■Look Park had a “super” summer, according to park director Brian Elliott, who said yesterday that some 45,000 people used the park pool alone this year. Elliott attributed the crowds to good weather and new policies at the park pool of eliminating the bathing cap requirement and allowing bathers to go to the refreshment stand and return to the pool without paying a re-entry fee.
■A “storefront” outpatient drug treatment clinic will be opening in downtown Northampton within four to six weeks as part of a new $10,000 state-funded local drug program, Community Multi-Service Agency Inc. The agency is an outgrowth of the former Northampton Drug Steering Committee, which established the Hotline and will be headed by the drug coordinator at the Northampton State Hospital, Jack Dooley.
■A new production company based in the Eastworks building in Easthampton will start shooting a series this month to broadcast regularly on the World Wide Web. It will not be the first such show on the Web, but “Regeneration Now,” produced by Up International, promises to be the most complicated of the few yet created. The show tentatively will premiere in December on computers everywhere.
■The JFK Middle School hopes to repeat the success of a dictionary drive three years ago, when community members donated more than 60 new and used dictionaries for distribution to seventh- and eighth-grade students. Organized by reading teacher Christine Nolan, the new drive seeks to provide dictionaries to students who do not have one at home.
■After 40 years in the tree and landscaping business, Earle Shumway is retiring, closing his operation, based in Belchertown, and referring longtime customers to a Northampton competitor. Shumway and Sons Tree and Landscaping Corp. is wrapping up tree work this week and will auction off its equipment by the end of the month.
■Northampton will be the site of a transgender pride rally Saturday, organized by the group Invisible No More, on the lawn of the Unitarian Society of Northampton and Florence. The event aims to celebrate trans pride and community, but also to draw allies who want to offer support and broaden their understanding of the lives of transgender people.