The School Department has provided their proposed budget to Council and the Mayor. There are some highlights of the budget that jump out including the following: $1,511,025 in negotiated raises, $345, 307 in salary step raises, $606,524 in severance increases, $211,000 for the Russell Elementary School startup, and $973,265 in Special Education tuitions. The total School Department budget as presented is over $60 million.
We expect to receive the Mayor’s proposed budget, including this School Department budget at our first meeting in June. We will have our work cut out for us as we review these figures. It is unfortunate that we will not receive the proposed budget at this week’s Council meeting. We once again will be under the gun to work on this most important financial document and have our vote prior to July 1, 2015. It will be a time for all of the City Council to work together to finalize the most realistic and common sense budget we can all agree on and live with.
A comment was made recently on Channel 15 regarding the contributions of the Alice Burke administration. I have heard much about Alice Burke from former City officials who have worked with Mayor Burke and most of their recollections were positive. I wanted to learn a bit more about our first woman Mayor (and first Woman Mayor in New England) and found that there is much archived material about her and her administration in the Westfield Athenaeum. Mayor Burke, served four terms as our Mayor and was motivated to run for political office when the School Committee in 1932 enacted a regulation prohibiting teachers in the Westfield School system from working for the City IF their spouses were also employed by the City. There was only one teacher who fell under this restriction, Alice Burke. Mrs. Burke responded with a successful run for School Committee followed by campaigns for Mayor. Mayor Burke was an excellent administrator and legislator, holding every elected office in the City of Westfield except that of Ward Councilor. During her eight years as Mayor the tax rate was never raised but was actually cut five times.
One of the items on our agenda this week was a request from the Water Department for $211,000 to purchase land for water protection. The land is located in Granville and is known as the Paul Jensen property. The authorization allows the City to purchase the land for future conservation rights. According to Dave Billips, Superintendent of the Water Resources Department this land “..is extremely important to our efforts to protect the Granville Reservoir drinking water supply. Portion of these parcels to be acquired lay within the zone A protection area of the reservoir. Zone A is the most critical area for protection efforts.”
Today, May 23, there will be a Veterans Memorial Remembrance at the Circle of honor within Stanley Park at 10 AM. Robert A. Greenleaf, Westfield’s remaining survivor of the 1941 attack at Pearl Harbor will be honored as a featured speaker. For those of you attending this service in the past it is very moving and the organizers honor all branches of the military, welcoming those who have served in each brank to stand and be acknowledged while their Branch’s Anthem is played.
Westfield’s Memorial Day Parade will be held on Monday, May 25 with a 10 a.m. start on North Elm Street. The Memorial Day ceremony will commence at Parker Park upon the termination of the parade.
Please have a safe Memorial Day weekend as we mark this important Holiday.
Sincerely,
Mary O’Connell
Ward Four City Council
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not the staff, editor, or publisher of this publication.
