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The Westfield News Serving Westfield, Southwick, and the surrounding Hilltowns
www.thewestfieldnews.com
VOL. 83 NO.140
“Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world.” George Bernard Shaw
MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014
75 cents
BID petition before Council committee
Rail barrel pickup Westfield High School National Honor Society student Eric Shiluk helps load a rain barrel for a local resident during the distribution of pre-ordered rain barrels in the Westfield City Hall parking lot last week. Forty residents took advantage of a discounted price from The Great American Rain Barrel Company of Hyde Park. The program was sponsored by the Westfield Water Department. (Photo by Frederick Gore)
Westfield man back in jail By Carl E. Hartdegen Staff Writer WESTFIELD – A city man who had recently completed a lengthy prison sentence is back behind bars after allegedly assaulting his girlfriend. City police had become involved in a domestic situation shortly after midnight on May 31 when officers Jared Rowe and Christopher Coach responded to a report of an intoxicated woman who had pulled a black truck into an East Bartlett Street driveway but was believed to have intentions of continuing to drive. The officers found the woman exhibited the classic symptoms of alcohol intoxication and she was placed in protective custody but surrendered almost immediately to the custody of her adult son. A few hours later an East Bartlett Street
resident called police to report that a man was dragging a woman from a black truck. The caller told the emergency dispatcher that she had heard screaming and looked out to see a man attempting to pull a woman through the driver’s window of a black truck. The caller said that she went to call police and, when she returned to her window, saw that the man was then inside the truck and hitting the woman. The responding officers, Andrew Cekovsky and Matthew Schultze found the woman on East Bartlett Street and observed that the woman had facial injuries and was bleeding. An ambulance was summoned and the officers went to the indicated apartment to speak with the male party involved in the disturbance. The officers report that a male party, later identified as Donald G. Cornelius, 56, of 21
E. Bartlett St., came to the door but was argumentative, unruly and declined to allow them entry to his residence. The man indicated that he had been unhappy that his girlfriend had used his truck while she was intoxicated and became upset when she wanted to use it again. The woman attempted to walk away from the residence but was restrained to await the ambulance which soon arrived and transported her to Noble Hospital for treatment. Cornelius was arrested for assault and battery in a domestic relationship. He appeared in Westfield District Court for arraignment before Judge Philip A. Contant who set his bail at $50,000. In the court document explaining the reasons for bail, Contant checked nine of the 17 See Jail, Page 3
Massachusetts grants MGM first license By PHILIP MARCELO Associated Press SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) — MGM Springfield on Friday was named the state’s first official casino operator, capping a more than two-year process that saw four other rival plans in western Massachusetts fall by the wayside. The Massachusetts Gaming Commission voted unanimously at the MassMutual Center to approve a deal granting MGM the casino license, pending the outcome of efforts to repeal the state’s casino law. Commission Chairman Stephen Crosby said the $800 million proposal for a casino, hotel, and entertainment and shopping complex in downtown Springfield captures the “spirit” and “aspirations” that state leaders envisioned when they opened the door for resortstyle casino gambling in Massachusetts in 2011. MGM’s casino license is one of three authorized under the state’s casino law. The two others are in the Boston area and the Fall River/ New Bedford area. The gaming commission has already awarded the state’s lone See Casino, Page 3
Michael Mathis, front left, President of MGM Springfield, shakes hands with Massachusetts State Gaming Commission Chairman Steven Crosby after Crosby signed the states’ first resort -casino license on Friday in Springfield. Looking on behind them, from left, is Springfield Mayor Domenic J. Sarno, William Hornbuckle, MGM Resorts International President, James Murren, MGM Resorts International Chairman and CEO, and Kevin Kennedy,Springfields’ Chief Development Officer. (AP Photo/The Republican, Mark M. Murray)
By Dan Moriarty Staff Writer WESTFIELD – The City Council’s Governmental Relations Committee is scheduled to discuss the petition of downtown property owners to dissolve the city’s Business Improvement District tomorrow night following the June 5 public hearing at which both sides of that issue argued, often passionately, to either end or continue the organization. The committee will bring the issue to the full City Council, which will vote on the future of the BID, perhaps as soon as Thursday. The Governmental Relations Committee is comprised of Chairman Matthew VanHeynigen, an At-large councilor who was a long-serving member of the Planning Board prior to his election last November, Ward 3 Councilor Brian Hoose whose ward encompasses half of the business district, and Ward 4 Councilor Mary O’Connell, a businesswoman and long-time supporter of initiatives to revitalize the downtown. The committee can present the council with a positive recommendation to grant the petition to dissolve the BID, a negative recommendation to maintain the current BID structure or give no recommendation all on the action the full City Council should take. The Westfield Business Improvement District was established in 2006 and membership was voluntary. Many of the current BID opponents made a decision to “opt out” under the original 1994 state law which allowed businesses and property owners not to participate in the BID and exempted them from BID dues. Those owners and businessmen feel they were shanghaied into the BID, and its dues, when the law was changed in 2012. The petitioners, property owners and business owners argued that the current structure of the BID is flawed. They argue that too many of the voting members are non-profit and not-for-profit organizations, which are exempt from paying the BID surtax on property within the district. The proponents of dissolving the BID have also argued that the district was gerrymandered to include those non-paying members. BID opponents termed the mandatory BID dues “double taxation” and argued that BID was intended to supplement city services to the downtown, not replace them. The opponents state that they were pushed to action when the state Legislature changed the state law governing BIDs in 2012 and allowed the BID to impose the tax/fee on non-participating members. The original law, signed by Governor William Weld, allowed businesses and property owners to opt out of membership, while the revised law, signed by Governor Deval Patrick, allowed BIDs to close that opt out loop and force all property owners to be subject to the BID tax/fee. BID proponents argue that the downtown revitalization effort needs an organization to sustain a “cohesive effort” to improve the downtown district. Those proponents argue that the beautification efforts of the BID have made people feel safer coming downtown and that it has fostered the city center as a dining, cultural and entertainment destination which has brought a substantial number of city residents downtown.