A Look Back, May 20

50 Years Ago

■Plans for the proposed $3.1 million addition to the Jackson Street School have hit a snag, and work on the project may be delayed unless the city changes its plan to pipe a small brook that runs through the proposed project area. At issue are plans for the brook to be piped through a 36-inch pipe.

■The unusually early hatching of mosquitoes this year has hastened the start of the city’s mosquito control program. The city has already been doused with one aerial spraying this month and will have one more in May, followed by two in June, July and August.

25 Years Ago

■After spending almost her entire life in the house her father built on Old South Street, 91-year-old Hortense Clapp Pollard sees each room, each corner of her 14-room Victorian as a trove of memories. “I wouldn’t want the house to change an inch,” said Pollard. Her work at preserving her house has earned Pollard kudos from the Northampton Historical Commission, which granted awards to her and eight other property owners this week.

■Saying there is nothing short of a “crisis in affordable housing” in this city, advocates of such housing called on the City Council Thursday night for help. The council in turn unanimously endorsed a resolution declaring the city’s commitment to the cause of affordable housing.

10 Years Ago

■Railway workers have begun hauling away stacks of used rail ties near downtown Northampton and in Holyoke. The removal of rail ties along the newly rebuilt “Knowledge Corridor” comes less than a week after the Gazette reported on piles of construction debris, brush and massive stockpiles of rail ties along the tracks, which fire officials said pose a fire hazard, particularly in peak dry season.

■Despite arguments by officials about the need for a new public safety complex, Southampton voters Tuesday night failed to advance the proposed $10.8 million combined police and fire station. The measure did not secure the necessary two-thirds majority vote, with 95 votes in favor and 62 against.