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The Westfield News Serving Westfield, Southwick, and the surrounding Hilltowns
www.thewestfieldnews.com VOL. 85 NO. 237
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SATURDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2016
Southwick, Tolland & Granville public works departments prep for winter By GREG FITZPATRICK Correspondent GRANVILLE – Even though fall has just begun, many Public Works Departments throughout the area are starting to prepare for the upcoming winter. As the winter of 2015-16 brought very little amounts of snow, it has allowed departments to get a jump start on the preparation for this winter. “It’s an ongoing process to stay prepared,” said Granville DPW Director Doug Roberts. Roberts has already ordered his supplies of salt and sand that go out to bid to the HCOG (Hampshire Council of Governments). Road maintenance is also a popular task to care of throughout winter preparation. According to Southwick DPW Director Randy Brown, his department has been patching up pot holes as well as making sure all of the catch basins will be all set for the plows during the winter. “The light winter helped us get a head start on some of our road maintenance,” said Brown. “Hopefully the roads will be in a better condition this year.” In an even more rural town like Tolland, there are very few catch basins for the plows, so working on specific roads has been an important priority for Tolland DPW. The DPW Director, Ed Deming, singled out Bert Hill Rd. as a road that has always been tough to plow. “You can’t clean it because of the differences of the
WINTER PREPAREDNESS
A salt storage building filled to the rafters with salt on Ponders Hollow Road.
Russell and Huntington highway superintendents report on winter prep By AMY PORTER Correspondent RUSSELL, HUNTINGTON – John Hoppe, Russell’s highway superintendent, talked about winter preparations for the town as he was following the line painting truck on General Knox Road, which he said had almost reached the Westfield line. A salt storage building filled to the rafters with salt on Ponders Hollow Road. “We’re already full of salt and sand. I do that at the end of the fiscal year,” he said, explaining that any money left over in his budget is used to top off the supplies so they’re full, although “it doesn’t always work out that way.” Hoppe said he’s been servicing the plows, and going over the trucks to make sure they’re ready for the winter. The town did purchase a brand new F350 pickup this year with a nine foot plow. Hoppe is also working on a salt brine to spray the roads for pre-treatment before a storm. The salt brine will dry to the crevices of the road, and help to stretch the salt. See Winter, Page 8
See Public Works, Page 8
See Prevention, Page 7
Members of the Southwick Fire Department battle a blaze on Sunnyside Road Sunday afternoon.
Westfield DPW is ready for winter By DAN DESROCHERS Correspondent WESTFIELD–In spite of the Farmer’s Almanac predicting that snow could come as soon as Election Day this year, the Department of Public Works is ready. The Westfield Department of Public Works’ Francis Cain, who oversees snow and ice control in the city, said that his crew and equipment is ready to take on what is being forecasted as an especially snowy and cold winter. In addition to hundreds of tons of salt, over a dozen vehicles and dozens of contractors, the department also has a new program called “Snow OPS,” which will let them more efficiently run snow removal in the city. “We started planning for the next plowing at the end of the last plowing,” Cain said. This preparation included repairing vehicles and inventorying equipment before April 1, analyzing winter data, ordering parts and supplies and training snow plow drivers through the Baystate Roads training program. This year, it also meant creating a new central headquarters for all snow removal operation in the city. The department invested in the Snow OPS See Westfield, Page 8
Rows of plows at Ponders Hollow Road.
Team players sought for Parks & Rec Foundation
Fire Prevention Week begins Oct. 9 By DAN DESROCHERS Correspondent WESTFIELD—As Massachusetts Fire Prevention Week is set to kick off Oct. 9 and the weather gets colder, local fire departments and the state fire marshal’s office want to remind residents to practice better fire safety. Better fire safety, including checking and maintaining smoke detectors and practicing safe heating can be key in both saving lives and property. For those over 65, the risks are higher and preparation is especially crucial, so assistance is also available to help those that need it. Last year, 34 percent of people who died in Massachusetts fires were 65 and older. “If smoke detectors are functioning is the key,” deputy chief and head of fire prevention in the Westfield Fire Department Eric Bishop said. “What
The Westfield News will run its masthead in pink, in recognition of October being Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
By LORI SZEPELAK Correspondent WESTFIELD-Since the late 18th century, veterans in Massachusetts have received assistance for their service. Today, two veterans serve in the Westfield Department of Veterans Services to handle any issue on the federal, state or local level for city residents who have served their country. Bobby Callahan, director of veterans, and James Jordan, veteran’s services officer, can be found weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in their office on the
By LORI SZEPELAK Correspondent WESTFIELD-For Matthew Wroth, the first Father-Daughter Dance in 2002 was the catalyst for his involvement in the Westfield Parks and Recreation Foundation. “I was asked in 2002 to help start this committee and to kick-off the first Father-Daughter Dance,” said Wroth. “Fourteen years later it’s still going strong.” Wroth, a sixth grade teacher at the Westfield North Middle School, also serves as president of the Foundation, along with board members Donna Gogol, Marlene Leblanc, Melissa Alvarado, Crystal Miller and Michelle Johnson. “We have lost six board members because their children have aged out of Park and Rec programs,” said Wroth, who has a daughter, Jillian, 18, and son, Patrick, 20. “The Foundation is in need of new members who have great ideas for children and family activities.” Wroth said the commitment to joining the Foundation only requires attending a few meetings a year and most discussions are done using email. “Our major role is the Father-Daughter Dance which practically runs itself now and only requires tweaking each year,” he said. The nonprofit Foundation is independent of and separate from the City of Westfield, and promotes and encourages the advancement of
See Helping Hand, Page 7
See Foundation, Page 8
Bobby Callahan and James Jordan are ready to serve veterans and their family members at the Westfield Department of Veterans Services.
Service Center offers vets a helping hand
(Photo courtesy of Southwick Fire Department)
Pulitzer prize-winner to speak at WSU Oct. 11 By DAN DESROCHERS Correspondent WESTFIELD–Pulitzer prize-winning author Junot Díaz will be at Westfield State University Tuesday, Oct. 11, to discuss immigration and the upcoming election. Díaz, whose 2007 novel “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” won a 2008 Pulitzer for fiction and was recently called the “greatest novel of the 21st century to date” from a poll of
US critics, will be presenting a lecture titled “Race and Immigration in Election Year 2016,” from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Westfield State’s Scanlon Hall. The event is open and free to the public. The lecture is part of Westfield State University’s Hispanic/LatinX Heritage Month, a month-long celebration of Hispanic and Latino history and culture, through October 22, 2016, according to a Westfield State University
press release. Díaz was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, on Dec. 31, 1968. He lived with his mother and grandmother in the Dominican for the first several years of his life, while his father worked in the US. in 1974, he was reunited with his father when Díaz immigrated to Parlin, New Jersey. Díaz received his Bachelor of Arts in English from Rutgers College in New Jersey in 1992, and in 1995 he obtained
a Master of Fine Arts from Cornell University. In addition to authoring an awardwinning novel and two collections of short stories, Díaz currently teaches writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was awarded a MacArthur Genius grant in 2012. He is also the first member of Latin background to sit on the Pulitzer Prize board of jurors. He is also active in the Dominican community.
JUNOT DIAZ