One hundred thirteen seniors received diplomas at graduation ceremonies at Athol High School.
■Scott Mosher of the Athol Police Department was on the department’s first bicycle patrol and reported he had already covered a good portion of the downtown area on his patrolman-powered vehicle. The bicycle was purchased with funds supplied by the Athol Lions Club and ERA Compass Realty. Stan’s Auto Body and Lyman Signs painted and lettered the bike.
■After a month’s hiatus, the school building committee announced a proposal for a new school building, an addition and a reconfiguration of the school population. The proposal calls for construction of a combination middle school and high school; an addition to the existing high school to accommodate elementary grades 1 through 5 and a relocation of all pre-kindergarten and kindergarten classes to Pleasant Street School. Five schools — Sanders Street, Riverbend Ellen Bigelow, Silver Lake and the middle school building would be abandoned as educational facilities and a marketing plan developed to find other community uses for the properties.
■For the second year members of the Athol-Orange Rotary Club donated time to present a two-hour seminar to 140 juniors at Athol High School on resume writing and interview skills.
■Mahar Regional High School presented diplomas to 81 seniors at graduation ceremonies.
■Orange Police have been more visible in the center of town lately due to a policing grant from the Executive Office of Public Safety. Police Chief Brian Spear said that surveillance of the square has been going on for the past two weeks. Spear said police are instituting a “walk and talk program,” which puts officers on a walking beat in the square on various nights.
■Prospects for a rock concert at the Orange Municipal Airport this summer have faded as plans for one show ended unsuccessfully and negotiations with the band Pearl Jam remain frozen. Don Law Co. representative Bob Duteau said that plans to bring the Lollapalooza summer festival — an all-day event featuring several bands — to the airport have fallen through.
■Orange is facing the biggest hurdle in its efforts to resolve a trash disposal problem, and either of two options available will be hard to sell to taxpayers. Either option comes with a price tag of about $2 million.
Lightning and heavy rain caused widespread power failure in the Mount Grace Region and what was believed to be a small twister lifted a boat from a small pond in Petersham.
■A fishing outing for 14 Daily News carriers was held under the supervision of Mr. and Mrs. William H. Clark, Mr. and Mrs. Glenn Frenette and Marianne Ledgard and Steven Rabideau at Birch Hill Dam. Joseph Gebo caught the longest trout and Nick Gingras caught the most. A cookout ended the day’s activities.
■Miss Eileen O’Brien, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William O’Brien of Athol, will be valedictorian at commencement exercises at Maria Assumpta Academy in Petersham.
■Mahar Regional High School graduated a class of 140 at commencement exercises in the Mahar gymnasium.
■The Orange Fire Department was busy extinguishing fires caused by trains along the B & M tracks.
■As a community project the Kiwanis Club of Orange plans to finance installation of additional recreation facilities at Butterfield (Town) park. The program calls for the addition of tennis, basketball and volleyball courts. The complex will be so constructed that it can be flooded for a skating rink in winter.
■A public meeting to discuss occupational educational needs with area business leaders was attended by 40 people in the Mahar Regional High School cafeteria. The sub-committee, headed by Richard Paul of Petersham, invited representatives of area businesses in hopes of forming an advisory council to assist the school committee in picking educational specifications.
■Army Specialist Four, Gene Lyesiuk, 21, son of Mr. and Mrs. John Lyesiuk of Orange, recently received the Air Medal near An Khe, Vietnam. He earned the award for meritorious service while participating in aerial flight in support of ground operations.
■Army Sp. 5 Larry French, 22, of Phillipston, was wounded in action in South Vietnam on May 27, his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Frederick French, were notified.
■More than 500 persons attended the simple outdoor wedding of Sandra Jo Wilson and Thomas Howes at the Brotherhood of the Spirit, Warwick commune. Wedding guests ringed the rose garden where the couple, surrounded by 80 attendants — all Brotherhood members — were united in wedlock.
The pupils of the Lyman Ward School are 100 percent behind the war effort. In a recent waste paper drive these young pupils collected and brought 6,365 pounds of paper and magazines to the school.
■Mr. and Mrs. Dominick L. Guilmette of Athol, have received the Bronze Star Medal which was awarded their son, 1st Sgt. Joseph A. (Bob) Guilmette “for meritorious service in connection with military operations against the enemy in Eastern France, Luxembourg and Germany.” He is now serving with Gen. Patton’s Third Army in Germany.
■First Lt. Douglas R. Starrett, son of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur H. Starrett, of Athol, pilot of a B-17 Flying Fortress, has recently been awarded a third Oak Leaf Cluster to the Air Medal for outstanding performance during a number of Eighth Air Force attacks on German installations.
■Cpl. Bertram E. Dugan, Jr., 19, U.S.M.C., was wounded in action for the second time May 3 on Okinawa, according to word received by his mother, Mrs. Clarissa Dugan of Athol.
■Lt. Franklin H. Proctor, AAF, son of Mr. and Mrs. H. Waldo Proctor of Athol, is now at a rest camp in Honolulu after spending 36 hours on a life raft and 30 days on a submarine which picked him up near Kyushu. He explained that he and the crew of a B-29 were over Kyushu, five miles from the Japanese coast, when a fighter plane attacked them, knocking out one of the motors. The crew bailed out when the plane caught fire, and five men were lost. He was one of six who were saved.
■Col. Glendon Overing was guest speaker at the Orange Kiwanis meeting at Fernwood and held a full attendance greatly interested until long past the usual closing time. He traced the history and development of the Eighth Air Force and showed a complete mastery of his subject.
■Sgt. Paul Jones, 28, son of Mr. and Mrs. William Jones of Orange, was awarded the Purple Heart for wounds received in Germany in March.
■S/Sgt. Walter E. Clark, Jr., 20, of Royalston, has been awarded the third Oak Leaf Cluster to the Air Medal.
■Temporary suspension of home canning sugar certificates to ease an “extremely tight” supply situation was announced by the New England OPA. The suspension will probably last two or three weeks. “This is probably the first time New England has had real cause to worry,” John W. Tarbell, regional food rationing officer, said.