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The Westfield News Serving Westfield, Southwick, and the surrounding Hilltowns
www.thewestfieldnews.com WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 20, 2014
VOL. 83 NO.194
“To the eye of failure success is an accident.” — Ambrose Bierce
75 cents
Business project permits pushed off By Dan Moriarty Staff Writer WESTFIELD – The Planning Board voted last night to continue the public hearing on permits petitioned to allow further commercial development at a former Springfield Road car dealership. The hearing was continued to the board’s Sept. 2 meeting to allow board members to study the findings and condition that will be attached to the permits requested by Julie and Nabil Hannoush for the proposed reuse of the former Balise dealership as a retail complex. The couple, represented by Rob Levesque of R. Levesque Associates, is seeking permits from the Planning Board to construct an additional retail space on the 11.36-acre site at 99 Springfield Road. The proposal is for construction of three new buildings to house a variety of businesses, such as banking, professional offices and retail space. The City Council has already issued a special permit for a fitness center in the existing building where a restaurant, batting cage and sports equipment retail store are already in operation. The Conservation Commission has also issued an order of conditions because the property is located on the banks of a wetland resource area, the Westfield River. See Project Permits, Page 8
An artistic rendering of the proposed 99 Springfield Road site in Westfield. (Illustration submitted)
Website to help potential home owners through all stages of home buying
Southwick Town Beach. (File photo by chief photographer Frederick Gore)
Town Beach open through Sunday By Hope E. Tremblay Staff Writer SOUTHWICK – The Town Beach is open this week after closing last weekend because of elevated levels of bacteria. Parks and Recreation Commissioner Daniel Call said the bacteria levels on South Pond where the beach is located are not supposed to be higher than 250 points. “They are supposed to be under 100, but they can’t be over 250 and this was over that,” said Call. The bacteria was naturally occurring, mainly due to recent weather changes. Call said rain followed by humidity causes the levels to rise. The other reason is the Canadian geese that flock to the beach after hours. “When there’s no one here, the geese come and they like the beach and grass and their waste creates the bacteria,” said Call.
The geese also search for crumbs of food left behind during the day. Call said the Commission has a plan to try to curtail the problem. “We’re going to try to use reflective fencing next year,” he said. “We will put it about four feet into the water and about four feet up onto the beach.” The fencing would be put up after hours by beach staff and taken down in the morning. Call said the Commission would seek advice from an expert before making a purchase. The Town Beach, located at 14 Beach Road, is open Monday thru Friday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday, Sunday and Holidays 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Life guards on duty at all times. Minors need to be accompanied by an adult at all times. Call said the last day the beach will be open this season is Sunday, Aug. 24. When the season is over, Call said improvements, including painting, will take place.
BOSTON — Today, Undersecretary of Housing and Community Development Aaron Gornstein announced the launch of www. MyMassMortgage.org, a website developed to assist potential homebuyers purchase their first home. The website, created under the Mass Mortgage Compact announced by Governor Deval Patrick, will provide information on finding affordable and reliable state sponsored mortgage products. “This website offers a very concrete reinforcement of the Patrick Administration’s commitment to affordable homeownership,” said Aaron Gornstein, Undersecretary for the Department of Housing and Community Development. “Potential first time homebuyers can find the critical information they need to make an informed decision about this hugely important investment in their futures. I congratulate MassHousing, Massachusetts Housing Partnership and CHAPA for their work in bringing this to fruition, and all the lenders who are participating in the Homeownership Compact.” “Buying a home is one of the most important financial transactions any consumer will make in their lifetime. It is crucial that homebuyers know the resources available to them to help
them make the most informed decision,” said Undersecretary of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation Barbara Anthony. “The MyMassMortgage website is a great tool that walks consumers through the process of finding and financing a home.” In June 2013, Governor Patrick announced the Mass Mortgage Compact, creating a goal of providing 10,000 mortgage loans to qualified first-time homebuyers over the next five years. The Massachusetts Homeownership Compact includes a commitment among lenders to originate mortgage loans to first-time home buyers with household incomes below the area median income through the MassHousing and the Massachusetts Housing Partnership programs. Governor Patrick also announced $9 million of funding to create over 160 new affordable and market-rate homeownership units, the first such new funding since 2006. See Website, Page 3
PUBLIC NOTICE WESTFIELD — “Due to the Gas Light District construction project, School St. will be closed intermittently for the next few days.”
End of the beginning for city’s new senior center project By Carl E. Hartdegen Staff Writer WESTFIELD – Dozens of senior citizens and supporters of a new facility for the city’s senior citizen’s gathered on Noble Street yesterday morning to witness a milestone in the decades-long effort to build a new senior citizen center to host the many programs available to those who are 60 and older in the community. Although the ground had already been disturbed by the earth-moving equipment of Forish Construction, the prime contractor for the project, a group, including many of the persons who have been instrumental in the process, gathered with shovels for a ceremonial groundbreaking ceremony after a short ceremony at the site of the new building. The new senior center will be built on Noble Street on the site of the former home of the late Mary Noble who left the property to the Westfield Housing Authority with the stipulation that it be used to benefit the city’s older adults. After a welcome by State Sen. Donald Humason, the ground-breaking ceremony opened with a rendition of the National Anthem by Shea Braceland, a third grade student at Juniper Park School who was followed by Mayor Daniel M. Knapik. Knapik welcomed the progress and recalled the days when services for the city’s senior
citizens were offered in the Cozy Corner, a basement room in City Hall. He said that, at the time, he thought that the Cozy Corner was adequate but later learned that problems with access had required that participants with mobility issues be physically carried up and down stairs to get to the singleroom gathering space. Knapik welcomed to the podium two city councilors – Brian Sullivan and James Adams – who have long been the liaisons between the Council on Aging and the City Council for the project and who, he said, have been advocating for the new senior center for years. Sullivan said that the ceremony celebrated “an end to the long process” of planning and funding and said “now we get on to the beginning.” “It’s been a long time coming” Adams said and compared the project to a puzzle. He said that with the shovels in the ground “we’ve got the sides around the puzzle” and now its time to fill in the center of the puzzle. He said that the senior center “has given (senior citizens) hope and support they needed” Adams pointed out that, since families no longer stay in the same area, many of the city’s older adults do not have family members living nearby so “this becomes their family.” See Senior Center, Page 3
City Councilor James Adams makes some remarks Tuesday morning before a ceremonial ground-breaking to celebrate the beginning of construction of the city’s new Senior Center on Noble Street. Adams, together with (unseen) fellow City Councilor Brian Sullivan has served for about a decade as the liaison between the City Council and the Council on Aging and both spoke at the ceremony as did (left to right) State Rep. John Velis, Mayor Daniel M. Knapik, State Sen. Don Humason and Tina Gorman, director of the Council on Aging. (Photo courtesy The Friends of the Westfield Senior Center)