A Look Back, March 27

50 Years Ago

• County and city officials continued to battle yesterday without reaching a resolution about where a proposed new $6 million jail should be located and how many acres should be used for the facility. An afternoon tour yesterday of the possible jail sites on the Northampton State Hospital property followed a stormy debate Thursday in which city officials charged county leaders with trying to “push through” their plan without accepting suggestions from the city.
• Two Easthampton men who escaped yesterday afternoon from the Franklin County House of Correction were arrested last night by Easthampton police. The men were arrested while they were allegedly attempting to steal a car from the parking lot of Ed’s Foodland on Union Street.

25 Years Ago

• Villanova coach Steve Lappas is the new head coach of the University of Massachusetts men’s basketball team. UMass Athletic Director Robert Marcum confirmed that Lappas would be named the program’s 20th head coach at a press conference today.
• The Northampton High School chorus is making its first trip abroad, to the International Music Festival in Montreal in May. To make the trip a reality, the chorus is planning its first-ever fund-raiser, a benefit concert and dinner. “For many students, this is their one chance for cross-cultural experience,” said Beau Flahive, chorus director and organizer of the benefit.

10 Years Ago

• A new alcohol and drug treatment center for adults may be moving into the Hilltowns, providing upwards of 200 jobs and offering help to those who suffer from addiction. Nashville-based Freedom Healthcare of America, which does business as Addiction Campuses of America, hopes to buy a 600-acre property in Plainfield and Cummington, formerly known as the Academy at Swift River.
• Longtime newspaperman Michael Rifanburg has been hired as the next publisher of the Daily Hampshire Gazette, The Recorder, the Valley Advocate and other print and digital publications in the Pioneer Valley operated by the family-owned Newspapers of New England company. Rifanburg, 56, will succeed publisher Dennis Skoglund, who is retiring after a long career in the news business.

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