To get the full effect of the PulseLine, listen to the calls at thewestfieldnews.com.
I have a few questions I would like to ask Senator Humason and Representative Velis. I received my voter information booklet the other day and I see that Massachusetts now has early voting. WHY? I know other states have had early voting for years and I never could understand why. Absentee ballots have been available. Don’t they suffice any longer? Also, will this be for local elections in the future or just for national elections? I also want to know who made this rule/law? Why couldn’t there have been a statewide ballot question so the electorate could decide if we had early voting? I sometimes feel like ballot questions are given to ” We the People” at election time just to keep us quiet and make us feel important while all the rest of the time lawmakers do what they want I believe absentee ballots are counted after the election. Will early voting tallies be handled the same way or is this just so whoever is running for election can see how good or bad they are doing? There are six question marks above. I would like six answers please. Westfield City Clerk Karen Fanion will be on The Westfield News Radio Show this coming Thursday Oct. 13th. You can listen to it at 89.5fm or at wskb.org or watch it on cable access ch. 15 and she will be able to answer these questions.
Ugh. I just read the Saturday PulseLine about Westfield school performance. To the person who wrote it: Do you even read the articles in the Westfield News or just the headlines because they have reported on the state school scores a multitude of times. They have clearly explained, as they did in their response to you, how a school gets their state assigned score. If you recall, last year Westfield Tech was a Level 1 school but due to a lower than expected performance from one group in one testing area they dropped to Level 3, now the entire school is classified as a Level 3. Take a look at all schools across the state at this website: http://profiles.doe.mass.edu/state_report/accountability.aspx. Based on the size of the district, Westfield schools are a good place for our kids. I’m proud to have had my kids go through Westfield schools.
Just a reminder…the new bus terminal on Arnold St. is being built by the PVTA, not the city of Westfield. Do not complain that the city is doing it wrong. Oh, and by the way, the public hearings on this were a long time ago and that was when you needed to speak out. Not as it nears completion. Stop being an armchair critic after the fact. Get involved from the beginning.
I hear a lot of people requesting term limits for elected officials. I want to point out that you have the power on November 8th. Take a look at the people we have in office more than a decade. Ten years is plenty of time to serve the public. Let’s get some new ideas and blood elected.
