A Look Back, Oct. 3

50 Years Ago

■A Northampton man has taken the Hampshire County Commissioners to task and is considering taking them to court for selling one and a third acres of county land to the American Legion for $1. Rutherford H. Platt of Florence, an assistant professor in geography and regional planning at the University of Massachusetts, said he “does not intend to allow” the commissioners to “donate public assets” to a private organization.

■Greenfield Community College officially opened its new $16 million campus Monday with a special convocation. Special guests at the convocation were area legislators, members of the college’s advisory board, representatives of the state’s bureau of building construction, selectmen, public school administrators, and members of the Greenfield Community College Foundation, a citizen support group.

25 Years Ago

■Peter A. Kitchell, a community-minded architect who was a beloved fixture of Amherst’s downtown, wearing his purple beret and walking his dog, died Friday, after a one-car accident in South Hadley. He would have been 80 next month.

■Just days after a Smith College student was killed using an Elm Street crosswalk, a project to improve public safety in such paths is now available. Police Sgt. Andrew Trushaw had been waiting for months to obtain dozens of high-visibility signs that warn motorists and pedestrians alike to approach crosswalks with care. The signs arrived this week. “I had to shake my head,” said Trushaw when the boxes arrived at the police station.

10 Years Ago

■After operating out of an old potato barn for nine years, Valley Vodka Inc. founder Paul Kozub this week moved into an altogether different kind of space on Route 9 in Hadley — a former church. Kozub in July acquired for $75,000 the former St. John’s Catholic Church at 146 Russell St., which is in a high-profile spot at the center of town that is now home to the company’s new headquarters.

■City Council Vice President Jesse M. Adams is taking the mayor to task for what he perceives as a lack of collaboration about a proposal unveiled this week to significantly reorganize Northampton city government, including stripping the Board of Public Works of its decision-making authority.