A Look Back, Oct. 30

50 Years Ago

■After decades of building little, Northampton is now in a position to approve about $25 million in capital expenses. The expenditures include the proposed building of schools, urban renewal projects, a new City Hall annex, new recreation and conservation facilities, significant downtown street improvements, a new secondary sewage treatment plant, and a new central fire station.

■City recreation director Patrick Goggins reported today that vandalism at recreation areas continues, as a soccer net was ripped, and bleacher seats were stolen recently from Arcanum Field. Goggins said that 16 wooden planks were removed from the bleacher area and apparently carted away from the field.

25 Years Ago

■Smith College got the green light from the Planning Board Thursday to build a four-story, 350-car parking garage on West Street next to Forbes Library. Officials did attach a few conditions, after questions were raised about plantings near the garage and the amount of light it would generate.

■A longtime teacher at the Shutesbury Elementary School is among 20 teachers nationwide who have been named Carnegie Scholars. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching recently chose Ron Berger, a fifth- and sixth-grade teacher in Shutesbury since the 1970s, from 160 candidates to begin a two-year program on the scholarship of teaching.

10 Years Ago

■Thanks to a $9,248 Engaging New Audiences grant from the Northampton-based Mass Humanities, Springfield’s Commonwealth Academy is bringing its entire student body to Florence for a first-hand look at the many places abolitionist Sojourner Truth frequented when she lived here.

■With only 20 beds at the Interfaith Cot Shelter at 43 Center St. in Northampton, there is daily concern that not everyone waiting in line for the 6 p.m. opening will find a place to sleep. The shelter has a first come, first served policy. When the beds are all taken, shelter staff send people to Craig’s Place in Amherst.