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The Westfield News Serving Westfield, Southwick, and the surrounding Hilltowns
VOL. 84 NO. 138
www.thewestfieldnews.com
“When you betray somebody else, you also betray yourself.”
— ISAAC BASHEVIS SINGER
THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2015
75 cents
Knapik sends $120M budget to council
Coach Kyle Delude presenting the John Wiley Memorial Scholarship to Xavier Haskin at the Westfield Vocational Technical High School Senior Awards June 3, 2015. (Photo by Wendy McCann)
WVTHS Senior Awards Westfield Mayor Dan Knapik addresses the audience at the Wednesday June 3, 2015 Westfield Vocational Technical High School Senior Awards Assembly. See additional photos Page 3. (Photo by Wendy McCann)
Nicole Parmentier handing an award to Alex Makarchuk at the Westfield Vocational Technical High School Senior Awards Wednesday June 3, 2015. (Photo by Wendy McCann)
By DAN MORIARTY Staff Writer WESTFIELD – Mayor Daniel M Knapik is proposing a $120,649,353 general fund budget for the 2016 Fiscal Year which begins July 1, 2015. Knapik cut $4,012,971 from the budget requests submitted by municipal departments. Knapik is also submitting a budget for revenue generating departments of $14,377,390. State law requires that proposed budgets for those departments and revolving accounts not exceed the income revenue of the previous year, a mandate that cut an additional $4,019,077 from the budget proposed by those departments. Knapik said that he made initial cuts to the proposed departmental budgets, and then gathered department heads with the goal of further reducing spending, needed to balance the proposed 2016 budge, by $1,250,000. The department supervisors cut another $836,000 by deferring capital equipment pur-
chased and not hiring new personnel to fill existing vacancies. “Presently I’m not forecasting any layoffs in municipal departments, but we’re not filling three vacancies in the Police Department and moved two paramedics at the Fire Department into the ambulance reserve fund account,” Knapik said. “The health insurance trust is fully funded,” Knapik said. “The 2016 FY budget will use $2 million of free cash to balance the budget.” Knapik is also addressing shortfalls in the current 2015 FY budget. The largest number is the snow and ice deficit of nearly $1.3 million. “We’ll clear that debt through a combination of free cash and squeezing money out of the budget, so 2015 will break even,” Knapik said. The use of free cash to close out 2015 and to balance the proposed 2016 budget will leave nothing in the free cash account and the city See Budget, Page 3
Grade requirement could alter future of Southwick sports By HOPE E. TREMBLAY Staff Writer SOUTHWICK – Students in grades seven and eight at Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional (STGR) High and Middle School have at least another year to participate in high school sports. School Principal Joseph Turmel told the School Committee that at the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) annual meeting, a new rule to keep middle school students from participating at the high school level in combined middle/high schools was approved in districts JOSEPH across the state, with the exception of District F, TURMEL which includes STGR schools. “It was common practice in 7-12 schools run by one principal that all students are eligible to play varsity and junior varsity,” said Superintendent John Barry. “Next year, seventh and eighth grade students are eligible to participate in high school sports, but beyond that we have some work to do.” Turmel said the rule was proposed by someone in the eastern part of the state because “schools that allow seventh and eighth grades to play have an advantage.” “Moving forward, this is something we need to advocate for,” Turmel said. Turmel noted that the athletic budget this year can accommodate equipment for middle school athletes as well as high school athletes. “We built a budget in the athletic program assuming that the expansion or addition of programs was coming,” Turmel said.
Southampton to restore paramedic-level ambulance service By CHRIS LINDAHL @cmlindahl Daily Hampshire Gazette SOUTHAMPTON — Paramedic-level ambulance services in Southampton will be restored three weeks later than previously thought, on July 1, as officials work to put proper drug record-keeping protocols in place and retrain staff. The temporary suspension of those services came after a May 28 inspection by the state Department of Public Health Office of Emergency Medical Services. The inspection revealed that Southampton Fire Department paramedics had not been following proper
drug record-keeping procedures. Following the inspection, state, town and hospital officials had previously agreed to restart paramedic-level services by June 10. Fire Chief John Workman met with Department of Public Health and Cooley Dickinson Hospital officials Wednesday to discuss the progress of obtaining recertification, which includes training paramedics about record-keeping procedures. “As many improvements are being put in place, the group agreed to a 1 July implementation date to allow more time for a thorough, comprehensive review of the town’s policies and procedures,” Dr. Raymond F. Conway,
medical director of emergency services at Cooley Dickinson in Northampton, said Wednesday in an email. Cooley Dickinson is licensed by the Department of Public Health to supervise treatment of patients by Southampton paramedics through an affiliation agreement. The hospital supplies the drugs used in the ambulance to treat patients “under tightly controlled” state requirements, Conway said. Workman said improvements at the Fire Department are already underway. Since last week’s inspection, Workman appointed paramedic David Murrett as the department’s Advanced Life Support coordi-
nator. Murrett is charged with meeting with hospital and state officials and ensuring all necessary drug management protocols are followed. “He’s a really good fit, and a really good choice to move forward,” Workman said Wednesday. “He’s really the oversight to make sure the affiliation agreement, all the protocols, all the updates that come from the state” are followed. In addition to working in Southampton parttime, Murrett also works full-time at the Northampton Fire Department.
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See Services, Page 3