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The Westfield News Serving Westfield, Southwick, and the surrounding Hilltowns
www.thewestfieldnews.com
VOL. 83 NO.164
WEDNESDAY, JULY 16, 2014
“I think I’ve discovered the secret of life — you just hang around until you get used to it.” — Charles M. Schulz
75 cents
Planning Board meeting ‘adjourned’
Excavation continues on a new running track at the Powder Mill Middle School in Southwick, foreground, after philanthropist Steven Nielsen made a donation of approximately $500,000 for the replacement of the 30-plus year-old track, which is already named for Dick Atkinson, a retired Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional High School teacher. Town residents also approved a $150,000 transfer from Community Preservation Act funds to complete the project. Nielsen, who lives in Florida, approached School Superintendent John Barry about building a new track last fall. Barry expects the track will be complete by mid-September. (Photo by Frederick Gore)
Town school projects progress By Peter Francis Staff Writer SOUTHWICK – A meeting of the SouthwickTolland Regional School Building Committee yesterday served as an opportunity for project heads to share status reports on the building projects currently in progress at Woodland and Powder Mill Schools and Southwick-Tolland Middle/High School. Project Manager Michael McGarry of Strategic Building Solutions stated that the projects are running into a few small snags, but that contractors RUSSELL FOX and laborers will be working extra hours and weekends to ensure the building projects are completed on time. “Up at the high school/middle school in the middle school addition, they’re actually painting walls and getting ready for interior finishes,” he said. “In the high school addition, the drywall is going up, mechanical/ electrical roughings are going in.” McGarry added that in the existing building, the demolition abatement of the work that began in June has been completed, and that mechanical/ electrical installations have begun there. He has set August 20 as a substantial completion date. “At Powder Mill School, we’re proceeding on schedule. The demoli-
tion and abatement is essentially complete and we’re working on mechanical, electrical plumbing routes, new windows are being installed,” he said, listing that project’s substantial completion date as “around August 20.” August 20 is also the magic number for Woodland, which is in the final phase of it’s renovation, and it’s demo abatement is near completion with mechanical systems are going in, according to McGarry. “It’s new roof has been completed over there, new windows are going in, and if all goes according to plan, we’ll be taking down the temporary classrooms in the fall,” he said. A change order was also approved by the committee for items at each of the three schools, ranging from the replacement of showers and ventilation systems at the high school, to replacing blackboards with modern whiteboards at Powder Mill. “Change order 7 is additional costs and credits to the building project based on the work thats taking place in the field,” said Steve Presnal, school business manager for the town of Southwick. “Based on the conditions they’re finding, things that have to be addressed.” When asked of his take on the progession of the three projects, Presnal said that the contractors are “in high gear.” “Everybody is doing the best they can to get it done so that we can start school on time. Right now we’re cautiously optimistic we’re going to See Projects Progress, Page 3
Weather pattern filling Granville reservoir By Dan Moriarty Staff Writer WESTFIELD – The weather pattern of cold Canadian air colliding with moist tropical air sweeping up the eastern half of the country has, and apparently will continue, to result on severe summer weather. The cycle of storms is helping to fill the city’s Granville Reservoir after it was emptied during repairs to the earthen dam, dam spillway and raw water transmission line which carries reservoir water to the city’s surface water treatment plant in Southwick. The Water Resource Department anticipated that Granville Reservoir would not have sufficient water to bring it and the treatment plant back on line until the fall, late September or October, and requested the Water Commission to extend its mandatory water ban on the outdoor use of water for a second year, a request that was approved at the beginning of this summer. The constant pattern of days of rain may hasten the filling of the reservoir and allow the city to return the treatment plant to service. The raw water intake is 18 feet below the dam spillway and the intake is usually several feet below the surface of the reservoir to provide adequate pressure at the treatment plant “It’s 40 and a half feet below the intake, so the level of the reservoir increased by eight feet since we closed the (outlet) valve last week,” Water Resource Engineer Charles Darling said. “We’ll see what the rain does (to raise the level) today. This will be good to fill the reservoir.” The city has drawn water from aquifers since the treatment plant was closed, a much more expensive source of water because of the cost of electrical power to operate the pumps. Relying on the wells has also created problems in some areas of the city with water pressure. The treatment plant feeding the Sackett water storage tank is at a higher elevation, which increases water pressure system wide. The treatment plant also injects chlorine into the water distribution system which inhibits bacterial growth, particularly in long dead-end pipes where water tends to not steadily move, an environment conducive to bacteria growth. The flow of water back into the impound area of the reservoir will create another problem, turbidity. “The rains will wash a lot of sediment into the reservoir,” Darling said. “We’ll have to wait a couple of days to let that settle before we open the intake to the treatment plant.”
“Once we start getting water to the plant, we can begin the start-up process, testing everything, washing the filter beds,” Darling said. “It will be very good to have the plant back. “If the summer stays wet it could happen sooner than we expected,” Darling said. “So maybe (the reservoir) fills more quickly than we expected. Usually we don’t get a lot of rain in July and the grass turns brown by the end of the month, but not this year.” Granville Reservoir holds 600 million gallons of water and has increased the water level to about 18 feet below the top of the dam to operate the treatment plant which will take two to three weeks to be put back on line after the water starts to flow from the reservoir.
The Granville Reservoir remains dry as a safety inspection is performed last month. (File photo by Frederick Gore)
By Dan Moriarty Staff Writer WESTFIELD – The Planning Board issued an “administrative continuance” for two public hearing items on the agenda and adjourned until its next posted meeting, Aug. 19, because enough members were not in attendance to constitute a quorum. Four of the current seven members were present for roll call, a number which has historically been considered a quorum, but that definition has changed as the result of an opinion handed down by the Law Department. The Planning Board is comprised of seven voting members, six ward representatives and one At-large member, and two alternative members who can vote in certain restricted situations, such as when a full voting member is not eligible. State law requires that Planning Board members attend the public hearing on special permit and subdivision petitions and that they are ineligible to vote if they missed a public hearing session. A public hearing can be conducted in one session or spread over months, making perfect attendance less likely. An example of a public hearing which spans months and multiple meetings was on the agenda last night, a special permit, site plan and stormwater plan submitted on March 18 by Julie and Nabil Hannoush, who are represented by Levesque Associates, Inc., for their property at 99 Springfield Road. The alternates are available to vote for an ineligible voting member if the alternate has attended all of the public hearing sessions. The current two alternates vote regularly because the board is short two “voting” members, a Ward 1 representative and the At-large representative. Principal Planner Jay Vinskey requested the Law Department to provide him with guidance because a new subdivision was reviewed by the board, which falls under different, although similar, state and local laws and regulations than special permits. Assistant City Solicitor Shanna Reed cited Massachusetts General Law (MGL), Chapter 40A, section 9 and 81A, stating that in the absence of local ordinance specifically defining the roll of alternate members, they are to be considered to be members of the Planning Board for subdivision control applications. State Law further required a 2/3 super majority to grant special permits, which on a seven member board is affirmative votes of five members, which historically has been the practice in Westfield. If the board consists of nine members, that super majority increases to six affirmative votes. Reed said “…there is no mention of associate membership in the provision of the zoning ordinance that speaks to the Planning Board in their role as (a) special permit granting authority.” Vinskey said that the issues would be a subject of discussion by the Planning Board in the future to identify some resolution to maintaining its past practices with regard to participation of the associate members.