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The Westfield News
“To have news value is to have a tin can tied to one’s tail.”
Serving Westfield, Southwick, and the surrounding Hilltowns
www.thewestfieldnews.com
VOL. 82 NO. 288
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2013
New chief seeks to upgrade dept. By Hope E. Tremblay Staff Writer SOUTHWICK – Preliminary budget presentations were made to the Board of Selectmen last night from two town departments, including the Police Department. Police Chief David Ricardi offered a detailed outline of his budget requests that differ from the current budget, which appealed to Selectmen Chairman Russell Fox. “This is very thorough – very well done,” said Fox. “If all the department heads would do this, the budget process would be easier and voters would have no questions at town meeting.” Ricardi walked through the requests and started by noting a position he originally hoped to have funded was no longer being requested. “I had hoped to add a dispatcher position to our staff but I don’t think it’s a good spend at this time,” Ricardi said. Instead, Ricardi said he wanted the dispatch department to have a new battery backup system. “We found out during a power outage that our battery backup doesn’t work how we thought,” he said. Ricardi also requested two marked cruisers, which he said cost more than in recent years with a price tag of $69,000. Ricardi said he did switch vendors, which resulted in a $1,400 savings, but the cruisers are no longer Crown Victorias, but Ford utility vehicles instead. Ricardi said the costs include custom fitting the vehicles with cages and police consoles. Currently, the department has five See Ricardi, Page 3
CHIEF DAVID RICARDI
— T.E. Lawrence
75 cents
DOR rejects council’s levy cut
the city of Westfield for the past 25 years, thanks to local support. “We’ve been so underfunded, that all of what we get goes to operations,” said Beckwith, who is looking forward to the Valley Gives event on Thursday in hopes that Human Resources Unlimited will be among the top donation-receivers of the event. “Valley Gives is an event we kind of did informally last year,” she said. “People who knew about us donated to us, but we’ve recruited more this year. We had a fundraiser at Whip City Candle on December 5. We’re just trying to get out into the community more to get donations.” “There have been huge cuts,” said Sue Smith, a senior employment coordinator for the Forum House, on the decreases in state funding. “It’s so important for people to think about helping other people, getting them back on their feet and off disability.” Smith, who is also a certified psychiatric rehabilitation practitioner, spoke of a time gone by, when a diagnosis of a serious mental illness meant sadness and confusion for patients. Thanks to places like the Forum House, people living with these conditions can gain control of their lives once again. “Mental illness doesn’t mean your life is over,” said Smith. “We want to see people get back into the community. We have lots of members out in the city, doing things.” Smith said that the Forum House provided help to about 300 people during the past
By Dan Moriarty Staff Writer WESTFIELD – The state Department of Revenue has issued an opinion that the City Council acted outside its authority last week when it cut $1.7 from the tax levy to lower the tax rate increase. The DOR decision could result in a tax increase of 3.4 percent to all classes of property. The council members took that action to avoid a 3.4 percent increase in property taxes for both residential and commercial tax payers, with the idea of using free cash to later return the $1.7 million to the municipal budget. The opinion, sent by Kathleen Colleary, chief of the Bureau of Municipal Finance Law, Division of Local Services of the Department of Revenue, to City Solicitor Susan C. Phillips, states that the City Council “cannot initiate any such budgetary action or substitute a different financing source for the one proposed by the mayor. “It can only approve, reject or reduce particular line items proposed by the mayor during the budget process,” Colleary said, citing two earlier DOR decisions, one in the case of Leominster where the council attempted to compel the mayor to use free cash and the other in the case of Newton pertaining to the council discretion over funding sources. The Leominster ruling states that after the budget review process is completed, “we do not think the council has any means to force such a funding allocation upon the mayor” and that in the Newton case that the “mayor’s recommendation of a funding source be binding on the City Council or Board of Alderman.” City Council President Brian Sullivan has called a meeting this afternoon with the city’s financial officers and Finance Committee chairman, Richard E. Onofrey Jr., of Ward 5 to discuss the opinion. “I feel it isn’t fair not to allow the City Council to do something for the taxpayers,” Sullivan said this morning. “We could have made this cut in June (when the budget was approved), but not in December. “The problem is that when we’re building the budget in June, we do so with estimates and projections,” Sullivan said. “This year those numbers were off, but we have no mechanism to go back now and address that revenue shortfall. We should be able to adjust the levy.” Sullivan said the estimate of new growth and excise tax revenue both came in substantially below five and 10-year averages used to estimate those revenue sources. New growth, based upon newly constructed property that will be included in the city’s total property value in the future, came in $300,000 below projected revenue. “There were several major property projects that would have added to the tax rolls that are late,” Sullivan said, “and the excise tax is in the same boat,
See Valley Gives, Page 3
See DOR, Page 3
Peter Langmore, left, chairman of the Glasgow Lands Scottish Festival, presents a $3,000 ceremonial check to Sue Beckwith, program manager of the Forum House, during a brief ceremony at the Forum House in Westfield last night. (Photo by Frederick Gore)
Forum House hopes Valley Gives By Peter Francis Staff Writer WESTFIELD – It may have been cold and icy outside yesterday, but it was cozy and warm inside the Forum House at the “Friends of Forum” Christmas party, as employees and members of the Broad Street institution welcomed visitors bearing gifts: a check for $3,000 from the Glasgow Lands Scottish Festival Committee. Several members of the Festival Committee, including Committee Chairman Peter Langmore, were on hand around 6 p.m. to present Forum House Program Manager Susan Beckwith with the large cardboard check as a token of appreciation for the organization’s devotion to the community and assistance with the Scottish festival, which is held on the third weekend of July every year. “When we first needed volunteers, we began looking for people, and Sue (Beckwith) gave us a presentation about who they (Forum House) are,” said Langmore, whose committee has donated $49,300 in total to the Forum House and their parent organization, Human Resources Unlimited of Springfield, since 2002. “We really love the Forum House. We love what they do, and it’s important to the community. I hope by donating $3,000, we’re setting a good example to encourage people to donate (to the Forum House) on December 12.” The Forum House’s has played a role as a “clubhouse” for city residents suffering from mental illnesses and has been assisting
New England governors sign regional energy pact AUGUSTA, Maine — The six New England governors have agreed to work together to develop a regional energy strategy aimed at lowering costs and boosting reliability and efficiency. In the statement signed Thursday, the governors say it’s necessary to invest in things like natural gas pipelines and electric transmission together as the region’s systems have become increasingly interdependent. The governors say they’re going to develop a regional energy infrastructure initiative to diversify New England’s energy resources and cre-
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ate a multi-state strategy for bringing more affordable, cleaner and reliable power to ratepayers. Maine Gov. Paul LePage says in a statement that the governors must collectively invest in infrastructure to take advantage of competitively priced natural gas and hydropower throughout the region to make its energy costs more competitive. “This is an economically and environmentally important collaboration,” said Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick. “By expanding opportunities for largescale hydro, wind and other renewable energy sources, we are putting
thousands of our residents to work and creating a healthier region for the next generation.” “Governor Patrick’s leadership in this clean energy revolution will help end our dependence on foreign fossil fuels, which we spend billions of dollars on to import every year to heat our homes and run our cars,” said Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Rick Sullivan. “I look forward to working with my New England counterparts to improve our regional energy supply system, to provide energy that’s cleaner, reliable and more affordable.”
“The Westfield Gas & Electric is fully supportive of the efforts of the New England governors to invest in the energy transportation infrastructure in the region,” said Westfield Gas & Electric General Manager Dan Howard. “This approach was presented by a representative from Secretary Richard Sullivan’s Executive Office of Energy and Environmental and Affairs at the WG&E’s public forum held in September. With abundant natural gas now available, the challenge is providing the necessary delivery systems for these supplies. The New England East West Solutions
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(NEEWS) electric transmission upgrade coming to completion in the area is a great example of what is needed to spur growth. Investment in a collective strategy will have a domino effect that will certainly result in enhanced economic development for the region. “It is encouraging that our New England governors are deepening their commitment to work together on energy issues in our region, including ramping up efficiency and coordinating investments in renewable energy,” the Massachusetts See Regional Energy, Page 3
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