Just a curious question…The Retire the Fire article is in both English and Spanish. The people who read the paper obviously read English. If someone only reads Spanish, how would they know this article was in the paper and why would they get the paper to read only one article? Just wondering the reasoning for printing in both languages!!! The Westfield Council on Aging has members who speak mostly Spanish so they have asked us to provide these articles in both languages. The younger generation of Spanish Americans speak mostly English however, their parents and grandparents may be mostly Spanish speaking and since these articles are for all generations we hope that the younger generations will provide the articles to their older family members to protect them.
PulseLine – OK, can I vent? I am really tired of all the negativity that certain regular contributors to send in to PulseLine. First, The Westfield News. This is not some billion dollar national media out let. But, it is a really good local paper. They cannot do everything for everyone. It covers police logs, and court activity local social events, local news, and items of local interest and concern for a local population all with a limited budget. These nabobs of negativity claim to be so fiscally astute but when the cost of doing business goes up, as the cost of everything; and the News raise their rates to meet the cost they can’t understand. Then there are the development projects… OK not perfect, not to all of our likings, BUT, most of the planning for this goes back 10 or more years ago. The city had endless open meetings, and invited taxpayer participation. Where were the nabobs during all of this? And, why were they not out there working the taxpayers to do things differently…oh that takes effort. Now, the Mayor, while we surely have our differences, he meets the voter/taxpayers to explain things; give us opportunities to express our differences and alternatives. This is a lot better that what happens in a lot of cities. Associate, and participate. Ask to be appointed to a Commission. As for the City Council, OK, you may have a point; that can be really frustrating. But again, talk is cheap: DO SOMETHING! Run for office. Yes criticize, but make it constructive, offer alternatives, and be willing to put your time and effort where your sarcasm is. And, stop the insults, and dysfunctional attitudes; you sound like Congress. Brian Hoose; please include my name on my PulseLine submission. Thanks. Couldn’t have said it any better Brian!
Thanks to whoever answered my comment in the PulseLine about where is the American flag in the park. The answer being the pulley system is broken? Already? That flagpole is less than a year old. What did we pay for that? And when’s it going to be fixed? This is ridiculous. We’re paying big taxpayers for junk. The flag pole purchased was designed to have the flag remain on it at all times and to be lit at night in accordance with proper flag etiquette. The City plans to install a light but that project was put on hold over the winter. In the mean time, the mechanism for raising/lowering the flag has malfunctioned due to the daily use. The light is expected to go in this year when the weather warms up and the flag will be visible 24/7/365.
