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The Westfield News Serving Westfield, Southwick, and the surrounding Hilltowns
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Senior shows no signs of slowing By Peter Francis Staff Writer WESTFIELD – After moving to Minnesota a short while ago, it takes a major event for Kim Daniels to venture to Massachusetts these days. This week marked a special occasion though, one she wouldn’t miss. Daniels’ grandfather, Franklin Estes of Westfield, was turning 98 years old Tuesday, and her only worry was that she wouldn’t be able to keep up with him. “I get tired if I work outside for an hour,” joked Daniels as she sat beside her Grandpa during a rare moment when he wasn’t manicuring his property or running errands – activities that are a distant memory for most his age. Asked whether he is the oldest resident in the city’s Hampden Village neighborhood, Estes said he doesn’t doubt it. “I think so. I think I’d be the oldest anywhere,” he said with a giggle that belies his age. “I’ve actually met a few people in their 90s around.” Estes, who grew up in the North Adams area See Estes, Page 3
At 98, Franklin Estes still enjoys tending to his garden. (Photo by Peter Francis)
no defence like elaborate courtesy.” — E. V. Lucas
THURSDAY, JULY 31, 2014
VOL. 83 NO.177
“There can be
Disruption concerns delay project start
Ilnicky and Cathie Iglesias, senior Katie Nesmelova, and sophomore Vitaliy Melnik – who helped Red Cross workers with donors. “I like giving back to the community, whether it’s here at a blood drive or helping out at the police station,” said Nesmelova. “Our big thing is to get people to sign up for You Lead because our group has gotten a lot smaller. We have about 15 or 20 in the (You Lead) program.” “It feels great helping out the community. Next year, we’re going to have four blood drives,” said Melnik, before attesting to the need for the You Lead program to regenerate itself. “We had five or six seniors leave this year.” As for the need for blood donations, Jecoliah Ellis, external communications manager for the Massachusetts Red Cross, said the need for blood units is “critical” at the moment. “The American Red Cross is facing a looming blood shortage, which is leading to an urgent need for donors of all blood types,” said Ellis, urging Bay Staters to roll up their sleeves and donate. “Donations through the Red Cross are down approximately 8 percent over the last 11 weeks, and that’s resulting in about 80,000 fewer donations nationwide,” she said. “To prevent emergency shortages and an adequate supply all summer long, we especially need platelet donors with type O negative, type E negative, and type A negative blood.” “By encouraging people to come
By Dan Moriarty Staff Writer WESTFIELD – The Gaslight District Project is anticipated to begin in earnest next week as the coordination effort to minimize the disruption of city services to downtown residents and business progresses. City Engineer Mark Cressotti said the $5.9 million Gas Light District Improvement Projec, anticipated to begin in June, will pick up steam. “It’s been a really slow start because we’re trying to be surgical out of sensitivity to residents and businesses downtown,” Cressotti said. “Every week for the past month we’ve been told it will start next week. We’ve been told, again, it will begin next week.” MARK CRESSOTTI The Gas Light District is the neighborhood between Elm and Washington streets and between Court and Franklin streets. The project will upgrade infrastructure to improve the quality of life for residents within the district. The project is also intended to position the city for economic development downtown. Cressotti said the present infrastructure is inadequate to support economic development and in many cases is failing, which has a direct impact on residents in the district because of interruption of water and sewer services. “What is unusual is that we’re replacing the sewer lines. The city doesn’t typically do that, but in this instance we have to take out and replace those lines because there is significant inflow and infiltration of ground water,” Cressotti said. “There is also an issue of asbestos pipes sitting in high ground water.” The city has allocated $3.3 million to replace sewers in the district. City Engineer Mark Cressotti requested the use of the city’s Inflow & Infiltration (I&I) account funds to replace the existing sewer infrastructure, some of the oldest sewers in the city, and to perform associated work to tie buildings and homes into the new sewer system. The Board of Public Works voted in May to award the contract to Gagliarducci Construction Inc. of Springfield. The contractor will replace water and sewer lines, as well as bury overhead utilities and repave streets and off-street parking lots in the neighborhood designated as the Gas Light District. “There are a lot of stakeholders, residents, building owners, businesses, even the city’s off-street parking because those lots between Franklin and School streets
See You Lead, Page 3
See Gaslight Distric Project, Page 3
Brian King, a blood technician for the American Red Cross, inspects a bag of blood during a blood drive sponsored by the You Lead students of Westfield Vocational-Technical High School. The blood drive was staged at the Amelia Park Ice Arena Wednesday. (Photo by Frederick Gore)
Students hold blood drive By Peter Francis Staff Writer WESTFIELD – Students from the “You Lead” Program at Westfield Vocational-Technical High School were in a large room just inside the Amelia Park Ice Arena doorway, receiving blood donations to give to the American Red Cross. The group collected 54 lifesaving units of blood at closing time, and over the past eight years, blood drives at the arena have collected almost 400 units. “We’re a student-run organization aimed at trying to create better environments for our community and our school,” said Megan Ilnicky, a recent WVTHS graduate who has been involved with the program since her sophomore year. “We’re a drug and alcohol-free program and do community service events where we run blood drives partnering with the United Way and Red Cross.” “The community has already done so much for me at Voke that I always feel like giving back. It’s always nice to help out other people, because you never know when you’ll be in a time of need,” she said. You Lead has put on numerous events that have drawn large crowds and raised large sums of money for some noble causes, including a car wash to help a local girl who was stricken with a rare form of cancer, and assisting the Westfield Police Department on several occasions, such as with the first Run Westfield 5K Race in memory of fallen WPD Officer Jose Torres. You Lead was represented by four students on the afternoon – graduates
Random sticker checks net violations By Hope E. Tremblay Staff Writer SOUTHWICK – Two days of unannounced spot checks at the town transfer station found numerous violations. Department of Public Works Director Randy Brown said he worked with the Southwick Police Department to conduct the operation. “Every vehicle was checked,” said Brown. “We did it now because the fiscal year started July 1 and residents need a new sticker to use the transfer station.” Vehicles were checked Saturday, July 26 and Tuesday, July 29. Every vehicle that enters the transfer station should have a current sticker adhered to it. Brown said at least one person was discovered sharing the sticker with someone else. Transfer station stickers are $100 for the fiscal year, with a $28 charge
for a secondary vehicle in the same household. Senior citizen stickers are $50, and there are prorated fees for those who purchase a sticker halfway through the year. A one day pass and a recycling only sticker are also available. The surprise check is something Brown plans to do again. “This is something we will do regularly,” he said. “We have had about 60 people buy stickers since Saturday.” Although those without a valid sticker were turned away at the gate during the random checks, Brown said they were allowed to purchase them online and were admitted into the station with proof of purchase. Brown said there are two options to purchase stickers. “Transfer station stickers can be purchased online through the town website and a sticker will be mailed
the next business day,” said Brown, “or they can be purchased at the town clerk’s office.” Police were present to “keep the peace” during the checks, said Brown. The officers took the opportunity to do checks of their own. “They found several cars with bad inspection stickers and other issues,” Brown said. The station sticker allows residents to bring household trash and recyclable materials for disposal. Additional fees apply for items outside the realm of regular trash, including a $20 fee for each television or computer, $10 for a freezer, air conditioner or refrigerator, $20 for large appliances, $16 for a mattress or box spring, $5 for each propane tank, and $5 per dismounted tire (up to four). A complete list of regulations, hours and fees is available at www. southwickma.org.
A Southwick police officer checks the registration of a vehicle that was found to be towing a homemade trailer with no registration plate during a checkpoint inspection at the Southwick Transfer Station Saturday. The driver of the vehicle called his wife to deliver the trailer registration plate of which he left in the garage. The checkpoint was manned by a member of the Southwick Police Department and employees from the Southwick Department of Public Works to insure residents had purchased the proper 2015 transfer station sticker. (Photo by Frederick Gore)
Night-time assault case moves to Hampden Superior Court By Carl E. Hartdegen Staff Writer WESTFIELD – A city man saw assault charges dismissed in Westfield District Court yesterday but will answer for the same offenses in Hampden Superior Court. The charges – armed assault during a burglary, breaking and entering in the nighttime with intent to commit a felony, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, assault with a dangerous weapon and threatening to commit a crime – stem from a May 18, 2014 incident at General Shepard Apartments. At 3:16 a.m. that day a resident told an emergency dispatcher that she had awakened to find a man dressed in black standing over her husband holding a knife from her kitchen. She later told a responding police officer
JASON D. HANNUM that her husband woke when she screamed and grabbed for the knife, struggling with the man who, according to both residents, repeat-
edly yelled that he was going to kill them. The male resident suffered a cut in the struggle but was not seriously injured and the intruder fled. Officers responding to the call spotted the man dressed in black and, after a brief foot chase through Monroe Street backyards, Jason D. Hannum, 25, of 59 King St., was taken into custody. The victims were taken separately to view the man and both positively identified Hannum as the man who had threatened to kill them. Police subsequently found that the man had gained entry to the first floor apartment via a laundry room window. Hannum was initially held without right to bail when he was arraigned in Westfield District Court and after the subsequent dan-
gerousness hearing he continued to be held. In a court document explaining the reasons for ordering pretrial detention, First Justice Philip A. Contnat wrote “The overriding factor, in the Court’s mind, in support of pretrial detention, is the extremely violent nature of the underlying charges.” Noting that neither victim had ever seen Hannum before he appeared in their bedroom, Contant wrote “The victims literally had to fight for their lives in this 3:00 AM attack in their own bedroom.” Yesterday the charges in district court were dismissed after Hannum was indicted and arraigned in Hampden Superior Court where judges may mete out much stiffer penalties that those available to judges in district courts.