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The Westfield News Serving Westfield, Southwick, and the surrounding Hilltowns
www.thewestfieldnews.com VOL. 85 NO. 316
“In masks outrageous and austere/ The years go by in single file;/ But none has merited my fear,/ And none has quite escaped my smile.” — ELINOR WYLIE
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SATURDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2016
Finance Committee continues work during snowstorm; recommends $5M water bond By AMY PORTER Correspondent WESTFIELD – The Finance Committee met on Thursday during the snowstorm, one of the few City Council committees that continued to meet during the short week between holidays. Robert A. Paul, Sr., chair, said that he and Matthew T. VanHeynigen voted to continue the first item on the agenda, the appropriation of $250,000 from the C o m m u n i t y Preservation undesignated account for the Hotel Bismark façade, at the ROBERT PAUL request of Peter J. Miller, Westfield’s director of community development. Dave Flaherty, the third member of the Finance Committee, was on holiday with his family. Paul said that Miller made the request to allow more time to complete some work that is being done on the CPA agreement. The appropriation vote was continued for two weeks. Also continued for two weeks was the transfer of $249,335 into the FY16 Engineering construction account from the FY17 Engineering and Public Works construction and salary accounts. The transfer is
From left to right: Bill Asselin, John Whalley, Dennis Clark, Mary Lynn Sabourin, Seth Kellogg, and Rosemary Arnold have all contributed with the Conserve North Pond project. (Photo by Greg Fitzpatrick)
Year in Review: The stories that headlined Southwick By GREG FITZPATRICK Correspondent SOUTHWICK – New Year’s Eve marks a day where some people will be busy preparing food or travelling to their planned destination for the evening festivities. When the night is well and over and the calendar year turns to 2017, there will certainly be a fair share of people with the classic New Year’s resolutions. In light of all that, the start of a brand new year will also give people time to think back on what were the most memorable moments of 2016. Although there have been copious amounts of important headlines nationally, stories happen everywhere; in everyone’s community that they live in. For those that call the town of
Southwick home, a number of stories have made headlines. Here are just a small handful of those stories in town that need to be highlighted in the Westfield News’ Year In Review.
School Feasibility study for Southwick-TollandGranville Regional School District After the school committee hired NESDEC (New England School Development Council) to conduct a school feasibility study on the entire district in the summer of 2016, NESDEC compiled a full presentation of what they found. In essence, John Kennedy, a consul-
tant of NESDEC, compiled two options for the future of the Granville Village School. Option I would mean the school would close and those students would have to attend school in Southwick. Option II is the school would stay put and there would be no change to the building. The options brought forth by NESDEC not only led to the school committee and the district thinking about the overall study, it also gave the community of Granville the ability to speak out on the two options during a Nov. 29, a public forum that was held at the Southwick Regional High School. Meg Putnam, a Granville resident, gave her thoughts at the forum. See Southwick, Page 8
See Finance, Page 3
Maybe more business, more parking for Westfield’s downtown By DAN DESROCHERS Correspondent WESTFIELD–The city’s downtown improvements are going to continue into the New Year, with one big part of the project being finished by the spring. A number of updates and funds are continuing to come to the downtown area and most of the projects continue to be on track with their prospective end dates. Officials have had very few issues with the improvements, which should help to bring more activity downtown and perhaps even a relief to some parking woes. The biggest part of the project currently being worked on is the PVTA Transit Pavilion on Arnold Street. The building, as far as a structure goes, is currently standing and work continues
downtown area. “The goal is, once the properties are acquired, demolish the bowling alley and put up a request for proposal for a mixed use building there that would extend from the corner of Arnold Street to the Church Street Commons building,” Mitchell said. The requestrian for proposal would allow the city to contract out the development of the area to a private company, but Mitchell said that the Westfield Redevelopment Authority, which is overseeing this project, will also be active in the design and implementation of the area. The plan is to design and build a multi-story building at the site, which will have a restaurant and retail space on the first See Downtown Business, Page 7 The exterior of the Transit Pavilion, which is set to undergo interior construction throughout the winter months and open in the spring of 2017.
on the interior and according to Joe Mitchell, city advancement officer, the project is actually on track—something that residents like to hear when discussing construction efforts. “The transportation pavilion is on track and should have a ribbon cutting in the first week of April,” Mitchell said. The pavilion is part of a larger project in the area that will encompass portions of Arnold Street, Summer Street, Church Street and Elm Street—also known as the Gaslight District. The next step in the project is the acquisition of several properties behind and around the pavilion. These properties—56 to This bowling alley on Church Street is set to be purchased 58 and 64 to 66 Elm Street, as well as the former Romani and demolished as part of the Gaslight District improvements. Bowling building and nearby alleyway at 11 and 0 Church An appropriation for the purchase was ta led by the Westfield Street—will hopefully be acquired soon by the city and will then be demolished to make room for another structure in the City Council last week. (WNG file photo)
Blue Umbrella Books interior. (Photo credit: Dan Desrochers)