50 Years Ago
■One of the first mechanical utensil and glassware washers in western Massachusetts was installed in the Cooley Dickinson Hospital Central Sterile Supply Department when it opened in December 1960 as part of the hospital’s expansion plans of that year. Recently the old mechanical washer has been replaced with an updated and improved model at the cost of $8,200.
■Tonight’s Concert-in-the-Park, featuring Flight, a group from the Northampton-Amherst area, will be held indoors at the Hawley Junior High School all-purpose room because of the rainy weather. The concerts are co-sponsored by the Northampton Youth Commission and Local 220 of the American Federation of Musicians through the Music Performance Trust Fund.
25 Years Ago
■The Northampton School Committee voted unanimously Thursday night to adopt a non-binding resolution that all school-related events held in the community — which would include fundraising activities for school groups held at private clubs — be smoke-free.
■The fiscally strapped city school department stands to make a few bucks when a Hollywood movie studio, Dreamworks SKG, starts filming a feature-length psychological thriller in town next fall. The committee has agreed to rent the auditorium, and possibly other rooms, at the moth-balled Feiker School for $500 a month for three or four months to Dreamworks.
10 Years Ago
■The future of the Connecticut River Atlantic salmon population is in limbo. At a Connecticut River Atlantic Commission meeting this week, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service announced its decision to end participation in the 45-year-old, four-state effort to restore the once-native fish species to the Connecticut River.
■Passenger rail service upgrades through Greenfield are on track, with the state this week deciding to proceed with a plan to buy 50 miles of the track from the Connecticut line to Vermont for $17 million. Working at the rate of about a mile a day, the improvements are slated to take 12 to 18 months, with service through Greenfield and Northampton due to begin in the fall of 2013.