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“You can love a person deeply and sincerely whom you do not like. You can like a person passionately whom you do not love.” — Robert Hugh Benson
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2014
VOL. 83 NO. 217
School Committee to talk Juniper Park relocation
Westfield native remembered By Hope E. Tremblay Staff Writer WESTFIELD – City native Joseph V. Swikalus, 85, passed away Sept. 13 and was remembered for his contributions to the community. Mayor Daniel Knapik said Swikalus was a citizen who truly served his city. “He was a well-known character, and I say that affectionately,” said Knapik. Knapik said Swikalus, a longtime member of the Board of Trustees of the Eastern States Exposition, was Westfield’s liaison to The Big E. “Joe was instrumental over the years in ensuring that kids had tickets to Westfield Day at the Big E,” said Knapik. “And he helped select the Westfield Big E parade marshall – I think this is the first year he wasn’t involved in the selection process.” Knapik said Swikalus was an unofficial greeter in the city. “When you get elected to this office one of the first calls you get is from Joe Swikalus,” said Knapik. Born in Westfield on March 6, 1929, Swikalus was the son of the late Walter and Anna Swikalus. A lifelong resident of Westfield, he was educated in local schools and was a graduate of the Westfield Trade School. He was a communicant of St. Peter and St. Casimir Church. Swikalus worked at Old Colony Envelope in Westfield for over 30 years until his retirement. After his retirement, he was owner and operator of Swikalus Power Equipment in Westfield. Swikalus leaves his beloved wife of 60 years, Cecile (Klekotka) Swikalus; a sister Anna Dalikas of Westfield; a brother-in-law Robert Klekotka and his wife Ann of South Hadley; along with many nieces and nephews. Joe was predeceased by a sister Antoinette Thibault and a brother William Swikalus. The funeral will be held tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. from the Robert E . Cusack Funeral Home, 94 Main St (Rt 20) with a Mass of Christian Burial at 10:30 a.m. in St. Peter and St. Casimir Church on State Street. Burial will follow in St Mary’s Cemetery, all in Westfield. There are no calling hours.
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Munger Hill Elementary School fifth-grade students dress in period costume for the Colonial Harvest Days in 2012. The students acted as tour guides at the Old Burying Ground located at Mechanic Street in Westfield, which is one of the oldest cemeteries in the United States. The cemetery was established on April 27, 1668 and restoration funding will be discussed at Thursday’s city council meeting. (File photo by Frederick Gore)
Committee to review appropriations By Dan Moriarty Staff Writer WESTFIELD – The Finance Committee will review two appropriations submitted by Mayor Daniel M. Knapik to the City Council at the September 4 session and make recommendations to the full City Council Thursday. Finance Chairman Christopher Keefe said this morning that the City Council meeting has been pushed back to 8 p.m. Thursday and his committee plans to meet at 7:45 p.m. to discuss an appropriation of $30,000 from the Community Preservation Act account and an appropriation of $31,800 from the city’s reserve of unforeseen account to the city Collector’s Office. The CPA funding was requested by the Historical Condition for preservation of headstones in the Old Burying Grounds. The Community Preservation Committee approved the preservation project, which require an affirmative vote of the City Council to appropriate that money. The Historical Commission has already initiated restoration of headstones at the Old Burying Grounds off Mechanic Street, using money raised last year at the inaugural ‘ghost tours,’ as well as donations, about $5,000, to preserve a damaged stone which was in dire need of restoration and which could harm people near the stone. The real restoration effort will begin later this year when the Community Preservation
Act funding approved last week by the Community Preservation Committee goes through the City Council appropriation process. The CPC approved a Historical Commission request for $30,000 to begin the Old Burying Grounds restoration project because of the historical significance to the city. The oldest legible stone is dated 1683, just 63 years after the founding of the Plymouth Colony. City Collector Michael McMahon is requesting the $31,800 appropriation because of an Appellate Tax Board decision finding that a company at Barnes Regional Airport was over-taxed. McMahon, in a letter to the City Council, said that the tax board “abated” Airflyte, Inc., tax assessment. The company is due the abated amount, plus interest. “This request is the result of an administrative court order and is a legal debt incurred by the city,” McMahon said. McMahon said the city has not had similar situations in recent years and does not typically include funding in the city’s annual budget. “So it does not seem prudent to budget and tie up a substantial sum of money when it is not known if it will be needed,” McMahon said. City Council President Brent Bean II said See Committee, Page 3
Vehicle stop yields pistol, drugs By Carl E. Hartdegen Staff Writer WESTFIELD – An expired inspection sticker led to a traffic stop in the city Saturday evening and, when a pistol was found in the trunk of the car, both occupants were arrested. Officer Gary Hagar reports that he stopped the 2001 Hyundai sedan at 5:39 p.m. Saturday because it did not have a valid inspection sticker and a routine check revealed that the car’s registration was expired. Before the vehicle was towed, Hagar followed police policy and inventoried the vehicle’s contents. He found a green bag in the trunk and reports that the operator, Stephanie N. Britt, 39, of 31 N. Alhambra Circle, Agawam, asked him to hand it to her. Due to the “odd weight of the bag”, Hagar reports he checked before he gave it to her and found that it contained a pistol which was not properly secured with a trigger lock. Britt told Hagar that the pistol belonged to her passenger, Bilal A.
consistent with the packaging of heroin” and the contents of the packets tested positive for heroin. She was also found to be in possession of “white rock in a pill bottle … consistent with being a rock of crack cocaine.” Two pipes “consistent with the type of pipes that are used to smoke crack BILAL STEPHANIE cocaine” were also found in her purse. ABDULLAH BRITT Both were charged with carrying a firearm without a license and impropAbdullah, 36, of 1442 Roosevelt Ave., Springfield. She said that, er storage of a firearm. Britt was also before she picked up Abdullah, her charged with possession of a Class A trunk had been empty except for a drug (heroin) and possession of a Class B drug (cocaine). piece of rope. Both appeared for arraignment in Abdullah, Hagar reports, “was unable to provide a consistent story, Westfield District Court before Judge and according to Britt, is a drug Philip A. Contant where both were released on bail – $1,000 in dealer and owner of the gun.” Hagar reports that neither party has Abdullah’s case and $300 in Britt’s a license to carry a firearm. Since the case – pending a Nov. 13 hearing. Capt. Michael McCabe has previpistol had been available to both ously said that motor vehicle stops occupants, both were arrested. During the booking process, Britt’s play a significant role in the efforts of purse was found to contain 12 pack- city police maintain the city’s relaets which Hagar recognized “to be tively low rate of crime.
By Peter Francis Staff Writer WESTFIELD – At last night’s meeting of the Westfield School Committee, Superintendent Dr. Suzanne Scallion announced that there will be a special meeting next Monday evening at 7 p.m. to view a draft report from the architectural firm in charge of the relocation of Juniper Park Elementary School. “We don’t have a lot of information DR. SUZANNE at this time but we do want folks to know SCALLION that we are in process,” she said. Westfield Mayor and School Committee Chairman Daniel M. Knapik added that the meeting would be doing double duty, as it would also serve as an opportunity for the committee to elect members to a separate ad-hoc committee for the project. “When the full portfolio of options is presented by the administration, that group will then be charged with the task of carrying it through to subcommittee,” said Knapik. “They will then present to the committee at large their recommendation for action.” See Juniper Park, Page 3
Road improvements set to begin By Dan Moriarty Staff Writer WESTFIELD – Three streets are being paved during the next phase of the city’s road improvement program this summer, with crews slated to begin that work on West Silver Street tomorrow morning. The improvements program, which in this phase also includes Court and High Streets, are expected to take several weeks to complete. Casey Berube of the Department of Public Works, who has been coordinating the project with the city’s CASEY BERUBE paving contractor, Lane Construction, said the road repair will involve several phases, beginning with milling, or grinding down, the current asphalt surface. “The whole process will take about a month,” Berube said this morning. “The first crew will mill the road surface, starting with West Silver Street. After the milling, there are a lot of structures to modify to the proper height. After the structures are rails, and there are a lot of structures, the road will be paved.” West Silver Street will be paved from Holcomb Park at the intersection of Western Avenue to the area of the US Post Office. Work is scheduled to begin at the Holcomb Park end of the street to reduce the impact on school traffic at Abner Gibbs Elementary School and the South Middle School. “I’ve been coordinating with the School Department through the superintendent’s office,” Berube said. “Lane Construction has been monitoring school traffic and will try to work around that to reduce traffic conflicts, to be as minimally invasive as possible.” Court Street will be paved from the intersection of Mill and High streets down to the area of Holland Street, while the entire length of High Street will be resurfaced. Berube said the streets will be left in the milled condition while the structures are raised to accept the new asphalt. “I anticipate it will be paved by the middle of October,” Berube said. The city has completed improvements to several streets with “pothole” funding from the state. The state allotted the city $180,000 for a pothole grant, money that must be expended before September. Road repairs and paving have been completed this summer on Springdale Road and South Broad Street, as well as sections of City View Road and Shaker Road. Springdale Road, between Holyoke Road and Union Street, and City View Road between Southwick Road and Valley View Drive were improved as well as Old Montgomery Road which provides access to Westfield Electroplating, the Pioneer Valley Railroad and the Westwood office building and restaurant.
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