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The Westfield News Serving Westfield, Southwick, and the surrounding Hilltowns
Chance of snow, freezing fog. Low of 22.
www.thewestfieldnews.com WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 2015
VOL. 84 NO. 058
Baker to unveil first state budget plan By STEVE LeBLANC and BOB SALSBERG Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — Gov. Charlie Baker faces the toughest hurdle of his brief tenure as governor when he unveils his proposed state budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. Baker already has dealt with pounding snowstorms and a $768 million budget shortfall for the current fiscal year. For the new state budget he plans to release today, Baker must close an estimated $1.5 billion spending gap — all while vowing not to hike taxes or fees. Baker has said he won’t cut state aid to cities and towns. He’s also pledged a nearly $65 million increase in state subsidies for the beleaguered Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority after weeks of snow-related delays and cancellations. “We’ve said all along that support for cities and towns and support for local education was going to be a major priority of ours and we meant it,” Baker told reporters yesterday. “If you have a really tough budget situation, you still find a way to support those things that are fundamental priorities for you.” He’s also called for doubling the earned income tax credit for low-income working families and the elimination of a state tax credit designed to boost the film industry in Massachusetts. Baker said increasing the earned income tax credit makes more sense than maintaining the film tax credit. He said the film tax credit produces what he called “middling results” without giving Massachusetts taxpayers the bang for the buck to which they’re entitled. In contrast he said those who would benefit most from an expansion of the earned income tax credit are single women with children who are working. “It’s one of the best ways I can think of for the commonwealth to send a loud message about wanting to make work pay, especially for those who are working hard every day to pay the bills and pay the rent,” Baker said. House Speaker Robert DeLeo said yesterday that he’s been a big supporter of the film tax credit. He said small businesses get a big boost when movies are shot in the state. The Winthrop Democrat also said that he’d prefer to hold off on additional funding for the MBTA until it’s determined whether the agency has its financial and management house in order. The Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, a budget watchdog group, has said the state could face a $1.5 billion budget gap. Baker says he’s ready to work with Democratic House and Senate leaders on a final budget — which he said he realizes will be a collaborative enterprise. “Budgets are statements of intent certainly, but this is a democracy with a small ‘d’ and I get the fact that in the end this will be a combo platter,” he said.
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER
“I do not understand the world, but I watch its progress.” — KATHERINE ANNE PORTER
75 cents
Committee membership makeup mulled
Science Center A large crane prepares to remove pre-manufactured steel girders from two delivery trucks, left, as construction of the Westfield State University’s new Science Center continued near the university’s commuter parking lot yesterday. (Photo by Frederick Gore)
Hilltowns launch medical emergency pilot program HUNTINGTON – Hilltown Community Ambulance Association is announcing its pilot program from its community outreach branch, Hilltown Plus. Hilltown Plus’ mission statement is to improve the health and lives of our residents by creatively utilizing available resources. The goal is to put EMTs and Paramedics out in the community with residents to highlight the importance of early use of 911 in medical or traumatic emergencies, and also to find ways to assist residents in living in their desired situations. Hilltown Plus is offering to visit residents of HCAA’s 6 communities (Blandford, Chester, Huntington, Russell, Montgomery and Worthington) and put all of the medical information required in an emergency on a USB drive; a portable data storage device that is accessible from any computer. The information collected will include demographics, medical history, medications, allergies, the patient’s baseline mental status and clearness of speech, a normal set of vital signs, and a baseline 12 lead EKG. The USB will stay with the patient and be accessed by the medical personnel on the ambulance or in the hospital in the event of an emergency. Technology like this is being offered by for profit companies, without assistance in adding
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the data, at price points of $35 and up. HCAA is offering this service at no charge; the program is funded by grants received over the last year and is currently able to provide this service to 370 residents. Interested residents do not need to do or provide anything aside from calling and requesting a visit. This project is the first of its kind in the region, and we have found no similar initiatives from EMS departments nationally. The concept of paramedics expanding their role in their communities is often called Community Paramedicine. In other regions the skills and proficiencies of paramedics are being used to ease the burden on overcrowded emergency departments and primary care offices who are overloaded with patients. This shift in the role of a paramedic recognizes the clinical abilities and sometimes under utilization of modern paramedics, particularly in rural areas or other areas with a designation of Medically Underserved Areas or Health Professional Shortage Areas. Any resident in the Hilltown Community Ambulance service communities can call Angela at 413-667-3277 to schedule a visit.
By DAN MORIARTY Staff Writer WESTFIELD – The Legislative & Ordinance Committee voted to recommend that the full City Council approve a change to the ordinance language creating the membership of the Conservation Commission to bring that ordinance into RALPH FIGY compliance with state and federal equal opportunity laws, as well as the city’s own equal opportunity policies. The current ordinance language requires that at least one member of the Conservation Commission be a woman and suggests that the commission also include a banker, lawyer and real estate agent. The revised ordinance deletes that language. Ward 2 Councilor Ralph Figy, chairman of the L&O, said the ordinance was written before the federal and state governments established the laws that provide equal opportunity regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation of religious beliefs. “This ordinance was written in the early 1970s before there were EEO (Equal Employment Opportunity) laws,” Figy said. Ward 4 Councilor Mary O’Connell said she plans to vote against the amendment because presently more than 100 men serve on boards and commission while MARY women, who comprise more than half of the city’s O’CONNELL population, have 50 members. “I went through the boards and commission where men outnumber women two to one. That’s not right,” O’Connell said. “The solution is that we, as a (legislative) body, need to encourage the corner office (mayor) to give us greater diversity on board and commissions. It is incumbent that we be tuned into that. I’d like us to try to right that (gender inequity).” O’Connell said that several other boards and See Membership, Page 3
Victims to relive horror of marathon bombing as trial begins
By DENISE LAVOIE AP Legal Affairs Writer BOSTON (AP) — Dozens of victims of the Boston Marathon bombing settled into a courtroom Wednesday to witness Dzhokhar Tsarnaev go on trial for his life in one of the biggest terrorism cases in the U.S. since Oklahoma City nearly 20 years ago. A shaggy-haired Tsarnaev, 21, sat at the defense table, wearing a gray suit jacket. Just before the jury was brought in, the judge rejected a fourth request from Tsarnaev’s lawyers to move the trial out of Boston Two dramatically different portraits of the former college student were expected to emerge in opening statements in federal court.
By DENISE LAVOIE AP Legal Affairs Writer BOSTON (AP) — In the two years since twin bombs tore through crowds at the Boston Marathon finish line, the case against suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has focused on arguments over where his trial should be held, who should sit on the jury and what evidence prosecutors should be allowed to use. Starting today, a day after a jury was selected, the focus will shift dramatically from the legal process to the harsh reality of what happened that day: the explosions, the screams, the chaos and the blood. Prosecutors are expected to present graphic images of the carnage caused by the bombs, including a surveillance video that authorities say shows Tsarnaev placing a backpack just feet from 8-year-old Martin Richard and his family. The boy died in the explosion. The bombs set April 15, 2013, killed three people and injured more than 260. At least 16 people lost limbs. “When people start streaming into that courthouse — many with missing limbs — and the prosecutors get up off their chairs and start talking about this again, people are going to relive the enormity and the awful nature of this,” said Gerry Leone, a former state and federal prosecutor who led the prosecution of shoe bomber Richard Reid but is not involved in the Tsarnaev case.
See Tsarnaev, Page 3
See Trial Begins, Page 3
Bombing victims arrive for start of Tsarnaev trial