A Look Back: Jan. 4

By JIM BRIDGMAN

For the Gazette

Published: 01-04-2023 7:00 AM

50 Years Ago

■Long waiting lines were the order of the day yesterday as the Registry of Motor Vehicles suffered its usual hectic first day of business for a new year. However, the massive delays anticipated because of the state’s tardiness in sending out special registrations for such people as doctors and handicapped persons never materialized.

■Hot burning rubbish in the Board of Public Works yard on Locust Street positioned too close to a wooden container yesterday took city firefighters to the scene. Firefighters pulled the storage box away from the compactor unit.

25 Years Ago

■Mayor Mary L. Ford, city councilors and other officials will be sworn in Monday in the auditorium of the Northampton High School — the start of a first day of new terms for elected public servants. The emcee for Monday morning’s swearing-in will be the Hon. Alvertus J. Morse, the former presiding judge of the Northampton District Court.

■After an inspection this week of the Northampton Nursing Home on Bridge Road, state officials are recommending dropping a $2,000-a-day fine that had been levied for “substandard care.” The fine began Nov. 12, after investigators determined that the nursing home had failed to protect four or more patients suffering from dementia from being sexually assaulted by another patient.

10 Years Ago

■After a 32-year run, the Delta Upsilon fraternity at the University of Massachusetts has been wiped out after a series of disciplinary sanctions imposed by its national organization and university administrators. The building goes on the auction block today.

■Twenty-one years ago, during the first Senate session of 1992, Sen. Stanley C. Rosenberg was sworn in as a novice senator from Amherst. On Wednesday, Rosenberg again headed to the Statehouse for the swearing-in ceremony, but this time he was granted a new title as part of the ceremony — dean of the Senate.

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