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The Westfield News
“A fanatic is a man
that does what he thinks th’ Lord wud do if He knew th’ facts iv th’ case.”
Serving Westfield, Southwick, and the surrounding Hilltowns
www.thewestfieldnews.com
— FINLEY PETER DUNNE
FRIDAY, JANUARY 16, 2015
VOL. 84 NO. 014
City council rejects facilities head funding
Fr. Brian grateful for time at St. Mary parish By HOPE E. TREMBLAY Staff Writer WESTFIELD – Fr. Brian McGrath has helped bring St. Mary Parish and its schools into the new millennium and beyond, and he is now leaving to help another parish in need. McGrath will become pastor of St. John’s in Agawam sometime in mid-February, leaving behind a legacy of faith and commitment to the Catholic Church and schools in Westfield. McGrath, 52, became pastor of St. Mary in Westfield in 2002. Although he welcomes a new challenge, McGrath said he will miss the parishioners and community that have become family. “This was hard to say yes to,” said McGrath of his reassignment. “The bishop believes I have gifts that can benefit the St. John’s parish, and when you are ordained you vow obedience to your bishop. I have hope, and belief in the gifts and skills the bishop believes I possess.” McGrath was born in Boston’s Southie neighborhood and as a child moved to Littleton where he was raised. He attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst before deciding his calling was the priesthood. After being ordained, McGrath continued to study
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FR. BRIAN MCGRATH (Photo by Frederick Gore)
in Rome and was assigned to several parishes in western Massachusetts before making St. Mary parish in Westfield his home for the past 12 years. “When I came here I was a 39 year-old kid,” McGrath joked. “All we have accomplished is because people responded and we have been blessed to work together.” Over the past several years, St. Mary’s schools have grown. A preschool was added, international students joined the high school, and the schools were combined under one umbrella. What hasn’t changed at the schools and parish is the faith the community shares, something McGrath is proud to have been a part of for nearly 13 years. “It has been such a blessing to be here, and I am See Fr. Brian McGrath, Page 8
Council thanks Baker for additional funding By DAN MORIARTY Staff Writer WESTFIELD – The City Council approved a motion last night from At-large Councilor Dan Allie to send a letter thanking Governor Charlie Baker for increasing Chapter 90 funding to local communities. Allie said that one of the first acts Baker took after being sworn into office last week was to order the state Department of Transportation to release of an additional $100 million to cities and towns. Allie said that Westfield will receive an additional $660,000 in its Chapter m90 funding this fiscal year. The funding was contained in a $12.5 billion transportation bond approved by the Legislature last March. That bond authoriza-
tion included $300 million for local road maintenance. Allie said former Gov. Deval Patrick cut that funding to $200 million and that Westfield received $1.2 million in its Chapter 90 allocation. Baker’s order to the MassDOT released the remaining $100 million to communities. “Funds for road maintenance and local aid are critical to providing services and balancing our city budget,” Allie said in his motion to send the letter recognizing Baker’s action benefiting Westfield. “We do not have enough money to maintain our roads, or tackle long-overdue projects such as Papermill Road (improvements) and cannot keep raising property taxes to make up See Baker, Page 3
By DAN MORIARTY Staff Writer WESTFIELD – The City Council voted unanimously to, at least for now, deny a $40,000 request to hire a new director for the newly created Department of Facilities Maintenance. Councilors cited a number of reasons for voting against the funding, which would have allowed the Human Resource Department to advertise the new position and to negotiate a personal services contract with a candidate, but the council members left the door open for an appropriation of that funding. Purchasing Director Tammy Tefft, whose departmental budget was funding the new job, said that the person selected would be involved in helping generate a new capital needs budget. Currently each department includes its capital needs for building maintenance. Tefft said that the $40,000 would fund that position for the remainder of this fiscal year and would be a line item under the Maintenance Department in future fiscal years. The new Department of Facilities & Grounds was created in November, on an 8-5 council vote, to centralize building and grounds maintenance to TAMMY TEFFT facilitate both short and long-term capital investment, through bonding, intended to protect the recent investment of more than $25 million to repair municipal buildings and schools across the city. The maintenance director will also be responsible for establishing a consolidated facilities work order system. Tefft, who appeared before the council’s Finance Committee prior to the City Council’s regular meeting, said that she had hoped that the funding would have been approved earlier to facilitate having a new Facilities Director in place by February so that person could assist departments in identifying maintenance priorities this spring as the 2016 fiscal year budget is developed. The city’s long-term plan is that in the future funding, now going directly to departments for maintenance, would be in the budget of the new department. Ward 5 Councilor Robert A. Paul Sr., a member of the Finance Committee, suggested that Tefft submit an appropriation after the executive branch developed a “better plan” to centralize maintenance. Paul also said he is against creating a new position within the city’s ROBERT PAUL structure. At-large Councilor Cindy Harris said that the post should not be filled until the council accesses a departmental consolidation request submitted last night by Mayor Daniel M. Knapik. Knapik requested that the council amend city ordinances to create a new Public Works Department which would have at least See Council, Page 3
DAN ALLIE
Westfield man sentenced for May home invasion By CARL E. HARTDEGEN Staff Writer WESTFIELD – A city man who pleaded guilty to charges stemming from a home invasion on Thomas Street last May has been sentenced to several terms in state prison. Jason D. Hannum, 26, of 59 King St., was arrested May 18, 2014, after a General Shepard Apartments resident called police at 3:16 a.m. to report that she had awakened to find a man holding a knife from her kitchen standing over her sleeping husband. The woman’s screams awakened her husband who grabbed for the knife and the couple fought off the intruder who fled after yelling threats
to kill both of the residents, police reported. The male resident suffered a cut to his hand in the struggle. Police converged on the area in search of the suspect and Officer Efrain Luna, who had been in the area investigating an unrelated break-in, apparently surprised the fleeing intruder when he drove the wrong way on one-way Chapel Street and spotted the man dressed in black. Hannum fled through Monroe Street backyards until he was apprehended by Luna and Officer Jared Rowe who had also responded to the call. Hannum was not found to be in possession of a knife but the knife the residents
JASON D. HANNUM said he had been holding was found in their apartment. Both victims separately identified Hannum as their assailant. Police found that
the intruder had made entry to the apartment via a laundry room window Arraigned in Westfield District Court before Judge
Philip A. Contant on charges of armed assault during a burglary, breaking and entering in the nighttime with intent to commit a felony, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, assault with a dangerous weapon and two charges of threatening to commit a crime, Hannum was initially held without right to bail. Contant noted when he ordered Hannum’s pre-trial detention that neither victim had ever seen Hannum before he appeared in their bedroom. He wrote “The victims literally had to fight for their lives in this 3:00 AM attack in their own bedroom.” In July, the charges in district court were dismissed
after Hannum was indicted and arraigned in Hampden Superior Court where judges may mete out much stiffer penalties that those available to judges in district courts. On Tuesday, Hannum appeared before Judge C. Jeffrey Kinder where he pleaded guilty to five of the six charges he was originally arraigned on and was sentenced to state prison. The armed assault during a burglary charge was not prosecuted but he was sentenced to eight to ten year terms in state prison on both the assault and battery charge and the charge of breaking and entering in the nighttime with See Sentenced, Page 3