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The Westfield News Serving Westfield, Southwick, and the surrounding Hilltowns
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New leadership takes helm at WOW
See WOW, Page 8
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FRIDAY, JUNE 10, 2016
VOL. 85 NO. 136
By LORI SZEPELAK Correspondent WESTFIELD-A new executive board has taken the helm at Westfield on Weekends, poised to enthusiastically continue the work started by Robert Plasse and a host of volunteers in 2003. “I am thrilled to have such a talented executive board at the helm of Westfield on We e k e n d s (WOW),” said Plasse, noting the election took place Tuesday night at Westfield Creative Arts. Board memJAY PAGLUICA bers elected for a one-year term were Jay Pagluica, president; Morgan Drewniany, vice president and governance chair; Tania Vancini, secretary, and Sue Jegelewicz, treasurer. “Jay has been one of Westfield’s most stalwart community volunteers who has worked tirelessly on behalf of many nonprofits and his organizational skills and incredible ability to make bridges between all of the city’s disparate groups will serve WOW well,” said Plasse. Pagluica is bullish on the city’s arts and entertainment sectors and is eager to get started with his new volunteer role. “I feel confident and will give this opportunity my best shot,” he said, adding, “We have so much potential with WOW.” During last Saturday’s first Arts on Elm Art Walk, sponsored by WOW and Westfield Creative Arts, Pagluica said he and his wife spent time walking down Elm Street to check out the festivities. “I was fortunate to talk to vendors and business owners about their thoughts on the event and got great feedback,” said Pagluica. “Everyone involved seemed extremely pleased with the event and encouraged us to do it again this fall.” As the organization has grown over the years, the executive board deemed it necessary to create a vice president position as well as restructure its mission and bylaws. Drewniany was voted in as WOW’s first vice president on Tuesday.
“Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.” — JUDY GARLAND
Council on Aging Executive Director Tina Gorman goes over her budget with Finance Sub-Committee members Matthew T. VanHeynigen and David Flaherty. (Photo by Amy Porter)
Budget Hearings focus on savings and possible revenue sources By AMY PORTER Correspodent WESTFIELD – The second in a series of budget hearings on city departments was held on Thursday by the Finance Sub-Committee of the City Council. Representing the committee were At-large Councilors David Flaherty and Matthew T. VanHeynigen. Ward 5 Councilor Robert A. Paul, Sr., who chairs the committee, is away celebrating his 50th anniversary, and will return the week of June 20.
Also present were Ward 1 Councilor Mary Ann Babinski, Ward 2 Councilor Ralph J. Figy, Ward 4 Councilor Mary O’Connell, and Ward 6 Councilor William Onyski. Matthew Roman was also present, representing the public. “We’re not making any recommendations tonight. We’ll wait for Councilor Paul to get back to make recommendations,” said Flaherty at the start of the meeting. See Budget Hearings, Page 8
Lake Management Committee receiving help from Dive Team By GREG FITZPATRICK Correspondent SOUTHWICK – The Southwick Lake Management Committee brought up a topic of new business on Thursday night in the land use room at the town hall. The committee discussed the importance of putting in four new moorings throughout parts of Congamond Lake. In order to make that happen, the Southwick Police Department dive team will be doing a dive search on Friday June 17th around 10 a.m. The dive team will be using one of the town boats, including a tri-haul pontoon which will be used to store any objects that they may find in the lake. Chairman of the Lake Management Committee, Dick Grannells, recognizes what the dive team does to prepare for this. “These things are small projects they do for us,” said Grannells. “They have to Southwick Lake Management committee meeting, June 9th.
See Dive Team, Page 8
‘Complete streets’ concept heats up the public health and safety committee By DAN DESROCHERS Correspondent WESTFIELD–During last week’s public health and safety committee meeting, city engineer Mark Cressotti suggested that the city embrace the Complete Streets Initiative, to the ire of Councilor At Large Dan Allie. Cressotti urged the councilors to consider attempting the initiative. The purpose of the Complete Streets Initiative, according to the MassDOT website, is “to adopt policies and practices that provide safe and accessible options for all travel modes – walking, biking, transit and vehicles – for people of all ages and abilities.” If a municipality qualifies for the program, then they are eligible to receive funding and technical assistance. “This has validity for a vital comMARK munity,” Cressotti said about the CRESSOTTI initiative. “It gains $400,000 for the City Engineer city annually.” Indeed. According to the MassDOT website, the program will provide municipalities with “up to $50,000 in technical assistance and up to $400,000 in construction funding,” as long as the municipality falls into three guidelines (again, from MassDOT): • Attendance of a municipal employee at a Complete Streets training • Passage of a Complete DAN ALLIE Streets Policy that scores 80 or above out of a possible 100 points (Tier 1) • Development of a Complete Streets Prioritization Plan (Tier 2) But Allie spoke harshly against the suggestion, saying that after the city installed similar measures it hurt the city more than it helped. “We went through it with the business improvement district and it didn’t help businesses at all,” Allie said. “We are taxing people out of their homes. Where we need two flower pots we have seven.” Allie was referring to the various accoutrements on the sidewalks currently, and also included the obelisks on sidewalks at one point. Allie continued, suggesting that if the city wants to build sidewalks and fix roads then they should. “We do not need an agenda to do it,” Allie said. See Complete Streets, Page 8
Amelia Park reveals new upgrades to their facility By GREG FITZPATRICK Correspondent WESTFIELD – Amelia Park employees held a small tour on Thursday morning showing several upgrades that have been made in the arena’s facility The work inside the building started on May 1st as Amelia Park just opened back up on June 1st. This marked the first time in three years that the park was closed for a period of time. Executive Director of Amelia Park, Carole Appleton, discussed throughout the tour about the several upgrades that were made in that month span. A key improvement to the facility was the new roof that was put in place by Tech Roofing and replacing the old roof. “It was a matter of necessity, the roof is over 15 years old and was no longer under warranty,” said Russ Kanzinger, a member of the board of directors at Amelia Park. A $25,000 grant was given to the board for the new roof by the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts. The Foundation’s Senior program officer Sheila Toto and Communications manager Hope Tremblay were present for
the tour and pleased to have assisted on the project. “The roofs are very important to buildings so it’s really great to see that because of the roof they’re allowed to carry on their programming,” said Toto. The total cost of the roof came to roughly $175,000. Toto and Tremblay were also excited to see all of the other improvements that Amelia park has made. “They’ve made such incredible improvement to the lighting and the structure overall,” said Toto. “It’s nice to see the fruits of all that labor come together,” said Tremblay. The grant by the foundation also helped with the cost of the low-emission ceiling that was installed by Westfield Gas & Electric for $68,000. LED lighting in the parking lot and the outdoor rink for around $64,000 were also part of the grant. Installing the low emission ceiling brought a unique yet successful aspect to the upgrades of Amelia Park. “It is quite an interesting phenomenon that happens,” said Kanzinger. “The air is not being changed.” The ceiling also has had a strong reputation for saving energy.
AMELIA PARK ROOF “We know that the low e-ceiling is generally an industry standard of 25-30%, which is obviously huge,” said Appleton. The LED lighting has the expectations of adding another 20% in savings for the facility which will then give the park the hopes that the utility bill can significantly decrease during the three consecutive months of December, January, and February, when the bill is relatively the highest. See Upgrades, Page 8