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Cloudy with showers. Low of 40.
The Westfield News Serving Westfield, Southwick, and the surrounding Hilltowns
— William Butler Yeats
www.thewestfieldnews.com TUESDAY, APRIL 29, 2014
VOL. 83 NO.100
By Hope E. Tremblay Staff Writer SOUTHWICK – Members of the Finance Committee met with the Board of Selectmen and School Superintendent Dr. John Barry last night to discuss connecting the sewer to the schools. Selectboard Chairman Russell Fox asked Barry to explain to the group what the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has mandated regarding the connection of the renovated high school to the town sewers. Currently, there is no sewer line that runs past the school campus. Barry said negotiations took about a year, but the school department and DEP have come to an agreement. “We can continue to use the septic with additional monitoring,” said Barry. “We have to install more equipment in the fields – that’s what we do going forward until there’s a connection.” The renovation project includes a pipe from the school to Powder Mill Road. It does not include a pipe that runs by Woodland and Powder Mill schools. Members of the board wondered if that would be a cost to taxpayers. “We see that as a district cost,” Barry said. “We think we could use unexpended CIP (capital improvement) funds to get that connection done so that there’s no cost to the taxpayers.” Barry said the DEP agreement buys the town time to get the school connected to the sewer. Once that connection is made, the neighborhood can be connected. Selectwoman Tracy Cesan was concerned that there would be problems with DEP for not connecting right away, but Barry said there is time. “They know what this costs,” said Barry. “There isn’t a strict deadline for when this will happen, just the expectation that it will.” As long as the septic system holds up, the school can remain using that system until the sewer connection is made. A warrant article on the Town Meeting agenda May 20 asks voters to spend $3 million to extend the system to Powder Mill Road.
75 cents
School budget strategy debated
School to connect to sewer, but has time Westfield Department of Public Works employee Earl Sprague unloads an armful of political signs at the Westfield Department of Public Works building prior to the 2011 election. (File photo by chief photographer Frederick Gore)
Judge finds for sign plaintiffs By Dan Moriarty Staff Writer WESTFIELD – U.S. District Court Judge Michael A. Ponsor issued a judgment yesterday finding that Mayor Daniel M. Knapik violated the rights of plaintiffs David A. Flaherty, Jane Wensley and property owner David Costa, when he ordered political signs removed. Ponsor issued his amended order of judgment stating that “the removal of political lawn signs on November 7, 2011 by order of the Defendant Daniel Knapik constituted content-based, but not intentional, discrimination in violation of the rights of the Plaintiffs as guaranteed by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article XVI of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights. “The parties have resolved all other outstanding issues in this case, including attorney’s fees. Any remaining claims offered in the complaint are hereby dismissed by agreement. “Judgment will enter for Plaintiffs to the extent set forth above. This case may now be closed.” Flaherty in an electronic communication said that “The sign case is over. The court ruled that mayor violated our First Amendment Rights and awarded our lawyers Attorney Fees and Costs ($53,000). The suit, filed by Attorneys William
Newman and Luke Ryan of the American Civil Liberties Union in Northampton, charged that Knapik ordered the removal of Flaherty’s and Wensley’s political signs from the property owned by Costa on West Silver Street, between Cross Street and Lindbergh Boulevard, almost directly across the street from Knapik’s East Silver Street residence, violated the civil rights of the litigants. City Solicitor Susan Phillips said last night that because Ponser found that Knapik acted unintentionally, he is still indemnified under MGL Chapter 258, Section 9. Phillips cited the last sentence of that law which stated that: “No such employee or official, other than a person holding office under the constitution acting within the scope of his official duties or employment, shall be indemnified under this section for violation of any such civil rights if he acted in a grossly negligent, willful or malicious manner.” “It is my interpretation of the law that the city is obligated to pay this,” Phillips said. “I will treat it like any other judgement and use my judgement account to pay the attorney fees.” Mayor Daniel M. Knapik released a prepared statement last night in which he addressed his decision to sign the agreement approved by Ponsor. “Continuing this lawsuit is not in the See Signs, Page 5
Westover air reserve base to lose 300 jobs CHICOPEE, Mass. (AP) — Westover Air Reserve Base will lose half its massive C-5 cargo planes and more than 300 jobs as a result of military budget cuts, base officials announced Monday. Eight of the 439th Airlift Wing’s 16 C-5 planes, the largest military aircraft in the U.S., will move to Joint Base San AntonioLackland in Texas beginning next year, they said. Air Force officials blamed Pentagon budget cuts for the changes. The job cuts include the expected loss of 59 full-time enlisted personnel and 275 reservists, although final numbers have yet to be determined, said Brig. Gen. Steven Vautrain, commander of the 439th at Westover. The aircraft will be moved from Westover starting in March
“An intellectual hatred is the worst.”
2015 as part of an upgrade of the C-5 fleet, with the personnel reductions beginning in October 2015, Vautrain said. Eight of the refurbished aircraft will operate out of the Texas base, and eight new models will remain at Westover. Vautrain said the changes would not be the end of the air wing or the base. “We’ll remain strong. It’s a wonderful base, we have great support from the community and we plan on being here for the long haul,” he added. The job cuts will result in hardship for members of the base, but efforts will be made to place full-time employees into other positions, Vautrain said. Finding positions within the base for reservists will be more challenging, he said, but some may choose to retire and others could find positions at other bases,
including Bradley Air National Guard Base in Connecticut and the Otis Air National Guard base on Cape Cod. The cuts are part of an effort to slash $487 billion from the nation’s defense budget over eight years. The winding down of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and automatic federal budget cuts hastened the changes at Westover, Vautrain said. U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, whose district includes Chicopee where the base is located, said Monday the situation remained “fluid” and that he believed there was still time to reverse the decision. He said he planned to arrange a meeting of the Massachusetts congressional delegation with Defense Department officials. U.S. Sen. Edward Markey also said he found the announce-
ment troubling and would work with Gov. Deval Patrick and the delegation to see if it could be changed. “Westover is a critical asset for western Massachusetts and the local Chicopee economy,” Markey said in a statement. The C-5 fleet will be upgraded with new engines during the changeover, base officials said. The C-5 can carry a payload of up to 270,000 pounds a distance of up to 6,000 miles, according to the base’s website. The aircraft has been critical in recent U.S. military operations, flying nearly 75,000 hours and transporting more than 200,000 tons of cargo between Sept. 11, 2001, and Dec. 31, 2012. Westover is located on 2,511 acres, making it the nation’s largest reserve base by land mass.
By Peter Francis Staff Writer WESTFIELD – A review of the Westfield School Committee’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2015 was winding down at last night’s finance subcommittee meeting when Westfield Superintendent Dr. Suzanne Scallion put her foot down. As subcommittee chairman Kevin Sullivan moved to adjourn the meeting, stating that the committee “had plans to cut what it needed to cut” from the proposed $57.6 million budget, Scallion spoke up. “We’re not cutting anything. We’re going to do the right thing and pass this budget and let the City Council listen to the taxpayers about what kind of school district we want,” she said. “Because it’s going to transfer into… what kind of citizens do we want in this community in 20 years? Do we want self-sufficient young people, who are independent and able to have a job that they can support themselves? Have social skills and emotional competency that can function in our community and be the leaders in the community, as we all get older and want effective leadership?” Her statement followed an hour-long readthrough of the budget, in which everything from personnel to classroom supplies were discussed at every school in the district. “Yes, it’s all about 21st century, yes, it’s all about STEM, but it’s also about that whole child that’s hitting our preschool with all kinds of needs,” Scallion said. “So I just can’t back down and say there’s room to cut, folks. I’m not even going to pretend there is.” “Anything we do to this budget is going to hurt,” she said, adding that she has already had to begrudgingly turn down the additional $6.5 million in programs requested by the district’s principals. “I say we let the chips fall where they’re going to fall and I think our City Council is elected to wrestle with this,” Scallion said. “If we give them (the City Council) a reason to use the knife, they’re going to go more than $1.9 (million) and we’re going to be in bigger trouble,” Kevin Sullivan said. Committee member Cindy Sullivan questioned whether it would be fair to hand the City Council an unaltered budget, to which Scallion reiterated that no new initiatives are being put forth on her part. “I feel like it’s already cut,” she said. “The $6.5 million, I’m not bringing one single initiative over from the principal’s list. Our kids are competing against the rest of the world, so the question is, what do we want from our school district?” Scallion referenced the town of Shrewsbury, which is currently pursuing a Proposition 2 1/2 budget override of $13 million, and while she said she knows such a number is unfeasible in Westfield, she believes the current budget proposal is as bare-bones as it can get. “I’m not disagreeing with you. What I’m saying is, if we don’t cut anything and give it to the City Council, we could be in bigger trouble,” Cindy Sullivan said. Ward 2 City Councilor and educator Ralph Figy was in attendance, and reminded the subcommittee that many current members of the City Council ran on platforms of reducing taxes. “There is no easy answer here. If local aid would continue to increase, which it hasn’t, we wouldn’t be having this discussion,” he said. “Local aid is still where it was five years ago.” “We were to have received a $2 million tech bond four years ago, before I arrived, following a secondary tech bond,” Scallion said. “The equipment purchased with the secondary tech bond is See School Budget, Page 3