A Look Back, March 18

50 Years Ago

■A new preliminary design for downtown urban renewal was approved unanimously by the Northampton Redevelopment Authority last night. The NRA hopes to attract a major department store to the new retail area behind Main Street and high-income housing on Old South Street.

■Despite adverse weather conditions, approximately 300 attended the Hatfield Policemen’s Ball held Friday night at the Hatfield Barn. After the smorgasbord dinner, the grand march including all the constables and police officers and their wives was formed. Leading the march were A. Cory Bardwell and his wife, Helen, with Chief of Police Henry J. Sliwoski and his wife, Josephine.

25 Years Ago

■Starting next fall, the five-year-old Hilltown Cooperative Charter School, which has 109 students from kindergarten to Grade 6, will grow to include seventh grade. An eighth-grade class will be added in September 2001.

■Thomas F. O’Connor, the Northampton police officer turned FBI anti-terrorist agent, implored a crowd at today’s St. Patrick’s Day Breakfast to work to bring peace to Northern Ireland. O’Connor, who returned to the city Thursday night to begin a gala weekend honoring the Irish, delivered his message in the traditional Irish storytelling vein — using touching humor about his father, then moving to a somber note and ending with poetry.

10 Years Ago

■The time and temperature device that juts out from the southwest corner of the former First National Bank of Northampton lit up Monday at precisely 10:10 a.m. in a brisk 45 degrees. The long-awaited repair of the prominent fixture at the corner of Main and King streets went live in silence and without fanfare, though news of its comeback after months of dysfunction traveled fast.

■Long-awaited construction of an underpass below the train tracks along King Street, which will serve bicyclists and pedestrians using the Mass Central Rail Trail could begin sometime late this year. But even though designs for the tunnel are complete, Northampton Planning Director Wayne Feiden wrote in an email Monday that the city is still waiting for the state to seek bids on the project, which may not occur until the fall.