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The Westfield News Serving Westfield, Southwick, and the surrounding Hilltowns
www.thewestfieldnews.com
VOL. 83 NO.109
“The biggest big business in America is not steel, automobiles, or television. It is the manufacture, refinement and distribution of anxiety.” — Eric Sevareid
THURSDAY, MAY 8, 2014
75 cents
Political parlor game may prove moot
BRENT BEAN II
By Peter Francis Staff Writer WESTFIELD – Rumors have circulated throughout the city for months that Mayor Daniel M. Knapik would be resigning as mayor before his current term expired. The departure of Jeff Daley from the position of Westfield’s City Advancement Officer at the end of March quelled the gossip as an example of people having their signals crossed, but the rumors have started again, this time with a departure date of July 1, 2014.
If true, Westfield City Clerk Karen Fanion says that the city council president would then take over as mayor, with some stipulations. “If the mayor resigns within the last six months of their term, the city council president takes over and there is no special election,” she said. “However, if the mayor resigns prior to six months, then that would require a special municipal election. In the meantime, the city council president would become acting mayor until that special election.” According to Westfield’s charter, the
city council president would do doubleduty, serving as both acting mayor and council president. In the event that the acting mayor runs and isn’t elected to a full term, they would then return to their previous capacity on the council. “Mayor Sullivan left prior to his term ending, and Charlie Medeiros took over that July,” she said. “So it has happened.” Sullivan was tapped by then-rookie Governor Deval L. Patrick in May 2007
School energy costs hard to predict
District dress code details discussed By Peter Francis Staff Writer WESTFIELD – The dust has settled from the controversial re-enforcement of the district’s dress code last fall, and now an effort is being made to ensure that similar actions are not deemed necessary again in the future. At a meeting of the Westfield School Committee Monday evening, Human Resources and Policy Subcommittee Chair Diane Mayhew spoke on that subcommittee’s progress on improving the dress code. “It’s still in the works. Hopefully we can have it completed for the fall,” said Mayhew. “We feel that the way the policy sits now is adequate, but does need a little bit more definition of specific items of clothing.” Mayhew listed as prohibited “low-slung trousers and muscle shirts” for male students, along with “bareback midriffs, short shorts and skirts”, which she said were “self-explainatory” and stated that the latter clothing items were “already in the policy.” “The decision on whether a child’s clothing is appropriate or not or disrupts educational purposes, will be made by the building principal or designee,” she said prior to referencing other changes the subcommittee has taken up. “Each individual building principal (will decide) which clothing items will be specific to their own buildings and levels, whether it be elementary, middle or high (school).” “It’ll be an ongoing discussion yearly, as clothing trends change,” Mayhew said. “It’s not a discussion that starts and stops. It’s continual.” “The other important thing is that the students themselves are going to be involved in discussions and decision-making,” said Westfield Superintendent Dr. Suzanne Scallion. Following Mayhew’s report, Finance Subcommittee Chair Brian Sullivan gave an update on the status of the district’s budget situation. “It was a very productive meeting,” Sullivan said of Monday’s Finance Subcommittee meeting held prior to the full School Committee meeting. “As far as the timeframe, we have a meeting with the Mayor on Thursday, but we don’t have set numbers from the state yet. As it always is this time of year – early May to early June – the budget is moving a little bit.” Sullivan stated that he spoke with Westfield Mayor
By Hope E. Tremblay Staff Writer SOUTHWICK – The Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional School Committee approved hiring J & L Construction Company of Springfield to construct and complete the track project at the Southwick-TollandGranville Regional High School (STGRHS) Tuesday night. J & L was the lowest of four qualifying bids received. Kurt Lavaway of Strategic Building Solutions, project manager for the campus-wide renovation project, said J & L bid $713,500. The next lowest bid was Gagliarducci Construction, Inc. of Springfield at $748,000. “We’re going to qualify the two lowest bidders,” Lavaway said. The committee voted to contract with Gagliarducci should J & L not complete its contract. Superintendent Dr. John Barry said the lowest bid was roughly $25,000 over the projected budget. Construction of the track is set to take place this summer. A former Southwick student who remains anonymous offered to donate $400,000
By Dan Moriarty Staff Writer WESTFIELD – The Westfield Gas & Electric Department is submitting its annual energy cost estimate to city officials working on the 2015 fiscal year budget, with an asterisk this year because of the volatility of natural gas prices. The energy cost projections are intended for city and School Department officials as a tool when building their departmental budgets and are based upon the historic consumption of electricity and natural gas, with market pricing factored into the equation. The energy cost projections usually include a relatively small margin of error, percentages spread plus or minus. This year’s electrical cost forecast has a plus 3 to 6 percent range left for wiggle room. That margin of error for the cost of municipal gas is plus 14 to 24 percent. The gas forecast factors in a projection of volatility in the price of natural gas, which is also impacting electrical generation because nearly half of the electricity generated in New England is by gas-fired turbine plants. The regional reliance on gas is only expected to increase dramatically, as coal-fired and nuclear plants in the region are taken offline, fueling even greater volatility of energy costs in the New England market, resulting in even high gas prices. During the severe winter weather this year, natural gas prices soared to more than $120 per million British Thermal Units (BTUs) up from about $5 per million BTU last summer. The spike was blamed on strong demand, a lack of pipeline systems, limited regional liquefied natural gas deliveries and inadequate storage. Energy prices in New England often are “very volatile and much higher than other parts of the country,” US Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz said recently in Hartford at a conference on New England energy issues. “A combination of many factors including a sustained cold 2014 winter and increased gas-fired electric generation created high levels of natural gas demand on already constrained gas transmission systems,” said WG&E General Manager Dan Howard, the report’s author. “These factors, many of which are expected to persist for several years, caused New England wholesale natural gas and power prices to exhibit unprecedented
See Track, Page 3
See Energy Costs, Page 3
Members of the Southwick girls track team warm up on the gravelstone track that is presently in use at the school. The SouthwickTolland-Granville Regional School Committee approved hiring J and L Construction to construct and complete the new track project. The new track will feature a state-of-the-art all-weather surface material. (File photo by Frederick Gore)
Construction bid accepted for track
See Dress Code, Page 5
Cops take drugs
A resident uses the MedReturn box recently installed in the Westfield Police Department lobby to allow residents to safely dispose of unneeded prescription drugs. (Photo by Carl E. Hartdegen)
See Politcal, Page 3
MAYOR DANIEL M. KNAPIK
By Carl E. Hartdegen Staff Writer WESTFIELD – City residents will no longer have to wait for the semi-annual ‘drug take back’ days to dispose of unneeded medications with the installation of a collection container in the police department lobby. Formerly, city police participated in a nationwide program supported by the Drug Enforcement Administration which allowed persons to dispose of unwanted prescription drugs with no questions asked at participating police stations but that solution has drawbacks that are eliminated by the new option. Joe Rouse, the city’s director of public health, said recently that his department has a direct interest in helping residents safely dispose of controlled drugs as the common alternatives are potentially hazardous to the public health. He said that if a safe alternative is not available to the public, the usual options are either to flush unwanted drugs or include them with household trash. See Drugs, Page 5
Playhouses for sale Westfield VocationalTechnical High School carpentry students Emily Perron and Molly Lyttle work on one of four playhouses that are for sale at the school. The playhouses were part of a class project and will be sold to the public for $650 each. Proceeds from the sale will benefit the carpentry class students. For more information visit or call the school at 572-6533. (Photo by Frederick Gore)