A Look Back, July 21

A recent survey of children’s services in Hampshire and Franklin counties shows that funds are needed for a wide-ranging list of items, including mental health clinics, additional welfare department caseworkers and emergency shelters. The assessment of needed services was done for the state Office for Children (OFC) by the Franklin-Hampshire Council for Children.
Work continues on a “fantasy” piece of playground equipment being constructed at Sheldon Field. Designed by University of Massachusetts students, it will include a tunnel, a sandbox, a climbing area and steps. Recreation Director Patrick Goggins says the polyurethane “playform” equipment will encourage youngsters to use their imaginations and their muscles.

One of the three lanes on the Coolidge Bridge will be closed July 30, launching the region’s largest and most complicated bridge rebuilding project. The long-awaited date for reducing the bridge to two lanes — with no breakdown lanes — was provided at a meeting Thursday of officials from the Massachusetts Highway Department, Cooley Dickinson Hospital and the Amherst, Northampton and Hadley public safety departments.
It’s a good bet the Three-County Fair will offer simulcasting of horse races from around the country during its run this year, but it’s not a sure thing yet. The City Council Thursday night voted to allow the fair to show races beamed by satellite and to lengthen the fair’s racing days from 10 to 15 for this year only.

Northampton Community Television has been named one of the best in the country at what it does. The media organization received four of the Alliance for Community Media’s Hometown Media Awards, including the top overall prize in its division — access centers with budgets of between $300,000 and $600,000 that provide a combination of public, education and government access.
The Mount Holyoke Summit House in J.A. Skinner State Park will reopen to the public on Saturday. The opening for the 2016 season was delayed after state Department of Conservation and Recreation officials discovered that the structure needed fire suppression upgrades and repairs.

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