A Look Back, Jan. 22

Published: 01-21-2025 11:01 PM

50 Years Ago

■Northampton schools Supt. John M. Buteau presented the School Committee last night with a proposed 1976 school budget of $6.5 million, an increase of 13.3 percent over last year’s $5.7 million total. Federal aid to Northampton schools is expected to drop sharply next year, so that local taxpayers will have to provide more money to support the budget.

■The Probate Court and its registry office will be closed from Thursday until Feb. 5 while the court moves to its new quarters. Court officials have requested that the public neither write nor telephone the court until Feb. 5 after it has moved into the new building on King Street and Merrick Lane, across from the old courthouse.

25 Years Ago

■The University of Massachusetts has teamed up with eCollege.com, an Internet-based education company, to launch three online graduate degree courses this summer, the first of their kind for the Amherst campus. “Students will be able to take their classes any time, in the middle of the night or first thing in the morning,” said Gloria Fisher, manager of communications and public relations for the Department of Continuing Education.

■The Board of Public Works last night approved use of land on Park Street for the proposed Sojourner Truth statue. The decision came after a hearing Jan. 12 in which neighbors complained that the statue at the park would generate traffic tie-ups.

10 Years Ago

■Friends of Dorie Goldman of Amherst, who died while hiking in New Hampshire on Sunday, recalled Tuesday her passion for bicycles and her enthusiasm for selling freshly baked bread at local farmers’ markets. Goldman, 50, owner of The Backyard Bakery, was known for riding through town in a green, pedal-powered vehicle.

■Over a seven-day span, construction crews will use a crane to position 108 steel beams onto the roof of what will become part of the new Mass General Cancer Center at Cooley Dickinson Hospital. Once it opens in the fall, hospital officials envision that the $9.3 million center will be a thriving hub of unified and expanded cancer services.