A Look Back: March 10

50 Years Ago

■City conservationists voiced their opposition at a Planning Board meeting last night to a proposed camping ground at the OxBow. Richard Carnes, chair of the Conservation Commission, spoke adamantly against a proposed OxBow camping ground. “Material from the proposed leach field will enter the ground water and eventually end up in the river.”

■Mayor Sean Dunphy stated this week that he is in support of the Youth Hockey Association efforts to get a state-built ice-skating rink in Hampshire County. The mayor said he would be glad to have Northampton provide the site for such a rink, but noted the rink should be a regional operation, maintained on a regional basis.

25 Years Ago

■Renovations at the Inn at Northampton by its owners will wrap up next month when a new restaurant opens there. Montana’s Steakhouse will open at the inn in early April, according to Curtis Shumway, vice president of the Hampshire Hospitality Group.

■The field of 57 candidates for Northampton’s permanent fire chief position has been winnowed to four, three of whom are from New England. The four are David Bidder, from Dover, N.H.; Brian Duggan, from Northborough; Peter Buonome, from Branford, Conn.; and John Cook, from Virginia.

10 Years Ago

■Northampton School Superintendent Brian Salzer is resigning effective July 31 to take a new job as high school principal for the JFK International School in Berlin. School employees and School Committee members reacted to the news of Salzer’s resignation Friday with sadness and regret.

■In a nod to a controversial change in state law governing business improvement districts and grumblings from many downtown property owners, the Northampton BID is rolling out a proposal to reduce its territory, concentrating primarily on Main Street. The plan under consideration also calls for a new fee structure that would lower the assessment paid by property owners by 20% to 40%.

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