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The Westfield News Serving Westfield, Southwick, and the surrounding Hilltowns
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By Dan Moriarty Staff Writer WESTFIELD – The Community Preservation Committee (CPC) voted unanimously last night to approve a funding application submitted by Domus Inc. for the conversion of the former Red Cross building to house homeless high school students. Domus requested $80,000 of the Community Preservation Act (CPA) funding to construct 11 single room residencies (SRO) in the Broad Street facility which will also include common areas and counseling offices for up to 10 students. The total cost of the building conversion and renovation is estimated at $1.4 million, with the bulk of that funding from the state Department of Housing & Community Development. The CPC will forward their recommendation to approve the funding to Mayor Daniel M. Knapik who will have to send the issue to the City Council for appropriation. Domus offers affordable housing to low and moderate income families, the homeless, and the mentally and physically disabled in nine housing buildings around the city, and is seeking Planning Board approval of a site plan to establish See Domus, Page 3
— William L. Shirer
FRIDAY, JANUARY 10, 2014
VOL. 83 NO. 8
Committee approves Domus funding
“History must speak for itself. A historian is content if he has been able to shed more light.”
Four-day school week weighed
Although some of the limbs have been lopped off, the bulk of a tree which fell on a resident’s car during a vehicular crash early Thursday morning remains atop the vehicle Thursday afternoon in the owner’s Russell Road driveway. (Photo by Carl E. Hartdegen)
Truck flips, tree falls By Carl E. Hartdegen Staff Writer WESTFIELD – A Russell Road resident’s vehicle suffered damage in her driveway early Thursday morning when a motorist failed to negotiate the curve which marks the transition from Franklin Street to Russell Road and his vehicle knocked down a tree in her front yard which landed on her car. City police and firefighters responded to reports of a rollover accident which started at 12:44 a.m. and found a pickup truck upside down atop a tree with the operator trapped inside. The truck, registered to Jamie Kyle Patrick, 22, of 273 Prospect Street Extension, had been operating westbound and, according to the male resident of the property, had been “smoking” when the operator lost control and stuck a curb on the north side of Route 20. The resident said that the vehicle then veered across to the south side of the roadway where a plow blade attached to the truck struck a row of bushes. The blade sheared off, the resident said, and the truck flipped, end-over-end, to land on the small tree which then fell on his wife’s car. Later in the day, the front yard of the residence was still littered with debris which had apparently been in the truck at the time of the crash and included a card indicating that
The cab of a pickup truck which flipped on to a tree in the front yard of a Russell Road house appears to have been flattened by the crash. The operator was not seriously injured. (Photo Courtesy the Westfield Police Department) Patrick had completed a Vermont State Police snowmobile safety program, suggesting that Patrick had been the operator when the truck crashed. Beer cans were also found at the crash site. Firefighters report that the operator was trapped inside the vehicle when they arrived and extraordinary efforts were required to extricate him from the vehicle. The operator was reportedly uncooperative with the responding emergency personnel and the resident said that the man appeared to be highly intoxicated. He was transported to Baystate Medical Center where a spokesperson later reported that he had been treated and released.
By Peter Francis Staff Writer WESTFIELD — Across the country and throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as school budgets are stretched ever tighter, a radical idea is gaining momentum in small towns and regional school districts: shortening the school week. In the Mohawk Trail Regional School District, which serves the Franklin County communities of Ashfield, Buckland, Charlemont, Colrain, Hawley, Heath, Plainfield, Rowe, and Shelburne, Superintendent Michael Buoniconti received the blessing of his district’s School Committee yesterday to begin seriously researching the matter. According to Buoniconti, about 300 districts all over the country have already adopted the measure in an effort to save on transportation and utility costs. Adding an extra hour and a half to the school day would be needed for students to get the same amount of classroom time, but there would be extensive savings, and in many of the districts that have already adopted the shortened week, increases in staff attendance and improved test scores have already been shown. Opponents of the measure list as concerns the longer school day, the effects on families, and a possible loss of pay for bus drivers, cafeteria workers, and other employees. Gateway Superintendent Dr. David Hopson has been a proponent of the four day school week See School Week, Page 8
Southwick’s sidewalk snow solution By Hope E. Tremblay Staff Writer SOUTHWICK – Clearing sidewalks after the last snowstorm was made much easier thanks to a piece of equipment the town is leasing for the winter. Department of Public Works Director Randy Brown said the Wacker Neuson Wheel Loader is 48-inches wide and is being leased from Tri County Contractors in West Springfield for four months at a cost of approximately $4,000. “We are using it mainly to clear sidewalks on town property, including the police department, fire department, DPW, Town Hall and the library,” said Brown. Since sidewalks were installed on College Highway by the state in 2012 the town has had to figure out the most efficient way to keep them clear following snowstorms. Brown said DPW crews have been able to deal with roads and sidewalks thus far with the Wacker Neuson. He said a contractor could be used in the future if the town staff is tied up with roads. Last year the Board of Selectmen discussed the possibility of assisting residents and businesses on College Highway with clearing the sidewalks. Brown said currently, they are clearing only sidewalks on town property. Brown said the equipment is working well. “We will assess it after the season,” he said. “We are leasing with an option to buy, so we will decide if it’s a worthy piece of equipment.” The purchase price of the wheel loader is in the range of $50,000.
75 cents
CPA allows project scope expansion
Randy Wynglarz, of the Southwick Department of Public Works Sewer Division, lubricates a set of bearings on the town’s new snow removal equipment. The town is leasing the new equipment which will be used to remove snow from the sidewalks along the newly redesigned College Highway and other parcels of town-owned property. (Photo by Frederick Gore)
By Dan Moriarty Staff Writer WESTFIELD – The Community Preservation Committee voted last night to expand the scope of work being done on one project and requested additional details for expansion of a second project. Frank O’Brien, a former city fire chief and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Dewey House, requested the committee to approve use of funding appropriated to replace the cedar shake roof of the historic building and to repair the chimney, extending the scope of work to include the heating system which is connected to the chimney. The committee voted unanimously last April to commit $30,800 for the repair the roof and chimney of the Dewey House on South Maple. The building was constructed in 1735. The Dewey House Trustees, an See CPA, Page 8
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