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The Westfield News Serving Westfield, Southwick, and the surrounding Hilltowns
www.thewestfieldnews.com
VOL. 83 NO. 240
MONDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2014
when you read the fine print; experience is what you get when you don’t.” — Pete Seeger
75 cents
Board approves subdivision plan
Guests rob hostess By Carl E. Hartdegen Staff Writer WESTFIELD – A city woman who invited two new friends home after the bar closed later found herself trapped in her own bathroom while her guests stole her valuables. A School Street resident called police at 3:59 a.m. Friday to report that she had been robbed. When Officers Christopher Coach and Jared Rowe responded to the woman’s apartment she told them that she had met two black men, both aged 25-30, in a bar and invited them back to her new apartment to drink and “hang out”. After the men drove her to her home, the woman said, they spent time talking and, at one point she left the men alone while she went to the bathroom. The woman acknowledged that she was very intoxicated. She told Coach that when she exited the bathroom she saw that the men had taken a suitcase from a closet and they were rummaging through the contents. She said that she had recently moved into the apartment and had not fully unpacked. Coach reports that the victim said that, when she started to yell at the men, one of them hustled her back into the bathroom and then held the door shut. Trapped in the bathroom, the intoxicated woman emerged only after the men had left to find her television set and a video game system were missing. No suspects were found in the area and the woman could not describe the car they were using. She said that she called police 15-30 minutes after she got out of the bathroom. Coach reports that the victim spent the rest of the night with a relative. The case was assigned to the Detective Bureau. Capt. Michael McCabe said that this type of robbery “is not as incredibly unusual as you might think” and added “there are ways of investigating it.”
“... Education is
Authoritiies investigate a red Chevy Tracker parked in the driveway of the parsonage for the United Christ Methodist Church at 275 Rocky Hill Road in Northampton on Saturday. Two Springfield men who were arrested face charges resulting from a house break at Norwich Lake in Huntington. (Photo by Yoshitaka Hamada)
Two arrested for Huntington break-in after police chase By ERIC GOLDSCHEIDER Daily Hampshire Gazette Contributing Writer NORTHAMPTON — Two Springfield men were arrested by Massachusetts State Police Saturday — one after a more than two-hour chase through the woods in Northampton and Easthampton with search dogs — in connection with a house break at Norwich Lake in Huntington. Arrested were Angel V. Villanueva, 37, and Gamaliel Nazario, 33, who were taken to the state police barracks in Russell. They are scheduled to be arraigned in Northampton District Court tomorrow on charges of breaking and entering in the daytime for felony larceny from a building, possession of burglary tools, and malicious destruction of property over $250, according to a statement issued by state police. Following the report of the burglary at a home at Norwich Lake around 12:30 p.m., police were alerted to be on the lookout for a red Chevrolet Tracker with Connecticut license plates. Police stopped the SUV in the driveway of the parsonage of the United Christ Methodist Church at 275 Rocky Hill Road, Route 66, around 1 p.m., according to state police. According to State Police Lt. Daniel Richard, both suspects began running away while being questioned by Northampton Police. Richard said police stopped one of the men immediately, but
the other one took off into the woods. He was apprehended more than two hours later in the meadows area of Easthampton near Lovefield Street. State Police, including a helicopter, and officers from Northampton, Hadley and Easthampton, along with canine units from the University of Massachusetts, conducted the search within a perimeter of several miles, said Northampton Police Lt. Craig Kirouac. Richard said police were alerted to the break-in by a call from Norwich Lake neighbors reporting that they had seen what appeared to be items stolen from a house in a vehicle taking off from the area. He said the two men face a malicious destruction charge because “they broke something at the house, or later something they stole.” Douglas Williams, who lives at 286 Rocky Hill Road, said he noticed a commotion soon after the SUV was spotted. “I saw three cruisers go by one right after the other and then all of a sudden there were a bunch of police racing up and down the road,” he said. A woman, who was gardening at the church behind the parsonage said the residence where the SUV was stopped is currently uninhabited. A truck from Florence Towing was called to remove the SUV. Gazette reporter Laurie Loisel contributed to this story.
By Dan Moriarty Staff Writer WESTFIELD – The Planning Board voted last week to approve an 11-lot, Northwest Road subdivision, the third subdivision brought before the board this year. Subdivision approval was a routine review process for the Planning Board until the Great Recession which brought that type of project to a halt because of the substantial initial investment needed to Rob finance the development of the required infrastructure, Levesque money banks were reluctant to loan. The Planning Board approved the 10-lot Bent Tree subdivision off Montgomery Road in May, the first time many of the current board members participated in that process. The board is also reviewing a controversial 11-lot project, the Golden Acres Estates, which is on the Southampton/Westfield border. That project is before the Planning Board as part of a court settlement after the board denied an earlier version of the project because access to the project is through Southampton. The only access through Westfield is Old Long Pond Road which is a private way. Residents of that road are also part of the Land Court arbitrated resolution which would keep Old Long Pond Road closed to Golden Acres traffic. The proposed Angelica Estates subdivision would be developed on land near Little River, with the subdivision road to the east side of Northwest Road across the street from Quarry Drive. The proposal of the preliminary subdivision plan review, which is not mandatory, is to allow members of the Planning Board to identify concerns and issues which could slow or derail the review of the definitive subdivision plan. The details of the subdivision plan were presented to the board by land-use consultant Rob Levesque of R. Levesque Associates on See Plan, Page 8
Worthington to withdraw July 1 HUNTINGTON – Superintendent David B. Hopson informed the Gateway Regional School Committee that he received word from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) last week that the town of Worthington will be allowed to withdraw from the Gateway Regional School District, as long as they receive positive votes from Union 66 and the Hampshire Regional School Committee to enter into an agreement for central office coverage and tuitioning students. Officials Jay Sullivan and Christine Lynch held a scheduled conference call with the superinDr. David Hopson tendent and Stephanie Fisk, Gateway’s Business Manager. Under their plan, the Town of Worthington will reopen the R. H. Conwell Elementary School as a public school, PreK-6 and will tuition their 7-12 students to Hampshire Regional. The town would also contract with Hampshire Regional to provide central office coverage for state reporting, special education, and other administrative functions. DESE will hold a needs conference at Gateway to hear the impact of the withdrawal on the district’s students, busing, facilities and finances. It is expected that the conference will be held either the week of November 17 or the week of December 1, and will be open to the public. DESE made it clear, Hopson said, that they have no money to lessen the financial impact on Gateway and its remaining six towns. It would be up to the legislature to See Worthington, Page 8
Mikey’s Corn Maze Residents wander through Mikey’s Corn Maze in Southwick Sunday as part of an annual fall tradition. The maze is located on Feeding Hills Road near the Powder Mill Middle School. (©2014 Frederick Gore)