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Reconstruction of Southwick's College Highway set to begin

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The reconstruction of College Highway has been in planning since the 1990s.

SOUTHWICK – The first of three phases of a long-awaited multi-million reconstruction of College Highway (Routes 10 and 202) that will redefine the main travel corridor through town is scheduled to begin next week.

Phase I from Town Hall to Tannery Road, about 1.5 miles, will be reconstructed to include a third lane, bring new drainage, lighting and traffic controls at a cost of about $5 million. The project will include sidewalks on both sides of the road.

It is being funded by state and federal transportation agencies.

“This project has been in the planning since the early 1990s when I was on the Planning Board,” Selectmen chairman Fred B. Arnold said Thursday.

“It has taken on different forms over the years but the ultimate goal is to improve our downtown area. The project made bring a little inconvenience, but hopefully the impact on our businesses will be minimized,” said Arnold.

“This is a project that needs to get done,” Arnold said.

Town engineer Richard T. Grannells said addition of a new center lane will allow for left turns without impeding traffic flow.

“We have worked long and hard on this project negotiating the design,” Grannells said.

Completion date for Phase I is August 2012, he said.

Town officials held a series of public meetings on the project in 2003 that involved representatives of the state Department of Transportation. Those meetings resulted in the addition of a third lane, sidewalks and better traffic controls.

Also scheduled to begin shortly is a $3 million project to widen and rebuild Johnson Brook Bridge located near the Notch Travel Center, Grannells said. That is also being funded by the federal and state agencies.

Town officials are not sure when Phase II and III will begin. Grannells said the state DOT is currently designing those projects.

Eventually, College Highway from Westfield to the Connecticut border will be reconstructed.

Grannells and Arnold said Palmer Paving Inc., the general contractor for Phase I, will ensure access remains open to all businesses located along the stretch of road being reconstructed.

“This is a great project for Southwick,” Grannells said.


Outgoing UMass President Jack Wilson wins praise for boosting university's stature

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Wilson began his term in the wake of a public feud between then-Gov. W. Mitt Romney and system President William M. Bulger.

oct 2010 jack wilson.jpgUMass president Jack M Wilson left Thursday after eight years as the system's president.

AMHERST – Jack M. Wilson has ended his eight-year tenure as president of the University of Massachusetts with the flagship Amherst campus marking great strides in research and building, but mired in controversy over its chancellor and stifled by the state’s economic crisis.

Wilson began his term in the wake of a public feud between then-Gov. W. Mitt Romney and system President William M. Bulger. His last day in office was June 30.

Bulger was a former state Senate president with connections that could only help the system, but Romney repeatedly called for Bulger to leave after he refused to testify before a congressional committee investigating his fugitive mobster brother, James “Whitey” Bulger, who was caught last week after 16 years on the run.

Wilson “came in at a controversial time and he certainly had more than his share of issues to deal with,” said UMass Trustee Edward W. Collins Jr., of Springfield. “I think he was a great asset to the system. .¤.¤. I’m sorry to see him go.”

During Wilson’s eight years – one of which he served as interim leader – the cost of attending the university grew by 58 percent.

But the stature of the system rose as well.

“I think I’m most proud of the growth we’ve seen in this university in its stature in the world,” Wilson, 66, said recently.

The Times of London this year named UMass the 19th best university in the world, based on its reputation for teaching and research.

Last year, UMass was also ranked 56th worldwide in the Times’ annual Top 200, the only public university in New England to make the list.

During Wilson’s time, the endowment rose from $146 million to $522 million.

Those who know Wilson, who had headed UMassOnline before becoming president, said he improved the system through his focus on research and technology. Wilson was a professor of physics, engineering science, information technology and management at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute before coming to UMass.

Trustee and former board chairman Stephen P. Tocco said Wilson “put a focus on technology development and collaborations between the campuses. We started to received grant money and research funds.”

During Wilson’s tenure, research spending rose from $320 million in 2003 to $541 million in fiscal 2010. The university also received $170 million in research grants.

Ernest D. May, president of the UMass Faculty Senate, said, “Those grants are the work of individual faculty. The work of Jack Wilson has created an atmosphere and scenario in which those kinds of projects are going to flourish.”

Wilson was one of the key leaders in the creation of the $168 million Massachusetts Green High Performance Computer Center in Holyoke, a partnership with MIT, Harvard, Boston and Northeastern universities among its partners.

When built, the center will be capable of analyzing the mountains of data required to study everything from global climate change to human genetics.

Part of the challenge any project, Wilson said, is convincing skeptics. “The skeptics make it far harder,” he said.

When it came time to build the newly opened $50 million Student Recreation Center in Amherst, “We heard 185 reasons why it couldn’t be done.”

“We promised we were going to do this for the students,” he said. His role? “I’m the chief nudge.”

Also during his tenure, the Integrated Sciences Building, the Central Heating Plant, North Apartments were completed.

Among Wilson’s critics were those opposed to UMass taking over Southern New England School of Law in Dartmouth to establish a public law school last year. They said it was costly and unneeded. Wilson said it would cost no taxpayer money, and said the state has earned $800,000 in tuition.

Wilson drew the ire of many in May 2007, when he announced a restructuring in which he would have served as chancellor of the Amherst campus and president. Then-Chancellor John V. Lombardi would have stayed on for a year to help in the transition.

Lombardi left to become the president of the Louisiana State University. News of Lombardi’s departure touched off controversy, with supporters saying he was being ousted by Wilson and the trustees. State Sen. Stanley C. Rosenberg, D-Amherst, was particularly critical. He declined comment for this story.

Wilson said he was surprised by the reaction. “I thought it would get some strong support in the Pioneer Valley delegation.” And he said Lombardi was the one who proposed the change.

Wilson said he was skeptical but then thought “it was something worth considering. It was pretty much rejected from all constituencies. .¤.¤. In the end it was informative. Sometimes you have to take a bit of a risk. You learn a lot.”

May, the Faculty Senate president, called that controversy “a significant speed bump,” but said, “we recovered from that.”

A bigger hurdle, many say, is the rising cost of attending the university that is making the public institution less affordable.

Tuition, mandatory fees and room and board for an in-state undergraduate at the Amherst campus jumped 58 percent since Wilson became president, from $13,980 a year in 2003 to $22,124 for the upcoming academic year.

During the same time, the state contribution has declined from $436 million to $429 million, according to Wilson spokesman Robert P. Connolly.

Wilson said he is proud that fees were kept at or below the rate of inflation until two years ago, when they jumped $1,500. (Up to $1,100 was rebated the first year with the help of federal stimulus money.) The most recent hike is 7.5 percent, something Wilson said is unavoidable to “maintain the kind of university we need.”

“I’m a data guy,” Wilson said. “What are parents paying? It’s a perfectly fair thing to ask questions.”

But he said, for a family earning less than $30,000, the student would pay $2,000 for everything including books and fees. For a family earning $150,000 or more the student ends up paying $17,000. “That’s quite a value,” he said.

“I understand the point of view that higher education should be free. I might be convinced to subscribe,” he said. Be he said the state has not committed to that.

Financial aid during Wilson’s tenure rose from $36 million in 2003 to $131.5 million, according to Connolly.

Max Page, the former president of the Massachusetts Society of Professors, said in an email, “Jack Wilson presided over the greatest era of privatization in UMass’ history, which has meant skyrocketing tuition and fees, a decline in the number of full-time faculty and staff, and a profound weakening in the university’s public mission.”

Page said Wilson “did not cause the disinvestment in public institutions that we see across the commonwealth and nation. But in his unwillingness and inability to develop a coalition of faculty, students, staff, and alumni, he failed to get our public university the state support it needs to fulfill its mission.”

Tocco said the board and incoming president Robert L. Caret will “look at how do we fund the university.” He said the structure of the UMass system needs to be examined to make it more efficient.

“You can’t be in a job like that (the presidency) without upsetting someone sometime,” Collins said. And while there were some “negative things (during Wilson’s tenure), overall his interest and his heart were with what’s good for the university.”

He lauded Wilson’s “steady, calm, deliberate demeanor, about approaching controversial problems.”

Wilson said it now is his time to leave. “You have to turn it over, it’s important to keep yourself fresh, to keep the situation fresh. .¤.¤. I enjoyed every moment of it, and it’s been an honor.”

Wilson will be temporary head of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate and serve as university distinguished professor of higher education, emerging technologies and innovation, based at UMass-Lowell.

Wilson did not slip away quietly last week. On the day he left, he announced the resolution with UMass-Amherst Chancellor Robert Holub. Holub would remain for one more year.

The evalutation committee report recommending against his reappoiontment had been leaked to the Boston Globe in May, leaving people on campus wondering Holub’s fate for more than a month. Wilson declined to comment on how or why that decision was reached.

Gregory Neffinger set to announce run for West Springfield mayor

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Neffinger, a Republican, has served on the Zoning Board of Appeals for 16 years.

070611 gregory neffinger.JPGGregory Neffinger will announce on Sunday that he is running for mayor of West Springfield.

WEST SPRINGFIELD – Local architect Gregory C. Neffinger will officially announce his candidacy for mayor in November’s election at Mittineague Park on Sunday.

In a press release, Neffinger, 52, stated that he will make the announcement at 1 p.m. joined by friends and family. So far, the only other candidate for mayor is Town Councilor Gerard Matthews, an attorney. The incumbent, Mayor Edward J. Gibson, is stepping down.

“West Springfield needs new leadership focused on rebuilding our neighborhood devastated by the tornado and our local economy. As an architect, I understand the difficulties and complexities that the rebuilding process will bring,” he stated in his press release.

Neffinger also stated his professional background as an architect and small business owner along with serving on several town boards makes him “uniquely qualified” to become mayor.

Neffinger has worked on the design of notable buildings in West Springfield, including the Majestic Theater and the Eastern States Exposition Equestrian Arena.

Neffinger also oversaw the rebuilding of the Macedonia Church of God in Christ in Springfield, which was destroyed by arsonists hours after the 2008 presidential election.

The candidate’s community service work includes serving on the Zoning Board of Appeals for 16 years. Neffinger also is the past president of the West Springfield Rotary Club and the West Side Neighborhood Rehab Inc. and a board member for the Theater Project. He is currently the chairman of the city’s Historic District Commission.

A graduate of West Springfield High School, he earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota College of Architecture. He has worked as an adjunct professor at the Boston College of Architecture and Springfield Technical Community College.

Last year, Neffinger ran unsuccessfully for state representative as a Republican, but was successful in passing a non-binding ballot initiative to reduce the state’s sales tax to 5 percent.

Neffinger stated the initiative is being proposed for consideration on Beacon Hill.

“As the next Mayor, West Springfield residents can count on me to be their fiscal watchdog and to provide new ideas on how to revive our local economy,” Neffinger stated.

Neffinger was raised in West Springfield. He lives at 76 Bonair Avenue with his wife, Yael, and two daughters, Elisheva and Galya.

Kendrick Park farmer's market is a mid-day, mid-week oasis

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The Wednesday market is open from 2 to 7 p.m. at Kendrick Park in Amherst.

MARK1.JPGThe grassy and shaded Kendrick Park in Amherst is a perfect site for a farmer's market, customers and vendors said. The Wednesday market opened last month.

AMHERST – Violette Cody pointed from the radicchio and to the bins of lettuce all around her.

“Look at all this exquisite (food),” she said.

Cody was new to the Wednesday Farmer’s Market at Kendrick Park, but the market is new itself, opening for the first time on June 15. “It’s the most perfect place,” she said of the grassy, shaded site about a quarter of a mile north of the main downtown intersection. “It’s good for the goods, it’s good for the people.”

Since its opening, the market has grown in both customers and vendors. Now there are 18 vendors selling goods such as cheeses, grass-fed beef, soaps, syrups, berries, jams, flowers and produce.

Chez Albert, an Amherst restaurant, prepares and sells French-inspired food, and Kendrick’s Kitchen grills fresh vegetables and local grass-fed meats so people can eat at the park or take a meal home.

Amherst has had a Saturday market downtown for nearly four decades and has another – the North Amherst Farmer’s Market at Watroba’s parking lot – also on Saturdays.

MARK2.JPGRandi Stein of Amherst talks to her son Adam Stein who's visiting from Oregon as Caroline Pam, who owns the Kitchen Garden in Sunderland looks on. Pam sells all kinds of produce here at the new Kendrick Park Wednesday market in Amherst.

This is the first weekday market, and from the way customers speak, there’s no such thing as too many markets.

Cody, who was born in Lithuania, remembers going to markets every day. She said the Kendrick market is very similar in that everything is fresh.

“It’s a perfect location for a farmer’s market,” said vendor Caroline Pam, who owns the Kitchen Garden with her husband Tim Wilcox in Sunderland. “People come shop, and picnic and hang out.”

She sells all kinds of produce from radicchio to beets, carrots and myriad other things.

Having prepared food “makes it a destination. I’m impressed with the different products here,” she said.

The market is open from 2 to 7 p.m.

The Kitchen Garden also participates in markets in Forest Park in Springfield, Northampton and Greenfield.

Randi Stein moved to town about four years ago from New Hampshire in part because of the farmers, farmland and the culture.

“When I heard (about the market) I made sure my week was organized to make sure I can get here,” she said. This way she can buy fresh on Saturday for a few days and then again on Wednesdays. “I’m going to keep coming,” she said.

Deja Carr and Emma Devene, part of the group Who’Da Funk It were playing the marimba while shoppers paraded through the markets. Music is part of the weekly offering.

“We play in town,” Carr said. “We like to busk.”

Roster of space shuttle astronauts includes several with Western Massachusetts connections

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Catherine "Cady" Coleman, who returned this spring from a months-long mission aboard the International Space Station, is the most recent space traveler from Western Mass.

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Byron K. Lichtenberg is one of several Space Shuttle astronauts with links to Western Massachusetts.

Catherine G. “Cady” Coleman, of Shelburne, who received a doctoral degree from the University of Massachusetts in 1991, is the most recent space traveler, having returned this spring from a months-long mission aboard the International Space Station.

She spent more than 500 hours in space as a NASA astronaut on two shuttle missions aboard the shuttle Columbia in 1995 and 1999.

During the 1999 mission, she helped launch the Chandra X-ray telescope into a distant orbit around the Earth.

Story Musgrave, who grew up in Stockbridge, is a veteran of six shuttle flights, including the 1990 flight of the shuttle Discovery that helped save the Hubble telescope.

Musgrave also held the record as the oldest person – 61 – to go into space in November 1996 when he flew aboard Columbia. (That record was broken in 1998 when astronaut John Glenn returned to space at the age of 77.)

Janice Voss, a graduate of Minnechaug Regional High School, is a veteran of five shuttle flights between 1993 and 2000, including one that rendezvoused with the Russian space station Mir.

Voss was aboard the space shuttle Columbia when it developed problems in 1997. That mission was cut short when problems developed with one of the shuttle’s three fuel cell power generation units.

In 2001, two astronauts with links to the region flew on the same mission. Daniel T. Barry, who grew up in South Hadley, and Susan J. Helms, who lived in Holyoke for several years while her father was stationed at Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee, spent 12 days aboard the shuttle Discovery as it ferried supplies to the International Space Station.

2-time space shuttle astronaut Byron Lichtenberg reflects on past, present and future of spaceflight

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Lichtenberg was the first American astronaut to serve as a Spacelab "payload specialist" in the shuttle program.

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This watershed moment in America’s space exploration program is a bittersweet time for Byron K. Lichtenberg.

He’s old enough to be a member of the first generation of Americans to know their dreams of flying into space really could come true after Alan Shepard rocketed into the history books in 1961.

He’s accomplished enough to have landed among a distinguished group of those who are astronauts.

And, as the flight of Atlantis brings NASA’s space shuttle program to a close, Lichtenberg has the experience to provide a perspective from which to ponder the future of how we will explore space.

Nearly two decades ago, Lichtenberg’s second mission as a space shuttle scientist was aboard Atlantis, and if he had his way, this would not be its final journey.

“While I realize that NASA’s budget is tight, I would really like to see them keep flying the shuttles, maybe one or two a year, until we have a demonstrated crew transportation system,” Lichtenberg said this week as he headed to Cape Canaveral, Fla., for the launch of America’s last space shuttle mission and a reunion with his crewmates of STS-45. (That mission was captained by Charles F. Bolden Jr., who now serves as administrator of NASA.)

020203 byron lichtenberg.JPG"I believe we should go back to the moon and set up a permanent base there, so we get experience living and working outside the Earth’s environment."

– Byron Lichtenberg

Lichtenberg believes NASA has delivered the nation its money’s worth with the space shuttle program over the past 30 years – $209 billion.

“When we started the shuttle program it was presented as a routine and rapid way to get to space,” Lichtenberg said. “The original design goal was to fly a mission a week for 10 years with five shuttles. As soon as the shuttles were built, the program was then supposed to transition to the space-station assembly. We clearly missed that, big time, but the original goal was admirable.”

The shuttle program became bogged down, Lichtenberg reflected, when the craft had to be refurbished after each journey instead of being able to be more immediately reused on rapid-turnaround missions. And, the 1986 explosion of the shuttle Challenger made the process of preparing for new shuttle missions more time-, labor- and finance-consuming.

“After Challenger, it became even more labor intensive so that NASA could never get ahead of the budget curve and put meaningful money into the space station program,” Lichtenberg said. “We learned a lot, and I think now have made the right, although painful in the near term, choice to work with private industry to provide transportation to low Earth orbit.”

Lichtenberg sees this final shuttle flight as “not the end, just a transition,” as NASA refocuses its mission and civilian companies take up the task – and financial burdens – of moving space travel and exploration forward. “There are four or five companies that have very strong prospects to put together an incredible transportation system,” he said.

Lichtenberg appears to be living proof that you can take the astronaut out of space, but the astronaut may never lose that yearning to explore which landed them among that small group of people to have traveled in space. He completed his two shuttle missions – 310 orbits of the Earth and 468 hours in space – during his tenure as a pilot with the Air National Guard’s 104th Fighter Wing in Westfield.

Ask Lichtenberg what’s next in the sphere of exploring space, and there seems to be no outer limit.

“I believe we should go back to the moon and set up a permanent base there, so we get experience living and working outside the Earth’s environment,” Lichtenberg said. “Then we should head to Mars and the asteroids. The space station will remain as a national laboratory to conduct a range of experiments.”

Don’t be too quick to discount this prospect of an outpost on the moon and of man on Mars or an asteroid; in an interview with The Republican back in 1992, Lichtenberg said he dreamed of running a space tourism program. He went on to start a company called Zero Gravity Corp. (www.gozerog.com) for which he now serves as chief technical officer, and was also involved in the start-up of Spaceadventures Corp. (www.spaceadventures.com) which purchased Zero Gravity several years ago.

Zero G provides what are called parabolic flights in a modified Boeing 727 that allow travelers to experience weightlessness. (Its clients, by the way, have included folks from Stephen Hawking to Buzz Aldrin, Martha Stewart to Keith Urban.)

Spaceadventures, Lichtenberg notes, is the company that has been sending “tourists” up to the space station for the past nine years “so I think that I am still really involved in commercial space tourism.”
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A permanent manned-base on the moon may still be tens of years away, he says, but Lichtenberg is someone who believes it can happen, complete with a launch site for deeper exploration of space and factories and foundries that can manufacture the structural and other materials needed for the operation.

It was back in 1983 that NASA billed Lichtenberg and others who would follow him in the role of payload specialist as a “new breed of space travelers.” They were more scientists than career astronauts, and they’d be the ones conducting the experiments.

Lichtenberg, a biomedical engineer with credentials from MIT, and his German counterpart, Ulf Merbold, a physicist, were the crew members for the first flight of Spacelab in 1983; his second shuttle flight – the one as a member of the crew of Atlantis – came in 1992.

“I believe the early Spacelab missions were the ones that convinced the administration that a permanent space station was a necessity, so that we could do science in space the way we do it here on Earth. Do an experiment, look at the results, then modify it and do it again until you get meaningful results,” Lichtenberg said.

Now 63, he grew up as a member of a generation who thrived on the thrill and excitement of space travel in the “New Frontier” that John F. Kennedy described to the nation as the “most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked.”

Lichtenberg says he wanted to be an astronaut from the time he can remember reading science-fiction books in the 1960s.

“When the original astronauts went into space, I realized they were all military test pilots so I figured I would have to do that, too,” Lichtenberg added.

Even after graduating from Brown University in 1969 and completing a tour of duty as a decorated fighter pilot with the Air Force in Vietnam, Lichtenberg didn’t lose the yearning to explore space. It’s what propelled him off active duty and back to graduate school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for master’s and doctoral degrees in mechanical and biomedical engineering.

“I realized if I was a fighter pilot with a doctorate, I would have a better chance of getting into space,” he said.

His links with the Westfield community were strong during his days as an astronaut; a group of middle-school students and civic and business leaders were at Cape Canaveral for the liftoff of his journey aboard shuttle Atlantis. He worked to inspire a new generation of space traveler who would follow in his footsteps.

It’s been 12 years since Lichtenberg was last in Florida to see a space shuttle launch; that one was the final mission of the Spacelab. “That was the end of era,” he said on Thursday. “This (too) is the end of an era. It’s a chance for me to see a lot of old friends and experience this one last time.”

Holyoke fire official William Moran, subject of criminal probe, could face discipline from Fire Commission

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Commission chairwoman Priscilla Chesky said termination and suspension of Moran are among options.

dec 2010 holyoke fire chief william moran.jpgWilliam P. Moran, a Holyoke deputy fire chief who had been acting fire chief, is on paid administrative leave.

HOLYOKE – Termination and suspension are among the options Thursday when the Fire Commission discusses Deputy Fire Chief William P. Moran, who is the subject of a criminal investigation, an official said.

“There’s a host of possibilities facing the board regarding the Moran situation that range from termination to any kind of suspension,” commission chairwoman Priscilla F. Chesky said Tuesday.

The commission meeting is at 9 a.m. at Fire Department headquarters, 600 High St.

The Moran matter likely will be dealt with in a closed-door meeting, Chesky said.

Hampden District Attorney Mark G. Mastroianni said June 27 he has instructed the State Police to apply for a criminal complaint against Moran. Mastroianni said an investigation found Moran ordered a fire truck dispatched to a phony call at the Holyoke Mall at Ingleside on June 15.

A traffic accident resulted when vehicles traveling in the opposite direction of the fire truck on Homestead Avenue pulled over but one vehicle failed to stop and struck a stopped vehicle. A woman in the accident was taken to the hospital with treatable injuries, police said.

Attorney Jeffrey S. Morneau, representing Moran, declined to comment when asked whether Moran made a fake emergency call to Fire Department dispatch, as Mastroianni said.

“We’re not going to comment on that. We haven’t been provided the (dispatch) tapes or any of the sources of the investigation,” Morneau said.

Regarding the district attorney’s decision to seek a criminal complaint against Moran, Morneau said, “We’re disappointed that that’s the decision. But we’re going to go through the court process. Billy’s going to go through the court process.”

Moran, who worked on Mayor Elaine A. Pluta’s election campaign, is a 27-year veteran. He had been acting fire chief since September until the Fire Commission put him on paid administrative leave June 17. He has had other disciplinary problems.

Mastroianni said the complaint application charges Moran with two misdemeanors: communicating false information to an emergency response facility and being a disorderly person.

The next step is for a district court clerk magistrate to decide whether to issue a criminal complaint against Moran after lawyers make arguments at a show-cause hearing that officials said has yet to be held.

After the June 15 incident, the Fire Commission put Moran on paid administrative leave in an emergency meeting.

The commission voted 2-0 on another personnel matter related to Moran in another emergency meeting held behind closed doors June 24. Chesky declined to comment on reports that the commission with that vote suspended Moran for five days.

According to Mastroianni, Moran placed the fake call to the Fire Department dispatcher on a city-issued cell phone when he was at a restaurant and saw two firefighters from Station 6, which is around the corner on Homestead Avenue, enter a nearby establishment.

“Chief Moran then told those he was having lunch with to come to the window of the restaurant in order to see the firefighters, who had walked to lunch previously, run back to their station,” Mastroianni said.

Marilyn Garcia, 42, of Holyoke, the driver of the vehicle that struck the stopped car in the incident involving the fire truck that was dispatched on the phony call, was given a citation for following too closely, acting Police Chief Frederick J. Seklecki said. The citation includes no fine and essentially establishes that Garcia was at fault, Seklecki said.

Garcia was treated for injuries from the accident at Holyoke Medical Center and released, he said.

Chesky said the commission must make a decision about Moran, regardless of what happens with the district attorney’s request for a criminal complaint, because the Fire Department cannot afford in terms of personnel and payroll to maintain the current situation indefinitely. Deputy Fire Chief Robert Shaw is now acting chief.

The mayor appoints the three-member Fire Commission, which includes Juan A. Pedrosa and William N. McCoy, along with Chesky. But it is the commission under city law that is authorized to hire, discipline and fire the chief.

050111 elaine pluta mug small.jpgElaine Pluta

Pluta said Tuesday she won’t give the commission any orders about Moran or even discuss what should be done with him.

“No, I wouldn’t do that....I wouldn’t ask for special favors for anyone from the Fire Commission no matter what their status was with my campaign,” Pluta said.

Also, Pluta said, while Moran’s brother, Timothy Moran, who also is a deputy fire chief here, was her campaign manager in 2009, William Moran’s campaign role was minor.

“As far as working on my campaign, his part was so minute. He was not in the decision-making team. All he did was stand out with a campaign sign for me. A couple of times, he watched over campaign headquarters for me while his brother, Tim, had to work,” Pluta said.

Also, Morneau said that a report on the website of television station CBS3 Springfield that cited unnamed sources in saying Moran shredded his personnel file was untrue. He said online and other discussions about the report were damaging to Moran’s reputation.

“It didn’t happen, it never happened, it’s a completely false allegation that is absolutely not true,” Morneau said.

Chesky and City Solicitor Lisa A. Ball declined to comment on the TV station’s report.

The Fire Commission under previous Mayor Michael J. Sullivan demoted Moran to captain in 2009 for what officials at the time said was conduct unbecoming a firefighter. Moran denied that, and he was reinstated to deputy chief last year after an agreement between his lawyer and the city.

Some Westfield residents express concerns over new elementary school building plans

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Abner Gibbs School will close because of age; Franklin Avenue School needs extensive renovation.

Ashley Street School 2010.jpgThis is the former Ashley Street School building in Westfield, the planned site of a new elementary school.

WESTFIELD – Several Cross Street residents Wednesday night voiced concerns over potential traffic congestion and the size of a new elementary school planned at the former Ashley Street School during the first of three public hearings scheduled on project.

Those residents, led by Thomas Smith, also cited the impact a new school will have on the adjacent St. Peter’s Church property.

Smith said residents are “not opposed to a new school in the neighborhood,” just the size of the building and the impact on motor vehicle traffic in the neighborhood. He called the project “squeezing a square peg into a round hole,” and suggested a taller building which would take up less space.

But, Mayor Daniel M. Knapik said the state School Building Administration rejected a city request for a three-story structure in favor of the proposed two-story state “Model School” plan for the neighborhood.

The mayor acknowledged ongoing discussion with St. Peter’s and the Springfield Diocese officials concerning possible partial use of the church parking lot during school hours.

And, Franklin Avenue School principal Leslie Clark-Yvon, a member of the School Building Committee, said six school buses is the projection to transport students to the new building.

Among the estimated 30 residents who attended the hearing at South Middle School were those who support the project like Jennifer D. McMahon of Tiffany Circle, a mother of three school-aged children. She called the project “an opportunity for my kids to get a solid education.” McMahon asked about a city-wide redistricting of students and her answer was that that issue will be addressed in the spring of 2013.

The new school, if approved by SBA, is projected to open in September, 2013.

Knapik and the city’s Project Manager Paul H. Kneedler of Skanska USA Building Inc., told the audience the city must file its formal proposal with SBA by Aug. 19.

State approval, which will include state funding of 62.7 percent, could come as early as September.

Cost estimates are $22 to $24 million but officials said that depends on the competitive bidding process.

The school will be built to house 600 students and consolidate students now attending Abner Gibbs and Franklin Avenue elementary schools. It could also house students attending Juniper Park School, which the city leases from Westfield State University. That least expires next year and according to Knapik, SBA refused to consider a smaller population building for Westfield.

Currently 198 students attend Abner Gibbs, opened in 1914, while 328 attend Franklin Avenue School, which opened in 1952.

The school design is by Margo Jones Architect of Greenfield, designer of a 10-year-old Williamstown Elementary School that SBA includes in the Model School Program of buildings that meet state approval.

A second public information session is scheduled July 12 at 6 p.m., at South Middle School and the final hearing will be held July 19 at School Department offices on Ashley Street.


Friends of the Homeless in Springfield on verge on state funding increase for beds, services

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Reimbursement rates vary widely for shelter providers in Massachusetts.

111210 william miller friends of the homeless.JPGWilliam J. Miller, Executive Director of the Friends of the Homeless, at the new Resource Center on Worthington Street in Springfield.

SPRINGFIELD – Friends of the Homeless, which has been lobbying for an increase in state funds for its emergency shelter beds and related services, is a signature away from some relief.

The state budget, recently passed by both the House and Senate, calls for a new, minimum payment of $20 per bed per night for shelters in Massachusetts. The rate will trigger an increase in state funds for the lowest-paid organizations, including Friends of the Homeless, officials said.

The budget awaits a signature of approval from Gov. Deval L. Patrick.

The $20 rate will generate approximately $270,000 in new revenue for the Friends of the Homeless Resource Center on Worthington Street, partially offsetting a projected deficit of more than $400,000, said Executive Director William J. Miller.

“It doesn’t eliminate it (the shortfall), but it certainly is a step in the right direction,” Miller said.

Currently, Friends of the Homeless is paid at a reimbursement rate of $12.97 per night for 85 beds, and at a rate of $17.02 per night for 48 beds, according to a recent list of rates provided by Friends of the Homeless.

The rate increase “is a huge step in the direction of creating more equity statewide in providing services to the homeless,” Miller said.

Without the increase, “we would have been forced to drastically reduce the services we provide to our client population, particularly those related to programming including job and housing-related services,” Miller said.

State Sen. Gale Candaras, D-Wilbraham, the lead sponsor of the proposed $20 rate per bed, said she is optimistic that Patrick will approve the measure as part of the state budget. Candaras was among Western Massachusetts legislators who pushed for passage, officials said.

Both Candaras and Miller said there will be continued efforts to secure more equity in the rates in the future.

033110_gale_candaras.jpgGale Candaras

“There should be more progress,” Candaras said. “We will keep pressing our case as time goes forward and revenues improve.”

The state contract average for the shelter subsidy is approximately $30 per bed per night, but it varies widely, officials said.

The Pine Street Inn in Boston, for example, receives reimbursements ranging from $42.86 to $63.32 for its shelter beds, according to Friends of the Homeless.

While there is a difference in costs in Boston, it is not to the extent reflected in Springfield’s rate, Candaras said.

Miller said he believes a “handful” of the lowest paid agencies benefit from the minimum $20 rate.

Friends of the Homeless operates a homeless resource center at 755 Worthington St., that includes shelter beds and services.

“We still have a ways to go to achieve parity with our counterparts across the state, but our legislative delegation is providing real leadership in helping us address this issue,” Miller said.

Other legislators who played key roles in gaining passage of the minimum rate were State Reps. Thomas Petrolati, D-Ludlow, Joseph Wagner, D-Chicopee, and Cheryl Coakley-Rivera, D-Springfield; and Sen. James Welch, D-West Springfield; and Michael Knapik, R-Westfield.

Saturday marks 65th anniversary of B-17 crash at Mount Tom

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Family members of 25 WWII servicemen killed on the flight in 1946 still gather annually at the crash site memorial.

HOLYOKE – Where there was once only heartbreak and the debris of a post-war plane crash on the side of a mountain face, there is now solace for family members of more than two dozen servicemen who died there 65 years ago.

Twenty-five WWII veterans who died aboard a B-17 “Flying Fortress” that slammed into the southeastern slope of Mount Tom on July 9, 1946 were honored Saturday at a memorial service there.

The event also marked the 15th anniversary of the creation of a monument to the fallen in the swath of woods where the plane crashed. The flight was making its final approach and descent to Westover Field when it hit the mountain and burst into flames. The men were on their way home.

A granite plaque with the names of the servicemen now stands in the relative quiet of the forest. On Saturday morning, that quiet was interrupted by a program of speakers gathered to remember the victims.

“If you have any question about whether there is life after death – here it is. You’ve transformed a place of pain and loss into a place of giving and loving,” said Ellen Stettner, a niece of Alfred L. Warm, a 19-year-old member of the Coast Guard from Brooklyn, N.Y., who died in the crash.

Stettner, of Boca Raton, Fla., travels here each weekend for the memorial with her two siblings, Scott and Alfred Stettner.

Alfred Stettner, the sailor’s namesake, wears his “Uncle Al’s” ring on his finger. It was found when the lot was cleared along with a pile of debris from the crash – which was collected and remains at the memorial – and other personal effects of the victims.

He said he travels from Fairfax, Va., each year to honor his uncle.

“My mother always said there’s no such thing as closure,” Alfred Stettner said, after the formal program during which he told the crowd details about the victims gleaned through research and, in part, from a picture album of his uncle’s.

“Rocky and I. He’s my jitterbug partner,” read a caption next to a photo of Warm and Stanley P. Warshaw, a fellow Coast Guard member and Brooklynite.

Warshaw’s sister, Ruby Schultz, also attend Saturday’s service.

“I was a little girl of 12 years old when the doorbell rang that July afternoon,” she told those gathered at the memorial. “I was met by a man in uniform .¤.¤. his solemn demeanor told me this was something bad.”

The men were returning home from Newfoundland to Europe. Fifty years after the crash, which represented the worst loss of the life for the Coast Guard outside a maritime disaster, a committee was formed to search for family members.

Robert Cahillane, of Northampton, was chairman of that committee and organized this year’s event, helping shuttle dozens of participants up the mountain to the so-called “false top” where the plane crashed.

The Stettners’ mother, Dorothy Warm Stettner, was among the family members who came to the memorial every year, according to Ellen Stettner, who was married at the spot three years ago. Dorothy Stettner died after an illness two years ago. A newly planted white birch tree at the site is named in her honor.

Three city men arrested after gun report at Baystate Medical Center

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“At no time were any hospital staff, medical workers or patients in any danger at all," said Police Sgt. John M. Delaney.

SPRINGFIELD – Three city men were arrested after one was allegedly spotted with a gun while inside Baystate Medical Center on Chestnut Street.

darianbrown22 (2).jpgDarian Brown

Sgt. John M. Delaney said Lyle J. Treadwell, 28, of 193 Nottingham St.; Shameen M. Howard, 20, of 107 Orleans St.; and Darian A. Brown, 22, of 110 Vincent St., all were charged with being a disorderly person and carrying a firearm without a license in connection with the Saturday evening incident.

“At no time were any hospital staff, medical workers or patients in any danger at all. Due to the quick response of the Baystate Medical Center’s security staff and the quick response by the Springfield Police Department, the three suspects were arrested within minutes of the reported sighting of the handgun,” Delaney added.

shameenmalikhoward20 (2).jpgShameen Howard

Delaney said it remains under investigation as to why they were at Baystate, but said it appears they were there to visit someone. Delaney said witnesses noticed that one of them had a handgun, and quickly notified security.

Within seconds of receiving the 5:30 p.m. call from hospital security, Officers Michael Goggin and John Wadlegger were on scene.

“When they arrived they spotted a large group of civilians who approached the offices right away and gave them very good descriptions of the armed suspects . . . within minutes, officers Goggin and Wadlegger spotted the three suspects matching the descriptions exactly leaving one of the buildings at Baystate Medical Center,” Delaney said.

The weapon was not found, but officers were still on scene Saturday night searching for it, Delaney said. State police also assisted in the investigation.

All three suspects are being held at the Springfield police lock-up, and will be arraigned in Springfield District Court on Monday.

lyletreadwell28 (2).jpgLyle Treadwell
Jane S. Albert, director of public affairs for Baystate, said the hospital is grateful for the quick response of the Springfield Police Department.


Pamela Metaxas, former reporter at The Republican, remembered

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Pamela Metaxas, 65, retired in June 2010 after spending 37 years at The Republican, and its predecessors, the Daily News and the Union-News.

pam metaxas.JPGPamela Metaxas

CHICOPEE – Pamela H. Metaxas, a former reporter for The Republican, was remembered on Saturday as an avid traveler and as someone who loved her job.

Police received a call just before noon on Saturday from her downstairs neighbor, who reported that an accident happened at the two-family home at 253 Fairview Ave. where Metaxas lived, according to Lt. Mark D. Gilbert.

Gilbert, who said the death is not considered suspicious, said she was not transported to the hospital. The exact cause of death remains under investigation, he said.

Metaxas, 65, retired in June 2010 after spending 37 years at The Republican, and its predecessors, the Daily News and the Union-News.

“The Republican family is deeply saddened to learn of the death of Pam Metaxas,” said Cynthia G. Simison, managing editor. “She was a devoted member of our newsroom staff for more than 35 years, beginning as a lifestyle reporter. Her career ran the gamut from writing about fashion to covering breaking news. Pam also spent nearly 20 years covering the city of Chicopee, which became her adopted home, and earned the respect of many in the community.”

She was predeceased by her parents, Theodora “Dora” G. Metaxas and Harry Metaxas, and her brother, Louis Metaxas, a Boston police officer who died in the line of duty in 1989.

Metaxas traveled with her mother to Singapore, Thailand, Australia, Mexico and South America.

Reporter Ted LaBorde started working at the newspaper six months after Metaxas and kept in touch with her after her retirement from The Republican.

“She was enjoying herself,” he said.

As for reporting, “She loved it.”

In recent months, she contributed stories to the weekly Chicopee Register.

City Council President William M. Zaskey said he was shocked to hear about Metaxas, as he just spoke with her on Friday about an upcoming Finance Committee meeting.

“I really appreciated her as a reporter. I think she was very fair and very honest. She did investigative reporting and she would ask a lot of questions, but still her stories were never attacking anybody. I always appreciated the way she wrote,” Zaskey said.

Metaxas was a native of Shelburne Falls. Her parents operated the former Franklin Restaurant and “Harry’s Bar” in Shelburne Falls for 31 years.

Funeral arrangements will be forthcoming, a family member said.

Police say Springfield's 10th homicide victim, James Rosario, was killed in gang-related shooting over a "minor pushing match"

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James Rosario became the city’s 10th homicide victim Saturday morning.

This is an update of a story first posted early Saturday morning.

edgeland murder.JPGCity and state police are investigating a fatal shooting that occurred around 1:30 a.m. Saturday on Edgeland Street in Springfield's Forest Park neighborhood. An 18-year -old man was shot dead after leaving a house party there, police said. The killing is Springfield's 10th homicide of the year.

SPRINGFIELD – City and state police continue the investigation into the early Saturday shooting that took the life of a 18-year-old, the second Springfield man to be killed in seven days and the fourth shooting case.

Police said James Rosario was shot to death around 1:30 a.m. Saturday, just as a large party was breaking up at his home at 88 Edgeland St. in the city’s Forest Park neighborhood.

jamesrosario18murdervictiim (3).jpgJames Rosario

Rosario died from multiple gunshot wounds to his chest, head and stomach, becoming the city’s 10th homicide victim. Investigators have determined the shooting was gang-related, according to Sgt. John M. Delaney.

Multiple police units responded to a 1:25 a.m. report of gunfire outside of the house where a large group of mostly younger revelers had been attending a house party.

Edgeland is located between Longhill Street and Fort Pleasant Avenue.

Delaney said Rosario was shot inside the house, and that his parents were not home at the time.

Delaney said the shooting was over a “minor pushing match” that escalated in the victim being shot and killed.

One of the party-goes brought to the station for a statement was charged with possession of a large-capacity firearm after he was searched and police found a .22-caliber Longrifle handgun fully loaded on him.

Delaney said Raul Rosario, 20, of 303 Maple St., apt. 305, was arrested and will be held until an arraignment Monday in Springfield District Court. The weapon was reported stolen in Brattleboro, Vt., in a 2009 housebreak, Delaney said. Raul Rosario is not related to the murder victim, Delaney said.

raulroasario20 (2).jpgRaul Rosario

If anyone has any information about the shooting, Delaney said they should call the Detective Bureau at (413) 787-6355 or “Text-a-Tip.”

Massachusetts State Police investigators assigned to the office of Hampden District Attorney Mark G. Mastroianni also are assisting with the probe.

Mayor Domenic J. Sarno decried the violence and said “youth violence is a scourge of urban America.” Sarno said parents need to know who is in their homes, and what their children are doing at all times. Sarno said some relatives were home when the party was happening.

“Now an 18-year-old man is dead,” Sarno said. “If police were called, this young man could probably be still alive.”

“It’s sickening that another young person has lost their life,” Sarno said.

Sarno said he visited the family to express his condolences.

The homicide follows the July 3 killing of 38-year-old Raul E. Vera, who was shot to death on Lincoln Street in the city’s McKnight neighborhood around 7:14 p.m.

Meanwhile, this week’s other teenage shooting victim remains in critical condition at Baystate.

The 16-year-old boy was found shot three times at the intersection of Washington and Meredith streets in the city’s Forest Park neighborhood around 4:15 p.m. Thursday.

Police said the boy was inside a moving car at the time of the shooting and either fell or jumped from the vehicle.

Saturday’s homicide began with a 1:25 a.m. ShotSpotter activation report by the Springfield Police Department’s automated gunshot detection system.

Several hours earlier, city police responded to reports of gunfire in the city’s Upper Hill neighborhood, where a man was shot in the lower back around 8:30 p.m. Friday near the intersection of Marlborough and Wellington streets.

The victim, whose name wasn’t released, was being treated at Baystate Medical Center.

Staff writer Conor Berry contributed to this report.

Smooth jazz brings long-distance fans to Springfield

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The Hoop City Jazz & Art Festival continues Sunday at Court Square in Springfield.

Gallery preview


SPRINGFIELD
– They came from as far away as Germany and California to hear the smooth sounds of jazz fill downtown Court Square during the annual Hampden Bank Hoop City Jazz & Art Festival.

Arnd Overbeck, of Munich, Germany, met his friend, Barbara D. Mathey, of California, in Boston on Saturday, so they could travel together to Springfield to see the band, “Down to the Bone” play the festival that night.

Overbeck, a big fan of the “groovy and funky” band, also saw them play in Virginia and Maryland this week.

“It’s great,” Overbeck said about the jazz festival. “It’s a very good atmosphere. I like that it’s not too big and kind of familiar.”

Overbeck was greeted by festival founder John G. Osborn, who told him he had the distinction of traveling the farthest.

Mathey and Overbeck met on a jazz cruise in 2007; they planned to return on Sunday for the three-day festival’s final day of music.

“This is a world class event here,” Mathey said.

It was a day of music in the city, with Armory’s Poppin’ Big Band Celebration at the Springfield Armory National Historic Site. The event featured swing dance lessons, a concert by Memories Big Band Sound, a performance by Jitterbug Dance Troupe and Small Planet Dancers, and a show by the U.S. Northeast Navy Pops Band.

At the jazz festival, sitting in chairs with canopies attached to shield them from the sun were friends Sheila L. Scott and Norma Hicks.

“It’s great to see all different types of people. We’re just enjoying the music and the nice weather. It’s a great feeling to come out, especially after the tornado,” Scott said.

Scott said she lives a quarter mile from Island Pond Road, an area hit hard by the June 1 tornado, which cut a 39-mile path of devastation from Westfield to Charlton. The tornado also struck Court Square, downing many aged trees. Scott said she was lucky her house was spared.

Amado Munson, of East Longmeadow, brought his children, Louis, 13, and Amanda, 10. Munson was particularly impressed with 18-year-old performer Vincent Ingala, who played a variety of instruments including saxophone and guitar, and performed songs such as “Working My Way Back to You.” Munson said he always wanted to attend the jazz festival, and was gad he could finally go this year.

“This has a nice vibe. Everyone is here to have a good time and just enjoy downtown,” Munson said.

Louis Munson, a trombone player in his school band, also is a fan of “Down to the Bone,” and has all the band’s compact discs.

“That would be cool,” Louis said about the possibility of seeing the band play later.

Osborn said the timing of the jazz festival couldn’t be better, given that the tornado struck a little more than a month ago.

“Rebuilding is more than brick and mortar,” Osborn said. “It’s in spirit.”

This is the second year the festival has been downtown. Besides music, there were vendors offering food, clothing and jewelry. Osborn said that last year approximately 16,000 people attended, and he expects to surpass that number this year. Osborn first organized a jazz festival 11 years ago in Springfield’s Mason Square neighborhood.

“I’m proud of what we’ve been able to do. It’s been 10 years in the making and it’s becoming a destination,” Osborn said.

Sunday’s events continue at 1 p.m. Beginning at 1:30 p.m., the Eric Bascom Quintet with singer Sam Plotkin and his sister Tess Plotkin will perform, followed by Kendrick Oliver and The New Life Orchestra, and Samirah Evans and Her Handsome Devils. Closing the festival at 6 p.m. will be Grammy Award winning Latin jazz artist Poncho Sanchez.

For schedule information and more, visit www.hoopcityjazz.org


From the archives: Lost airmen of Westover B-24 Liberator crash on Mount Holyoke get final tribute

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Just a few minutes out of Westover Field on a training mission and nearing midnight, the pilot struggled to get the plane's nose up.

b-24 liberator.JPGDuring World War II, B-24 Liberators such as this one were based at Westover Field in Chicopee.

Editor's note: This story was published in the Sunday Republican on May 28, 1989.


The tail of the B- 24 Liberator touched the trees first, clipping the tops of the tall pines which rose between it and the rock face of Mount Holyoke.

Just a few minutes out of Westover Field on a training mission and nearing midnight, the pilot struggled to get the plane's nose up. Just 75 more feet of altitude and they'd make it over the summit.

The four-engine bomber strained to escape the trees. But it couldn't. The tail snapped off. Then a wing. The bomber skidded and dragged through the tree tops for nearly 200 yards before it finally slammed headlong into the cliffside.

For the crew of 10, boys mostly in their early 20s, who had volunteered for Army Air Corps flight training for a chance to fly combat over Europe, death was instantaneous.
An explosion, a ball of flame, and on that May evening in 1944, World War II for them was over.

Machine gun cartridges exploding much of the night around the burning wreckage were their 21-gun salute.

Yesterday, at the site of the crash on Mount Holyoke 45 years ago, a granite monument was dedicated to the memory of the crew that died there. Air Force and Army officers and an honor guard were joined by some 60 relatives of the dead airmen. They had come from as far away as Mississippi, Colorado, Virginia, Georgia and New Jersey.

The monument came to be largely because of a hike a young boy took on Mount Holyoke in 1958. Frank Tencza, who was born the year before the B- 24 crashed, found twisted scraps of metal in a clearing while climbing a slope on the upper reaches of the mountain, something he quickly realized were the remains of an airplane.

"Beyond the excitement of coming across something so far out of my experience, I remember a feeling of wonderment and sadness that such an awful thing had happened in this gentle, quiet place," said the South Hadley native.

For Tencza, the scraps of weathered metal on that quiet scorched slope became something of a symbol, as they easily could for anyone trying to imagine war in times of peace. In the intervening 30 years, he hiked the mountain many times and returned to the crash site many times.

Ironically, Tencza went on to see combat himself, serving in Vietnam for a year and eventually returning to settle in Wilbraham.

But he continued to visit the Mount Holyoke crash site, sifting through what remained of the wreckage and scouring the mountainside for undiscovered fragments of the plane that might give him a clue about its identity. He asked people around South Hadley about it, "but all they could remember was that it was a big plane and it crashed at night, and it was during the war or maybe right after."

Then, last year, he found a piece of twisted, fire-blackened aluminum covered by dirt near the wreckage. Taking it home and washing it down, he saw faint lettering. Looking through an old gunner's manual, he came across a picture of the object. It was part of a fuse box for a tail turret of a type found only on a World War II B- 24 Liberator bomber.
From that, he eventually was able to get a copy of the accident report of the crash from the Air Force in Washington.

Life in 1944, apart from the concerns about the war, could have an easy pace in Western Massachusetts. And that was reflected in the daily newspapers of the war years.
Front pages on the eve of the Allied invasion of Normandy were blazoned with headlines and lead stories of the war. "Vienna Raided by U.S. Bombers." "300 Planes Hit French Coast." "Fliers Rip Behind the Atlantic Wall - 2,000 Planes Blast French, Belgian and Luxembourg Targets."

But down the page, the local news was less dramatic. "Grand Chapter of Order of the Eastern Star Elects Officers;" "Postmaster Pay Raise Attacked;" "Wastepaper Collections, Wards 4 and 5, Sunday;" and "Minors' Right to Hang Out in Liquor Places Deplored."
Betty O'Connell worked at Westover Field (as it was then named) during the war. She worked in supply, outfitting the aircrews of young men who were training in B-24s for combat in Europe.

"It was my first job. I lived in Holyoke and worked at Westover, which was a city in itself," said O'Connell, who retired as Westover's base public affairs officer in 1982 and who still lives in Holyoke.

"We all felt patriotic that we were really doing something during the war. Everybody accepted that you had a brother or sister or father in the service, and you just felt you were a part of it. We all had our food stamps and our ration stamps for gasoline and tires and sugar. But I don't think we ever had the feeling that we, ourselves, were in danger, or that the enemy would be coming here.

"I used to write to as many servicemen as I could, and my mailman told me I got more mail than everyone on the street put together. Mostly they were fellows I met at Westover. We got to meet a lot of them and kept up a correspondence with them, 20 or 25 at a time," she said.

On most Saturday nights, she and her girlfriends had a ritual. They would go down to Sweeney's on High Street, then stop off at Red Shea's, two popular Holyoke night spots. "These places were standing room only. They always had live bands. You might have to walk a mile and a half home but you weren't afraid to do it in those days."

She said both places were filled with Westover servicemen on Saturday nights. "So many of them had that attitude that they were going to have a good time, no matter what. Drink and be merry. They weren't rowdy, though. They just liked parties, to have a good time.
"But I think underneath it, we had the feeling that here are these fellows going over there, so good-natured, nice young guys, and you wondered how many of them would not come back."

The flight was to be a night-time training mission, one of the last scheduled for the crew and their B- 24 before they departed for Europe. On this night, May 27, sandbag 'bombs' were to be dropped on Block Island, a frequent target for the bomber crews training at Westover, although the machine gun ammunition on board would be live.

The Liberator would carry a maximum load to give the crew experience in handling a fully weighted plane, something they would have to do on bombing missions over Europe.
The plane itself was imposing - a wingspan of 110 feet and an empty weight of more than 18 tons. With its full load of bombs and its 10 machine guns on board, it could still reach speeds of 290 miles per hour and had a range of 2,100 miles - easily enough for England to Berlin and back. It was one of the workhorses of the Army Air Corps.

These training missions were not without risk. B-24s out of Westover had gone down before in the area. One had crashed into a farmhouse in Granby. Another fell into a swamp in Belchertown. But relative to war losses in Europe - some 400 Allied bombers each month during the height of the air war over Europe in 1943-44 - training missions were relatively safe.

The crew of 10, hailing mainly from the South and Midwest, were a team. They had trained together on this particular B- 24. And as was the Air Corps' philosophy in training bomber crews, the crew would fly together as a unit in Europe, and would continue to fly the same B- 24.

Most of the crew were in their early 20s. The 21-year-old pilot, Talbot Malcolm of Westfield, N.J., spent a year at Harvard before he joined the Air Corps. His wife was two-months pregnant as he prepared for the flight that night.

Don Dowden, 25, the navigator, from Indianapolis, had been exempt from military duty because of his job in the aircraft industry, but he had volunteered for the Air Corps anyway. Bill Ashley, 20, of Ohio had washed out of pilot training and so had become a bombardier.

Wilburn Dechert, 21, the flight engineer, was the sole support of his family in Texas and was just on the verge of receiving a hardship discharge. Ronald Lloyd, 29, a gunner, had been bored by service in the Coast Guard and so had decided to transfer to the Air Corps.
The radio operator, Ambrose D. Griffith, 28, of Arlington, was to be married in June. As he tested his equipment that night, his fiancee was receiving the congratulations of friends at a prenuptial shower in Cambridge.

The assistant engineer and gunner, Kearney Padgett, 24, of Mississippi, was very religious and it was astonishing to his family that he should end up a gunner on a bomber.

The crew was rounded out by two Chicago natives, Arnold Anderson, 23, a gunner, and Robert Ohr, 20, the assistant radio operator.

Just before midnight, the B- 24 prepared to lift off from Westover. But at the last minute, the control tower called it back. Austin Lemon, the crew's regular co-pilot, was told to give up his seat to John D. Logan from Kansas who needed some extra flying hours. So Lemon did.
Mount Holyoke was only six or seven miles from Westover. The plane was about 500 feet in the air and turning as it approached the summit.

The crash, when it came, was heard all over South Hadley. Some residents actually saw it. They heard the plane flying low, peered out windows and saw the plane struggling to gain altitude. But many others who heard the explosion and saw the flames on the mountaintop knew instantly what it was.

The B- 24's path was evident from the tops of trees it sheared off and the trail of burning gasoline is left over the mountainside.

Fire departments of South Hadley and neighboring towns were immediately called to fight the blaze.

The next day's story of the tragedy in The Springfield Daily News said dozens of civilians also tried to reach the crash site.

"Gaining the summit of Mount Holyoke after terrific labors, the volunteer rescuers worked their way down the mountainside and about half a mile westward to the 25-foot cliff where the giant of the air had crashed. There was no doubt about their destination. An angry pillar of oiled-fed flames guided them.

"Their progress was impeded by the slippery ground and rocks, and the large amount of hurricane-felled timber. There was no aid to be given when the rescuers reached the scene. It was too late," the story said.

The pilot and navigator, Talbot and Dowden, and their wives had lived in apartments on Lyman Street in South Hadley, right across the street from each other.

Shirley Dowden didn't hear the crash but she was awakened by the sirens. She wasn't able to get back to sleep. So, just before dawn she walked across the street to see if Mary Faith Malcolm was up. The two wives were keeping each other company when the car came out from Westover with the chaplain and officers. It was Austin Lemon, the co-pilot who had given up his seat, who broke the news to them.

It took the rescue teams well into the next day to bring all the airmen's bodies down off the mountain, and finally to quell the fire.

Tencza said that to this day, there still are bits of metal, parts of the fuselage, melted into the rocks at the crash site. Although there are ashes and scorched earth in places, much of the area is now grown over with small pines and hemlocks.

It was never known what caused the plane to crash, whether there was any mechanical reason why the huge bomber had not gained sufficient altitude to clear the mountain. But Tencza said B-24s were not planes that allowed their crews much margin for error in their operation.

"These were young kids with very few hours comparatively, a couple of hundred hours, and these were complicated planes," he said. "They were carrying maximum loads that they would have to carry in war. So there wasn't much room for forgiveness.
"It's a sad thing," Tencza said. "These men were casualties of the war like those who were killed in combat in Europe or the Pacific. They should not be forgotten."


Holyoke man arrested for allegedly leading authorities on wild chase, crashing into police cruisers

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The chase began in Holyoke, proceeded north and involved multiple police departments before eventually ending in Deerfield, where 27-year-old Luis Ramon Ocasio was taken into custody and charged.

HOLYOKE -- It was a car chase that began in Holyoke and ended in Deerfield, and along the way featured a suspect who allegedly smashed his Cadillac into police cruisers after fleeing north, then south, then north again.

When the wild ride eventually concluded a couple of miles north of Yankee Candle on Route 5 early Saturday morning, police arrested 27-year-old Luis Ramon Ocasio of 133 Sargeant St., Holyoke, on a long list of charges, including two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and operating under the influence of alcohol.

The chase began in Holyoke around 3:10 a.m., when city police began pursuing a car with its headlights off as it drove north on Route 5.

"He failed to stop," Holyoke Police Sgt. Stephen Loftus said of Ocasio, who continued north on Route 5 into Easthampton.

Police from Easthampton and Northampton also gave chase as Ocasio proceeded north through those cities. State police from Northampton then joined the pursuit, which ended in Deerfield a good 40 minutes after it began.

"His car really just stopped working," Loftus said. "It was slow after he hit the stop sticks."

Police placed the tire-puncturing devices at various points along the chase route, including in Easthampton and Deerfield. The first strip of spikes popped two of Ocasio's tires in Easthampton, prompting him to turn around and head back south on Route 5 for a short distance.

That's when Ocasio crashed into police cruisers from Holyoke and Easthampton near the Delaney House, Loftus said. After that, Ocasio headed north again on Route 5 until he reached Interstate 91 north in Northampton and merged onto the highway.

Ocasio exited I-91 in Hatfield and proceeded north on Route 5 at a relatively slow speed with only two good tires. He then ran over another set of stop sticks in Deerfield, reducing his car to one good tire, Loftus said.

A short while later, police took Ocasio into custody without incident after he finally stopped north of Yankee Candle.

"He said he was sorry," Loftus said.

In addition to the drunken-driving charge and two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (a motor vehicle), Ocasio will be arraigned Monday in Holyoke District Court on single counts of failure to stop for police, unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, negligent operation to endanger, driving with the headlights turned off, leaving the scene of an accident with property damage, and kidnapping.

The kidnapping charge was triggered because Ocasio had a female passenger with him who wanted to get out of the vehicle, but Ocasio wouldn't let her go, according to Loftus.

Loftus said Ocasio put motorists and pursuing officers at risk by driving drunk with his headlights off. Officers didn't know what to expect when they finally confronted Ocasio, Loftus said.

"We didn't know if he's armed or dangerous," the sergeant said.

Loftus said several cruisers participated in the pursuit, which, other than a pair of damaged cruisers, didn't result in any serious injuries.

Longmeadow man scales Mount Everest

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Michael Matty, 48, president of St. Germain Investment Management in Springfield, entered the exclusive "Seven Summits" club, whose membership is reserved for those who climb the tallest peaks on all seven continents.

MATTY1.JPGLongmeadow resident Michael Matty is seen here scaling Mount Everest's Lhotse Face.

SPRINGFIELD -- Michael Matty, of Longmeadow, lost 24 pounds this spring.

He was already thin, but that’s what climbing to the top of Mount Everest will do to a person, said Matty. At high altitudes, “even when you’re sitting down, your body is working very hard,” he said. “Your heart is racing.”

Matty, 48, is president of St. Germain Investment Management in Springfield. He left for Katmandu in March and returned in May.

On reaching the top of Mount Everest, the world's tallest mountain, Matty entered an exclusive club of about 300 who have mastered the “Seven Summits,” the tallest peaks on the seven continents.

He began his Seven Summits quest five years ago on Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa. He has since reached the tops of Mounts Vinson in Antarctica, Kosciuzko in Australia, Elbrus in Europe, Denali in North America and Aconcagua in South America.

Everest, in the Himalayas, is the highest at 29,029 feet. Matty prepared for the challenge for a year in the gym and hiking in New Hampshire.

Once at Everest, his group of seven, plus Sherpa guides, “acclimatized” by hiking from their base camp and back a few times, each time resting, then aiming for a higher altitude. This gave their bodies time to generate blood, which becomes thick and sludgy.

It also required them to go over the “Ice Fall,” the most treacherous part of the climb, eight times. The Ice Fall consists of giant chunks of ice, shifting over a crevasse.

Once the climbers went through a tunnel the chunks had formed. The following week, they learned that the tunnel had collapsed into the void.

MATTY2.JPGMike Matty stops at a camp on the way up Mount Everest, the tallest of the seven-continent high peaks the Longmeadow man has scaled.

One climber in the group, a 55-year-old Californian, died of a heart attack on the mountain. At that point, Matty climbed down to the nearest camp alone.

“After doing CPR and shooting adrenaline, you have to ask yourself, ‘How much do I really want to climb this mountain?’” he said.

Not that death was a stranger. Climbers have to fill out “body disposal plan” forms before they even start out. Some ask to have their remains left on the mountain, others to be dropped into crevasses.

At one point, the group passed the body of a Japanese climber who had recently made headlines.

The bond between climbers became strong.

“You’ve got no TV,” said Matty. “You talk about deep, emotional things, rather than about what you do for a living or sports.”

Four out of the group of seven made it to the summit.

One was Matty. In fact, he and his Sherpa guide got to the top of Everest about 40 minutes before the others.

Matty took out a photo of his younger brother, who died last year, and left it at the summit. He was also carrying a small Bible given to him by a shopkeeper at Tower Square, where his office is located.

Matty grew up in New Milford, Conn., and has a master’s degree in economics from Pennsylvania State University. He has two grown daughters and has always loved the outdoors.

MATTY3.JPGMichael Matty celebrated his 48th birthday on Mount Everest, which he climbed this year.

He celebrated his 48th birthday on Everest, where his companions presented him with a chocolate cake.

He said the toughest part of the climb was the descent. Once the climbers passed the Ice Fall one last time, they knew they’d made it.

George Mallory, who died on Mount Everest at age 37, famously said that he climbed a mountain “because it is there.”

Matty sees it differently.

“You climb,” he said, “to see if you’re worthy of your dreams.”

Click here to read Mike Matty’s Mount Everest Journal, which includes numerous firsthand entries about his experiences during the expedition.

AM News Links: Some Bostonians are trying 'hahd' to git rid of their accents; the trial of Pittsfield man accused of killing Amherst woman is poised to begin, and more

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Murdoch's News of the World rolls out its final edition, giant kites invade Cape Cod beaches, and more of this morning's news.

bullrun.jpgRevelers stand at their balcony to watch the annual running of the bulls at the San Fermin fiestas on Saturday, July 9, in Pamplona, Spain.

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Emergency personnel responding to report of possible body found in Connecticut River near North End Bridge

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A person called 911 around 8:15 a.m. Sunday after spotting what he believed was a body in the Connecticut River. By 8:40 a.m., authorities confirmed that they had located a body and were attempting to remove it from the river.

SPRINGFIELD -- Emergency personnel were retrieving a body from the Connecticut River near the North End Bridge around 8:40 a.m. Sunday.

Authorities received an 8:15 a.m. report of a possible body spotted in the river near Basset Boat Co., located on the east side, or Springfield side, of the bridge.

Details were not immediately available, but Springfield fire and police officials were dispatched to the scene. The person who spotted the body was reportedly waiting for officials to arrive to show them the location.

A subsequent public safety report confirmed that a body was located in the river, but officials at the scene were having a difficult time removing it from the water.

"They're trying to recover it right now," an official said around 8:40 a.m.

A police diver also was dispatched to the scene.

As of 9 a.m., it remained unclear if the deceased was a man or woman. No further information was available.

More details will be posted on MassLive.com as they become available.

Emergency personnel recover body of unidentified male under North End Bridge

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Springfield police are investigating.

SPRINGFIELD - Emergency personnel recovered the "badly decomposed" body of an unidentified male under the North End Bridge around 9 a.m. this morning, said Fire Department spokesman Dennis Leger.

At 8:14 a.m., a man named Luis Serrano, who was fishing under the bridge, reported "what he thought was a body" in the Connecticut River, Leger said. Firefighters responded and sent out a boat.

Leger said firefighters located the body and gave the address as 126 West St., near the Bassett Boat Co. on the Springfield side of the bridge.

The body was hung up on "some object that was sticking out of a bridge abutment" and it took firefighters about an hour to free it.

"It appears to have been there a long time," Leger said.

He said he had no information on a possible identity or age.

After calling in his discovery, Serrano waited for personnel to arrive and showed them where to look, Leger said.

"He was very helpful," said Leger. "It would have been like a needle in a haystack."

Springfield police are investigating.

More details will be posted on MassLive.com as they become available.


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