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The Westfield News Serving Westfield, Southwick, and the surrounding Hilltowns
— RALPH WALDO EMERSON
www.thewestfieldnews.com FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2015
VOL. 84 NO. 226
“A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is braver five minutes longer.”
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Westfield, Southwick never forget Sept. 11, 2001 By HOPE E. TREMBLAY Staff Writer WESTFIELD – “Never forget” is the phrase commonly used to remember the events of Sept. 11, 2001, and for residents of Westfield and Southwick, they hold true. Both communities have held remembrance ceremonies every Sept. 11 since that fateful day when terrorists attacked Americans on their own soil. Thousands were killed, including three Westfield residents, when two airplanes flew into the World Trade Center towers and another hit the Pentagon. Still others were killed when a hijacked plane was downed by quick-acting passengers. At 4 p.m. Friday, Mayor Daniel Knapik will be joined by the families of the Westfield natives who fell victim to the attacks with a wreath laying at the 9/11 monument, located at the head of North Elm Street, across from the Westwood Building at 94 North Elm St. Westfield’s own Tara Shea-Creamer, Brian Murphy, and Daniel Trant were all killed in the attacks. Creamer was aboard American Airlines Flight 11 that hit Tower One, while Trant and Murphy worked in the towers. State Rep. John Velis will be the featured speaker at the annual Sons of Erin 9/11 remembrance ceremony at 6 p.m. at the Irish club on William Street. The SOE is home to a second monument to the Westfield victims. Velis said he was “honored and humbled” to speak at the event. “The fact that the City of Westfield lost three of our own is moving and makes it all the more important to stop and remember the lives we lost,” said Velis. “They were members of our community and it’s our duty to remember.” Velis called the terrorist attacks “an act of war” and said “our very way of life was impacted. It truly changed the course of history and put us on a path of 15 years of war.” Velis noted that there are not very many communities the size of Westfield that lost three members in the attacks, and Westfield has gone above and beyond to remember 9/11. “Westfield truly does go above and beyond – we have three events to commemorate Sept. 11 – that See Never Forget, Page 3
Members of the Southwick Fire Department stand and salute during a moment of silence for the victims of 9/11 in a 2013 remembrance ceremony. (WNG file photo)
Blandford residents gathered at a Special Town Meeting on Thursday to fund the town’s share of the Gateway budget. (Photo by Amy Porter)
Blandford residents vote down school budget By AMY PORTER Correspondent BLANDFORD – Blandford residents essentially voted down the school budget at a contentious Special Town Meeting last night. Over 130 town residents attended the meeting held to approve funding for the current fiscal year of the Gateway Regional School District (GRSD) budget. Several articles were considered in the two-hour meeting. The end result was that voters approved an amount for their aboveminimum contribution to the school budget that was below their assessment, in effect voting it down. Before the meeting officially opened, Finance Committee member Linda Smith gave a presentation on the town’s financial situation. She said that at the Annual Town Meeting on May 4, the Finance Committee recommended an amount for Gateway “that we felt we could afford.” During that meeting, there was an addition made to the recommendation and passed of approximately $27,000. “What that did to the town budget was a $26,000 deficit,” Smith said. “An unbalanced budget results in multiple
At the Blandford Special Town Meeting on Thursday, recent Gateway graduate Kyle Bessette stood up and called for compromise. (Photo by Amy Porter) problems for the town.” Smith said the Finance Committee’s recommendations for this meeting included voting yes on the first article, to rescind the vote taken at the Annual Town Meeting. She said this would in effect take the town back to zero. The second article to be considered was to raise and appropriate or transfer from available funds a sum of money for the operation of
GRSD; and to raise or transfer additional funds to meet the town’s assessment in the budget, contingent upon the approval at a town election for a Proposition 2 ½ override. Smith explained that the assessment for Blandford was 14.6 percent over the previous year’s, due to the impact of Worthington’s withdrawal from the school district. She said the original recommendation by the Finance Committee
at the ANnual Town Meeting was the most they could make under the Proposition 2 ½ levy limit, and was 6 percent higher than the previous year. “Should you vote for the school amount, the only way to get there is to pass an override,” she said. Smith asked residents to consider how much they would be taking from the town when they consider how much to send to the school. She then asked town employees in the room to stand, saying that the town was unable to give the employees a 2.5 percent cost of living increase due to the amount voted for the school in May. Finance Committee member Tony van Werkhooven then recited a list of the needs in town, including a new firehouse, new fire truck, road repairs, new highway excavator and repairs to the town garage. During a question-andanswer period following the presentation, Gateway Superintendent Dr. David B. Hopson, a Blandford resident, noted that $35,000 in savings from two fewer vocational students than expected this year will make up for the See Vote Down, Page 3
Gov. Baker: State open to refugee discussion By STEVE LeBLANC Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — Gov. Charlie Baker said he’s willing to talk with federal officials about the possibility that Massachusetts could shelter some Syrian refugees to help ease Europe’s humanitarian crisis. Baker told reporters Thursday that as far as he knows, federal officials haven’t yet begun reaching out to states, but he would be open to a conversation if the government went in that direction. The Republican governor said he’d want to know more details, including who would pay the costs and what the plan would be for housing and caring for them.
Baker said that while he didn’t think that foreign policy decisions should be made out of the Massachusetts governor’s office, he felt the nation has a role in lending a hand to help those fleeing years of civil strife. “The United States is part of the global community. This is clearly a global crisis, and we should do as a nation what I would sort of call our fair share,” Baker said. Boston Mayor Marty Walsh has also said he would be willing to talk with federal officials about accepting refugees. The White House said Thursday that the country is making plans to accept 10,000 Syrian refugees in the coming budget year that begins Oct. 1. That’s a significant
jump from the 1,500 migrants already cleared to resettle in the U.S. since civil war broke out in the Middle Eastern country more than four years ago. The Obama administration has been under pressure to do more than just provide money to help meet the humanitarian crisis in Europe. It’s not the first time Massachusetts has offered to step in to help. Last year former Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick offered either Camp Edwards military base on Cape Cod or Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee as possible locations to house up to 1,000 unaccompanied children crossing the nation’s southern border.
A man stands in front of a cordon of Hungarian police officers at a temporary detention center for asylum seekers in Roszke, Hungary. (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic, file)
The offer met with stiff opposition from some local officials. It was ultimately dropped after Obama administration officials said that due to an easing of the number of children apprehended at the border, temporary shelters were no longer needed.