PAGE 8 - MONDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2014
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THE WESTFIELD NEWS
Rag Shag Parade get new name
Grand opening Open for over two months, Pizza Towne, located on 80 Main Street enjoyed their grand opening with their signature menu serving the community of Westfield. New owners Sam Karaaslan and Ugur Turan, pose for a photo op with family members and employees. (Photo by Don Wielgus)
Worthington
WESTFIELD — After 70 years the Rag Shag Parade, sponsored by the Westfield/West Springfield Lodge of Elks has a new name! This year on October 24th will mark the first time the parade will be officially called The Charles Morse Rag Shag Parade in memory and tribute of Elks Lodge member the late Charles Morse. Charles was past chair of the event many years ago and remained so for 50-years. According to current Chair Ken Premny who has been the chair for the past 28 years, the lodge wanted to pay tribute of this great event to someone who worked hard for so many years to make it the great success it is today. The entire event is free to the public which includes costume contests with cash prizes, ice cream & soda social, and a bag of candy for each child. It is paid for by the Westfield/West Springfield Elks, Chair Premny says, “we do it for the children”. Listed below are the details. Friday, October 24, 2014 Assemble at the Elks Lodge at 56 Franklin Street Parade kicks off at exactly 6:00 pm Parade route: Down Franklin, right on Elm Street, Right on Court Street, Right on Washington Street where it ends back at Elks Lodge. The Westfield High School band will lead the parade (so they can finish first and go to a game to play) Parade end time approx. 6:30 pm Back at the Elks children will enjoy Ice cream and soda. There will be costume contests with cash prizes in each of these age categories. 0-3 years 4-7 years 7-9 years 10-12 years 12-14 years Three cash prizes in each age group for best costume $15, $10, and $5 Also one $25 cash prize for best adult prize. Each child will leave with a bag of candy. Due to construction – a large tent will be outside for the party. Should end by 8:00 pm RAIN date October 25th.
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appropriate funding for that purpose. DESE officials also announced that Gateway’s Regional Agreement will need to be amended, but failure to approve amendments by the remaining six towns will not impede Worthington’s withdrawal on July 1. The amendments—to address the town representation on the school committee (“one person/one vote”), a new allocation of assessments among the remaining six towns, and an amendment on the withdrawal of Worthington—all need to be done in time for the spring annual Town Meeting votes. In other business, the School Committee heard a presentation on student performance, which included 2014 MCAS results. Principals Megan Coburn and Jason Finnie presented their results, discussed the District-Determined Measures (DDM’s) they are using to inform instruction (and as part of the new teacher evaluation system in Massachusetts), and described the interventions that are
being used to improve student performance. Teachers Heather Cabral and Elizabeth Hamaoui, who attended a summer data institute with other Gateway teachers and administrators, described student strengths and weaknesses they had looked at during the institute. In other business, the Committee heard an update on recent grant awards and submissions, approved the Model United Nations field trip to UCONN; discussed modifying the MASC self-evaluation tool; and discussed reimbursement/payments for school committee travel. Two items (Boys’ and Girls’ State and School Committee/ Superintendent Goals) were deferred to the next meeting. The Committee went into executive session at 9:30 p.m. for purposes of contract negotiations, and did not return to public session. The Gateway Regional School Committee’s next meeting will be on Wednesday, October 22 in the at Chester Elementary School.
Ballot question targets indexing of gas tax By BOB SALSBERG Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — If approved, Question 1 on the November ballot wouldn’t lower the state’s gas tax, but it could stop future increases that would otherwise occur automatically and without any say by lawmakers. Supporters of the initiative view that as a clear-cut case of “taxation without representation.” Those urging a no vote on the question warn that passage would seriously undermine progress in fixing crumbling state infrastructure. At issue is a provision in a 2013 transportation financing law that indexes the gas tax to inflation — meaning that as the Consumer Price Index rises, so does the tax. The group seeking to repeal the provision says taxes should never go up without a recorded vote by the Legislature. Such votes are politically dicey. Last year’s move to raise the state gas tax 3 cents, to 24 cents per gallon, marked the first time in more than two decades that lawmakers increased the tax, which pays for maintaining roads and bridges. “We are already woefully underfunded when it comes to our transportation infrastructure and we are already running way behind when it comes to funding it,” said Mary Maguire, director of public affairs and legislative affairs for AAA Southern New England. Indexing is “the most effective way to catch up,” added Maguire. State transportation officials estimate that indexing will produce an additional $1 billion in revenue over the next decade, and opponents of repeal suggest that would come at a nominal cost to consumers. Based on recent CPI trends, Maguire said an average motorist would pay only about $5 to $10 more per year at the pumps if the tax is indexed. Those estimates understate the real impact, argues State Rep. Geoffrey Diehl, a Whitman Republican who co-chairs the group Tank the Automatic Gas Tax Hikes. Prices for food and other consumer goods would rise, Diehl said, as shipping costs go up with higher gas taxes. Property taxes could also be affected as cities and towns pay more to operate police cars, fire trucks and other vehicles, he added. Question 1 backers also object to tying the gas tax to the CPI, since gas prices are a key component of the CPI in the first place. “It’s rigged to go only one way and never in favor of the taxpayer,” said Diehl. Opposition to the ballot question has united environmental groups with business-backed organizations such as the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce and Massachusetts Competitive Partnership. The No on One Committee raised $1.4 million through Oct. 1, according to filings with the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance, dwarfing the $87,000 raised by proponents. Firms that contract with the state to perform road and bridge maintenance have been a major source of funding for Question 1 opponents. More than half of the state’s bridges are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete, said Maguire, who pointed to the recent shutdown of a bridge to Boston’s Long Island, forcing a homeless shelter on the island to close. Diehl suggests the state could spend more on road and bridge
maintenance by cutting administrative costs instead. Including all state and federal taxes and fees, Massachusetts drivers pay a total of 44.9 cents per gallon in gasoline taxes, according to the American Petroleum Institute. That puts the state below the U.S. average of just under 49.3 cents per gallon in total taxes. Only a handful of other states, including Maryland and Florida, currently index their gas taxes, according to the institute. Rhode Island lawmakers recently approved a plan for indexing the tax every two years, while the New Hampshire Legislature voted to raise the state’s gas tax 4 cents per gallon, but without indexing.
Continued from Page 1 behalf of developer Joseph Kelly of West Springfield. The subdivision property is nearly 28 acres in area and is zoned for rural residential usage. The property is currently owned by Joseph and Mary Harbey of Lindbergh Boulevard according to records on the City Assessor’s website. Carl Vincent, a member of the Planning Board said there is concern about lots 1 and 11 because of associated wetlands. The planners also requested that a wooded buffer be preserved to protect abutting neighbors. The lots, which need a minimum area of 40,000 square feet, will have access to city water, but will have on-site septic disposal. The developer will submit a definitive subdivision plan, which may be amended based upon the discussion with the Planning Board members during the preliminary review of the subdivision project.
Voter registration deadline fast approaching BOSTON (AP) — The registration deadline for voters in Massachusetts is fast approaching. Wednesday is the final day to register to vote or change one’s voting address or party affiliation for the Nov. 4 state election. Absentee ballots are already available. Registered voters can apply for absentee ballots by mail or in person at their local city or town clerk’s office or election commission. Completed absentee ballots must arrive at local elections offices by 8 p.m. on Nov. 4, the same time polls close. The November elections will decide contests for governor, U.S. Senate, U.S. House, attorney general, state treasurer, auditor, secretary of state, four ballot questions and every legislative seat. Early voting in Massachusetts will not take place until 2016.
U.S. Sen. Markey seeking 1st full 6-year term By STEVE LeBLANC and BOB SALSBERG Associated Press MALDEN (AP) — After a nicotine vaporizer accidentally started a small fire in the cargo hold of an airplane at Boston’s Logan International Airport, U.S. Sen. Edward Markey pledged to ask the Federal Aviation Administration whether electronic cigarettes should be banned on flights. For more than three decades in the U.S. House, Markey built a record of responding to concerns large and small. Critics say that’s evidence of a lack of focus, but Markey says he’s just representing Massachusetts voters. “They don’t want you to be limited to one or two issues. They want you to be working on everything,” Markey told The Associated Press. “A narrowly defined agenda for a United States senator from Massachusetts would be ahistorical.” The Democrat is seeking a full six-year term in November after winning a special election last year to complete John Kerry’s Senate term. Unlike the special election — which featured a contested primary, a well-funded Republican opponent and three primetime televised debates — this year’s contest is generating little buzz. Markey had no primary opponents and is facing Republican Brian Herr, a businessman and former Hopkinton selectman. The only scheduled debate is a half-hour, Friday afternoon televised face-off. For Herr — with little money, a sparse campaign organization and virtually no statewide name recognition — that’s proof Markey has become such a creature of Washington and a die-hard Democrat that he’s not taking the election seriously. “Mr. Markey has continuously demonstrated that he is hyper-partisan, that he will only vote the party line, the far left line for that matter, and everything else be damned,” Herr said during a recent “Retire Ed Markey” campaign stop in Markey’s hometown of Malden. Herr has plenty of energy — he’s run the Boston Marathon 25 times — but during the campaign stop he gets little more than polite nods from people who, almost without exception, appear to be hearing his name for the first time. “In November, don’t vote for him, vote for Herr,” he says, hoping the play on words might help people remember him at the ballot box.
He reassured one woman that he would be on “everybody’s ballot” in November. At a bus station, Herr encountered Patricia Kean, 51, of Medford, who told him that she always votes for Democrats and appreciates what Markey accomplished for his district while in the House. It typifies a challenge faced by many Massachusetts Republicans, even moderate ones like Herr: a tendency of many voters to reflexively cast ballots for Democrats. Markey bristles at the partisan charge. He says that since arriving in the Senate, he’s collaborated with a number of Republican lawmakers — including Utah’s Orrin Hatch, New Hampshire’s Kelly Ayotte and Idaho’s Mike Crapo — on a range of bills. He points to a National Journal report that ranked him 8th in the Senate on the number of bills he’s sponsored or co-sponsored that have eventually become law during his congressional career. Each new law — all 506 of them — had Republican cosponsors, Markey said. Markey works alongside one of the best known members of the Senate, fellow Massachusetts Democrat Elizabeth Warren, a hero to the liberal wing of the party, some of whom have been trying unsuccessfully to persuade to run for president. Unlike Warren, who has tried to narrow much of her focus to a handful of issues like student debt, banking reforms and consumer protections, Markey casts a wide net. He says he has worked on a slew of issues including net neutrality, Alzheimer research funding, student privacy rights, flood insurance, automobile defect disclosure, and protections for bystanders who administer opiate overdose reversing drugs. He says he also helped win tougher federal oversight of compounding pharmacies and $310 million to dredge Boston Harbor to receive massive new cargo ships. Herr finds solace in polling that suggests ambivalence toward Markey. The reluctance of many Massachusetts voters to embrace Markey may be offset by their disdain for the national Republican party and the prospect of the GOP seizing control of the Senate. “If the Senate does go to the Republicans, it’s important that we have someone here who will work with both sides of the aisle to get something done,” Herr said.