■The emotion-charged issue of gun control sparked a lively debate at a meeting of the Hampshire County Democratic Association last night and drew a crowd of at least 100 persons. Most of those on hand were vocally opposed to further restrictions on handguns. One attendant said, “Outlawing handguns will take guns away from law-abiding citizens and leave them in the hands of criminals.”
■ “Paul Revere and William Dawes” left from in front of City Hall this morning to ride to Florence and spread the message about the last day events for the third annual Northampton Winter Festival. Percy and Robert Fuller of Westhampton portrayed the famed “The British Are Coming, The British Are Coming” riders of April 19, 1775.
■The fire that destroyed the Paradise City Tavern Friday knocked out power to the Northampton Post Office, forcing employees to scramble to create alternative lighting so that some 40,000 pieces of mail could be sorted for delivery. “We were basically in total darkness except for our emergency lighting that was not very bright,” said Ted Goonan, Northampton’s postmaster.
■After serving in two interim positions, Terez Waldoch has been named principal at the Wildwood Elementary School in Amherst. Waldoch, who has taught at the school since 1972, is currently interim principal.
■Greenfield Co-operative Bank and Northampton Cooperative Bank have gotten final government approvals to merge in April. During the month of April computer systems will be consolidated to allow the customers of each bank to transact business at all 10 offices and 11 ATMs of the combined bank.
■After roughly 15 years of research and planning, the Plainfield Historical Society is close to having the center of town recognized as a historic district. “It has been a long process completing all of the research on the homes,” Historical Society member Judy Williams said.