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WEATHER TONIGHT Mainly clear. Low of 64.
The Westfield News Serving Westfield, Southwick, and the surrounding Hilltowns
www.thewestfieldnews.com
— Henrik Ibsen
TUESDAY, JULY 22, 2014
VOL. 83 NO.169
By Carl E. Hartdegen Staff Writer WESTFIELD – A Southwick Road man was arrested for assault and larceny charges Saturday after allegedly assaulting his then girlfriend. A Southwood Acres resident had come to the department Friday afternoon to complain of domestic assault. Officer Gary Hagar reports the woman said that she had been beaten by her boyfriend, John Michal Duval, 28, of 342 Southwick Road. The victim told Hagar that she had been swimming in the pool at her apartment complex and when she returned to her home she found her boyfriend of two years, who was upset because he had not been able to contact her, waiting for her. The woman said that an argument ensued and Duval accused her of infidelity before the altercation became physical when he pushed her head into a wall, causing her to fall to the floor. While she was on the floor, the woman said, Duval grabbed her hair See Assault, Page 3
75 cents
Advisory committee to play expanded role
Woman assaulted, man arrested
JOHN MICHAEL DUVAL
“I hold that man is in the right who is most closely in league with the future. “
Emily Mulligan, Judith Ursitti and Amy Weinstock were the featured speakers during a roundtable discussion on autism advocacy at the Genesis Center last night. (Photo by Hope E. Tremblay)
Autism advocates offer advice By Hope E. Tremblay Staff Writer WESTFIELD – A roundtable discussion about autism advocacy was held at Genesis Spiritual Life Center in Westfield last night, with a panel of three experts addressing concerns of about two dozen parents and local service providers. Judith Ursitti, CPA, Autism Speaks’ director of state government affairs, Amy Weinstock, director of the Autism Insurance Resource Center at the Shriver Center at UMass Medical Center, and Autism Speaks’ Autism Response Team Senior Coordinator Emily Mulligan were the featured speakers at the event, sponsored by Autism Speaks New England.
Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and autism are both general terms for a group of complex disorders of brain development. These disorders are characterized, in varying degrees, by difficulties in social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication and repetitive behaviors. Today, the prevalence of autism is one in 68 people – and one in 42 boys – under age 21 has ASD. The panel spoke mainly about autism insurance and Individual Education Plans IEP) and fielded questions from the audience during the intimate seminar. Ursitti said in 2010 Massachusetts passed the Autism Insurance Law, known as ARICA,which required See Advocates, Page 3
By Peter Francis Staff Writer HUNTINGTON – The Gateway Town Advisory Committee (GTAC) met Saturday morning at Huntington’s Stanton Hall. Derrick Mason, a member of GTAC and the Russell Finance Committee, said that the committee discussed the role it would like to continue playing in the community and in the impending reorganization needs conference between the Gateway Regional School District and the town of Worthington. The conference will be mediated by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and hinges on the approval of the new education plans by Gateway and Worthington, which must be sent to DESE by the first week of August. “Once all that stuff goes to the commissioner, DESE either approves or rejects those plans. If either one of those plans is rejected, the process is stopped and they go back to the drawing board,” said Mason. “If the commissioner approves both of those plans, then there is a reorganization needs conference, and that could take quite a while, in my understanding.” Mason hopes that GTAC can be a part of the process in support of the Gateway Regional School Committee. “We want to make sure that as many elements within the community are well represented,” he said. “The school committee primarily represents students and parents, but there are a lot of other players involved – taxpayers, businesses, senior citizens, a
lot of other interests,” he said. “We want to make sure that everybody gets a fair hearing.” Saturday’s meeting focused on what the group can do to raise their profile and exposure for the needs conference. “Ruth Kennedy is the legislative liasion for the school committee and is functioning in that role for GTAC, and is in frequent contact with people at DESE, and will be able to keep us informed about whats going to be going on,” Mason said. “We’re also hoping that the Massachusetts Office of Public Collaboration (MOPC) can be brought in to help facilitate the reorganization needs conference.” According to Mason, MOPC has worked with DESE on many occasions in the past, and GTAC has confidence that MOPC can play “an important role to make sure the process is civil and that various elements are fully engaged.” “Hopefully, the outcome is something everyone can live with,” he said. Also discussed at the meeting were other ways that the committee will try to raise community awareness of their efforts. “We’d also like to increase our exposure by having booths or tables that we can share at more public functions, whether they’re athletic events, fairs, different things that theres good public attendance at,” Mason said. The longtime GTAC member, who serves as a de facto leader of sorts with Huntington Finance Committee Chair Darlene McVeigh, is also very concerned with what he refers to as some of See GTAC, Page 8
Senior center construction begins By Dan Moriarty Staff Writer WESTFIELD – Construction of the long-awaited senior center began yesterday as crews from Forish Construction Inc., of Mainline Drive began site preparation at the estate of Mary Noble. Council on Aging Executive Director Tina Gorman said that senior citizens, in particular those living at the Ely-Dolan Apartments, located directly behind the Noble Street construction site, were calling and emailing her. “I was getting a blow-by-blow morning report,” Gorman said this morning. “There is activity, they’re going, and it’s very exciting. They’re staging the area, putting up construction fencing.
There’s a Sanican on the site.” Forish Construction submitted the low bid of $6,184,541 and a combined price of $6,324,625 for the construction and six alternates, for the two-story, 20,000-square-foot senior center construction project on Noble Street. Construction of the Council on Aging senior center began yesterday following the unanimous June 30 vote of the City Council to give final approval to the $7.5 million bond to finance the project. That bond approval vote was followed by a 20-day waiting period required by state law to allow citizens to challenge the bond sale. Gorman said that “technically the contract started on July 21
(2014)” initiating a 14-month construction cycle. “It will be finished, if all goes well, by September of 2015,” Gorman said. “There will be a formal ground-breaking ceremony at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 19, followed by a reception at the senior center on Main Street. We scheduled it early in the morning because it tends to be very hot at that time of the summer.” Typically, the actual construction project is financed through short term borrowing called bond anticipation notes (BANs). The bond is actually sold following completion of the project when the exact dollar amount is known and is often less than the dollar See Senior Center, Page 8
official Facebook page to find the whereabouts of Rivera. Police didn’t believe that he was the victim of a crime, but he takes medication daily, and that was the concern. Rivera is back home safe with his family.
(Photo by Carl E. Hartdegen)
Pond patrol productive
Missing Westfield teen found in West Springfield WESTFIELD – Police found 16-year-old Micheal Rivera in West Springfield last night after he had not been seen since Saturday. Westfield Police reached out to city residents on their
The Patti Andras, the new marine patrol boat deployed on Pequot Pond by Westfield police, plies the waters of the pond as Coast Guard veterans who currently serve with the department instruct members of the new patrol boat.
MICHAEL RIVERA
By Carl E. Hartdegen Staff Writer WESTFIELD – The long arm of the law was extended to reach into the middle of Pequot Pond when police launched in June the Patti Andras, a repurposed pontoon boat, to patrol the lake. The boat, name after a former police commissioner, city councilor and concerned citizen, has been on station in the Pequot Pond for the past three weekends and its presence is being felt by boaters and other users of the pond and the state park there. Police Chief John Camerota has said that the residents of the ponds
neighborhood have been crying out for enforcement on the waters of the ponds where jet skis and other speedy watercraft, often unregistered, have reportedly operated recklessly with impunity for years. Although officers in the maritime patrol have not suddenly started to strictly enforce the rules on the lake, they have been educating and warning boaters and at least one boat operator has found that police patience is not endless. Capt. Hipolito Nunez said yesterday that a citation issued Sunday See Pond Patrol, Page 3