A Look Back: July 12

50 Years Ago

■Plans for the 77-unit Tinkham Woods subdivision on Westhampton Road were approved unanimously last night in a vote of the Northampton Planning Board. The board’s decision was made with the knowledge that many Northampton residents were opposed to the project, board member Everett Ladd Jr. said in explaining the vote.

■Northampton Zoning Board of Appeals Chairman Charles W. Dragon last night called for legal briefs after a public hearing on the application of Sports Farm Inc. for a variance for a summer sports camp off Bridge Road. The action was taken after a judge said the location is not the place for a commercial venture and a former assistant district attorney argued that “we are trying to keep it as unobtrusive as possible.”

25 Years Ago

■A three-sided wooden hut built in recent weeks behind Thornes Marketplace will soon be the center of a massive recycling effort designed to pull in every one of the 30 businesses inside the Main Street commercial center. The project has taken about seven months to pull off, but organizers expect the Thornes Recycling Center, as the structure has been dubbed, to be in operation this month.

■A locally produced documentary that highlights the work of people and groups that promote gay and lesbian awareness will be shown six times next month on MediaOne’s Channel 9. The documentary is the work of MediaOne’s community television coordinator, Teri Morris, who said that she wanted to show what the experience of coming out is like for homosexuals – in part to counteract what she feels is the negative stereotyping of gay and lesbian people.

10 Years Ago

■The city of Northampton and Columbia Gas of Massachusetts have settled a lawsuit surrounding the environmental cleanup of the Round House lot downtown, a significant deal that protects the city from future liability and may smooth the way for redevelopment of the prominent site.

■Outdoor events on playing fields and grassy areas on the University of Massachusetts campus will be limited beginning Tuesday. UMass, working with the town of Amherst’s health department, is restricting these campus-sponsored events as a precaution against Eastern equine encephalitis, which is carried by mosquitoes that breed and typically bite during the dusk and early evening.