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The Westfield News Serving Westfield, Southwick, and the surrounding Hilltowns
“I’m sure the universe is full of intelligent life. It’s just been too intelligent to come here.” — SIR ARTHUR C. CLARKE
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SATURDAY, JUNE 24, 2017
VOL. 86 NO. 149
Westfield Ward 6 City Councilor William Onyski. (Photo by Marc St. Onge)
The entrance to the Columbia Greenway Rail Trail via the parking area accessed through the Shaker Farms Country Club. (WNG file photo)
Granville votes on FY18 capital improvement plan for second time Don Podolski, owner of New Horizons Bikes.
Rail Trail funding cut with caveat By AMY PORTER Correspondent WESTFIELD – The largest cut made to the FY18 city budget was $250,000 in the engineering department for design work on the Columbia Greenway Rail Trail, a contribution required from the city in order to receive a $6.2 million federal and state grant in FY19 for the next phase of the trail. However, the cut was made with a caveat to support the design portion, and go forward with the grant. At Wednesday’s meeting of the whole City Council follow-
ing the public hearing on the budget, Finance Committee chair Robert A. Paul, Sr. asked if any of the City Councilors had recommendations for cuts to the budget. Ward 6 Councilor William Onyski spoke up, saying that many residents at the public hearing spoke for and against the funding of the Columbia Greenway Rail Trail. “I think it’s a great investment,” Onyski said. He then asked if Community Preservation Act (CPA) funds could be used for the Rail Trail. Onyski said he had looked up some of the other towns in
Westfield Police gets vehicle donated By DAN DESROCHERS Correspondent WESTFIELD—The city’s police department received a unique gift from Indian Motorcycle on Southampton Road, which will help their efforts in patrolling the Columbia Greenway and other off-road areas. The department received a Polaris EV506 from Indian Motorcycle, which is a pedal-assisted electric bicycle. With this bicycle, police will be able to cover greater distance than if on foot, and would utilize less physical energy to power. “This is nice, it’s kind of the next step,” Lt. Eric Hall from the Westfield Police Department, said. “It gets us somewhere quicker with less energy.” In addition, Hall said that the bike will allow the department to travel off-road and down paths that police may have to traverse on foot, and See Vehicle, Page 7
Members from Indian Motorcycle and Westfield Police Department pose with the Polaris electric bicycle donated to the department. From left to right: David Paquette, Dennis Bolduc, Lt. Eric Hall, officer Steven Nacewitz and officer Jason Williams
Massachusetts that had both rail trails and CPA funds. He only got through the A’s and B’s before he found eleven towns that had used CPA funds for their rail trails. Onyski then made a motion to reduce the engineering department by $250,000, and to fully support going in front of the Community Preservation Commission and requesting $500,000 in CPA funds for the Columbia Greenway Rail Trail. Onyski went on to say that as of July 1, the city will have $760,000 in CPA funds, and also additional funding from the
state. At-large Councilor Dave Flaherty said he agreed 100% with the plan. “It’s a creative solution which we talked about in committee. Try and get CPA funds – if it takes too long, have funds (available) in stabilization or free cash,” Flaherty said. He was referring to the July 1 deadline to commit the money raised by many proponents of the Rail Trail. At-Large Councilor Brent B. Bean, II also applauded Onyski for the motion. However, Bean See Rail Trail, Page 7
The Pan-Mass Challenge (PMC) is an annual bike-a-thon that raises more money for charity than any other single athletic fundraising event in the world.
Granville Resident Riding for a Cure in the 2017 Pan-Mass Challenge NEEDHAM – On Aug. 5 and 6, Rob Fielding of Granville will cycle up to 192 miles in the Pan-Mass Challenge (PMC) with the goal of raising $48 million for critical research and cancer care at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. During PMC weekend, more than 6,200 cyclists from more than 40 states and eight countries will return to Massachusetts to participate in the PMC, choosing from 12 routes of varying mileage that run through 46 towns. Cyclists are anywhere between 15 and 84-yearsold and range from seasoned triathletes to weekend warriors who trained for this event alone and everything in between. “We are thrilled to be approaching our 38th PMC ride weekend. Seeing our growth over the years has been truly incredible and we look forward to achieving our fundraising goal of $48 million for Dana-Farber,” said Billy Starr, founder and executive director of the PMC. “We want to wish all of our riders and volunteers a safe and enjoy-
able ride weekend – I’ll see everyone out on the road.” Many riders participate in the PMC to honor a family member or friend lost to, or being treated for, cancer. More than 600 riders and volunteers are cancer survivors or current patients, considered “Living Proof” of the PMC mission to find a cure. The average cyclist trains for three months, solicits 40 sponsors and raises more than $7,000. Volunteers, spectators, donors and sponsors are part of the camaraderie on ride weekend, all working together toward a cure. No other single athletic event raises or contributes more money to charity than the PMC. Since 1980, the PMC has raised $547 million dollars for DanaFarber through the Jimmy Fund, its fundraising arm. In fact, the PMC is DanaFarber’s largest single contributor, raising more than 52 percent of the Jimmy Fund’s annual revenue. See Challenge, Page 7
By GREG FITZPATRICK Correspondent GRANVILLE – The majority of the residents of Granville that attended Monday night’s meeting haven’t changed their minds when it comes to the FY (Fiscal Year) 18 capital improvement plan that the SouthwickTolland-Granville regional school district had proposed. In the midst of the special town meeting at the Granville Village School on Monday, Granville voted 57-32 in favor of once again disapproving the school district’s capital improvement plan. Granville residents previously voted down the proposal 34-4 at their annual town meeting on May 8. As a result of that vote, Superintendent Jen Willard said that the district will not have any capital borrowing capacity for the upcoming school year for any of their capital improvement funds. “We don’t know the direction we’ll be in for capital borrowing until September,” said Willard. Willard added that one possible option to explore in the fall would be to have a majority ballot vote for all three towns in the school district. This means that if two of the three communities in the district approve the plan, it passes through. The decision at the special town meeting is a disappointment to school district administrators as Willard said that the vote doesn’t help with the busing situation for Granville students for the 2017-18 school year. According to Willard, $200,000 of the $600,000 FY18 capital improvement plan was going to help towards mid-size buses that would transport Granville students to and from the Southwick campus. “The vote impacts children,” said Willard. “When anything negatively impacts children, I’m very disappointed.” With the expectation that if the district decides to go with a majority ballot vote in September that it will pass in Southwick and Tolland. Granville Select Board member David Ripley already sees the impact of the special town meeting vote. “I guess we’re just delaying it,” said Ripley. More updates will follow once the school district makes a decision about the FY18 capital improvement plan in September.
Superintendent Jen Willard. (WNG File Photo)
Grant given to city for proposed industrial park
Traffic advisory:
By DAN DESROCHERS Correspondent WESTFIELD—The city has received money from the state to begin the process of taking a piece of land that has been dormant for about 28 years, and turning it into an industrial park. Westfield Mayor Brian Sullivan and others were on hand to accept a $300,000 site readiness grant, given by Sec. Jay Ash and the Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development (MEOHED). The grant will help the city go through
The Joseph Ave & Papermill Road construction project will be conducting a detour of traffic on Papermill Road at the Joseph Ave intersection impacting both directions starting Monday 6/19/17. The detour is supposed to take place only during their working hours approximately 7am to 4:30pm. This detour is expected to remain in place for several weeks.
pre-permitting requirements for a 66-acre piece of land between Cabot Road and Turnpike Industrial Road. “The grant will let us do everything to get it shovel-ready,” Sullivan said of the land. “It’s a great opportunity right now.” According to Joe Mitchell, city advancement officer for Westfield, the land was previously set to become a landfill in the 1980s, but that plan didn’t come to fruition. From there, the land had been dormant since 1989 until recently. Mitchell originally sought $93,000 in grant money for the proj-
ect but he said that EOHED decided to offer more. According to Mitchell, they liked the project enough and wanted to add tasks to the plan, so they offered $300,000. The money will be used to put the site through the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) process, Mitchell said. “What that does is we do some surveying and preliminary design work of what we want to do there,” he said. From there, it will go through a See Industrial Park, Page 7
Westfield Mayor Brian Sullivan (L) shows a concept of the industrial park to Sec. Jay Ash (R). (Photo provided by Joe Mitchell)