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The Westfield News Serving Westfield, Southwick, and the surrounding Hilltowns
www.thewestfieldnews.com
VOL. 83 NO.129
— Franz Kafka
TUESDAY, JUNE 3, 2014
75 cents
Motocross permit approved By Hope E. Tremblay Staff Writer SOUTHWICK – The Board of Selectmen signed off on a permit last night for the American Legion to continue running motocross events. Chairman Russell Fox said selectmen approved the language written by town counsel that covers use of town-owned land. “The school also has to sign-off on that,” said Fox. For years, motocross organizers have used several acres of land owned by the town that is part of the school district use. The land is approximately four acres and is not actively used by the schools. “We agreed on a payment of $2,000,” Fox said this morning. “They also have an agreement with a private property owner to use his land. I believe they are paying him $5,000, so we wanted to be fair and make this affordable for the Legion.” The American Legion Post 338 will hold the permit, and will then allow another group – including Mike Grondahl and Gary Yelin – to organize and run motocross events. “Who they choose to run it is their business,” said Fox of the American Legion. In the past, the town has charged See Permit, Page 3
“There are two cardinal sins from which all the others spring: impatience and laziness.”
North Elm work delayed
A temporary pedestrian walkway was installed at the Pochassic Street Bridge as contractors renovated the structure in 2013. The state Department of Transportation closed the bridge in 2010 after inspectors found it unsafe. The $2.7 million project was awarded to R. Bates & Sons of Clinton. (File photo by Frederick Gore)
Pochassic Street Bridge set to open Friday By Dan Moriarty Staff Writer WESTFIELD – Local and state officials announced yesterday that the Pochassic Street Bridge will be open Friday for vehicular traffic. The bridge, known to local residents as the Drug Store Hill Bridge, was closed by state inspectors in January of 2010, during Mayor Daniel M. Knapik’s first week in office. The allowed weight limit for the bridge, one of only two access routes to the Prospect Hill neighborhood, had been downgraded several
times in the years prior to closure, prohibiting all commercial trucks and school buses. The new bridge will be open to all classes of vehicles. City Engineer Mark Cressotti and Michael Verseckes of the state Department of Transportation both announced the anticipated Friday date for opening the new bridge. Verseckes said the project has been completed on schedule and within budget. “Weather permitting, the bridge should be See Bridge, Page 3
Barnes supports Pacific exercise By Peter Francis Staff Writer WESTFIELD – A number of F-15C/D aircraft and more than 100 members of the 104th Fighter Wing assigned to Barnes Air National Guard base began deploying Saturday for a three-week multinational exercise in Malaysia called COPE TAUFAN, where Massachusetts Air National Guard members will be conducting exercise operations alongside active duty F-22 Raptor aircraft and multinational Mig-29 and Su-27 aircraft. “The 104th Fighter Wing’s involvement in this exercise speaks volumes to the relevance of
See North Elm, Page 3
this unit in the global theater,” said Col James J. Keefe, Wing Commander. “We were asked to participate in this exercise because of our proficiency with Advance Fighter Integration”. During this exercise, American fighter aircraft will fly dissimilar aircraft training with Royal Malaysian Air Force MiG-29 and SU-27 aircraft. These exercises both build relationships with one of our strategic partners but also aids in developing tactics for F-15 and F-22 integration in the Pacific Theater of Operations, said Keefe.
School Committee approves transfers
state will require them to take another vote. “What role would we like to see GTAC play in driving the process? Can we influence the process at the school committee level? At the DESE level?” Mason asked. “If we are to have conversations with DESE, it would be along those lines. Just to get support from the selectboards pushing for the needs conference first,” Montgomery Selectman Dan Jacques said. “We need to know the decision is going to be sustainable. To make the decision based on an educational plan… it could work, it could not.” “Without a long-term assessment, including all the costs, and I know money keeps coming back up,” he said. “It’s a catalyst, but theres just so many other different pieces that go along with it that it drives. That is what it keeps coming back to.” Jacques suggested that GTAC can use their influence to push a message through the media, as well as relay thoughts and concerns to the DESE and their legislators. “Our advocacy may be our best role,” he said. Mason asked whether the committee could convene a forum of selectboards, school committee members and the DESE
By Peter Francis Staff Writer WESTFIELD – At last night’s Westfield School Committee meeting, Directory of Technology and Business Services Ronald Rix brought forward several items which required the transfers of funds, all of which were approved. According to Rix, these transfers aren’t uncommon. “It’s just procedural. Some things had the wrong budget codes, so we transferred some positions from schools to the department,” he said. RON RIX The reason these items Directory of were up for approval was Technology and because of their size. Business “Anything over $15,000 Services needs school committee approval,” said Rix, adding that the circumstances which make this maneuvering possible differ year to year. “Last year, we had extra severance money and there was also a vocational position that went unfilled.” The transfer requests made by Rix and approved by the committee totalled $525,720 and included $73,781 from the account WHS Math Supervisor into the District Math Supervisor account; $17,280 from North Middle School’s Speech Professional to South Middle School’s Speech Professional account; $28,454 from South Middle School’s Bilingual Paras to Westfield High School’s Bilingual Paras; $39,968 from parttime vocational Bilingual Paras to full- time vocational Bilingual Paras; $167,500 from in-state tuitions to instructional software; $34,128 from Special Education In-District Transportation to Special Education Summer
See GTAC, Page 3
See Transfers, Page 3
SOURCE: JETPHOTOS.NET
See 104th Fighter Wing, Page 3
GTAC discusses post-Worthington role By Peter Francis Staff Writer HUNTINGTON – Members of the Gateway Towns Advisory Committee met Saturday morning at Huntington’s Stanton Hall. As it as been for the last few months, the top item on the committee’s agenda was the Town of Worthington’s planned withdrawal from the Gateway Regional School District. Gateway Superintendent Dr. David Hopson brought the committee up to speed, recapping last week’s school committee meeting and his conversation with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. “The DESE did indicate that they will be reviewing the regional agreement and be looking for ammendments to update the regional agreement should Worthington be allowed to withdraw from the district,” said Hopson, which prompted GTAC member Derrick Mason of Russell to ask when those amendments would be put in place. “I would imagine – it’s up to the school committee – but I’d imagine they would probably be late summer, early fall,” he said, adding that the amendments would deal with the number of towns in the dis-
trict and school committee members. “DESE did indicate that they would also have to address the number of representatives on the school committee to meet the requirement of the ‘one man, one vote’ issue.” Hopson said that he was told the DESE would help “push the effort to get those amendments” but “what that means, who knows?” GTAC member Darlene McVeigh of Huntington then asked Hopson when Worthington would notify they are leaving the district. “DESE said to send them, if they thought they had already made that motion in town, and they would determine whether that was an official notification or not,” Hopson said. “If not, they would tell Worthington they would have to revote and send that to the school committee.” Hopson said that the initial vote occurred two years ago to ask the school committee to allow Worthington to withdraw and to put an amendment on the regional agreement. “Whether that counts as asking for a withdrawal or not, I’m not aware,” he said, adding that the town moved legislation forward that would allow them to leave, and he was unsure whether DESE or the
By Dan Moriarty Staff Writer WESTFIELD – City officials are pushing back the start of a major reconfiguration project on North Elm Street at the intersection of Notre Dame Street. Initially, that work was anticipated to begin later this summer following the opening of the Pochassic Street Bridge but will apparently be delayed until the spring of 2015. City Purchasing Director Tammy Tefft said this morning that the city is seeking to obtain more competitive construction bids that would be received by advertising the project at this time of year. “A lot of companies already have set work for the summer (construction season) and they have to fit you in,” Tefft said. “So when you bid out at this time of the year you normally get higher bids. It is more advantageous for the city to bid a project in late fall or early winter, when companies are looking for projects with a spring start.” City Engineer Mark Cressotti, himself a resident of Prospect Hill, and Matthew Chase, P.E. of Vanasse Hangen Brustlin (VHB) Inc., detailed the project, which is intended to relieve congestion at that intersection, at an April 14 informational meeting attended by more than 70 Prospect Hill and Notre Dame neighborhood residents. Cressotti said the improvement concept is to add dedicated left turn lanes to both the northbound and southbound traffic on North Elm Street. Chase said that the bridge over Powdermill