Please be advised that Governor Deval L. Patrick has ordered that the United States flag and the Commonwealth flag be lowered to half-staff at all state buildings from sunrise until sunset today in honor of PFC Michael A. Gorman of Brookline who died February 5, 2013. This gubernatorial order applies to: 1. The main or administration building of each public institution of the Commonwealth, e.g. town and city halls. 2. Other state-owned or state-controlled buildings. 3. All state military installations.
I would like to thank the four gentleman who helped a car stuck on the Westfield rotary Friday night. To the man in the Carhart snowsuit: you were gracious and tenacious. To the man with the shovel: you kept an awesome sense of humor throughout and to the two of Westfield’s finest: thanks for hanging in there to push my car out of the snowdrift. Thanks again!!
Yes, I just came from downtown Westfield. I think they did an awful job again plowing. I’m going to give credit to the DPW. I think they do a good job, but it’s the people they hire – they’re about a foot or a foot and a half away from the curb. There’s no need for it, because there’s no snow left behind from the last storm. It was pretty much all clear by the side of the road from the curb. They could have pushed that snow way back. Now look at the trouble we got. I went downtown this morning and I had to pull over to the sides – another car came towards me and had to squeeze by me. This is no way to run a city. And I think Jim Mulvenna, he’s in charge of the DPW, he should get in touch with these people who are hired to do the job, to have them do it right. And he should go around a take a look and see how everything’s going instead of sitting in the office. So Westfield better wake up. People are getting a little ticked off about it.
Dear PulseLine: on doing more tests in our brownfield in Russell. This brownfield exists as the result of contamination of the soils at the former Westfield River Paper Co. lagoons. These lagoons were used to filter paper pulp through sand for many years by The Westfield River Paper Co. After the mill went down, a company called Russell Biomass cleaned up the site. This was confirmed by tests done by Mass. Dept of Environmental Protection! Recently these tests have been challenged by The Concerned Citizens of Russell. They fought a six-year battle against the proposed biomass plant and defeated it last year! They did their own tests at the lagoon site and found many toxins on the soil including e-coli. Three more tests were done by The D.E.P. but did not find these toxins. Now the C.C.R. wants another test done on this site! At last Tuesday’s (2-5-13) selectboard meeting selectboard member Pandoria Hague said that she was in favor of more testing because she believed that The Westfield River is an aquifer. Selectmen Keith Cortis and selectman Jason Boyer disagreed! They said that it was not an aquifer and that three negative soil tests were enough to prove that the site has been reclaimed. If The Westfield River is an aquifer like Cobble Mountain Reservoir why do we have a sewer plant sitting in the middle of it? The Westfield River is class “B” water that’s suitable for fishing! It is not drinking water as claimed by anti-industry activist who call it an aquifer! The same people that killed the proposed biomass plant are very worried! A concerned citizen notified our selectboard that all the asbestos in the former paper mill has been removed and industry can now move in. We have a beautiful industrial site in Russell with a multimillion-dollar bridge from Main Street serving it. The anti-industry activists in town want it to be declared an aquifer so it cannot be developed!
To all of the Westfield High School Swimmers: We join all of your fans in saying you are OUR Western Mass Champions, even if that Swimming and Diving Championship meet had to be cancelled because of the snowstorm. We want you to know that we are proud of you! Not only were both the boys’ and girls’ teams undefeated this year but also so many of the team members achieved personal best times during the season. We have followed the Westfield News swim meet reports, even if we were not able to get to the meets. Chris Putz did a fabulous job describing the boys’ squeaker against Minnechaug’s strong team on January 29. How exciting it was to read about the Bombers “B” relay that may have saved the day at that meet. We wish every member of both teams could go to the State competition because it takes every member of both teams to come up with your fabulous titles of “unbeaten league champs”. Congratulations!
Have a question: why is the municipal parking lot behind the Sheraton Inn not plowed? All other lots are plowed. Those truck drivers need to deliver salt, remove snow from different towns. Plus many other deliveries they have to make. Think what it would be like: no trucks bringing you food, water, etc. Please plow so they can get their trucks.
