■The second annual Pinewood Derby of Cub Scout Pack 408 was held Tuesday night at the Leeds School. Through the contribution of time and labor by Deane Williams, a new track was provided for the event. The 40 participants competed in the double elimination meet.
■Citing a proposed 10% school budget increase as unreasonable and unnecessary, the Northampton City Council cut $42,299 from the school budget last night and brought the total city budget down to $10,754,560. The figure is still a full 10% over last year’s city budget and could produce about a $6 increase in the city’s tax rate.
■Earlier this week, two Goshen boys brought home what they thought was a lost snowmobile part. As it turned out, the tube-shaped metal object 9-year-old Robert Linscott and his friend Steven Rida found off Bissell Road was identified yesterday as a World War II-era parachute flare.
■Nurses at Cooley Dickinson Hospital are questioning their ability to provide comprehensive care, now that their workloads have grown in a restructuring that is saving the hospital money. Some seven months since the hospital began cost-cutting that reduced staffing, nurses and their union, the Massachusetts Nurses Association, are warning that the care they deliver is being affected.
■It was a night of firsts at the 12th annual Northampton Education Foundation Adult Spelling Bee Wednesday. It was the first win for victors BEEattitudes, the first time the bee was broadcast live on television, the first time two teams from a single round were allowed to go on to the semifinals, and the first time a word pronouncer had to pause to fight off a fit of laughter while reading a rather immodest definition.
■Wendy Foxmyn of Northampton recently joined the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission as manager of regional services and innovations. Foxmyn has more than 30 years’ experience in local and regional government as a town administrator, interim town administrator and other appointed and elected positions in western Massachusetts.