Search for The Westfield News
WEATHER TONIGHT Rain showers early. Low of 64.
The Westfield News
“Try to learn
something about everything and everything about something.”
Serving Westfield, Southwick, and the surrounding Hilltowns
www.thewestfieldnews.com
VOL. 85 NO. 211
— T.H. HUXLEY
75 cents
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2016
Community Development office seeking comments on CDBG performance report By AMY PORTER Correspondent WESTFIELD – The Office of Community Development has posted its Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report (CAPER) on the city website at www.cityofwestfield. The CAPER outlines the progress made with Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds from the US Department of Housing and Community Development (HUD) for the period of July 1, 2015 through June 30, 2016. The CAPER, which is also available at the Office of Community Development Room 300, 59 Court Street, is available
for public comment through Friday, September 23. Highlights of the program year detailed in the report included new sidewalks on Sherman Street, Franklin Avenue and White Street. Also, a new playscape was purchased and installed at the Whitney playground in the South Elm Riverfront area. The city also provided funding to the Westfield Athenaeum to develop architectural drawings for improved access to the public library. Towards the goal of creating economic opportunity, the city offered its “Best Retail Practices” program in
which eight microenterprises participated. All eight received expert advice on how to attract customers and utilize their space, with four businesses receiving grants from CDBG to invest in improvements. Spending on public services focused on providing holistic services to individuals of low income. The Greater Westfield Committee on Homelessness was funded to provide case management services to low income individuals and families, connecting clients with housing and job search assistance, and public See CDGB, Page 3
Westfield water restrictions update
Local officials host event for new salt shed By GREG FITZPATRICK Correspondent SOUTHWICK – The groundbreaking event for the official announcement of the new salt shed took place at the DPW on Wednesday morning. As the salt shed will be located right behind the DPW garage, the official announcement took place at that location with NEL Corporation working on the salt shed in the background. Select Board Chief Administrator Karl Stinehart, Chairman Russ Fox, and member Doug Moglin were present as well as Rep. Nick Boldyga and Sen. Don Humason. Along with DPW Director Randy Brown, each of the local officials dug into a dirt pile with a shovel in hand in order to make the opening of the new salt shed official. “The salt shed is a capital item that we’ve been trying to pursue for many years,” said Stinehart. Brown can attest to the several years the DPW and town officials have been attempting to have a new salt shed. “This is a long time in the making,” said Brown. “I have papers and records in the office going back to the mid 1980’s talking about a
Southwick Select Board members, Sen. Don Humason, Rep. Nick Boldyga, and DPW Director Randy Brown all had their shovels out to mark the official announcement of the new salt shed right behind the DPW. (Photo by Greg Fitzpatrick)
need for a new salt shed.” The DPW has had an issue in the last few years with shortages of salt. Brown vividly remembers making several phone calls a day during the winter to try and get deliveries for salt. According to Brown, NEL Corporation is expected to complete building the salt shed in a month and will be open just after that. As the old salt shed was located behind the Southwick Fire Department, it could only handle up to three snow storms in the winter. The upgrade will hold enough salt for a full year. Working with the state administration, Rep. Boldyga and Sen. Humason were able to get $450,000 through the executive office that was specifically
for the use of a new salt shed for the Southwick DPW. “It’s actually very rewarding when you can do something for a town like Southwick,” said Sen. Humason. Since Humason took visits to the old salt shed and saw the deplorable condition it was in, Boldyga too, has seen just how desperately the Town of Southwick needed a change. Being on the Southwick Select Board in the past, Boldyga has had the proper experience locally to deal with these type of needs for a town. “Local experience makes a huge difference when you talk to people at a state level,” said Boldyga. “Becoming a state rep, I’ve tried to get some movement.”
Disc golf facility takes major step forward By GREG FITZPATRICK Correspondent SOUTHWICK – After several months of going through the long process with the Planning Board, New England Disc Golf Center was approved by the Planning Board in a public hearing on Tuesday night. Partial business owners of the disc golf facility, Randy Brown, Freda Brown, and Drew Gardner were issued a special use permit form the Planning Board in order to be granted access to start the facility. The Planning Board did a roll-call vote and had the necessary four votes needed to officially approve the disc golf site on 41 & 51 John Mason Rd. The partial business owners still have
In February, the city reprogrammed $200,000 in unexpended CDBG funds to purchase 2 Central Street, which is nearing purchase of sale. “I would anticipate demolition would happen before the end of March,” said Community Development Director Peter Miller. (Photo by Amy Porter)
another step to get by in this process as a 20-day appeal process will be issued in the next few days. This allows the community to have the right to appeal the approval of this particular business. Gardner will be anxiously waiting for the appeal process to hopefully come to an end. “Waiting for it to finish, then if we don’t get appealed, we can start,” said Gardner. If there are no appeals made in the 20-day frame, New England Disc Golf will then be able to start the process with their facility. According to Gardner, the first priorities will consist of business planning, allocating the money and funding as well See Disc Golf, Page 3
By DAN DESROCHERS Correspondent WESTFIELD — As drought conditions continue in Massachusetts, residents of Westfield continue to have water restrictions in place that may continue through the fall. Residents will continue to see restrictions unless the Granville reservoir, which supplies Westfield with its water, is replenished to an adequate level. The restriction has helped to curtail some of the depletion so far, but city engineers are concerned that even with the restriction the water height at the reservoir will drop to a concerning level. “Unless we get some significant precipitation the reservoir won’t refill, even if we were to shut down the plant completely,” Heather Miller, city engineer of Westfield, said. The plant she refers to is the water treatment plant in Westfield. Miller said that the reservoir, which measures water supply in feet from the spillway, is much lower than it should be at this time of year and is expected to keep lowering. “Typically the reservoir continues to drop from August to October, but this year it is significantly lower,” Miller said. Miller said that currently the level is 7.2 feet below the spillway. However, at this point last year we were less than three feet below the spillway. In fact, the 7.2 feet below the spillway is lower than the reservoir was at its lowest point last year, which was just over 6.5 feet in October. If this continues, then Miller sees the water restriction being extended beyond its Sept. 30 deadline. Miller stressed though, that this does not mean the water supply is at an immediate risk of being lost, but it does mean that people must be conscientious of their water use and know there are issues that could arise going forward. One problem that could happen is that if the reservoir level gets low enough, the chemical properties of the water are changed. This change can lead to increased turbidity, or sediment and particulates in the water. See Water Restrictions, Page 3
PUBLIC NOTICE Construction Advisory - I90 Bridge Work
Partial business owners of the proposed disc golf course, Freda Brown and Drew Gardner just had their facility get approved by the Planning Board. (Photo by Greg Fitzpatrick)
The MA DOT will begin bridge work on all bridges over I90, starting September 6. Work will begin West to East and will start at the West Road overpass, followed by Montgomery Road, the Westbound I90 on-ramp in Westfield and Southampton Road. Roadwork may be concurrent depending on nature of repairs. They will then proceed with I90 bridges over PVRR and Lockhouse Road. Please be aware of these possible traffic concerns.
Plans set for new solar array in Westfield By DAN DESROCHERS Correspondent WESTFIELD–The planning board heard plans for a new large scale solar power generator proposed to be built on Western Avenue yesterday. Rob Levesque, from R. Levesque Associates, spoke on behalf of Green Meadow Lumber and proposed the plan to the board. The potential solar power generator would help to provide energy back to the city and would be built on land owned by the lumber company at 994 Western Ave. Levesque said that the plan is designed for a roughly 10.7-acre large solar array, along with two generators. The generators were reportedly low in
noise and will only produce a light humming sound that can be heard only when near them. The site is part of the Green Meadow Lumber property, and was estimated at “at least 1,000 feet” from the roadway, in addition to approximately 25 feet below street level. Levesque also said that the tract of land where the proposed site would be has several natural buffers, including trees, protected land and a river. The largest concern for the planning board appeared to be whether the floodplain that the project is designed to cut into would be compromised. Levesque explained that due to FEMA floodplain design, the actual designa-
tion may change when his group further surveys the land. Additionally, he said that he would approach the conservation commission on Monday, Sept. 12 to discuss the plan with them and field any suggestions. The group planning the build said that the project could potentially produce up to 2.6 million killowatt-hours of energy for Westfield by allowing the city to purchase the energy. Westfield Gas and Electric and Green Meadow Lumber are currently in negotiations. The plan is set to come back to the planning board during their next meeting, on Tuesday Sept. 20.