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The Westfield News
VOL. 83 NO. 290
Serving Westfield, Southwick, and the surrounding Hilltowns
www.thewestfieldnews.com
say what others only know how to think is what makes men poets or sages ....” — ELIZABETH CHARLES
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2014
75 cents
Speaker vows to continue crackdown on welfare fraud
Country club petition withdrawn By DAN MORIARTY Staff Writer WESTFIELD – The City Council voted at its first December meeting to allow the owners of the East Mountain Country Club to “withdraw without prejudice” its petition for a bond order to place a conservation restriction on 120 acres of the golf course. The Community Preservation Committee voted to recommend funding the conservation restriction, which would have prevented any type of development because the golf course is in the Barnes Aquifer overlay zone and in close proximity to two city wells. The restriction would have limited the types of fertilizer and chemicals applied on the course. The CPC submitted a $758,000 appropriation to the City Council; $750,000 would be paid to the family and the remaining $8,000 for administrative, filing with the register of deeds and to pay for a survey which would be attached, as part of the conservation restriction, to the deed for that land. The motion to allow the Perez family to withdraw without prejudice came from the City Council Legislative & Ordinance Committee after the Finance Committee gave a 2-1 negative recommendation for the bond order before referring the issue to the L&O. Finance Chairman Christopher Keefe said at the November 6, 2014 City Council session that he has no opposition to the land being developed for a subdivision. Ward 5 Councilor Robert A Paul Sr., who is a Finance Committee member, also voted against the bond. Ward 6 Councilor Christopher Crean was the only Finance Committee member to endorse the bond, a vote based upon the fact that the country club is in his ward and his record of supporting businesses within the city. “I don’t have an issue with it being developed because there is other subdivision in that area over the aquifer,” Keefe said at that time. “I think that 38 houses on 120 acres of land would have a minimal impact, if any. “If this is truly about protecting the aquifer, then the money should be coming from the Water Resource Department,” Keefe said. “I don’t think this is an appropriate use of Community Preservation Act funds.” At-large Councilor David A Flaherty opposed the bond order. Flaherty said at that session that he also does not oppose development of a subdivision on that property. “I’m concerned about what we are giving up,” Flaherty said. “If that land was developed as a subdivision or as a senior housng project it would generate $430,000 a year in new tax revenue.” At-large Councilor Brian Sullivan, chairman of the L&O, said that the motion to withdraw the bond order without prejudice allows the Perez family to consider its options and perhaps submit a restructured request to the CPC. Sullivan said that one of the options the family may act upon is to create three building lots, using land now used for the driving range that has adequate frontage on East Mountain Road, to go the Planning Board approval not required (ANR) process. ANR petitions are reviewed by the board to ensure they have the required frontage and area for the zone in which the land is located. Building lots in the Barnes Aquifer Protection overlay zone are required to be two acres in size.
“To know how to
A woman looks into the window of the MoFroYo Lounge at 617 East Main Street in Westfield. After only two years of doing business, the frozen yogurt shop, established by Westfield businessman Todd Cieplinski, will be closing. (Photo by Frederick Gore)
MoFroYo to close by end of month By PETER FRANCIS Staff Writer WESTFIELD – After two years in operation, MoFroYo, a Frozen Yogurt Lounge on East Main Street in Westfield established by local businessman Todd Cieplinski, is closing. The shop, situated in the Little River Plaza on Route 20 heading to West Springfield, enjoyed a location Cieplinski believed would be a goldmine. “Our philosophy is communityfocused and family-friendly, so we’ve tried to do everything we can to make this as appealing as possible to that type of demographic,” he said in an October interview with The Westfield News. “But we haven’t seen the traffic in here over the past year.” At that time, Cieplinski guaged his business’ chances of weathering the winter at 50 percent and since the lounge opened in August of 2012, the prospect of having to weather a third winter without the benefit of a third summer was something Cieplinski was admittedly nervous about. A lack of patronage from the Westfield community proved to be frustrating for Cieplinski, who cited the likes of East Longmeadow and
Enfield, Connecticut, nearby towns which have multiple successful frozen yogurt shops. “Where are the people in Westfield?” he said. “That’s the million dollar question and I don’t know if there is any one silver bullet out there. I think it is a mindset.” Cieplinski said Wednesday that he wants to see the business through to the end of the month and gave his 15 employees a four-week notice. “My employees have really stepped up. I have a mixture of younger kids and older, college-aged kids,” he said. “They saw the deposit slips and they were wondering what was going on: how can we be making money if we’re only grossing $300 in revenue a night?” The establishment has several December fundraisers and concerts booked and Cieplinski said that he didn’t want to back out on those events and leave folks in the cold. “My lawyer and my accountant recommended shutting it down earlier this year, but we wanted to make every effort possible to give it 110 percent,” Cieplinski said. “In the past, we’ve sold a ton of gift certificates in December and I’m really working to let people know to come See MoFroYo, Page 3
Thief apologizes for stealing car By CARL E. HARTDEGEN Staff Writer WESTFIELD – Agawam police are seeking a man, perhaps a city resident, who is believed to have stolen a car in their city but was apologetic about his crime. Westfield police were asked for assistance locating a suspect in a spate of breaking and enterings to vehicles in Agawam which apparently ended with a vehicular theft. City police report that an Agawam officer called 1t 10:51 a.m. Thursday to ask that city officers attempt to locate a Cleveland Avenue resident who was encountered by Agawam officers earlier in the morning as they investigated a rash of break ins to vehicles parked on North Westfield Street in their city. The officer said that the man had been seen running through backyards in the area and asked that Westfield officers check to see if a car stolen in their city had been dumped in the Washington Street area. The officers also checked the home of the suspect but found neither him nor the missing 2000 Toyota.
However, later in the afternoon, an employee of a Union Street automotive business reported that a gray Toyota had been left on the company’s property. Officer Michael Ruffo responded to the call and found the car to be the Toyota which had been reported to have been stolen in Agawam earlier. Ruffo reports that the staff at the business said that the person who abandoned the car was captured on their security video. They also said that the man left a note in the car. Capt. Michael McCabe said that the car was found with a key in the ignition and a note on the front seat. The note read, he said, “Sorry I stole your car.” Agawam police were notified and Det. Mike Decarro responded to examine the vehicle and view the video. He also notified the owner of the vehicle and advised city police that the owner was coming to take custody of her car. The case remains under investigation by Agawam police.
By PETER FRANCIS Staff Writer SPRINGFIELD – Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives Robert DeLeo, D-Winthrop, addressed in further detail this week federal concerns regarding the Commonwealth’s law requiring photograph identification for electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards, issued to the heads of eligible households for purchasing groceries SPEAKER ROBERT which operate in a similar fashion to DELEO a debit card. D-Winthrop “I’m somewhat disappointed with that. I was one of the sponsors of the photo requirement,” said DeLeo of the federal criticism of the state’s ID requirement. “One of the major issues I saw it necessary for us to tackle as a legislature – which we did and which received unanimous support – was cracking down on fraud relative to EBT.” DeLeo said that he believed the rollout of the EBT photo ID requirement was going well prior to his reading about the federal criticism, which came in a letter from the U.S. Department of Agriculture last week. The letter threatened to pull federal administrative funding for the food stamp program unless the problems were cleared up. “It’s appeared to be cracking down on some of the concerns we had, so quite frankly I was quite surprised at the federal criticism,” said DeLeo. See Welfare Fraud, Page 3
Fireman’s Association to deliver Christmas early By HOPE E. TREMBLAY Staff Writer SOUTHWICK – The Southwick Fireman’s Association has teamed up with Pathways For Parents, Our Community Food Pantry and the Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional Schools to make the holidays happier for local children in need. On Sunday, the Association will host a Christmas party, complete with Santa and a few elves, and give out gifts to 59 children. The event will take place at the Southwick Fire Department and is set to include refreshments, crafts, and tours of the station. Fireman’s Association members Brian Schneider and Jessica Bishop organized the event, which was the result of a successful Fireman’s Association Golf Tournament last spring. “The tournament did very well and we had money we wanted to give back to the community somehow,” said Schneider. “We decided we wanted to help children in need and worked with the food pantry and schools to identify children – who remain anonymous to us – who could use presents.” Children who receive free lunch at the schools and children whose families receive assistance from the food pantry and Pathways For Parents program were identified only by age and gender. “One of the Association members bought all the gifts and had a wrapping party,” Schneider said. Most of the children are elementary school age but some are as young as one and as old as 14. “We didn’t want to limit the ages because if there was a family from the food pantry with an eight year-old, a 12 year-old and a 14 year-old, we didn’t want the younger children to receive a gift but not the teenager,” Schneider said. The Southwick Fireman’s Association is a self-sustaining organizing separate from the fire department. Its mission includes raising funds to offset the cost of supplies for the department, as well as supporting the community.
Attention ‘American Profile’ Readers The weekly insert American Profile has ceased publication and the January editions of Relish and Spry Living will also be their last. We hope you enjoyed them and we are actively seeking out other, similar, publications for insert. COMMUNITY★ TABLE
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DECEMBER 14 -20, 2014
DECEMBER 2014
THE SEASON TO
Kid-Friendly
New Year’s Eve
SHoRtCUTs
Take better photos with your
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Beauty gifts
your wallet will love
DIEnT 2-INgRe eS TrUFfL
Shake & Bake Classic cookies with simple twists
Festive family breakfast Easy eggnog cake Cookie recipes start on page 12