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The Westfield News Serving Westfield, Southwick, and the surrounding Hilltowns
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“It is the nature of all greatness not to be exact.” — EDMUND BURKE
www.thewestfieldnews.com VOL. 86 NO. 17
City Council votes on councilor raises and Complete Streets program
School committee holds emergency meeting By AMY PORTER Correspondent WESTFIELD – The School Committee held an emergency meeting in Room 201 at City Hall on Friday to approve a transfer from school choice funds to fund the Advanced Placement (AP) Mock Exams through the remainder of the school year. Westfield Public Schools Superintendent Stefan Czaporowski said the funds were needed due to a grant that ended and was not renewed. He said in order to continue the program, the district needed to use school choice funds. Czaporowski explained that the district increased its AP courses in the high school three years ago on a grant from the Massachusetts Insight for Education (MIE) that promoted having more students taking AP exams. The AP Mock Exams are practice tests for the actual exams. Westfield High School has been offering the Mock Exams on Saturdays. Czaporowski said as many as 300 students have participated, taking exams in various subjects, such as English, science and history. Students take AP Mock Exams to see how they would score on the official exams. Czaporowski explained that the benefit of taking AP Exams is for college credit. The tests are scored 1-5. If a student scores from 3-5 on an exam, they can get credit for having taken a basic course such as English 101, for example. He said different schools accept different scores. He said Mount Holyoke will give credit for a 3 on an AP exam, whereas UMass requires a score of 5. “Typically, most schools can’t afford to do this (Saturday exams), and hold them during the school day,” he said, adding that Westfield will probably have to do that next year. However, he said that when he taught AP history, he offered the Mock Exams See Meeting, Page 7
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SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 2017
Mercy Home Care grand opening Mercy Home Care and Hospice opened a new office in Westfield at 192 East Main St. This office will expand Mercy Home Care and Hospice’s ability to serve community needs. Pictured are Alison Gearing-Kalil, Dan Keenan (VP Government Relations), Andrew Renfro (Sen. Humason’s office), Jean Zaleski, Cindy Harris, Mary Ellen Asher, Mayor Brian Sullivan, Sue Pickett (Executive Director, Mercy Home Health Care), Chris McLauchlin (COO Mercy Hospital), Emily S w a n s o n (Rep. Velis’s office), Sara Peterson, Kate Phelon (Chamber), Trina Weiswasser
Council on Aging with important proposal for upcoming budget discussion By GREG FITZPATRICK Correspondent SOUTHWICK – Before the end of January, Southwick Council on Aging Director Cindy Sullivan will be meeting with the Select Board in regards to the needs for the Council on Aging budget. Sullivan said that one of her main priorities for the budget is to upgrade two of the doors that the majority of her seniors use when they enter and leave the building. One of the doors is facing out towards the senior center main entrance, and the other door is near the main parking lot of town hall, where the transportation van service usually picks up seniors. The upgrade to the two doors would include an electric handicap button installed for both doors, so seniors have an easier time getting into the building, especially if someone is using a walker. “When you’re coming in with a walker, it’s hard to open the door,” said Sullivan. Mary Herzig, a member of the senior center who comes a couple times a week, has a tough time getting a door
open that is heavy and swings back shut rather quickly. “It’s really hard for me,” said Herzig. Herzig is hoping the upgrades to the doors becomes a reality, as she enjoys her time at the senior center. “Then you would make me happy,” said Herzig. “I’m grateful for what there is.” According to Sullivan, if the proposal for the two doors did get approved by the town, the expenses are estimated at about a total of $7,500.
This is one of two doors that will have an electric handicap door opening.
By AMY PORTER Correspondent WESTFIELD – The Legislative & Ordinance Committee made a negative (2-1) recommendation to the City Council Thursday to create an ordinance for Complete Streets. Ward 4 Councilor Mary O’Connell said the majority of the councilors on the committee did not find the resolution “palatable.” “For me, there were specific hurdles I could not get over. Unfortunately, there was no ability to compromise,” O’Connell said. Ward 1 Councilor Mary Ann Babinski, the lone dissenter on the Public Health and Safety Committee, which also negatively recommended the ordinance, did not agree. “I’m in favor of the MARY ANN MARY Complete Streets. O’CONNELL BABINSKI Many communities do it,” Babinski said. According to the MassDOT website, “a Complete Street is one that provides safe and accessible options for all travel modes – walking, biking, transit and vehicles – for people DAN ALLIE ANDREW of all ages and abiliSURPRISE ties. Designing streets with these principles contributes toward the safety, health, economic viability and quality of life in a community by improving the pedestrian and vehicular environments. Providing safer, more accessible and comfortable means of travel between home, school, work, recreation and retail destinations helps promote more livable communities.” “I don’t know how anybody could be against that. A little while ago, we just voted to become a Green Community. Massachusetts is the one state that has incentivized this program,” Babinski added. She said the state is saying if you have a place where you think you can use Complete Streets, you can apply for funding. “I wish you could talk to other communities. I wish you would take more time. It’s a policy, a mindset,” Babinski said. Ward 6 Councilor William Onyski said he voted against the ordinance in both L&O and Public Safety. “There is no cost analysis. We’ll have to spend extra to get money from the state, and no one knows how much,” Onyski said. “This really locks us in. I’d rather our employees spend our tax dollars fixing the roads than going to design conferences,” said Ward 3 Councilor Andrew K. Surprise. “We have 260 miles of road,” he added. L&O chair Ralph J. Figy, who voted for it in L&O, said he had some trepidation about the policy until he spoke to a councilor in South Hadley who said it was a “good deal,” and made them eligible for more funding. FIgy said that the city would not be locked into every single street.
(Photo by Greg Fitzpatrick)
See City Council, Page 7
Westfield resident hopes to help change focus on city’s water problems By DAN DESROCHERS Correspondent WESTFIELD—A city resident claims that although city officials have attempted to address the issue of water contamination in the city, data from studies show that the focus should shift to other contaminants, as well. Kristen Mello, who has been researching the contamination of Westfield’s water for the past several months, believes that although the task of creating a new water treatment facility to remove two potentially toxic chemical compounds is a correct decision for the city, it is not enough and the focus needs to be widened to fully protect the city’s residents. Mello, who received a bachelors of science in chemistry at the University of Massachusetts and a masters of science in analytical chemistry at the University of Delaware, has been in the process of creating a comprehensive research article on the Westfield water contamination issue.
“I’m writing the paper to give the public information,” she said. According to Mello, she is expected to distribute the information as soon as Jan. 23 to city officials. “I’m not upset with the city, I’m just trying to help them to know what they should focus on next,” she said. While doing the research she has found that in addition to the presence of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) in the city’s water supply, there is also the presence of perfluorobutane sulfonic acid (PFBuS), and that the latter compound is at a much higher concentration than PFOS and PFOA combined in well #2 of the city’s eight wells. “Everyone talks about PFOA and PFOS, but they aren’t the most important—it’s just what we have the data and the numbers for,” Mello said. “But you look at the numbers and there are other things to look out for. PFOA and PFOS are the tip of the iceberg.”
Mello said that all of the above compounds are part of a collection of man made chemicals called polyflouroalkyl substances (PFAS), and have been alternately called perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs). These compounds are made up of the chemicals carbon, fluorine and other elements, and are used in a variety of man made products, including stain-resistant fibers, plastics and the suspected culprit of the contamination of Westfield water, aqueous firefighting foam (AFFF), due to their waterresistant properties. The foam was used and stored on Barnes Regional Airport for several decades by the US National Guard and although studies have not been concluded on contamination in Westfield, the AFFF has been linked to contaminations of several groundwater sites across the US. Mello believes that the presence of PFBuS See Water, Page 3