WESTFIELD —More than 500 parents, teachers and students turned out at South Middle School last night to argue for the survival of various programs in danger of being cut, or to tell city government leaders that they want the school budget crisis, what Mayor Daniel Knapik called a “self-induced hardship,” ended, and some $860,000 in cuts to the School Department budget voted by the City Council reinstated.
For nearly two hours, speakers lined up in the school’s auditorium to tell the School Committee what the city’s educational system has meant to them or to their children., or what they may miss forever because of political wrangling in City Hall.
Looking at the hundreds of citizens who tuned out last night and listening to their statements, School Committee member Mary Beth Sacco said in her seven years on the committee, she had never seen such a forceful reaction from the people of Westfield.
“It is important that these people understand that the people of Westfield care about education. If we had this kind of support at the City Council meeting there would be no need for tonight,” she said. “I think the people in power have failed us. They had the opportunity to rise above political rancor.”
Theodore Mason said the City Council did not do that. ….
DAVE CANTON
SOUTHWICK — The Board of Health has approved “in theory” the trapping of beavers who built a lodge in Congamond Lake, but the lodge itself may not be so easy to remove.
Health Agent Thomas FitzGerald said yesterday that the board has agreed that when land owner Anastasios Karathanasopoulus applies formally, a trapping permit will be issued, but not for health reasons, FitzGerald said.
The Massachusetts regulations governing the trapping of beavers specifically, allows removal if their presence in a body of water is causing health issues, specifically coliform or e. coli in the water due to fecal matter, or the lodge is causing destruction of property. Usually the property destruction comes from beaver ponds inundating septic systems or property. ….
DAVE CANTON
WESTFIELD — A Westfield young man and two juvenile boys were arrested Tuesday following an investigation into a rash of break-ins to motor vehicles in the Steiger Drive area.
Westfield police report that a Steiger Drive resident called at 2 a.m. Tuesday to report that her daughter’s vehicle had been entered and property had been stolen.
Officer James Renaudette was the first officer to arrive in the area and reports that, while en route to the caller’s residence, he observed an open garage with at least two male parties moving in it.
Renaudette reports that the occupants of the garage fled through a rear door when the announced himself and he gave chase to find that two youths had scaled a backyard fence before he could catch up with them but he was able to detain a third person who had not been as quick to get over the fence. …
CARL E. HARTDEGEN
The PennySaver