A Look Back: March 16

50 Years Ago

■The Electro-Optical division of the Kollmorgen Corp. in Northampton has been awarded its “largest single contract in recent years,” according to president Herbert E. Torberg. The $17,834,000 contract, awarded by the Naval Ship Systems Command, is for the production of 22 Type 18 periscope systems for the Navy’s submarine fleet.

■Moving into the former site of Melody Corner and The Listening Post on Main Street in Northampton is another record and audio store. Sound Ideas opened a store in Amherst last year, “and Northampton seemed to be a logical extension,” co-owner Joel Artenstein explained.

25 Years Ago

■Northampton’s building commissioner says the city has no power to order that an impromptu tower constructed of wood on Venturers Field Road in the Meadows be taken down, despite concerns about its safety. City Building Commissioner Anthony Patillo says he has looked at the woodpile and determined that no city ordinance can force owners to lower the tower fashioned of intricately stacked, stove-length pieces of wood.

■There was much to see this weekend at the Three County Home and Garden Show at the Mullins Center. Floors, fudge, kitchen appliances, sunrooms, windows, aluminum roofing, alarm systems, and sewing machines were among the items on view for the several thousand visitors.

10 Years Ago

■The Northampton School Committee accepted the resignation Thursday of city schools chief Brian Salzer and discussed budget strategies that board members described as heartbreaking and unpalatable. Salzer, who was hired as superintendent less than two years ago, has announced plans to leave Northampton July 31 to take a job as principal of an international high school in Germany.

■A new executive director is joining Pioneer Valley Habitat for Humanity three months after longtime leader M.J. Pullan left the organization. Elizabeth Bridgewater of Shelburne Falls has been chosen to lead the organization.

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