A Look Back: July 18

50 Years Ago

■The regional recycling center on Locust Street announced its first year a success in its first annual financial report. Gross revenue for the center was listed at $7,467.13 and expenses at $4,935.

■The Yankee Apothecary drug store at 47 Locust St., across from the Cooley Dickinson Hospital, shut down yesterday after 16 months in operation, attributing the closing to the welfare department’s failure to make payments on several thousand dollars’ worth of prescriptions.

25 Years Ago

■After 75 years in the same location, one of Main Street’s oldest retail businesses — Lizotte’s Tobacco Shop — may close this fall. Lizotte’s owner, Vin Diflumeri, said Thursday he received notification that his landlord, entrepreneur Eric Suher of Holyoke, will not renew his lease when it expires in September.

■Local Internet service providers and technology experts said Thursday they were surprised to learn of the sale of JavaNet Inc., the largest ISP in the Valley, to a large telecommunications firm, even though many had long felt JavaNet would be sold to a larger entity at some date. Its owners announced Thursday that JavaNet, founded in December 1995 in Northampton by David Epstein and Zachary Julius, has been sold to RCN Corp for $15.8 million.

10 Years Ago

■Voters in Springfield on Tuesday approved a casino agreement between city officials and MGM Resorts International to compete for one of three regional resort casino licenses allowed under the state’s new gambling law. The referendum marks a key milestone for MGM, which has proposed an $800 million resort casino in the city’s South End.

■Problems with a glass-infused wood product are causing more construction delays and cost hikes at the Summit House on the Mount Holyoke Range, which state officials now say will be closed for the third consecutive summer.

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