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WEATHER TONIGHT Light snow late. Low of 20.
The Westfield News
VOL. 84 NO. 036
Serving Westfield, Southwick, and the surrounding Hilltowns
www.thewestfieldnews.com SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2015
“I believe that
if one always looked at the skies, one would end up with wings.” — GUSTAVE FLAUBERT
75 cents
Shamrock Showdown to benefit education
A plow operator drives along College Highway clearing the snow from a nearby intersection. (File photo by Frederick Gore)
DPW clears streets, preps for another storm By HOPE E. TREMBLAY and increased demand. Staff Writer “We have been using quite a bit of salt and sand, SOUTHWICK – As the town continues to clean up especially at night, but we have been able to keep up from last week’s snowstorm, another is headed this the supply,” he said. way. As far as the sand and salt budget, Brown said the Department of Public Works Director Randy Brown town has already exceeded its $111,000 budget, said crews have been working to clear the streets and which is typical. make way for vehicles, pedestrians – and more snow. Winter road clearing is one of few budget items the “For the past several days we’ve been out on the state allows to operate on a deficit. The DPW annuroads widening them and increasing the line of sight,” ally requests a transfer of funds at the end of the said Brown. season to cover costs. Brown said he has received numerous calls from “When we address the town’s street needs, we residents requesting the DPW clear their neighborRANDAL BROWN don’t look at the budget,” said Brown. “We do what hood. we have to do to keep the roads clear and residents “We are making our way from one side of town to safe.” the other,” Brown said. “We just ask that everyone be Brown said the DPW crews work best when residents stay off patient because we are working on addressing these issues.” the streets during storm clean up. Brown said the town’s sand and salt supply have been filled “If people do not need to be out, it’s best for them to stay off and crews are ready for the next wave of winter weather headed the roads and we will get to you as soon as we can,” he said. to westen Mass. this weekend. The DPW was also busy Friday repairing a water main break “We received another shipment of salt and the shed is full,” he on College Highway that caused Southwick Town Hall to close said. At the start of the season Brown was concerned about the early along with another 10 businesses that were without water availability and cost of salt. A global shortage drove the price up for several hours.
Free computer courses offered By PETER FRANCIS Staff Writer WESTFIELD – In a world dominated by technology, it may seem strange to think that there are people among us who don’t even know how to use a computer. Rather than poking fun, Westfield Community Education is now offering a free course at Western Mass Hospital’s Clark Computer Lab, located on 128 East Mountain Road, to help city residents learn basic computer skills beginning on February 18 and running every Wednesday until March 18. “Since I’ve been with Westfield Community Education, this is the second time we’ve done it,” said Kelly Pelkey, program coordinator for WCE. “It’s for those who want to know the very basics of computers.” The course is open to anyone living in the area over the age of 18, but Pelkey believes the students who generally make up the course are significantly older than that. “Their children might have bought them a laptop and it has been sitting in
their house and they haven’t used it because they know absolutely nothing about computers,” she said. “That seems to be the crowd we gather.” This is the second computer course run by Westfield Community Education, as they operate a separate course for students in its Pre-HiSET, formerly GED, program and, much like that course, students in this adult course will be schooled in the basics of email, Microsoft Word and will learn both personal and professional Internet skills, as well. Pelkey said that the last time they ran the course space was limited at one of the buildings owned by Domus, Inc., the Sanford Apartments, on Elm Street. “We had 10 students but this time we’ll be at Western Mass. Hospital’s Clark Lab, which has about 18 PCs,” she said. “Every time we’ve done this program, I have a wait list. People are asking to be signed up and it goes very quickly.” Asked of the general mindset of the folks taking the course, Pelkey said that it’s an interesting mix and that people enrolled in the course sometimes refer
their friends, too. “Some express an ‘I should know this by now’ attitude, but for the most part, they want to use the computer for email and some social networking stuff,” she said. “The participants are very excited and really appreciative that we offer it.” Participants are enrolled on a firstcome, first-serve basis and interested parties should contact Westfield Community Education to enroll. Local groups that have chipped in to support the program include Berkshire Bank Foundation, Beveridge Family Foundation, the Charles H. Hall Foundation, the Horace A. Moses Trust, the city of Westfield’s Community Development Block Grant, Dollar General Literacy Foundation, Easthampton Savings Bank, First Niagara Bank Foundation, the Kiwanis Club of Westfield, PeoplesBank Foundation, Shurtleff Children’s Services, Inc., Salvation Army of Westfield, United Bank Foundation, Westfield Future Fund, the Westfield Athenaeum, Western Mass. Hospital and the Westfield Police Association.
By PETER FRANCIS Staff Writer WESTFIELD – Just as city residents will be gearing up for St. Patrick’s Day, members of the Westfield Foundation for Education are hoping folks will gather for some luck of the Irish for themselves at it’s first annual Shamrock Showdown Trivia Night on Friday, March 13. Scheduled for a 6:30 p.m. start at East “Our hope is to Mountain Country double that. We’d Club, the event will allow participants to love to give out form teams of four to test their knowledge $10,000 in grants across 10 rounds of to teachers trivia, with appetizers being served and with next year.” prizes awarded to the JANINE QUEENIN top two teams. WFE Vice President Items will also be raffled off during the event, including four reserved seats to the graduation ceremonies at Westfield High School and Westfield Vocational-Technical High School this spring. Tickets for the event are currently going for $25 per person, with the money going to the foundation, a new organization formed by parents of Westfield students looking to help teachers throughout the district. “All of the money raised by WFE will go right back to Westfield public schoolchildren,” said WFE President Amber Danahey. “It will be a fun night out for a good cause.” In 2014, the organization awarded more than $5,000 to 11 projects in nine of the city’s 12 schools. Some of these projects included an elementary-level astronomy program, a before-school health and fitness program, a high school multi-year mural project and a middle school-level extracurricular reading program. “Our hope is to double that. We’d love to give out $10,000 in grants to teachers next year,” said WFE Vice President Janine Queenin. “We’re hoping the community will get on board with us and help support the schools.” Queenin, a mother of two Westfield students, said that, as more district teachers learn about the foundation’s grants, the better the quality of education that the district’s students will receive. “It is hard nowadays, with budgets being slashed all across the state, and of course they have the MCAS they have to work with,” said Queenin. “Sometimes you wonder if teachers have enough time in the day to do what they want to do that they’ve been able to do in the past and one of our goals is to provide resources to teachers so they have to pay out of their own pocket, which many of them do.” Thef foundation’s unique role as a helping hand for the district’s teachers is felt in many communities around western Massachusetts, where Foundation’s for Education have been popping up all over for years. “They’re all over the country and in Amherst, Northampton, Easthampton, they all have very successful education foundations that have been around for years,” said Queenin. “We just hope we’ve created a long lasting foundation that will get a lot of community support, that will help teachers and the kids and improve their experience. That’s really our long-term goal.”
WESTFIELD FOUNDATION FOR EDUCATION