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The Westfield News Serving Westfield, Southwick, and the surrounding Hilltowns
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VOL. 83 NO. 246
Tedi-Ann Busha and her son Evan ride the Southwick rail trail along Miller Road. (File photo by Frederick Gore)
is a poor profession. Being a public servant is a noble one.”
— Herbert C. Hoover
MONDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2014
75 cents
Council accepts Greenway grant
Southwick Trail brings business boost By Hope E. Tremblay Staff Writer SOUTHWICK – Southwick’s rail trail has helped some local businesses said Parks and Recreation Commissioner Daniel Call. Although the trail passes by few businesses, those near the Miller Street parking lot have definitely seen an economc boost over the past few years since the rail trail was created. “Red Riding Hood’s Basket is an example of how a rail trail can be good for the economy,” Call said. “They have bike racks and picnic tables and they are always full. And the tables inside are always taken up.” Call said the neighboring pizza parlor also has been busier. “There are always bikes outside,” Call said. “and it’s not just people from Southwick going to these places. They’re from Simsbury and Granby and now Westfield.” Call said the Southwick bike shop has benefitted from people purchasing and repairing bicycles and using the shop’s new loaner program. Call said Southwick isn’t large, but it has definitely received an economic boost. Call also believes Westfield could see the same benefit as its rail trail expands. “Ever since we had the rail trail, people have asked us when they could get to Westfield, and they meant downtown Westfield,” said Call. “Now that it extends to East Silver Street, it’s by Big Y and it’s easy to get to Park Square and access the restaurants and shops downtown. I definitely see those things happening in Westfield.” “Rail trails could play a part in some way in the economy of Southwick, Westfield, Simsbury and Granby,” he said.
“Being a politician
Jeff LaValley, chairman of the Friends of the Columbia Greenway Rail Trail, explains the bike trail to attendees at the Western Avenue and Court Street Improvement Project informational meeting staged in the auditorium of the Westfield South Middle School last year. (File photo by Frederick Gore)
Rail trail extension could energize economy By Peter Francis “It is going to transform Westfield. It will be the Staff Writer biggest thing that has ever occurred in Westfield in WESTFIELD – On Thursday night, the Westfield 50 years, there is no doubt in my mind,” said Craig City Council accepted a $2 million Gateway Della Penna, a Northampton-based realtor who Communities grant to fund an extension of the was a former legislative aide working on rail trail Columbia Greenway Rail Trail. That construction initiatives. “I’m just stunned it has taken so long in is set to begin next spring, and other direct eco- Westfield.” nomic benefits are difficult to quantify at this time, Della Penna specializes in selling homes situatbut rail trail supporters and bike path advocates ed near rail trails and bike paths and says western say it would be a win for the city, bringing in new New England is a gold mine for these sorts of traffic via an alternative mode of transportation. projects. Jeffrey LaValley, “If you draw a 100chairman of the Friends mile radius of where I of the Columbia am, there are over 200 he indicator species of Greenway Rail Trail, projects underway,” he said that the trail – said. “What is being life in a community are the which starts on Yale built here is the densest number of bicycles and University’s campus in network in North pedestrians you see N ew H aven, America.” Connecticut – will The presence of a f you don t see those attract people to the throughway will also uses as common and city since it is the make the city a more prevalent it is because northern terminus of attractive place for prothe trail. spective homeowners, they were exed out “It’s significant, according to Della by transportation because on any given Penna, but it is the decisions years earlier weekend, folks will be increase in potential riding up,” he said. bicycle and foot traffic “What will they be downtown where he Craig Della Penna looking for? Places to said the impact will be Northampton-based realtor eat and things to do off seen most. the trail and Westfield “One of the interesthas a lot of amenities – ing things about Stanley Park, the Westfield is that the Amelia Park campus, lots of great restaurants…” trail goes right through the heart of downtown and “It’s going to have a huge economic impact,” that is really going to feed (the downtown),” he LaValley said. said. “The indicator species of life – let’s say, in a “Part of it has to do with awareness, that there is coal mine – are the canaries, and when the canaries now this northern terminus (in Westfield),” he aren’t there, you know it is time to get out.” said. “We, the board of directors, we meet people “The indicator species of life in a community are on the trail on a constant basis who have ridden up the number of bicycles and pedestrians you see. If from Farmington or Simsbury who didn’t realize you don’t see those uses as common and prevalent, the trail went up this far.” it is because they were exed out by transportation LaValley said that he has been hearing rave decisions years earlier,” Della Penna said. “The reviews from trail patrons, but that continued out- way to resurrect downtown Westfield is to make it reach to let the outside world know that the trail is more bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly, which will ready for use is part of the mission of the Friends slow traffic down and in turn make the storefronts of the Rail Trail. more attractive and lively.” “This (past) Saturday, we will be attending a Westfield Community Development Director trail summit meeting in Simsbury to talk on that Peter Miller has reviewed studies from rail trails subject,” he said. “What can the communities around the region and nation and believes a big along the Farmington Valley Trail in Connecticut spike in economic activity could be on the horizon and the Columbia Greenway in Massachusetts do for Westfield once this next phase of the rail trail to collaborate and promote the trail to benefit all of is completed. our communities?” “The Farmington Valley Trail in Suffield, Other proponents of the rail trail’s expansion are optimistic about the effects it will have on the city. See Columbia Greenway, Page 3
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By Dan Moriarty Staff Writer WESTFIELD – The City Council voted Thursday night to accept a $2 million grant from the state Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs for construction of the next segment of the Columbia Greenway. The vote, under immediate consideration, came after discussion of the next phase which will extend the rail trail from East Silver Street to Main Street. Part of that discussion focused on a tunnel, connecting two neighborhoods, which will be installed under the raised rail of the former New Haven to Northampton railroad. At-large Councilor James R. Adams questioned the inclusion of that component. City Engineer Mark Cressotti presented the details of the rail trail construction under the $2 million grant, which came to the city through the states Gateway Communities grant program, and said that there is a pedestrian path connecting the Hedges Avenue and Taylor Avenue neighborhoods. Cressotti said that the path is a “desire line” of people crossing between the two neighborhoods and that the tunnel will eliminate people crossing across the rail trail. Adams objected to the tunnel just for pedestrians, but withdrew that objection after Cressotti said that there will be an access ramp up to the rail trail on the Hedges Avenue side of the raised rail trail See Grant, Page 3
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The first section of the trail, which includes a parking area accessed through the Shaker Farms Country Club has been completed during the first phase of the Columbia Greenway project this year. (File photo by chief photographer Frederick Gore)
Unlikely story leads to false report charge By Carl E. Hartdegen Staff Writer WESTFIELD – A Southwick man who told police that his vehicle was stolen at three different locations was charged with filing a false police report after his car was found in a ditch in Southwick. City police reports that the man came to the station at 2:23 a.m. Saturday and reported that his car was stolen by two Russian men who
stopped his car and pulled him out of it through a window. Officer Matthew Schultze reports that the man first came to police attention early Saturday morning when he was seen spinning the tires of his 2009 Volkswagen Rabbit on School Street near the police station. The vehicle was stopped and, after delivering a warning, Officer Jeffrey Vigneault reports that he advised the man to go back to his home in
Southwick. The man later told Schultze that he went to an Arnold Street bar and said that his car was stolen from the parking lot there. When asked if his car was stolen from the bar’s parking lot or the nearby municipal parking lot, the man’s account changed and he next said that it was stolen on South Maple Street by two Russian men who stopped his car there.
The man said that a car had been following him, with emergency flashers illuminated and horn sounding, before it stopped him. When asked how the car following him forced him to stop he said that the car had cut him off. When the man resumed his narrative, the site of the stop changed to College Highway in Southwick and See False Report, Page 3