50 Years Ago

• Hampshire County is celebrating the nation’s 200th birthday with a bang. Fireworks will explode tonight, tomorrow and Monday night in different towns throughout the county. There will be two parades, the annual Chesterfield parade Monday, and an unusual boat parade on Nashawannuck Pond in Easthampton on Sunday.
• The TOPICS program in Northampton may be jeopardized because of a dispute involving a parking lot owned by Hampshire County. Officials had hoped to alleviate the loss of downtown parking, the source of greatest contention in TOPICS design, by transforming the county-owned parking lot across from the courthouse into a metered city parking lot, but the need for county parking has increased to such a degree that the county may have to retain some spaces.

25 Years Ago

• The Northampton DPW will save money for a limited time by paying an incinerator company in Springfield to haul away half its sludge output. The department now pays the city Board of Health $360,000 per year to dump its sludge — the thick residue of wastewater treatment — at the landfill, a practice that the state says must end by June 30, 2002.
• The Save Old Main Campaign is seeking more people to join the effort to save the historic main building of the former Northampton State Hospital. The group seeks to preserve the building as an educational memorial and is preparing a presentation for the July 23 forum offered by the Citizens Advisory Committee, the city panel shepherding development on the former hospital grounds.

10 Years Ago

• Giant puppets, whimsical costumes and a full brass band. Northampton’s Main Street flurried with color and sound Saturday afternoon as some 100 people of all ages marched to First Churches to celebrate sustainability and draw attention to gas leaks in the city.
• Florence Bank has named Erin McHugh of Easthampton, Jeanette R. Sharpe of South Deerfield, and Michelle M. Bigelow of Goshen to the President’s Club. Employees nominate their peers for the honor, which recognizes superior performance, customer service and overall contribution.