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The Westfield News Serving Westfield, Southwick, and the surrounding Hilltowns
www.thewestfieldnews.com
VOL. 86 NO. 3
THURSDAY, JANUARY 5, 2017
“Without change,
something sleeps inside us, and seldom awakens. The sleeper must awaken.”
— FRANK HERBERT
75 cents
Blandford calls all department meeting By AMY PORTER Correspondent BLANDFORD – Board of Selectman chair Adam Dolby called a meeting of all the departments in Blandford Wednesday evening, in advance of scheduled reports from the fire, police and highway departments. “I had an idea in starting the year with the different boards. I wanted to start the year with a plan that we could all agree to going in the right direction,” Dolby said at the start of the meeting, which coincidentally took place one day after the announcement by Attorney General Maura Healey of the indictment of former tax collector LeeAnn
Thompson on charges of stealing more than $150,000 from the town. Dolby said that he thought it was appropriate in the wake of the news to speak about some of the changes taking place in the town, many due to the hiring of town administrator Angeline Ellison last fall. Dolby said that Ellison has been put in charge of groups that the Board directly supervises, and is putting in place controls, hours and changes of contact. He asked that those groups go through Ellison on questions for the Board. He said the need for some of the changes directly speaks to the reason indictments were handed down in the first place. He said in the past,
the town had been lax with financial controls, which he called “a work in progress.” “My intent is that we never again create an environment where those types of challenges are allowed,” Dolby said. In talking about moving forward, Dolby said his main goal has been to involve, attract and encourage new people to get involved in the town, instead of going back to “the same thirty people who get involved in everything.” Dolby said he also wanted to take the opportunity of the meeting to properly introduce Ellison to the See Blandford, Page 3
Blandford Town Administrator Angeline Ellison, with Selectmen Andy Montanaro, Adam Dolby, chair and Bill Levakis. (Photo by Amy Porter)
Ricardi discusses needs and expenses for police budget Eric Billowitz interviews with the Westfield Airport Commission.
Airport commission leaves no stone unturned in managerial search By DAN DESROCHERS Correspondent WESTFIELD—For the Westfield Airport Commission, the first choice may not have been the best choice but that’s OK. The Westfield Airport Commission yesterday announced that their first choice for the vacant airport manager position, Marcelo F. Lima of Birmingham, Alabama, had declined the offer for the position made by the city. He reportedly declined for personal reasons. However, the commission also interviewed a new candidate yesterday and decided to offer him the position. The commission interviewed Eric J. Billowitz of Florida, New York, in a special meeting last night after he passed the initial stages put forth by the screening committee earlier in the day. After the interview, the commission discussed briefly and decided unanimously to allow the personnel department to proceed with contract negotiations with Billowitz. In a related move, the commission also decided that the other final-
ist, Robert N. Snuck of Pittsfield, would not be offered a contract if Billowitz declines. Billowitz faced the same process as the other candidates and was one of the seven candidates originally chosen to be interviewed, but due to prior commitments to his previous employer he was unable to visit and participate in the initial phase of interviews. However, since the process extended, Billowitz was able to interview for the position and the results were highly positive. “He has an excellent background, has great experience with a range of problems and has resolved them all, and he works well with different entities” Don Nicoletti, commission member, said. “It was a positive surprise because he wasn’t in the original round but he is a great choice for the city,” commission member William Gonet, said. Billowitz’s prior experience is based in the realm of business, which is what the commission has desired, but he has a lengthy history in airport management in general. While still in college, Billowitz began
with AvPORTS—the airport management company that is currently providing temporary managerial services for the airport—in 1984 and was with the company until 2016, where he worked at multiple airports in multiple positions. Afterward, he provided airport consultancy with Steven Baldwin Associates, based out of Albany, New York, from 2016 to now, and in 2016 he also provided research and advisory services for Delta Airlines regarding a terminal in LaGuardia Airport. Among Billowitz’s accomplishments was one that kept him from interviewing for the position during the first round. While with Baldwin Associates, Billowitz’s first assignment had him overseeing a grant application process for a Rochester, New York, airport for $40 million. “Rochester called to get everyone together,” Billowitz said. “We had six weeks to put together the entire application.” Billowitz said that they were successful in getting the application in on time and receiving the grant.
By GREG FITZPATRICK Correspondent SOUTHWICK – Just days into a new calendar year means that all of the town departments have to go through their budgets and the issues and items within their departments that they want to focus on. During Tuesday night’s Select Board meeting, the Southwick Fire Department’s budget was discussed. Chief David Ricardi joined the Select Board to go over his upcoming intentions in the budget. The items that Ricardi mentioned included seven items under operations, two under capital costs, and looking for three new line items. The overall cost of the nine items adds up to $45,860. One of the key items was to find money in the Southwick Police Chief Dave budget for training RAD Ricardi goes over the depart(Rape Aggression ment’s needs in the budget with Defense) officers and the Select Board. (WNG File Photo) school resource officers. The Chief Development Fund would include the training needed, which is a cost bump of $500 from last year’s budget. “The cost of training has gone up and I want to see us use some of the money to start getting a portion of the command staff trained with that additional money,” said Ricardi during the Select Board meeting. Tasers were then brought up, as Ricardi is looking for $400. The reason for the cost is due to the fact that some officers on the force still need to go through training with tasers. The training would cost $60 for each officer. Ricardi is also seeking to hire three new reserve officers and eight potential officers will be interviewed. According to See Police Budget, Page 3
Leaky roof at WHS gymnasium being addressed By AMY PORTER Correspondent WESTFIELD – Westfield Public Schools Superintendent Stefan Czaporowski said Wednesday morning that a roofing company was going to the high school “as we speak” to assess the leaky roof at the school’s gymnasium. Several sports activities have been rescheduled recently due to the problem. “We’ll have it taken care of as soon as possible,” Czaporowski said. He said they thought Work crews are atop the gymnasium of they had located the problem in the roof drains, Westfield High School to address and repair but were unable to stop the leaks. areas of the roof that were found to be leaking into the facility below. (Photo by Lynn Boscher) See Leaky Roof, Page 8