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The Westfield News Serving Westfield, Southwick, and the surrounding Hilltowns
www.thewestfieldnews.com
VOL. 83 NO.138
FRIDAY, JUNE 13, 2014
“... Virtue is now in the number of degrees you have — not in the kind of person you are or what you can accomplish in real-life situations.” — Eda J. LeShan
75 cents
Committee completes budget review
A maintenance worker from the Southwick -Tolland Regional School District cuts the lawn near the softball field as contractors, rear, demolish the former running track near the Powder Mill Middle School yesterday. (Photo by Frederick Gore)
Track donor revealed By HOPE E. TREMBLAY Staff Writer SOUTHWICK - The donor making a new track at Southwick-TollandGranville Regional High School a reality has finally been revealed. The Steven and Elizabeth Nielsen Gift Fund has made a donation of approximately $500,000 for the track. Steven Nielsen is a STGRHS graduate who Superintendent John Barry said “has never forgotten” where he came from. Nielsen also funds the Atkinson Scholarship, one of the largest scholarships given to a student at the high school. Named after longtime math teacher and track coach Dick Atkinson, the scholarship awards $7,500 each year for four years of college to a STGRHS junior. Barry said Atkinson is a legend at the school and was Nielsen’s math teacher and coach. And, apparently, someone who inspired the philanthropist. Atkinson is still inspiring students today. “Everyone knows Dick Atkinson,” said Barry. “We was recently honored for 50 years of service to the school. Even after he retired from teaching, he continued as a coach and he still coaches today.”
Black plastic lines the perimeter of the former running track near the Powder Mill Middle School where contractors continue to demolish the 1/4-mile oval track. (Photo by Frederick Gore)
Nielsen, who lives in Florida, approached Barry about building a new track last fall. “We kept the donor anonymous until now because we wanted to make sure it was really happening,” said Barry, who also credited the Community Preservation Commission for its $150,000 contribution to the track, as
well as town residents who approved the funds at Town Meeting. Barry said even after Town Meeting, Nielsen remained anonymous until bids were opened and they knew they could afford the track with the funds they had. Barry said it was a very generous See Track Donor, Page 3
By Dan Moriarty Staff Writer WESTFIELD – The Finance Committee and other members of the City Council, completed the departmental review process last night with a discussion of the School Department budget, which accounts for almost half of municipal spending. Ironically, much of the discussion was about funding not included in the $56,693,417 2015 fiscal year budget proposed by Mayor Daniel M. Knapik, a budget which was $935,455 below the level originally requested by the School Committee and millions below the funding requested by building principals and program directors when the budget process began last winter. The principals were asked to submit a budget of need, funding to pull the district up from a level 3 district and attain the goal of being cited as a level 1 system. Westfield schools are assigned the level 3 status because of schools within the district whose students, for a number of reasons, perform poorly on standardized tests. School Superintendent Suzanne Scallion said that the Longmeadow District is the highest ranked system in western Massachusetts and is only a level 2 district. There is no level 1 systems in this half of the state, Scallion said. The principal submitted a $6.5 million request to finance the purchase of classroom technology and software Dr. Suzanne programs, spending intended to Scallion improve student performance and lift the status of the system. “Of that $6.5 million requested by building principals, not a dime is in the budget before you, and the mayor cut another $1 million,” Scallion said. The district is dedicating funding and resources to a number of in-house special education programs “for both philosophical and financial reasons,” Scallion said. The philosophical reasons are social integration and avoiding daily transportation, often longer than an hour, for special needs students placed into programs outside the district. The financial reasons are cost avoidance of $100,000 per student tuition and transportation. The cost of initiating those special education programs to address “an emerging population” of special needs students is $2.2 million in the FY 2015 budget. Scallion, who attended the Finance Committee review meeting with 20 supporters, all principals, program directors, School Committee Finance Chairman Kevin Sullivan and the district’s chief financial officer Ron Rix, had a number of interesting exchanges with the council member in attendance. At-large Councilor Dan Allie noted that state aid to Westfield, in particular lottery funding, has declined $6 million over the past five years. See Budget Review, Page 3
Deal would hike minimum wage to $11 by 2017 By BOB SALSBERG Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — A deal struck by House and Senate negotiators would hike the state’s current $8-per-hour minimum wage to $11 per hour by 2017, but would not tie future increases to inflation. The Senate voted 35-4 yesterday to accept the compromise hammered out a day earlier by a conference committee that was trying to reconcile bills passed earlier by the two chambers. The agreement calls for raising the minimum hourly wage for the state’s lowest paid workers to $9 on Jan. 1, 2015, then to $10 the following year, and finally to $11 on Jan. 1, 2017. The compromise does not include a Senate proposal that would tie subsequent increases to the U.S. Consumers Price Index. The House version of the bill called for raising the minimum wage to $10.50 over three years, but without automatic increases for inflation. Both chambers had originally sought to make the initial increase in the minimum wage — which has not gone up since 2008 — effective on July 1. But some employers had expressed concern
about implementing the change that quickly, so lawmakers agreed to push the effective date back six months to Jan. 1. “Even though they work hard, some of them working two or three jobs, they are not making it in Massachusetts and hopefully this is going to help them,” Senate President Therese Murray said of minimum wage workers prior to yesterday’s debate. Even with the increase to $11, many would still remain below the poverty level, Murray added. The compromise also adopts the House proposal for raising the current $2.63 per hour minimum wage for tipped workers, such as restaurant servers, to $3.75 per hour over three years. The Senate version would have gone to $5.50 for tipped workers. Jon Hurst, president of the Retailers Association, warned the minimum wage increase could drive many stores out of business. “It’s really no compromise whatsoever from the perspective of small businesses here in Massachusetts,” Hurst said. “It’s a 38 percent increase in the minimum wage, far above any other state.” The four Republican members of the Senate voted against the bill yesterday.
Minority leader Bruce Tarr said he was disappointed the Senate did not consider other ways of helping low-income residents, such as an increase in the earned income tax credit. The group Raise Up Massachusetts has been gathering signatures to put a question on the November state ballot that would increase the minimum wage to $10.50 per hour in two years and require automatic adjustments for inflation. The group called the compromise “a positive step,” but said it would continue signature collection and wait until after the bill was signed into law before deciding whether to withdraw the ballot question. The bill also includes proposals aimed at reining in what business leaders say are the nation’s highest unemployment insurance costs. Unemployment insurance rates would remain frozen for three years under the bill and rating tables would be updated. The changes would not reduce employee benefits. ———— Associated Press writer Steve LeBlanc contributed to this report.
False fire report not prosecuted By Carl E. Hartdegen Staff Writer WESTFIELD – A woman charged with making a false 911 report in an incident which led to the closing of an Elm Street bar saw the charge not prosecuted in Westfield District Court Thursday. Erin McFague, 33, of 34 Meadow St., had been employed at Tommy D’s Courtyard Pub in March, 2013, and allegedly had called firefighters to tell them to disregard a smoke alarm the department had received saying it was the result of a patron who had activated a smoke bomb. Firefighters and police responded anyway and found that the smoke filling the bar had been created, not by a fire or by a smoke bomb, but by a patron who had brought his motorcycle into the bar and had caused the tire to spin on the dance floor and burn rubber, filling the bar with smoke. The incident led to the revocation of the bar’s liquor license, in May, and in August the bar owner, Gaetano A. ‘Tommy’ Denardo, was arraigned on charges of making a false police report, disturbing the peace and disorderly conduct. Those charges are pending in Westfield District Court. McFague appeared in court Thursday for a pretrial conference and learned that the charge would not be prosecuted.