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The Westfield News Serving Westfield, Southwick, and the surrounding Hilltowns
www.thewestfieldnews.com
“My father used
to say superior people never make long visits.”
— Marianne Moore
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2014
75 cents
Funds have been approved to preserve city records dating back to past centuries which have been deteriorating for decades. (Photo
City Clerk Karen Fanion and her assistant, Donna Roy, sort some of the decaying city records in the clerk’s vault which date back hundreds of years. Funds to preserve the records have been (Photo by Carl
by Carl E. Hartdegen)
E. Hartdegen).
VOL. 83 NO. 268
104th to hold night flight exercises By Peter Francis Staff Writer WESTFIELD – The 104th Fighter Wing at Barnes Air National Guard Base will be conducting evening training flights as part of standard homeland defense exercises at the beginning of next week. According to Senior Master Sgt. Robert Sabonis, public affairs manager for the 104th Fighter Wing, there will be night flying sessions going on from Monday through Thursday, November 17-20. The evening missions will launch from Barnes-Westfield Regional Airport between 4:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m., with expected landings between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. “These missions are a critical part of our required reoccurring training,” said Sabonis. “The night-training is required to ensure our pilots are ready to respond to any airborne threat in the Northeastern United States, at any time, in any condition.” In a release, the 104th Fighter Wing asks for assistance in sharing the news in an effort to help alleviate local residents from being alarmed. “With our 24/7 alert posture, our Airmen could respond to an airborne threat at any time protecting one quarter of the nation’s population and one third of the its Gross Domestic Product,” said Sabonis. These night flights aren’t the only the exercises being conducted by the 104th. Social media exploded Thursday in Boston, as residents and visitors posted pictures and video online of five of the 104th’s F-15 Eagle fighter jets flying over the city as part of a training and media exercise shortly after 8 a.m. According to Lieutenant Colonel James Sahady, spokesman for the Massachusetts National Guard, the five 104th fighter jets began the day in Westfield, flying to Hanscom Air Force Base in Bedford before charting a regimented course that saw the jets fly over Salem at 8:13 a.m.; the State House, 8:15; Fenway Park, 8:18; turn at Norwood Airport, 8:21; Gillette Stadium, 8:25; Cape Cod, 8:32; Nantucket, 8:42; Martha’s Vineyard, 8:50; and then back to Westfield base around 9:15 a.m. Photographer Jim “Hazy” Haseltine was on board one of the five jets, snapping photographs for National Guard Magazine, Air Force Magazine, and Combat Aircraft Monthly. “The intent of this event is twofold: To enhance the pilots training, and to also promote the mission of the Massachusetts Air National Guard,” Sahady told The Boston Globe earlier this week, adding that while the jets typically fly at an altitude of 10,000 feet or higher, the F-15’s were flying an unusually low 1,000 feet Thursday.
Records preservation funding approved By Dan Moriarty Staff Writer WESTFIELD – The Community Preservation Commission unanimously voted Thursday night to approve half of the funding requested by City Clerk Karen Fanion to preserve the city’s records, some of which date back to the founding of Westfield in 1669. The commission voted to approve the use of $135,902 from the city’s Community Preservation Act account, half of the $271,804 needed to preserve the historical documents and to install environmental control in the vault in the City Clerk’s office. Fanion has submitted an initial
request in August for $120,000, but several CPC members raised concerns about spending money to preserve the documents, then put them back into the damp environmental of the vault where they would begin to deteriorate again. “These records date back to 1669, the founding of Westfield,” Fanion said at the August meeting. “They include birth, marriage, death and land transaction records. These are permanent records. We can never get rid of them.” “We need to have these records so they can be used in the future,” Fanion said. “Some of the books which need to be restored have mold and mildew.
These (documents) are very interesting, very valuable to the city. “There is a lot of water damage. Some have insects in them. They need to be cleaned up and preserved,” Fanion said. “A record of the Old Burying Grounds was stuck between two books. It’s so fragile that we don’t want to touch it until it’s restored.” Fanion said that part of the project is digitizing the documents for a back-up electronic record, but added that “researchers can find digital records, but often need to confirm that the original document still exists. “Some of these documents are so bad that they can’t be digi-
JAY VINSKEY tized until they’ve been restored,” Fanion said. The commission asked Fanion to get a cost estimate for both the records preservation and to install environmental controls in the vault. Fanion submitted the $271,804 cost estimate to the board at its October meeting, which ten lead to members requesting See Records, Page 8
Reach Out And Read Falco makes friends with Ari Sotolongo, 8, as he and his partner, Westfield Police Officer Chris Coach, listen to Dottie Funaro read a book about a service dog to Mary Beth Parrow’s third grade class at Papermill School yesterday. Coach and Falco visited with the children before Funaro read to them as part of the Reach Out And Read program which sends volunteers into each of the city’s elementary school to read from new books which are then donated to the school’s library. The program is supported this year by Shurtleff Children’s Services Inc. (Photo by Carl E. Hartdegen)
Congamond Road info session next week By Hope E. Tremblay Staff Writer SOUTHWICK – Residents have the opportunity to learn more about the upcoming Congamond Road reconstruction project during a public information session on Wednesday, Nov. 19. Representatives from the town and Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) will be on-hand to provide more detailed information and answer questions about the proposed project. Department of Public Works Director (DPW) Randy Brown said
the main reason for the forum is to update residents on the project, which now includes sidewalks. “There was a public hearing on this about a year and a half ago, but that design didn’t include sidewalks,” said Brown. Brown said residents spoke in favor of sidewalks at that time and they are now in the 25-percent design plan. “The sidewalks will run along the south side of Congamond Road from College Highway to the state line,” said Brown, adding that the road is just over a mile long.
The main reason for the inclusion of sidewalks is to connect the Southwick Rail Trail to the lakes, surrounding neighborhoods, and businesses in town. “MassDOT requested we hold this meeting to give an update and get feedback,” Brown said. Drawings of the project will be available that night and Brown said residents will be able to ask questions. The town is funding the design but the state will manage and pay for construction. Brown said he believes the project has been in the works for nearly a decade.
“We are following the Mass DOT schedule, which has construction slated for 2017,” said Brown. The proposed sidewalks will be built in accordance with MassDOT standards and will be five-feet wide and will include a four-foot wide landscape strip between the road and sidewalk. The overall project aims to mitigate vehicle, pedestrian, and bicycle safety concerns and improve stormwater drainage. The public informational hearing will be held at 7 p.m. in the Southwick Town Hall Auditorium.
Randy Brown