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The Westfield News Serving Westfield, Southwick, and the surrounding Hilltowns
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VOL. 83 NO. 34
See New Officers, Page 3
— Laurence Sterne
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2014
Southwick welcomes two new officers By Peter Francis Staff Writer Southwick police patchSOUTHWICK – They arrived promptly with crew cuts, grey suits, and perfect posture, and they left as the newest members of the Town of Southwick’s Police Department. Ross Hanke and Adam Roberts were both unanimously approved by Southwick Selectmen Russell Fox and Joseph Deedy, and Selectwoman Tracy Cesan at a meeting of the Board of Selectmen last night. Both had appeared before the board several times each in the past. Assuming they both pass physical and psychological exams, Hanke and Roberts will now enter into the department’s in-house training program, where they will spend between four to eight months, according to Police Chief David Ricardi. During the interviews, which occurred during open session of last night’s meeting, the two men impressed board members and the six or so townspeople in attendance. Asked what role a college education plays in law enforcement, the two candidates came up with similar responses. “It’s very important,” said Hanke. “When you’re well-educated, you have a better chance of being successful in the world.” “Not only does it give you other common knowledge, but in law enforcement, it teaches you the background of the judicial process,” Roberts said. The candidates were also asked whether or not police officers should be held to a higher standard of conduct when off-duty and they both answered in the affirmative. “I worked for Sheriff (Michael) Ashe for seven years, and the way you present yourself on the outside is the way you represent yourself and the Sheriff,” Hanke said. “If you’re caught doing something you’re not supposed to do, and they (Sheriff’s Department) get a phone call saying ‘this is the kind of person you have working for you’… the way you present yourself is very important.”
“Respect for ourselves guides our morals; respect for others guides our manners.” 75 cents
Greenway construction launched
An overview drawing of the proposed Westfield Senior Center that will be located on Noble Street. (File photo by Frederick Gore)
Senior center design nearly complete By Dan Moriarty Staff Writer WESTFIELD – The design and bid documents for the Council on Aging Senior Center are scheduled for release on April 2, 2014 when the project will be advertised for construction. The Senior Center Building Committee will continue to meet with the design team to identify bid alternates as a means of controlling the cost of construction. The design team of Dietz & Company Architects of Springfield, is teamed with Courtstreet Architects of Newton, to complete the design of the two-story, 20,000-square-foot facility by March 20, 2014. The 20,000-square-foot building will have about 800 square feet dedicated to the city’s Veterans Services Department because of the overlap between the COA and Veteran Services in providing services to seniors, many of whom are veterans. The city will advertise construction bid documents on April 2, 2014 and contractors are required to submit their bids for the project by April 23, 2014 under the timeline established by the building committee and the city’s Owners Project Manager, Diversified Project Management of East Hartford, Conn. Tim Singleton said yesterday that the construction costs and associated oversight services are estimated at just over $7 million, but with contingency funding of 8 percent and other costs the price of construction could escalate to more than $8 million. “That’s a little bit of a problem, going from $7 million to $8 million,” Building Committee Chairman Jack Leary said. City Purchasing Director Tammy Tefft suggested lowering the contingency funding and eliminating services from the bid package, such as moving
the Council of Aging offices from its current Main Street site to the new facility. “I feel comfortable with dropping the contingency down to 5 or 6 percent, “Tefft said. “We will have a fight on the (City) Council floor at $8 million. We have to look at (bid) alternates, a million in fees that we can trip.” Tefft suggested installing the wiring infrastructure of computer, security and other systems, but including hardware installation in the contract documents. Lenore Bernashe, Technology Department director, said that her department will handle the installation for those systems, but needs the wiring installed at the same time that the building is wired for the electrical system. “Then do the installation at a later date,” she said. “We’re not going to the (City) Council until we have the (construction contractor and subcontractor) bids,” Tefft said. “The Mayor (Daniel M. Knapik) wants to hit the bond so that we will ask for exactly what we need.” Singleton said the committee, architects and his office would work to identify items that could be advertised in the bid contract as lower-cost alternatives. “We’ll put together a list of possible alternatives, do one more estimate before we go out to bid,” Singleton said, but added “that it’s unrealistic that we can cut a million dollars out of the project and still have a functional building.” The City Council voted unanimously to approve a free cash appropriation of $371,000 to complete the building design and prepare bid documents at its Feb. 6 meeting and the Planning Board voted 5-0 to approve the site plan, special permit and stormwater management plan at its Feb. 4 session clearing the way for the April bid release.
By Dan Moriarty Staff Writer WESTFIELD – Mayor Daniel M. Knapik announced last week that work has been initiated to extend the Columbia Greenway from the south bank of Little River to the East Silver Street area. Work on the final section of phase 1 of the Columbia Greenway project, extending the rail trail from the Southwick line to East Silver Street, has been initiated, funded by a $2 million state grant from the Executive Office of Energy and Environment. The contractor, ET&L Construction of Stow, was recently given the order to proceed with the work and currently has staged equipment near Tin Bridge over Little River to aid in the assessment of two bridges, one over Little River which will be refurbished and the second over South Meadow Road which will be removed and replaced. City Engineer Mark Cressotti said yesterday that the Columbia Greenway announcement was made to inform residents and businesses that crews will be working on that section of the trail, extending it to the area of East Silver Street and completing the South Phase of the rail trail project. See Greenway, Page 3
Fuel oil truck springs a leak By Carl E. Hartdegen Staff Writer WESTFIELD – Western Avenue was partially closed for hours yesterday morning and afternoon after a fuel truck sprang a leak and spilled hundreds of gallons of heating oil on to the roadway while making a delivery. One of the city’s emergency dispatchers reports a caller reported the incident at 10:25 a.m. and both police and firefighters were dispatched to Western Avenue, near the intersection of Kensington Avenue, where an oil delivery truck was parked in a puddle of fuel oil. Deputy Chief Patrick Kane reports that the oil delivery driver had been at the side of his customer’s house filling the heating oil tank when he realized that it was not filling as he expected it to. When he checked his truck, he found that the hose had failed and had been leaking See Oil Leak, Page 3
Senators push raising state, federal minimum wage BOSTON (AP) — Democratic U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Dick Durbin of Illinois stopped by a burrito chain restaurant in Boston on Monday to advocate for an increase in the state and federal minimum wage. “No one who works full-time should live in poverty,” Warren said at a Boloco restaurant. A bill to raise the minimum wage in Massachusetts to $11 an hour by January 2016 passed the Senate in November and was sent to the House, which has not yet taken action. A separate initiative being pushed by a labor-backed group would put a question on the November ballot that would raise the minimum wage from $8 an hour to $10.50 an hour over two
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., left, and Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin of Ill., center, listen as Noha Beger, president of the Massachusetts Budget Policy Center, speaks during a minimum wage roundtable discussion held at Boloco, a fast food chain of burrito restaurants in Boston yesterday. Boloco pays a minimum wage of $9.00 per hour while the current federal minimum is $7.25 per hour. (AP Photo)
years. Both would automatically link future increases to the state’s rate of inflation. The minimum wage in Massachusetts has not increased in five years. Warren and Durbin were joined by John Pepper, a founder of Boloco. The restaurant pays workers a minimum of $9 an hour — a dollar more than state law requires. Pepper said he rewards workers by paying them a more dignified wage. Emmanuel Sebit, 21, earns the state minimum wage at Boston Logan International Airport, where See Minimum Wage, Page 3
Westfield firefighter Raymond Nielsen rakes sand which was deployed to absorb hundreds of gallons of fuel oil which spilled on to Western Avenue yesterday morning and was contained by a line of sandbags until it could be absorbed. (Photo by Carl E. Hartdegen)