50 Years Ago

<sbull value="sbull"><text xmlns="urn:schemas-teradp-com:gn4tera"></text></sbull>A suit has been filed in U.S. District Court in Boston by a local attorney that would allow, if successful, some residents of the Belchertown State School to register to vote. The complaint, filed on behalf of Marion Pickett, a resident of the Belchertown facility since 1937, charges that she was denied her constitutional right to vote solely because of her residency at the state school.

■The Leeds fire station should be abandoned, and firefighters posted there should be reassigned to the Florence company, Chief James C. Murray has recommended. According to Murray’s report, the “very poor structural condition” of the station, an unreliable fire engine, and lack of manpower, make the Leeds company almost useless.

25 Years Ago

■Northampton’s population reached its highest point in the 1990s last year, according to census figures released by the Registrar of Voters. Patricia Shaughnessy said that 1997 city census numbers show that Northampton had a population of 30,898 people, 99 more than the 30,799 people who lived here in 1996.

■The state has agreed to sell land that includes Hospital Hill to Smith College for $262,500. The land is part of the former Northampton State Hospital, which closed in 1993. The college says it plans to keep the land open to passive and active recreational purposes.

10 Years Ago

■The Northampton High School Students of Color Association is hosting a film screening Tuesday of “Girls Rising,” about girls in other countries who are struggling to get an education. The event is a fundraiser for the 10x10 Fund for Girls Education and is also the centerpiece of NHS’s annual Diversity Week.

■It won’t be long before some of Franklin County’s young musicians will have the opportunity to play for the Pioneer Valley Symphony Youth Orchestra. A collaboration of Pioneer Valley Symphony, Greenfield Public Schools and Artspace Community Arts Center, the youth orchestra will be the first connected with PVS in its 74-year history, said Anna Wetherby, a 20-year member of the orchestra and its personnel manager.

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