■A budding photographer plans to challenge a city rule that bars artists from displaying their work on downtown sidewalks and says he will risk arrest to make his point. Robert Danylieko, a Northampton native trying to establish a career as a photographer, said he will display his work on a Saturday next month despite being turned down for a permit by the Department of Public Works.

■Plans to renovate and expand the Elks Lodge on Center Street met a glitch this week after the city’s newly formed architectural review board raised concerns about how the project would change the building’s faade. The renovations will add a one-story extension on the rear of the structure, reconfigure the front entrance, and enclose the building’s columned front porch in glass.

10 Years Ago

■John F. Kennedy Middle School associate principal Matthew Collins will begin work as assistant principal at Hampshire Regional High School in July, pending successful contract negotiations. Collins, 41, of Westfield, will fill the vacancy created when former Hampshire Regional principal Laurie Hodgdon left in 2013.

■Parents and swimmers at the Hampshire Regional YMCA are concerned that the competitive Dolphins swim team program will be eliminated as the result of a review of the aquatics program. “We have been led to believe that the program is imperiled,” said Sabra Aquadro of Northampton, a parent of a 16-year-old swimmer.