A Look Back, May 21

50 Years Ago

■The Northampton School Committee last night voted to hire four Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) workers to participate in a training program this summer. The program would enable the workers to join the school department staff in the fall as special education teachers, or, in one case, as a social worker.

■Planners and city officials will meet with interested Northampton residents tonight on the plans to reshape and revitalize the downtown area. By creating a park in the old Mill River bed, a site for retail development in the Armory Street parking lot, and residence sites on Conz Street, consultants, planners and city officials hope to draw a major department store and new housing.

25 Years Ago

■More than 200 young musicians, their parents and teachers will play live music throughout downtown Northampton Saturday, in Springfest 2000, sponsored by the Northampton Community Music Center. The performances, now in their sixth year, raise money for the center’s many in-house activities, community outreach programs and scholarship fund.

■City high schoolers will present a range of music, art and dance performances tonight at the second annual ArtsFest at Thornes Marketplace on Main Street. Parent Harriet Brickman, who helped organize the ArtsFest, said the event is based on the idea that the high school should take advantage of and reflect the arts-rich community in which it is based.

10 Years Ago

■Citing its status as possibly the first building to be designed exclusively for use by pre-school classes, the Amherst Historical Commission on Tuesday unanimously imposed a one-year delay on Amherst College’s request to demolish the Little Red Schoolhouse. Members of the commission said they will consider lifting the delay if members of the Little Red School Preservation Committee are unable to find a way to preserve the building by moving it to an off-campus site.

■The Northampton City Council on Thursday is expected to officially ban single-use plastic bags in retail stores. The council unanimously gave preliminary approval to the ban in April after holding a public hearing and, if OK d in a final vote Thursday the ban would take effect Jan. 1, 2016.