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WEATHER TONIGHT Cloudy with a chance shower late.
The Westfield News Serving Westfield, Southwick, and the surrounding Hilltowns
www.thewestfieldnews.com SATURDAY, JULY 18, 2015
VOL. 84 NO. 180
THOMAS SULLIVAN Ripples of grief were apparent as a stream of visitors brought flowers, food and gifts Friday to the Hampden, Massachusetts, home of Jerry and Betty Sullivan, the parents of Gunnery Sgt. Thomas Sullivan. A police officer was stationed outside to keep reporters and onlookers away. Masslive.com said Sullivan, 40, grew up in Springfield, Massachusetts. The Pentagon said he had been enlisted nearly 18 years, serving two tours of duty in Iraq and earning two Purple Hearts. His hometown mayor, Dominic Sarno, called Sullivan a man who “dedicated his life in brave service.” Gov. Charlie Baker ordered flags to half-staff as he proclaimed “Terror comes home to Massachusetts.” Sullivan’s unit — India Battery, 3rd Battalion, 12th Marines — called him “one of our own” on its Facebook page. A giant U.S. flag and another representing the Marine Corps hung See Shooting Victims, Page 7
— WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERay
75 cents
Commission approves levee contract
Last words from slain Marine to girlfriend: ‘ACTIVE SHOOTER’ By MATT SEDENSKY and RUSS BYNUM Associated Press They were four people charged with the safety of others, gunned down in a place where the nation’s defense is the paramount mission for those who pass through its doors. They are being deemed heroes by some, and the cruel irony of protectors becoming targets was not lost, with President Barack Obama calling it “a heartbreaking circumstance” to lose four men who served “with great valor.” Here is a look at the Marines killed in the attack on two military facilities in Chattanooga, Tennessee: SKIP WELLS Lance Cpl. Squire Wells, who was known as Skip, was swapping text messages Thursday with his girlfriend of 2 ½ years, excited that she had booked a flight to visit him in Chattanooga after months apart. “Can’t wait anymore,” Wells texted. “Yes you can honey,” his girlfriend, Caroline Dove, replied. His next two words would be the last she’d ever hear from him. “ACTIVE SHOOTER,” he wrote. She thought he was kidding: “You are so weird,” she replied. Hours of silence. “I love you,” she tried. Hours more passed, the news out of Chattanooga becoming clearer. “Hon, I need you to answer me please,” she wrote. It would not be until Friday that she learned his fate. The two met at Georgia Southern University, but he soon followed in his family footsteps and enlisted. His grandfather had been in the Air Force, and his grandmother and mother served in the Navy, Dove said. Dove, too, plans to enlist in the Marines, a process she began in November. She said she is not dissuaded by what happened. Through tears, Dove remembered her boyfriend’s love of flag football and Nerf guns, his passion for U.S. history, his ability to handle her when she was grouchy and how good he was at listening. He dreamed of being a drill sergeant, and when they last saw each other around Valentine’s Day, he gave her a gold-and-silver ring. When the time came to propose, she said, he knew to ask her parents first. Wells’ mother was watching television coverage of the shooting when Marines appeared at her door. She knew what the visit meant. “Every service parent, especially moms, dreads opening the front door and seeing people in uniform,” said Andy Kingery, a friend who is acting as a family spokesman.
“Kindnesses are easily forgotten; but injuries! what worthy man does not keep those in mind?”
Gov. Charlie Baker signs the 38.1 billion dollar fiscal 2016 budget inside his office at The Massachusetts Statehouse on Friday, July 17, 2015 in Boston. The Republican governor used his line-item veto power to trim $162 million from the spending plan approved by the Legislature for the fiscal year that started July 1. The vetoes drew immediate criticism from a top Senate Democrat. (Patrick Whittemore/The Boston Herald via AP)
Baker signs budget, names board to oversee MBTA By BOB SALSBERG Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — Gov. Charlie Baker signed what he called a fiscally responsible $38.1 billion state budget into law Friday, while naming members of a new board that will take temporary control of the Boston-area transit system in the wake of last winter's crippling breakdowns. The Republican governor used his line-item veto power to trim $162 million from the spending plan approved by the Legislature for the fiscal year that started July 1. The vetoes drew immediate criticism from a top Senate Democrat. The budget closes a projected deficit "without raising taxes and making key investments to create more jobs, improve our schools and build stronger communities for the commonwealth from one end to the other," Baker told reporters outside his office. The spending plan creates a five-member financial control board to oversee the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority for three years. Baker proposed the control board after record-set-
ting snow exposed managerial weaknesses and the system's antiquated equipment. Baker named Joseph Aiello, an executive at Meridiam, a company that specializes in public infrastructure investment, to chair the board. The board is slated to hold its first meeting Tuesday. The budget is the first to be signed by Baker, who took office in January with a promise to address what he called a "spending problem" in state government. Baker said he inherited both a $760 million budget deficit and a projected $1.8 billion shortfall in the current fiscal year. The spending plan calls for doubling the earned income tax credit for low-income working families over three years. Baker and Democratic legislative leaders announced a lastminute compromise Friday that will prevent the total elimination of a business tax deduction to pay for expanding the earned income tax credit. Under the agreement, the business deduction will be delayed for five years but in the future, companies will be given 30 years, instead of seven, to claim it.
The Legislature will have an opportunity to override the vetoes, which Baker said include $38 million in earmarks. In a statement, Senate President Stan Rosenberg expressed "serious concerns" with many of the vetoes, including reductions in education programs from early childhood to higher education. He said lawmakers would take a hard look at the cuts. University of Massachusetts President Martin Meehan said he was disappointed that Baker reduced funding for the fivecampus system by $5 million. In a letter to lawmakers, Baker also pointed to several budget items that will require "corrective action," in future months, including several underfunded programs such as one that provides lawyers to indigent defendants. Baker agreed to a $10,000 annual raise for the Governor's Council, an eight-member elected body that votes on judicial nominations. He said councilors had not received a substantial increase since 2000. In addition to forming the See Budget, Page 7
By DAN MORIARTY Staff Writer WESTFIELD – The Flood Control Commission voted earlier this week to award a Springfield company the contract to mow and cut brush on the city’s flood control structures. The commission is responsible for maintaining the city’s system of floodcontrol dams and levees. Part of that maintenance is mowing, cutting brush and trees which could hinder the flow of floodwater. Grassland and wooded areas also offer a habitat to wildlife which often borrow into the soil, creating a weak spot which leads to erosion. Prior to awarding the $28,600 contract to Anderson Services, LLC, board members question Jon Celentano, vice president of the grounds maintenance firm, about its practices and equipment and how the company would provide services without causing erosion, in particular to the faces of the earthen flood control dams on Powermill and Arm Brooks. The commission is concerned about the two structures which have been extensively damaged by wheeled vehicles such as ATVs and off-road motorcycles when the operators climb the face of the dams while spinning their tires which results in a roster-trail of earth being thrown behind the vehicle. That damage is further increase by stormwater and frequently results in gullies which have to be repaired. “Erosion is a serious concern,” Commission Chairman Albert G. Giguere Jr., said. “Sod damage can cause erosion and weaken these structures.” Celentano said the company has both wheeled and track vehicles used on rough terrain for mowing and has specialized vehicle, brush hogs, for brush removal as well. Celentano said the company currently has contracts in other municipalities and with educational facilities when erosion is a concern and that because the company also is a wholesale dealer for landscaping materials, it have access to loam to repair any damage cause during its mowing operations. City Engineer Mark Cressotti said the contract is for three mowings a year, but that typically only two are required to control the growth of grass and brush. Giguere said the number of cuttings is often dictated by the weather and that the brush grows more quickly during wetter summers. “We’ll leave that up to you to determine when to cut,” Giguere said. Cressotti also discussed removal, if needed, of giant hogweed, an invasive species which has sap that can result in skin burns and eye injuries when people, not property trained and attired, come into contact with it.
Boston Marathon bomber is moved to Colorado Supermax prison
Kamp for Kids celebrates 40th Campers are performing skits during the Kamp for Kids 40th Anniversary Welcome Celebration Friday, July 17, 2015. See additional photos Page 8. (Photos by Wendy McCann)
BOSTON (AP) — Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is now detained in the highest-security prison in the country. Tsarnaev was sentenced to death last month. He then was taken from Massachusetts to the U.S. Penitentiary in Florence, Colorado. A U.S. Bureau of Prisons spokesman said then Tsarnaev eventually will be moved to a Terre Haute, Indiana, prison where federal death row inmates are executed. The Bureau of Prisons website says Tsarnaev was moved this week to ADX Florence. The prison is known as the Supermax. It's in the same complex as the penitentiary and houses some of the country's most notorious criminals, including Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui and Unabomber Ted Kaczynski. The 2013 Boston Marathon bombings killed three people and wounded more than 260. Tsarnaev apologized at his sentencing.