A Look Back, March 22

Published: 03-21-2023 3:20 PM

50 Years Ago

■Area communities, savoring this last week of an extremely mild winter and keeping their fingers crossed that Mother Nature will continue her charity through this month, are counting on substantial savings for snow and ice removal.

■Smith College will be well represented at the 1973 Miss Hampshire County Scholarship Pageant, to be held March 31 at Northampton High School. Pageant coordinator Larson A. Delair reports five Smith College students are among the 10 final contestants for the title of Miss Hampshire County.

25 Years Ago

■Enforcing the city’s smoking ban in restaurants and prohibitions on sales of tobacco products to minors will soon be in the hands of a retired police chief. Robert G. Joyce, a Florence resident and retired chief of the University of Massachusetts Police Department, was hired Tuesday as the city’s tobacco control compliance officer.

■Faced with a tight budget and changing educational requirements, officials at Northampton High School want to cut the physical education department from three ful-time staffers to two next year. The move would follow a reduction in the school’s gym requirement.

10 Years Ago

■Shortly after several teachers begged the City Council Thursday not to slash the schools’ budget next fiscal year, Mayor David J. Narkewicz proposed a change in the city’s health insurance plan that will put a significant dent in its $2.4 million budget gap. Narkewicz said he intends to move the city into the state Group Insurance Commission, a $900,000 savings that will lower the budget gap for fiscal 2014 to $1.5 million.

■Organizers of Easthampton’s annual Easter egg hunt are looking forward to a successful event Saturday after taking steps to ensure overzealous parents don’t spoil the fun. Last year’s event was diminished when interfering parents jumped the rope barriers and ran into the melee to help their kids grab eggs.

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