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The Westfield News Serving Westfield, Southwick, and the surrounding Hilltowns
www.thewestfieldnews.com
VOL. 83 NO. 44
“The process
of scientific discovery is, in effect, a continual flight from wonder.” Albert Einstein
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2014
75 cents
City seeks immigrant data
Westfield Fire Capt. Seth Ellis and firefighter Daniel Lorenzatti work to uncover some stubborn smoldering embers at the remains of a Russellville Road house which burned to the ground late Wednesday evening. (Photo by Carl E. Hartdegen)
Cause of fire undetermined By Carl E. Hartdegen Staff Writer WESTFIELD – A house which may have stood on Russellville Road since the turn of the century is no longer there after a fire late Wednesday. An emergency dispatcher for the city reported at 10:28 Wednesday evening that multiple callers had reported a fire at 467 Russellville Road and the first responder, city police officer Nathan Osowski, reports that the house was fully
engulfed in flames when he arrived. When fire apparatus began to arrive six minutes after the first officer, the house was found to be unoccupied and beyond saving. City firefighters did not need assistance with the blaze but, since there are no fire hydrants in the area, the fire department at Barnes Airport was asked to send their tanker truck to the scene and shuttled water to firefighters working there
“We put the fire out and protected exposure” to other buildings on the property which could have been at risk from the fire said Dep. Fire Chief Patrick Egloff. The cause of the fire was investigated the next day by Egloff with State Trooper Michael Mazza of the state fire marshal’s office and city Det. Lt. David Ragazzini but the cause of the fire could not be immediately determined. “It’s burnt to the ground. It’s
burnt to the cellar hole, that makes it very difficult” to determine how the fire started, Egloff said. The house is literally gone with only a few charred timbers outlining the cellar hole where the stump of a chimney, piping and what was probably once a furnace remain. The owner, reportedly Marshall Harris of Springfield, had recently bought the house,
By Dan Moriarty Staff Writer WESTFIELD – The United States was built on the sweat of immigrants from around the world and is still the land of opportunity as new waves of immigrants are assimilated into our culture. Westfield, in recent years, has become home to people from Eastern Europe, northwest Asia, South America, Africa and other part of the globe, brought to the city through placement by social service agencies. These new members of the community are in need of a range of services, from educating their children in local school, to health issues specific to their place of origin. The Board of Health, in conjunction with the School and Police Departments, has made a formal request to the two primary social service agencies involved in immigrant placement, the Jewish Family Services and the Lutheran Services, to meet on a formal basis. “The board voted to make a formal request that the services meet quarterly with city agencies so we can better provide the services needed for the immigrant population,” Health Director Joseph Rouse said Friday. “We hope to establish lines of communication, open a dialogue because we’re interested in knowing up front about any special issues and what the social agencies are planning to do. “Our primary issue to facilitate better communication about placement of refugees in the city so we can pre-access their needs,” Rouse said. “We’d like to know the numbers and areas people are coming from to determine what resources we’ll need to deal with them, putting those resources in place in advance of their arrival. It could be something as simple as having an interpreter to communicate with the refugees. “The municipal agencies primarily impact by immigrant populations are the Health, Police and See Immigrant Data, Page 7
See Cause of Fire, Page 7
Board rejects flashing sign permit By Dan Moriarty Staff Writer WESTFIELD – The Planning Board unanimously rejected a special permit petition to allow a flashing electronic sign erected when Cumberland Farms Corporation constructed a new convenience store at the intersection of North and Southampton Road. The Planning Board approved a different sign presented as part of its review and approval of the corporation’s site plan and special permit application last March. The 4,500-square-foot convenience store is located on 1.17 acres of land zoned for Business B use.
The corporation decided to change the style of sign to the flashing electronic type but Building Superintendent Jonathan Flagg cited the corporation for violation of city ordinance. The municipal code does allow flashing electronic signs in the Business and Industrial zones with a special permit issued by the Planning Board. Project Manager Patrick O’Leary, P.E. of Vanasse Hangen Brustlin (VHB), the consulting engineering firm retained by Cumberland Farms Corporation, presented details of the sign last night as part of the corporation’s special permit petition. O’Leary said the sign swap was due to miscommunication between the engineers
and corporate officials when the site plans were being originally presented to the Planning Board. “I did not pick up on the fact that this was an alternate flashing sign, that it is not compliant because it flashes, alternating between gas prices and the club price for smart pay patrons,” O’Leary said, adding that the flashing message changes every six seconds. The corporation is converting to the electronic flashing sign at all of its store location and substituted the new style for the Westfield store under construction without See Sign Permit, Page 7
The new Cumberland Farms at the intersection of North Road and Southampton Road recently opened for business.
(Photo by
Frederick Gore)
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