Search for The Westfield News
WEATHER TONIGHT Partly Cloudy. Low of 20.
The Westfield News Serving Westfield, Southwick, and the surrounding Hilltowns
“It’s a complex fate, being an American.” — HENRY JAMES
www.thewestfieldnews.com THURSDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2014
VOL. 83 NO. 294
75 cents
Board endorses ordinance, zone change By DAN MORIARTY Staff Writer WESTFIELD – The Planning Board voted Tuesday night to send two positive recommendations to the City Council, but only after making substantial changes to both a proposed ordinance amendment and a zone change for property on Russell Road. The board and City Council have both been discussing a change to the city’s aquifer protection overlay zone ordinance, seeking to tighten language and increase protection of aquifers which provide about half of the city’s drinking water. The Planning Board closed its public hearing Tuesday night. The City
Council had voted at its Dec. 4th meeting to keep its hearing open in case the Planning Board made major changes to the proposed ordinance, which is what occurred. The Planning Board did make a substantial change, voting 5-1 to eliminate an element of the proposed ordinance change which would have allowed commercial development on less than two acres with a special permit issued by the board. Several board members, as well as City Councilors, have had reservations about allowing commercial development of substandard lots in the overlay district. Vice Chairman William Onyski and Carl Vincent pushed to remove the language which would have allowed
commercial projects on less than two acres as not required. “The two acre requirement is cleaner, easier to control and manage,” Vincent said. “I’m also hung up on the two acre issue,” Onyski said. “It doesn’t seem clean.” Onyski then made a motion to approve the ordinance change, but without the commercial exemption for less than two acres. The City Council will resume its public hearing tonight. Robert A. Paul, Sr., raised the issue of the nonresidential exemption during the first hearing session and said the impact of the exemption is unclear. “We don’t know if there are six
properties (with less than two acres which could be developed). We don’t know if there are twenty. Right now it’s a guess,” Paul said. The Planning Board also made a change to a zoning change requested by Big Buck Builders, LLC, for property they own at 419 and 431 Russell Road. The two parcels are contiguous. The Big Buck owners requested that the property, now zoned for rural residential (RR) use, be changed to business A (BA) usage. The company had proposed constructing a boarding home and was issued a special permit by the City Council last year, but said See Zone Change, Page 3
WSU announces search committee members WESTFIELD – The Westfield State University Board of Trustees formally approved a motion at its Monday meeting naming campus and community leaders to serve as members of the university’s Presidential Search Advisory Committee. The committee will be led by Board of Trustee members Steven Marcus ’88 and Terrell M. Hill ’92, who were appointed to serve as the chair and vice-chair respectively at the April board meeting. “The professionals selected for the Presidential Search Committee offer a diversity of backgrounds, opinions, and experiences that will be essential when developing criteria, evaluating credentials, and identifying candidates for the university’s next president,” Marcus said. The member of the Westfield State University Presidential Search Committee are: Katheryn Bradford, Director, Alumni Relations (APA); Junior Delgado, Director, Career Services (APA); Evelyn Dina ’16, SGA Member, Student Representative; Joshua Frank, Student Trustee; Dr. Margot Hennessy, Chair, Ethnic and Gender Studies, MSCA Chapter President; Terrell Hill ’92, Trustee; Robin Jensen, Chair, Foundation Board; Ron’na Lytle, Administrative Assistant, Ethnic and Gender Studies, (AFSCME); Steven See WSU, Page 3
CARL VINCENT
Westfield resident victim of fatal I-91 crash Southwick Senior Center Christmas luncheon Elaine Andrews, right, is served Christmas lunch by, left-right, Southwick Department of Public Works Director Randy Brown, Karl J. Stinehart, town chief administrative officer, David Ricardi, police chief, and Richard Anderson, fire chief, during a Christmas luncheon at the Southwick Senior Center Wednesday. See additional photos Page 8. (Photo by Frederick Gore)
Taxpayer group says state faces $1B deficit BOSTON (AP) — An independent analysis pegs the state budget deficit at $1 billion in the current fiscal year — more than three times the previous estimate of state officials. The analysis released yesterday by the
Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation forecasts a $288 million shortfall in revenue and $525 million in spending obligations not included in the budget which runs See Deficit, Page 3
ENFIELD, Conn. (WWLP) – A 34 yearold man from Westfield has been identified as the person killed in a single-car crash that shut down a section of Interstate 91 in Enfield for hours this past weekend. According to a news release from the Connecticut State Police, Vitaliy Fodor died shortly after the accident Sunday evening on I-91 South, just past Exit 49. Troopers say that Fodor’s 2002 Honda Accord struck a guardrail and overturned. Fodor and his two passengers were both thrown from the car. Fodor died at the crash site after suffering what police described as “massive trauma.” The passengers, Alexandr Banari, 27, of Bloomfield, N.J. and Yuriy Sivolobov, 27, of New Britain, Conn. were taken to Baystate Medical Center and Hartford Hospital respectively, to be treated for their serious injuries. If you have any information, you are asked to call Connecticut State Police in Hartford at (860) 534-1000. Police had closed that section of Interstate 91 for hours, and traffic was backed up over the state line, well into Longmeadow.
Westfield man pardoned By BOB SALSBERG 1995 on drug-related charges, Associated Press including possession of marijuana BOSTON (AP) — The Governor’s with intent to distribute in a school Council yesterday approved the first zone when he was in high school. clemency requests in more than a Coraccio, 64, was convicted of decade in Massachusetts, voting to four criminal offenses when he was commute the prison sentence of a between ages 14 and 21 and sought woman convicted of drug charges a pardon so he could obtain a fireand grant pardons to two men who arms permit for target shooting. had sought to expunge from their Patrick, who leaves office on Jan. records crimes that occurred during 8, has also requested pardons for GOV. DEVAL two other men, Thomas Schoolcraft their youth. PATRICK The council voted 6-2 to approve and True-See Allah. The council has Gov. Deval Patrick’s decision to not yet taken votes on those. commute the 7 ½-year sentence of Deanne Among others seeking pardons in Hamilton, formerly of Brockton, who was Massachusetts is actor Mark Wahlberg, who convicted of possession of about 3.3 grams of was convicted of violent assaults committed cocaine and possession with intent to distrib- as a troubled teen in Boston in 1988. The state ute the drug in a school zone. The vote makes parole board would first have to hold a hearHamilton, a onetime drug addict who argued ing for Wahlberg before sending a recommenthat she had turned her life around and was dation to the governor, who in turn would drug-free, immediately eligible for parole. decide whether to issue a pardon subject to Hamilton, 49, was the first commutation to approval by the Governor’s Council. go before the eight-member elected council Councilor Terrence Kennedy, arguing yessince 1997. terday in support of a commutation for The panel voted unanimously to approve Hamilton, noted her difficult background as a pardons for Jeffrey Snyder, of Sheffield, and child who grew up as one of a family of 10 in Guy James Coraccio, of Westfield. The par- a single-parent home in a Brockton housing dons were the first of Patrick’s two terms and project. the first issued since 2002, under then-acting “The deck was stacked against her,” said Republican Gov. Jane Swift. Kennedy, adding that Hamilton has worked Snyder, 43, is a cancer survivor who served two years in prison after being convicted in See Pardoned, Page 3
PHOTO COURTESY: MASSACHUSETTS STATE POLICE
Traffic stop on Pike leads to drug arrest WESTFIELD (WWLP) – A man from New York was arrested Tuesday night after speeding on the Massachusetts Turnpike in Westfield, and being in possession of cocaine. According to Mass. State Police, around 10:05 p.m. Tuesday, Trooper Andrew Cornell of the Charlton Barracks stopped a Mitsubishi Outlander on Interstate 90 Westbound for speeding. After an investigation, Trooper Cornell arrested the driver, 35-year-old Ammar K.
Brown of Schenectady, New York, for being in possession of 2,000 grams of cocaine. Brown was charged with Trafficking in Cocaine and Mass Pike Speeding Over Posted Limit. Brown was brought to the Westfield Barracks for booking, and was held on $50,000 bail. He was arraignment Wednesday morning in Westfield District Court. Trooper Cornell was assisted by Sergeant Todd Renaud in the arrest.