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The Westfield News Serving Westfield, Southwick, and the surrounding Hilltowns
www.thewestfieldnews.com WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2016
VOL. 85 NO. 47
Barry offers updates on sewers, building projects, searches By HOPE E. TREMBLAY Staff Writer SOUTHWICK – Southwick-TollandGranville Regional Schools Superintendent John Barry updated the school committee last night on several key issues. First, Barry said e received official confirmation from the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) that leftover funds from the Southwick campus renovation project could be used to connect to the sewer system. See Updates, Page 3
— FRANCOIS RABELAIS
75 cents
Legion’s Americanism programs supported
WSU LECTURE SERIES
JUSTICE JOHN GREANEY
Greaney to discuss the Constitution at Westfield State WESTFIELD – As part of its guest lecture series, Westfield State University will hold a lecture by Justice John Greaney, retired from the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on “Mysteries (and History) of the Constitution: The Role of the Supreme Court” on Wednesday from 6:30-8:30 p.m. in Scanlon Banquet Hall B and C. The lecture is free and open to the public. Justice John Greaney served with distinction in the Hampden County Housing Court, the MA Superior Court, the MA Appeals Court, and the MA Supreme Judicial Court. While on the MA Supreme Judicial Court he authored numerous significant opinions on such matters as termination of life support, the constitutional right to an adequate public school education, and most notably a strong concurring opinion in the landmark Goodridge ruling establishing the right to same-sex marriage in Massachusetts. Born in Westfield, Greaney earned his B.A. from the College of the Holy Cross and his J.D. from New York University School of Law where he was a Root-Tilden scholar and chairperson of the Annual Survey of American Law. Greaney currently serves as director of the Macaronis Institute for Trial and
JOHN BARRY Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional Schools Superintendent
“It is my feeling that Time ripens all things; with Time all things are revealed; Time is the father of truth.”
WESTFIELD – American Legion Post 124 is happy to announce that former State Senator Michael R. Knapik, State Senator Don Humason, State Representative John Velis and Westfield Mayor Brian Sullivan have contributed to be sponsors and providing opportunities for local youth later this year to attend programs on Government and Law Enforcement. Knapik, of Westfield State Foundation’s WSKB 89.5FM, donated $325 to sponsor a local citizen (high school junior) to attend Boys State during June 11-17 at Stonehill College in North Easton, Massachusetts. He attended the Massachusetts Boys State program as a high school junior in 1980 was sponsored by Post 124. If you were to ask him about Boys State, he’ll tell you that attending Boys State had a definite impact on him in choosing to run for office. He returned to Boys States in 1983 and 1984 as a counselor and was often a speaker during the 1990s and 2000s as a Legislator Guest. He said that Boys and Girls State are great programs and would encourage high school juniors who are interested in Government to apply at their high school guidance office. Humason, who represents the 2nd Hampden and Hampshire District, is also a strong advocate of the Massachusetts Boys and Girls State programs conducted by the Department of Massachusetts American Legion (Boys State) and American Legion Auxiliary (Girls State). Humason will be sponsoring a citizen to attend Boys State in June. “The skills and experience that young people can obtain through the Boys and Girls State Programs can be foundational for successful careers in government and civic leadership. I am happy to sponsor a young citizen’s participation in this year’s program,” said Humason. Velis was introduced to the Boys State program when he attended the 2015 Boys State orientation and has been an advocate and supporter of the Boys/Girls state program ever since. In fact, Representative Velis will be a See Legion Programs, Page 8
See Lecture Series, Page 3
Maple syrup season remains uncertain
STEVEN BOISSEAU
By AMY PORTER Correspondent HUNTINGTON – Steven Boisseau was out in a t-shirt checking his maple sugar taps on Route 66 in Huntington earlier this month. Boisseau, who owns the Boisseau Family Sugar House on Goss Hill Road, has 1,300 taps all over Huntington but he said, he isn’t tapping yet. “I’m just fixing anything damaged by squirrels and fallen limbs, so I’ll be
ready to go when the weather breaks,” he said. Boisseau said it is a lot easier tapping the trees without 3-4 feet of snow on the ground. “The last few years it’s been on snowshoes and terrible,” he said. Last year was a good year for maple syrup, though. This year, there’s an inch of mud on top of the frost in the ground, See Season, Page 3
Former State Senator Michael R. Knapik, State Senator Don Humason, State Representative John Velis.
State’s voters up for grabs in Tuesday’s primary contests By STEVE LeBLANC and BOB SALSBERG Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts can often feel like a liberal afterthought in the crush of Super Tuesday presidential primary contests. That isn’t the case this year. Both the Republican and Democratic races are still very much in play ahead of next week’s primary. Will Massachusetts Democrats follow the lead of virtually the entire party establishment in the state and back Hillary Clinton like they did eight years ago? Or will the same voters who elected U.S.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren be drawn to Bernie Sanders, who has echoed many of her core themes? On the Republican side, will GOP voters stay true to their Massachusetts moderate reputation or instead run off with one of the GOP outsiders? What about independents who comprise more than half of Bay State voters? This primary, Massachusetts politics is anything but predictable. The Bay State — awash in college campuses and a left-of-center Democratic primary base — may end up being fertile ground for
Sanders who could benefit from the lengthy exposure the Vermont senator gained in the Boston media market during the run-up to his New Hampshire primary victory. Clinton, who handily defeated then-U.S. Sen. Barack Obama in the 2008 Massachusetts primary — 56 percent to 40 percent — has been endorsed by much of the state’s Democratic political establishment with one notable exception. Warren, perhaps the state’s highest-profile Democrat, has declined to endorse either Clinton or Sanders, even as Sanders builds on Warren’s criticisms of Wall Street and rising student load debt.
“Her silence has given Sanders and his people an opening in Massachusetts that he might not have had otherwise,” said Peter Ubertaccio, director of the Martin Institute for Law & Society at Stonehill College. Sanders invoked Warren during a boisterous campaign rally Monday at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. “What our campaign has been talking about is the fact that we have a corrupt campaign finance system, the fact that we have a rigged economy, something your senator, Elizabeth See Super Tuesday, Page 7