■Amid accusations that his job is a waste of manpower and the taxpayers’ dollar, Richard M. Gaffney has taken over as the first Hampshire County planner. Criticism over Gaffney’s hiring had come earlier from Mayor Sean M. Dunphy who charged that the county is already being charged for planning services from the Lower Pioneer Valley Regional Planning Commission.
■A group of geology professors from the five area colleges has sent a letter to the Montague selectmen, informing them that the $1.35 billion nuclear power plant Northeast Utilities plans to build on the Montague Plains by 1982 is just 5,000 feet from the largest fault in western New England.
■The Clarke School for the Deaf is opening a third satellite program and undertaking a major campus renovation project, two elements of efforts to redefine the school’s mission and method. President Dennis Gjerdingen said the innovations are part of the school’s response to trends in the field of deaf education, including significant technological advances in devices that enhance hearing and help diagnose hearing loss in young children.
■Marion Warner of Williamsburg has spearheaded a collection of more than 10,000 Campbell’s soup can labels during the past three years, which has yielded additional computer technology for her grandson’s elementary school in North Carolina. Last week Warner received notification that her grandson’s school was able to purchase a computer printer and two software programs through the labels.
■Moments after being sworn in to his second full term as mayor Monday night, David J. Narkewicz told the crowd of over 100 people in the Northampton Senior Center that he hopes to find new sources of local revenue and proposed a measure that would allow seniors and veterans to reduce their tax bills.
■With a student-created Twitter account sending out fake messages under her name and the rocky implementation of a new peanut and tree nut policy in the schools, Amherst School Superintendent Maria Geryk has decided to communicate directly with the public through her own blog. The blog will be available on the school department’s website and will be updated and monitored daily by Geryk and Kimberly Stender, director of community, partnerships and volunteers.