A Look Back, Nov. 20

50 Years Ago

■Northampton will submit a $15,000 matching grant application to the state’s Bicentennial Commission in hopes of funding a redesigned Pulaski Park. Planners hope that the enhanced park would invite more people to use it for various purposes. They say that the park is now underutilized.

■Two city policemen have bought a former Northampton Junior College dormitory off Pleasant Street and plan to convert the building into a rooming house. Robert Varady, a police sergeant, and William Mazuch, a patrolman, the new owners of the building, have already begun advertising for tenants for the new rooming house.

25 Years Ago

■Planners for the Northampton High School upgrade are trying to add a new grandstand, press box and concession and storage building to the project after cutting those items earlier to trim costs. The structures were included in two of eight alternates that were dropped from the project after contractors’ bids came in some $3 million higher than planners had estimated.

■The overnight shelter for homeless people from November through March has been in need of a permanent home since it began in 1994 by rotating among downtown churches. It appears that the shelter will find that home in the Elks Lodge at 43 Center St., courtesy of downtown businessman William Muller who is poised to buy the building.

10 Years Ago

■Northampton High School has become a more soulful place thanks to a new songwriting course this year, where students have the opportunity to write and perform original music. Taught by Beau Flahive, the one-semester class is open to students with varying levels of musical experience.

■The Northampton city council will consider a resolution this week that supports the executive order issued by Mayor David J. Narkewicz in late August that assures equal, just and fair treatment of all persons who live in and visit the city. The order seeks to protect illegal immigrants and strengthen trust between the city’s immigrant population and its Police Department.