A Look Back, June 14

50 Years Ago

■A new mosquito control program will begin in the South Street area tonight. Equipment consisting of a ground sprayer which is mounted on the back of a truck, will spray a pesticide called pyrethrin throughout the neighborhood.

■Northampton National Bank, until tomorrow morning, is paying $1.10 for every 100 pennies turned into the bank. Bank officials say that they have run so short on pennies to supply local businesses that they have had to offer to pay the public for its pennies.

25 Years Ago

■Northampton’s third graders scored significantly better this year on the Iowa Reading Test, ranking at a higher level than three-quarters of the third graders around the country. Associate Superintendent Donna Harlan told the School Committee Thursday that third graders district-wide scored in the 77th percentile on the test, up 5 percent over last year and almost 10 percent over 1997 scores.

■Some 500 bicycle racers are expected to converge on Northampton and the region this weekend for the North Atlantic Cycling Championships, sponsored by the Northampton Cycling Club. The first part of the weekend will begin with a long-course road race Saturday that will start in Ashfield. The racers will bike a 70-miles route through nine towns.

10 Years Ago

■A metal sculpture that has been part of Kendrick Park for nearly four years will be a permanent art installation. The Amherst Public Arts Commission raised $10,000 to buy the piece known as Portal from Easthampton artist Matt Evald Johnson who created it for the inaugural Amherst Biennial event in 2010.

■A newly refurbished Mount Holyoke Summit House in J.A. Skinner State Park will reopen to visitors this weekend for the first time since 2010, ending a marathon of construction delays that plagued the project and frustrated area residents the past two years. The state Department of Conservation and Recreation announced Friday that the historic building and porch will open for the season on Saturday.