Sadly the Westfield State University has banned Senior Citizens from the indoor walking track after 9AM weekday mornings, making it most difficult for these folks to take advantage of this facility during the cold winter months. This new policy will mostly affect a few dozen folks, mostly senior woman, who usually never have more than a half dozen on the track at any particular time. The few classes held during this period rarely if ever occupy more than a third of the center court of this very large facility. Apparently these elitist professors simply want the entire facility to themselves, how selfish! Well since seniors still pay local, state & federal taxes and have no children in schools, perhaps we have some rights here. If our health is not a concern of the university staff then we should not have to contribute our tax monies to their salaries. I would urge everyone to Email or write your state representatives & Governor to withhold all future senior tax funding to this institution. You can reach Don Humason at [email protected], John Velis at [email protected],, the Governors office at www.mass.gov/governor/ ,the Ma. Senate President at www.stanrosenberg.com/. The Westfield News reached out to Westfield State University for a response and we heard the following from Robert Rausch, Jr., Chair and Professor of the Department of Movement Science: The Woodward Center serves as both an academic and athletic facility. The Woodward Center indoor track is generally available for the public to use weekdays between 7 a.m. to 9 am. After 9 a.m., the facility is reserved for use by students and faculty for class instruction. Faculty and students taking classes at the Woodward Center appreciate the opportunity to hold and participate in classes in an environment that is most conducive to learning for their field of study. In fact, many of the students in those classes go on to serve the public as educators, or in public safety, government and business roles. Once classroom hours are finished, the Woodward Center transforms into a vibrant center of athletic activity as varsity teams practice and compete. At any given time, baseballs or softballs are being hit and thrown, shot puts and weights are being tossed, and nationally-competitive student athletes are speeding around the track while training. Good risk management requires that at times we preclude outside parties from using the field house simultaneously for both the safety of the students and our guests.
Pulseline: Hi, I have a question. I’d like to know why the Gas and Electric uses a southern contractor, I think it’s South Carolina, to read our gas and electric meters. Maybe this newspaper could do an article on this? Thank you very much. We reached out to the Westfield Gas & Electric for an answer to your question and here’s what they told us: For the past three years, the WG+E has been converting and upgrading all electric and gas meters in the City (approximately 28,000 in total) to automated meters. This project will eventually allow utility meters in Westfield to be read remotely without the need to send a WG+E meter reader to the home or business expect for a required annual check. Up until very recently, this conversion work had been done entirely by WG+E employees. With winter approaching, and the desire to wrap up this large-scale project before weather conditions and associated snowfall impacted progress, the WG+E took on contracted workers provided by the manufacturer of the gas meter modules to assist in the final stages of this conversion and testing of the new meter components.
