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The Westfield News Serving Westfield, Southwick, and the surrounding Hilltowns
www.thewestfieldnews.com VOL. 83 NO. 31
“The first duty of a leader is to make himself be loved without courting love. To be loved without ‘playing up’ to anyone — even to himself.” — Andre Malraux
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014
75 cents
Senate considers unemployment aid changes STATE SENATOR DONALD HUMASON JR.
By PETER FRANCIS Staff Writer WESTFIELD – As the new Senator for the 2nd Hampden and Hampshire County District, and the newest Senator on Beacon Hill, Westfield Republican Don Humason, Jr. is looking to keep fighting for his district, and to keep his seat in the State House. Humason, who sits on the Senate’s Ways and Means Committee, is taking an active role in the deliberations over
the $36.2 billion spending plan being proposed by Gov. Deval L. Patrick for the 2015 fiscal year, and has heard testimony from members of the Patrick administration, notably State Treasurer Steve Grossman, Attorney General Martha Coakley, and Secretary of State William Galvin in a hearing on Tuesday. Humason’s former colleagues in the House of Representatives will be now produce and debate their version of the budget, after which the Senate will draft
and approve their own version. Both versions must then be reconciled into a single budget and shipped back to Patrick before the start of the new fiscal year on the first of July. “The Speaker of the House (Robert DeLeo, D-Winthrop) has said they’re not going to support any tax increases, which the Governor has in his budget,” Humason said. “Which isn’t surprising, considering it’s an election year and there have been lots of tax increases
Gas pains grip New England By DAN MORIARTY Staff Writer WESTFIELD – The Municipal Light Board continued its discussion of a resolution to the volatility of the price of natural gas last night, a discussion that was not marked by any degree of enthusiasm for finding a nearterm solution to the New England regional supply problem. General Manager Dan Howard said the gas supply, and cost per dekatherm, “is substantially worse now than it was last year” when the department used reserve funds to stabilize both gas and electric rates. Commissioner Jane Wensley asked about the recent approach by the six New England governors to seek a resolution from ISO-New England, the regional electric management organization, to break the gas pipeline grid-
lock into the region. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) created the regional ISO structure when it deregulated the electric industry, separating the functions of generation, transmission and power delivery to end users to increase competition and eliminate vertical monopolies which existed prior to that deregulation. The regional ISOs now manage all of those functions within their specific areas of responsibility to ensure adequate power supply. FERC then deregulated the natural gas industry a few years later, unbundling companies that controlled both supply and transmission. FERC did not create a similar regional management structure for the natural gas industry. The inadequate gas pipeline capacity into the New England region results
in gas delivery prices that are substantially higher than those in regions even though there is an abundance of supply. Howard said the governors’ action “is unorthodox” in that ISO-New England is only responsible for managing the region’s electrical supply and delivery system and, historically, has had nothing to do with natural gas pipeline capacity into the region. “The governors sent that request to ISONE because the problem with the gas (pipeline delivery) infrastructure is now a concern not only to the natural gas industry, but also the electric generation industry because more than 50 percent of electric power is gas generated in New England,” Howard said. “In Massachusetts it is even more of an issue See Gas, Page 3
Feds release extra $18M in heating oil help BOSTON (AP) — An additional $18 million in federal heating assistance funds have been released for lower income Massachusetts residents this winter. The Massachusetts money was included in the nearly $454 million in additional assistance released to all states Thursday under the federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. U.S. Sens. Edward Markey and Elizabeth Warren hailed the move. The Massachusetts Democrats had pressed Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to make the money available. The decision follows recent passage of a spending bill that included more funding for the program. Residential heating oil prices in Massachusetts have increased nearly 25
cents a gallon, or roughly six percent, since the end of October while residential propane prices in the state have risen 45 cents a gallon, or 15 percent, during the same period. “It’s a big deal,” said Congressman Richard E. Neal. “This winter has been brutal for a lot of people and families. I spoke to a landlord in Holyoke Friday. He said oil is at $3.89 a gallon… he can’t do it. I think that is the role we’re trying to play.” Neal, a former City Councilor and Mayor of Springfield who served as the Representative for the state’s Second Congressional District from 1989 to 2013 prior to redistricting, also cited Silvio Conte, a former U.S. Representative for Massachusetts’ First Congressional District, as an original sponsor of the bill.
State Senator Don Humason, Jr. (R-Westfield) supports the LIHEAP initiative as well, and believes it to be a true bipartisan effort. “We’re at the mercy in the northeast of harsh, brutal winters, and we have residents for whom the winters are particularly tough” he said this morning. “This funding is our version of the relief the southern states get for hurricanes, but we get it every year.” Humason also cited the work of Conte, also a Republican, on his work. “It enjoys bipartisan support,” he added. “I think there are some people who question the level of the federal government’s involvement, but for the time being, this is how we deal with these winters here.” See related Power story Page 5
Brown identifies priority road projects By HOPE E. TREMBLAY Staff Writer SOUTHWICK – Department of Public Works Director Randy Brown met with the Board of Selectmen this week to discuss his priorities for Chapter 90 funds. “Typically we get about $360,000,” said Brown. “The projects that are top priority are the most urgent needs.” Brown said Coes Hill Road, George Loomis Road, Kline Road and North Loomis Road are the streets most in need of repair. “Other needs could be funded under Chapter 90,” he said, citing a new salt shed and culvert repairs and replacements among those needs. He also said there are bridges that need help in town. “That’s $7.5 million in infrastructure projects that are pretty critical,” Brown said. “At some point we need to address these problems in detail.” Board Chairman Russell Fox said the board understands the needs. “We are aware and we’ve talked about bonding as an option,” said Fox. “We will have to have a work session just on roads and I would like to do this fairly quickly and have
the Finance Committee on board with us.” The Chapter 90 Program was enacted on March 23, 1973, by vote of the Public Works Commission to entitle municipalities to reimbursement of documented expenditures under the provisions of General Laws, Chapter 90, Section 34, Clause 2(a) on approved projects. The funds provided from transportation bond issues authorizes such capital improvement projects for highway construction, preservation and improvement projects that create or extend the life of capital facilities Gov. Deval Patrick’s proposed FY2015 budget included an increase in Chapter 90 funds. The administration’s transportation plan includes an additional $100 million per year for local roads and bridges (bringing the Chapter 90 program to $300 million annually) and an additional $40 million per year in capital funds for the Regional Transit Authorities. “This is a growth budget that makes investments in education and transportation to grow jobs in the near-term and strengthen our Commonwealth in the long-term,” said Patrick. “Each of us has a stake in promoting
RANDAL BROWN opportunity and prosperity throughout the Commonwealth, and each of us should contribute to improving it. And the number of new reforms we have also proposed continues our work to improve government performance and achieve savings.” The board agreed to meet later this month to discuss roads more specifically.
See Spending, Page 3
Scrapper charged By CARL E. HARTDEGEN Staff Writer SOUTHWICK – A great deal of metal items of all descriptions are stolen – from work sites, backyards and the outside storage areas of many kinds of businesses – to be sold as scrap and most of the anonymous metal disappears but a town man is facing larceny charges after he allegedly stole a distinctive item from a neighbor who took the trouble to search for his property at a local scrap yard. Det. Sgt. Robert Landis said recently that the problem of thieves stealing metal items for ‘scrapping’ is “huge.” “People are going around stealing things off your property” he said, because “anything that’s metal has a monetary value” and thieves will steal anything they can scrap, items ranging from irrigation piping, sections of fence or, in a recent case he investigated, an old copper water heater. Officer Greg Burt, who worked with Landis on the case, reports in a court document that the theft came to police attention in August, 2013, and the victim later reported that he believed he had found the copper tank stolen from the front yard of his Logie Lane property at a Westfield scrap yard. Landis and the victim visited the scrap yard after the property owner showed police where the copper tank had been before it was stolen, out of sight from the road and about 150 feet into the property. Staff at the scrap yard provided records of a transaction which had been video-recorded and Landis viewed the recording which showed “two white teenage males unloading a cylindrical shape (sic) object … from the bed of a dark colored pickup truck.” The victim told Landis that the item seen on the video recording resembled his stolen tank which scrap yard employees reported had been cut up into manageable pieces for scrapping. The victim was able to find in the bins of scrap metal a piece which included a fitting he said had been used to bleed air off the tank when it was used. The technician also said that he had removed electrical boxes from the tank he cut up which matched the description provided by the victim of attachments to his stolen tank. Landis reports that when he viewed the video he recognized both young men who he identified as Grady Hughes of 18 Pearl Brook Road and Liam Morrissey of 174 South Loomis Street. The scrap yard’s documents showed that Hughes had been paid $116.60 for the heater two days after the heater was reported stolen from Logie Lane which is directly across the street from Morrissey’s home on South Loomis Street. When police and the victim went to Morrissey’s home, Burt reports that the victim immediately pointed out an antique copper washing machine which he said had been in his home on Logie Lane as recently as two days earlier. Landis advised Morrissey at that time that he had been seen on video with Hughes and a copper water tank and, Burt reports, “Morrissey’s response was that he thought it was brass.” When Landis discussed the washing machine with Morrissey the suspect said that he needed the money because he is not working and “maintained that he never entered the home and the washing machine had been at the end of the
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under Governor Patrick.” Humason also said that lawmakers will be pushing for increases in aid to cities and towns, something that was missing from Patrick’s budget. “In a year when revenue increased five percent, why did the Governor not choose to pass some of it on to the cities and towns?” Humason asked. While budget talks will dominate the
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See Scrapper, Page 3