Pulseline

PulseLine, April 12, 2013

Dont blame the PulseLine – the truth sometimes is very hurtful. Animals have no voice. I believe the 3-yr-old family pet was trying to rescue the boy, not harm him. There are rescue groups out there. It’s a sad mistake all around. I will not apologize.

Has the age limit changed at The Arbors on Court Street? It seems on any given day or night, and especially weekends, their back lawn is overflowing with yelling and screaming children. Maybe they’re just hosting parties for the residents’ families? It strikes them as being a little excessive to say the least.

Does your paper inform to the cops ever on what is spoken or who wrote it in the PulseLine if the person chooses not to mention his or her own name at the end? It depends but to this point we have not had to notify them.

It was always my understanding that when a position was available with the Police Dept., it was posted and policemen were able to apply. Evidently, the Town of Southwick Selectmen play by their own rules!!!

A tragic day for the little boy who was injured by the family dog and a sad decision to have the dog euthanized. God Bless the boy and I hope he has a complete recovery. There are so many lessons to be learned from this accident. When children are playing, no dog should be allowed with them, especially when it is not certain how they will re-act when kids are screaming. Children should not be left alone, if a dog is allowed to be in the play area. When families choose to have children and a dog, they should consider the breed of dog they choose. The dog knew that boy was in trouble and went to save him; because he was SCREAMING. Did he know how to???? NO, but at least he was there to try. That dog should have never been euthanized. He was a young, beautiful animal that had never had problems prior to this incident. There are many rescues that would have taken that dog.

It’s good to see someone else is running for mayor. Mr. Roeder is standing up against these runaway taxes we’re paying because we have a mayor who spends, spends, spends and several councilors who back him up. The time is now, citizens of Westfield. Stop complaining and get out and vote. Show them they’ve pushed us to the limit.

On average we paid 12.2 percent less on our utilities then other Mass. state utilities but that does that take into account that the other utilities are mandated by the government to charge other charges that WGE don’t have to pay. So is it really 12.2 percent? The short answer is absolutely. The WG&E, while not “mandated by the government to charge” for programs that investor owned utilities charge with line items on their bills, offers many of the same programs such as conservation and energy efficiency programs. These programs have been quite successful as evidenced by Westfield being one of the first utilities to receive a Department of Energy Resources (DOER) grant as a result of the these offerings. – Dan Howard, General Manager, Westfield Gas and Electric

Dear Westfield folks, Please try to leave a good impression on people coming into westfield to spend money. For example if someone doesn’t realize they chose a turn only lane how about NOT running them off the road. It’s not rocket surgery! Treat people how you would like to be treated. Have a lovely day.

The state rates our schools a number three on a scale of one to four, with four being the best. That makes us below average. To help remedy this unacceptable situation, the school administration has instituted an “in school training” program for teachers. It requires teachers attend training sessions on school time, releasing the children early. However state regulations say students must have a set number of hours in school to complete the education requirements so it has been necessary to add six minutes a day. As a show of concern and gratitude for the administrations efforts, the teachers have demanded they either be paid for the six minutes a day or have a day added to their three month summer vacation. The day was added and once again our teachers have shown a complete disregard for the children. Really teachers, six minutes? Well the new contract negotiations are about to start and here are some suggestions from us parents and taxpayers. No raises, step or otherwise, until our system is rated at least a three on the state scale. And if we do not reach that level in two years, we would start replacing 20 percent of the teaching staff every year for the next five years or until we do reach the appropriate rating level. Perhaps we can find some new teachers that will actually be more concerned with our children’s education than how much time they can spend on their already lengthy summer vacations.

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