Included in the plan is $45 million to continue construction of a state data center in Springfield and #3,2 million to start work on a Greenfield trial court facility.

By MICHAEL NORTON

BOSTON - A $152 million science building at UMass Boston, $100 million for potential Big Dig construction claims settlements, and $45 million to continue construction of a state data center in Springfield are among scores of specific capital investments the state plans to make this year, according to an updated five-year capital plan released Thursday by state officials.

The Patrick administration’s plan totals $10.1 billion, with $1.9 billion allocated for spending in fiscal 2012, which began on July 1, and significant investments in public higher education facilities. According to the plan, administration officials applied a 3 percent revenue growth projection to fiscal 2013.

With Massachusetts continuing to rank among the top tier of states in per capita debt, administration officials say the plan keeps debt service payments below 8 percent of budgeted revenues and, to account for the recession, features $250 million less in spending than the administration’s December 2008 plan.

The plan specifies projects marked to receive funds and create jobs before next July, lays out many of Gov. Deval L. Patrick’s spending priorities in greater detail, and provides information about local level initiatives around Massachusetts that will likely receive attention throughout 2012 and beyond.

When all sources of funding are taken into account, the plan’s five-year total spending rises to $17.35 billion. Under the plan, spending on transportation projects continues to consume the largest share of capital funding, with $571 million allocated for this fiscal year and $3.5 billion over the five-year plan.

The transportation funding includes $100 million for the Big Dig. While the project is complete, the state is coming to grips with its maintenance costs and dealing with contractors who have disputed payments.

A state Department of Transportation spokeswoman said that the $108 million allocation for the Big Dig includes $8 million for the design and construction of a pedestrian bridge at Leverett Circle. The remainder, according to Cyndi Roy, was allocated to settle potential Big Dig construction claims, the largest of which involves work done by Cashman Kiewit Perini Atkinson for the Atlantic Avenue section of tunnel work. The spokeswoman, Cyndi Roy, said settlement funds would be drawn “from insurance settlements and remaining project financing” and were factored into the project’s cost.

According to state finance documents, plaintiffs in several cases have alleged that “different site conditions and other causes of delay” on the project led to increased costs. Plaintiffs assert claims of more than $160 million, according to the documents, and those claims are being processed in Superior Court and by the Central Artery Tunnel Project Dispute Review Board. The board has issued some decisions, awarding plaintiffs nearly $70 million on claims of $103 million and the board’s decisions are the subject of further litigation. Plaintiffs still have more than $62 million in claims pending.

Among the other notable fiscal 2012 spending allocations in transportation: $36.4 million for Fairmount Line rail improvements, $19.7 million for the Green Line extension project, $8 million for high speed rail improvements on the “knowledge corridor” in western Massachusetts, $2 million to study connecting the Red Line and Blue Line, $4.5 million for Beverly commuter rail station parking garage, $5 million for a state infrastructure bank, $8.4 million for South Coast commuter rail expansion, $3 million for South Station improvements.

After transportation, the second largest investment categories are community investments, or spending on local infrastructure, affordable housing and smart growth, at $1.34 billion and higher education, at $1.23 billion.

The plan dedicates $28 million to corrections this fiscal year while acknowledging the state prison system, with more than 11,000 inmates in 18 institutions, has an overcrowding rate of 140 percent of the system’s design capacity and faces “significant systemic and capital facility challenges.”

Corrections investments this year will focus on regional facilities and “special populations.” Funding will be steered towards the Western Massachusetts Women’s Facility in Hampden County, the pre-release and intake center in Essex County, and a DOC medical and mental health facility. State officials also hope to close and redevelop the Sullivan Courthouse in Cambridge, in part by using funds to relocate county inmates there. Funds will also pay for repairs at the Suffolk County Jail and the Worcester County Jail and $2 million in suicide prevention improvements.

In fiscal 2012, the plan calls for $571 million in transportation spending, $275 million on community investments, $206 million for higher education, $168 million on housing, $138 million on energy and environment investments, $125 million for information technology, $121 million on economic development, $113 million on state office buildings, $100 million on health and human services, $31.5 million on the courts, and $21 million on public safety.

Specific fiscal 2012 investments featured in the plan include:

COMMUNITY INVESTMENTS:

• $200 million for Chapter 90 road and bridge projects, a $45 million increase from fiscal 2011;

• $11 million for water infrastructure projects approved by the Seaport Council;

• $2.4 million towards the $125 million Essex Agricultural and Vocational Technical School project, which will merge the North Shore Regional Vocational Technical School, the Essex Agricultural School and the vocational component of Peabody High School;

COURTS

• $1 million for planning and design for the renovation of the Probate and Family Court in Salem;

• $3.2 million to start work on a $60 million Greenfield trial court facility;

• $4.2 million to complete a new $86 million Taunton trial court facility;

• Funds for the state to work with Northampton to develop a master plan for court facilities there;

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

• $60 million to support infrastructure in connection with the Assembly Square project in Somerville and the redevelopment of the Fan Pier in Boston;

• $21.8 million to help the Massachusetts Broadband Institute expand infrastructure to unserved areas of the state;

• $44.7 million for a program that invests in local public infrastructure linked to economic development;

• $44.7 million in capital investments aimed at boosting the state’s life sciences industry, including funds for the Sherman Center at UMass Medical School in Worcester;

ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT

• $29 million for the development of the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal, seen as the staging ground for the Cape Wind project, which continues to pursue financing sources and fend off legal challenges.

• $3 million for the Boston Public Market;

• $2 million to begin design and construction of a Division of Fisheries and Wildlife headquarters building in Westborough;

• $13.7 million for urban parks and $25 million for open space protection;

HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

• $65 million towards construction costs for the new 320-bed psychiatric facility on the ground of Worcester State Hospital, a $302 million project that will replace two facilities;

• $1.8 million for improvements to the Chelsea Soldiers’ Home;

• Unspecified funds for “demolition and environmental remediation” at state facilities that may be redeveloped, including facilities in Wrentham and Medfiend and the Fernald Center in Waltham;

• $13.8 million for urgent repairs at state facilities, including oxygen delivery, fire safety upgrades, ventilation and heating and cooling systems;

HIGHER EDUCATION

• Funds for construction of a $144 million science building at UMass Amherst, a new academic building at UMass Amherst, the Emerging Technology Center at UMass Lowell, a $40 million classroom building at UMass Lowell, a $43 million library expansion and renovation at UMass Dartmouth; the $98.6 million Bridgewater State University science building project; a $25 million library project at Mass Maritime Academy; a $31 million project at Greenfield Community College; a $34.4 million building at the Danvers campus of North Shore Community College, a $30 million Mass College of Art and Design project, a $57.2 million science building project at Fitchburg State University; and a $74.1 million “library and learning commons” project at Salem State University.

HOUSING

• $90 million for public housing improvements;

• $78.5 million for private affordable housing development programs;

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

• $27.6 million for continued development of a system that will integrate tax administration, accounting and collection functions;

• $10 million for an automated licensing and registration system project at the Registry of Motor Vehicles, a five-year effort that “will implement internet based services to reduce customer branch visit and wait times”;

• $10 million for public safety information technology, including criminal history system modernization, procurement of a new fingerprint identification system, and rebuilding the network that supports information sharing among public safety and law enforcement personnel;

• $17.3 million to continue a human resources modernization project “to enable the Commonwealth to manage its more than 80,000 employees with the same tools as the best private-sector employers”;

• $1.5 million for a Group Insurance Commission system upgrade;

• $2 million for an eLicensing system designed to provide a single online platform to serve the 330,000 license holders who deal with the state Division of Professional Licensure;

PUBLIC SAFETY

• Planning funds “for two replacement facilities for the medical examiner in the Worcester and western regions of the state”;

• $4 million for work on a state police digital wireless public safety radio network in western Massachusetts;

• Design funds for a $13.5 million National Guard Readiness Center in Natick;

• $6.7 million for the state police Airwing helicopter replacement program. According to the plan, “This purchase is the second in a program to replace four aging single-engine helicopters with modern twin-engine helicopters that will provide greater safety and more sophisticated instrumentation, allowing them to fly in inclement weather”;

• $6.6 million towards the state police cruiser replacement program;

STATE BUILDINGS

• $3 million to complete roof improvements and fire alarm system modernization at the Statehouse;

• $5 million for Americans with Disabilities Act compliance in state buildings.

Campaign manager Matt Rhoades blamed the Democrat’s administration for being behind a Boston Globe report that documented Romney’s efforts to leave no email records behind when he left office in 2007.

This is an updated version of a story posted at 8:18 this morning.

Former Massachusetts Gov. W. Mitt Romney, left, is seen with current Gov. Deval L. Patrick.

WASHINGTON – Republican presidential hopeful W. Mitt Romney’s top aide suggested Thursday that Massachusetts Gov. Deval L. Patrick was “running a dirty tricks shop” and that his office had become “an opposition research arm” of President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign.

In a letter to Patrick, Romney campaign manager Matt Rhoades blamed the Democrat’s administration for being behind a Boston Globe report Thursday that documented Romney’s efforts to leave no email records behind when he left office in 2007.

The report, which included documents obtained from Patrick’s office, described how former Romney officials took their computers with them when they left their jobs and how Romney aides replaced email servers and computers before leaving office. The report said that 11 of Romney’s top aides purchased 17 state-issued computers for $65 each when they left their jobs. Several of Romney’s top aides in the governor’s office later worked for his 2008 presidential bid.

The Massachusetts public records law doesn’t apply to the governor’s office, so there appears to be nothing illegal with the Romney-era move. Other records from Romney’s four years as governor remain archived, although his critics note 461 of the 633 boxes filed with the state archivist are not public. Among the items being kept closed: Romney’s press releases, proclamations and speeches.

“At a time when unemployment is at unacceptably high levels, both here in Massachusetts and around the country, the people of Massachusetts deserve to know that you are focused on alleviating joblessness – not running a dirty tricks shop for your friend, President Obama,” Rhoades wrote.

“It is evident that your office has become an opposition research arm of the Obama reelection campaign,” he added.

As proof, Rhoades pointed to the Boston Globe report, noting that Patrick’s chief legal counsel, Mark Reilly, gave the newspaper copies of cancelled checks from 2006 – which are public records – that documented how former Romney administration officials bought their computers.

Rhoades called on Patrick to release all records of contact between his office and Obama advisers David Axelrod, David Plouffe and Jim Messina.

Patrick’s office said it would do so.

“We have fulfilled over 250 public records requests in our five years in office and we will be happy to fulfill this one,” Reilly told The Associated Press.

Town Council President Paul Burns said Barrow will provide technical assistance in estimating the economic, fiscal, social and community impacts of a resort casino development, and will create a market feasibility analysis to estimate the potential gaming market for Palmer.

Clyde Barrow

PALMER – Officials are negotiating with Clyde W. Barrow and the Center for Policy Analysis at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth to conduct an expansive study to determine the various impacts a resort casino development would have on the town.

“We need to be able to compete, and to compete effectively,” Town Council President Paul E. Burns said. “We need to jump on this and make sure we hit the ground running.”

With Tuesday’s passage of a compromise gaming bill, Palmer is back in the spotlight.

Connecticut-based Mohegan Sun wants to build a $600 million resort casino across from Massachusetts Turnpike exit 8 on what is now a wooded hillside off Thorndike Street (Route 32). While the bill still needs to be signed by the governor, it ensures a Western Massachusetts casino, as it stipulates that one would be located in the four westernmost counties.

Burns said Barrow, a professor at UMass-Dartmouth, will provide technical assistance in estimating the economic, fiscal, social and community impacts of a resort casino development. He will create a market feasibility analysis to estimate the potential gaming market for Palmer, estimate the economic and fiscal benefits of a casino, survey the prevalence of problem gambling in Palmer and nearby communities, and study crime, traffic and accident statistics for the area, as well as the impact on food, entertainment and retail establishments.

The cost of the study is $105,000, and Burns said town officials will ask Mohegan Sun to fund it. Burns said Barrow was chosen for the study because of his expertise in the field.

Barrow, director of the Center for Policy Analysis, said he has done similar studies for real estate developers, and also leads the New England Gaming Research Project. On the center’s website, it states myriad reasons for studying gaming, saying it is a $4 billion industry that has “become a perennial policy debate in New England’s state legislatures” due to its growing economic and fiscal impacts. It also states that casino revenue has become “an important and growing source of revenue” in state budgets.

Barrow, whose research has been criticized for being biased toward casinos, conducted a poll in 2008 for Northeast Realty showing the majority of Palmer residents want casino gaming in their town. Northeast Realty is leasing 150 acres in Palmer to Mohegan for the potential resort casino.

Barrow said resort gaming is the better option for Massachusetts.

Burns said he feels Barrow is the right choice to do the study. He said the study findings could be included in a host agreement between the town and a casino.

“If you want someone to do the study, you have to have someone who has expertise in the field,” Burns said. “Clyde Barrow looks at the pluses and the minuses. The anti-casino people don’t look at the positives.”

The Citizen’s Casino Impact Study Committee evaluated potential casino impacts and submitted a lengthy report to the Town Council in 2009. That report listed possible costs related to a Palmer casino, including the need for up to 24 more police officers at $1.9 million, expansion of the Fire Department at up to $2.5 million, and the possible construction of two schools at $40 million each. Burns questioned the need for more schools when they are under capacity now, and said Barrow’s analysis will be more involved.

Interim Town Manager Charles T. Blanchard said Barrow’s report will be an “independent, academic study.”

“This is something we can have for the council to base their views on and for the residents of Palmer to understand what the issues really are,” Blanchard added.

The bill requires approval of a local ballot question in a potential host community for a casino.

The attorney for Phipps Liquors says that his client has the right to let patrons park on land tabbed for a Wendy's.

AGAWAM – A decision is expected in two to three months in state Land Court in a lawsuit filed with regard to the Wendy’s restaurant proposed for 1350 Springfield St.

Bradford B. Moir, the attorney for Sprocket Realty, which owns Phipps Liquors and which filed the lawsuit, said Monday the case was tried in Land Court Sept. 26 and 27. Attorneys have until the end of the month to hand in any briefs to Karyn F. Scheier, chief justice of the court, according to Moir. She will decide the case.

Sprocket appealed a variance the Zoning Board of Appeals granted Sept. 13, 2010 allowing the proposed Wendy’s to have a drive-up window.

Named as defendants are Wendy’s International; Coyote Realty, of West Springfield, which owns the site at 1350 Springfield St.; and Zoning Board of Appeals members James C. Marmo, Gary E. Sufritti and Doreen A. Prouty, the board’s chairwoman.

In the lawsuit, Moir states that his client has a so-called prescriptive easement allowing use of land 50 feet into 1350 Springfield St., the site of the proposed fast-food restaurant.

Moir argues that his client has that right because liquor store patrons have parked on the land for 20 years.

The lawsuit claims that in approving a variance the Zoning Board of Appeals eliminated the easement. The lawsuit also alleges trespass on the grounds by Wendy’s having removed asphalt and put up a fence that prohibits the liquor store from using the site.

Grants went to the Springfield Museums, the Northampton Community Music Center, the Holyoke Public Library, and the Old Sturbridge Village.

File photo | The RepublicanThe installation of an air-conditioning system at the George Walter Vincent Smith Museum is included in a $250,000 Massachusetts building grant to the Springfield Museums.

BOSTON – Gov. Deval L. Patrick Thursday awarded $7.4 million in building grants for nonprofit arts, history, and science groups across the state including money for projects in Holyoke, Northampton, Springfield and Sturbridge.

The Springfield Museums received $250,000; the Northampton Community Music Center, $100,000; the Holyoke Public Library, $248,000 and the Old Sturbridge Village, $125,000.

The state grants come from a special fund for cultural facilities.

AP PhotoMassachusetts Gov. Deval L. Patrick.

Stephen H. "Terry" Plum, president of the board of directors of the Holyoke Public Library Corp., said the grant was wonderful.

"It's really for making the library more of a cultural space," Plum said.

The grant came on the same day Mayor Elaine A. Pluta and other leaders held a groundbreaking for a $14.5 million renovation and addition at the Holyoke Public Library on 335 Maple St. Construction is set to begin next month and will add 15,000 square feet to the existing 25,000 square feet.

The grant will be used to create improved space at the upgraded library for the Holyoke History Room & Archives, kept since 2005 at Holyoke Community College because of poor conditions at the library for such storage.

Republican file photoSen. Stephen Brewer

The grant will also pay for protection and restoration of murals depicting Holyoke history.

During the library construction, a temporary library is scheduled to open early next year at the City Hall auditorium at High and Dwight streets, officials said. The new library is scheduled to open in 2013.

In Springfield, Holly Smith-Bove, president of the Springfield Museums, said the grant was thrilling and exciting.

The $250,000 state grant will include the installation of an air-conditioning system at the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum, which opened in 1896 and is one of the five Springfield Museums. The state grant will be bolstered by a $320,000 grant from the National Endowment for Humanities.

Paintings had to be removed from the museum in the summer because of the heat.

"We're shovel ready," Smith-Bove said. "We're all set to start."

The collection at the George Walter museum includes Asian decorative arts, Middle Eastern carpets and textiles, Japanese arms and armor, late-19th century American paintings and Italian watercolors.

In Northampton, the $100,000 grant will help finance a renovation and expansion of the lower level of the Northampton Community Music Center, a music school in a former school on South Street. The project will create 3,500 additional square feet for teaching, performing and storage, a state press release said.

Jason Trotta, executive director of the school, said the goal is to complete the work next summer. He said the grant was phenomenal. "The renovation project is really important to our strategic goals," he said.

Old Sturbridge Village, a re-creation of an early 19th century New England town, received $125,000, which will be supplemented with some of its own funding. The money will be used for maintenance needs such as roof replacement, carpentry, painting and upgrades to heating and air conditioning.

"It will be an incredible help to the village," said state Sen. Stephen M. Brewer, D-Barre. "This is a huge benefit."

Staff reporter Michael Plaisance contributed to this story

4 major gaming proposals have surfaced as Massachusetts is close to legalizing casino gambling.

(AP Photo/File)

SPRINGFIELD – Representatives of proposed casino projects reacted with a combination of respect and bravado Thursday to a Las Vegas company’s plan to put a gaming resort at the old Westinghouse site on Page Boulevard.

Ameristar Casinos Inc. on Wednesday unveiled a plan to buy the 41-acre old Westinghouse site for $16 million to build a proposed luxury hotel and casino that would provide 2,800 jobs.

Republican file photoAnthony Cignoli

“Having another company like Ameristar competing in the Western Massachusetts zone and publicly discussing job creation and new revenue generation is a good thing as this discussion moves to the local level,” said Anthony L. Cignoli, a partner in Paper City Development.

Hard Rock International of Florida announced earlier this month it was joining Paper City Development, a limited liability company, to put a casino resort at Wyckoff Country Club beside Interstate 91 in Holyoke.

Company representatives said the project would provide 1,500 jobs that would pay from minimum wage with tips to six-figure paychecks.

Gaming visions are emerging as the state is on the verge of legalizing casino gambling.

Legalization would lead to formation of a gaming commission that would permit three casino resorts in the state, including one in Western Massachusetts.

Any applicant approved for a license must agree to a minimum investment of $500 million for a casino, with an up-front, 10 percent deposit.

For four years, the Connecticut-based Mohegan Sun has been pitching a casino resort for a site in Palmer across from Exit 8 of the Massachusetts Turnpike.

The company has spent more than $10 million, the project would bring 2,500 jobs and plans like Ameristar’s were hardly unexpected, a Mohegan official said.

Paul Brody

“Does it change our program? Not at all. Our program is in Palmer, it’s been in Palmer for years....We’re very comfortable with our program,” said Paul I. Brody, Mohegan vice president of development.

Other proposals are unable to shake Mohegan’s belief it has the top proposal and top site in the region for a casino, he said.

Penn National Gaming, a national casino company based in Pennsylvannia, is seeking a site for a gaming resort in the area and considered the Westinghouse property.

“We know Ameristar well. They’re a good company. We haven’t settled on a site, but we had looked at” the Westinghouse property, said Eric Schippers, senior vice president for government affairs and public relations for Penn National.

Penn National expects to choose a site in Western Massachusetts for a proposed casino project in a week or so, he said.

“We are certainly planning to compete,” Schippers said.

Penn National’s strength, he said, is its history of working with local businesses to be part of a community instead of what he called “the island unto itself” plan of Mohegan.

Mohegan’s Palmer proposal includes a 600-room hotel, thousands of slot machines, 100 table games, an entertainment venue with up to 2,500 seats and other amenities.

It is Western Massachusetts residents who will benefit from the debate as multiple companies showcase casino plans, Cignoli said.

“Whether for or against casinos, and especially for those undecided, the more facts and details residents and voters have about each proposal and community commitments is a good thing,” Cignoli said.

The building did not have any power, firefighters said.

>Republican file photo

WARE - Investigators continue to probe the cause of a fire that damaged the basement of an abandoned duplex on West Main Street Thursday morning.

No injuries were reported in the blaze at 38 West Main St., Fire Lt. Edward Wloch said. It was reported about 7:10 a.m.

The fire was confined to the basement and firefighters were on scene for about an hour, Wloch said. The building did not have any power, he said.

Officers from Boston, Lowell, Fall River, Everett, Chelsea will also be honored, as will officers from the state police, FBI and federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

BOSTON – More than two dozen law enforcement officers will be saluted for their courage at a Statehouse ceremony, including a Woburn police officer who was shot and killed in the line of duty last year.

Gov. Deval L. Patrick and other officials are scheduled to present the annual George L. Hanna Memorial Awards for Bravery on Friday.

Hanna, a state trooper, was shot and killed during a traffic stop in Auburn in 1983.

Woburn Police Officer John “Jack” Maguire will be posthumously presented with a Medal of Honor during Friday’s ceremony. Maguire was gunned down last December after responding to a reported jewelry heist at a department store.

Officers from Boston, Lowell, Fall River, Everett, Chelsea will also be honored, as will officers from the state police, FBI and federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

"Building owners with municipal fire alarm boxes will be given the option to have their fire alarm panels monitored by a private company or to utilize a wireless radio box that will be monitored by the Fire Department," the fire chief said.

PALMER - Palmer Fire Chief Alan J. Roy said that the municipal fire alarm system was severely damaged in the Oct. 29 snowstorm and will not be repaired. The red fire alarm boxes that can be seen around the district are inoperable due to the storm damage.

Roy said it will not be cost effective to repair and replace the fire alarm wiring out in the streets, adding the equipment at the fire headquarters is more than 70 years old.

"We will be wrapping yellow tape around (the fire alarm boxes) and marking them 'out of service,'" Roy said. "In the future, they will be scheduled for removal."

"Building owners with municipal fire alarm boxes will be given the option to have their fire alarm panels monitored by a private company or to utilize a wireless radio box that will be monitored by the Fire Department," Roy said.

Police are asking the public for help locating two 14-year-old high school girls who haven't been seen since the end of the school day on Tuesday.

Dominique Sproul, left, and Rachel Fuller have not been seen since the end of the school day on Tuesday, Nov. 15 in Buxton, Maine. (Photos courtesy of Facebook)

BUXTON, Maine — Police in Maine are asking the public for help locating two 14-year-old Bonny Eagle High School girls who haven't been seen since the end of the school day on Tuesday.

Authorities told the Associated Press that that Rachel Ann Fuller and Dominique Lee Sproul may be in the Portland area, but they do not have access to a car.

The freshman girls may have run away together, but Buxton Police Chief Michael S. Grovo told the Portland Press Herald that he is growing increasingly concerned due to their age.

"The investigation has led us to believe that they ran away," Grovo told the newspaper. "But my concern is their young age as well as their welfare and safety."

Fuller's mother Andrea started a Facebook page to draw attention to her missing daughter.

"The last time I spoke with (Rachel) was Tuesday at 2:40 p.m. when she called my cellphone from home," Andrea Temm Fuller wrote on Facebook. "At some point after that, she left home and was picked up at (the high school) and dropped off at Shaws in the Millcreek Plaza in South Portland. The last area she was known to be in was the Cottage Road/Preble Street area of South Portland at 6:30pm on (Tuesday)."

Sproul's father George told the Portland Press Herald his daughter has run away in the past but never for an extended period of time.

The newspaper reported that Rachel posted a message on a friend's Facebook page saying they wanted to go to Massachusetts to see Dominique's mother, but they never arrived.

Rachel is 5 foot 4 inches tall and 150 pounds, with shoulder-length brown hair, blue eyes and fair skin. She has nine ear piercings.

Dominique is 5 feet 6 inches tall and 140 pounds with red hair and hazel eyes.

Anyone with information about the missing girls is asked to call Buxton, Maine Police Department at (207) 929-6612.

Pockriss, who also worked in musical theater, co-wrote several songs with Paul Vance, including 1957's "Catch a Falling Star."

HARTFORD — Lee Pockriss, who wrote pop hits such as "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" for an eager, youthful post-World War II generation, has died in Connecticut after a long illness. He was 87.

His wife, Sonja Pockriss, confirmed his death. She said Friday he died at home in Bridgewater on Tuesday.

Pockriss, who also worked in musical theater, co-wrote several songs with Paul Vance, including 1957's "Catch a Falling Star."

In a 2006 interview, Vance called "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" — about a shy young woman in a skimpy bathing suit — a "money machine."

He estimated that he made several million dollars from the song, which was recorded by 16-year-old teen idol Brian Hyland, surged to No. 1 on the Billboard charts in August 1960 and has been pop culture staple ever since.

The song has been used in such movies as "Sister Act 2" and "Revenge of the Nerds II" and was more recently revived in a yogurt commercial.

Vance's death was erroneously reported in 2006. An Ormond Beach, Fla., man named Paul Van Valkenburgh who claimed to have written the song under the name Paul Vance had instead died.

The New York Times reported that Pockriss also worked in musical theater and wrote the music for the 1963 Broadway show "Tovarich," for which Vivien Leigh won the Tony Award for best actress in a musical. Anne Croswell wrote the lyrics. The two also collaborated on "Ernest in Love," a musical version of Oscar Wilde's "Importance of Being Earnest."

Pockriss in 1969 worked with the lyricist Carolyn Leigh and Hugh Wheeler of "Sweeney Todd" to create "Gatsby," a musical based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel "The Great Gatsby," The Times reported.

He also wrote songs for "Sesame Street," including "My Polliwog Ways," sung by Kermit the Frog.

Pockriss also was survived by his brother, Harold.

The building on State Street - typically home to many stories of heartbreak - was transformed into a festive, jubilant backdrop with crafts and a puppet show and cameras flashing like mad as families marked the day they grew by one or more.

Photo by Mark M. Murray / The RepublicanDestiny Chapman, 3, center, is seen with her new parents, Vicki , left and Susan Chapman, of Cape Cod, at the Hampden Juvenile Court. Theirs was one of 17 adoptions that were part of the 11th Annual National Adoption Day Friday.

SPRINGFIELD - A 3-year-old girl went from being Destiny Roberts, battered and neglected since infancy, to being Destiny Chapman, a healthy, cherished beach baby and only child of her new parents.

The child was among 17 legally bound into permanent families on Friday at Hampden Juvenile Court on Friday, National Adoption Day, when thousands of children enter into similar unions with new families across the country.

The building on State Street - typically home to many stories of heartbreak - was transformed into a festive, jubilant backdrop with crafts and a puppet show and cameras flashing like mad as families marked the day they grew by one or more. Children ages 18 months to 13 years old were adopted back-to-back on Friday morning. Many, like Destiny Chapman, had come from abusive homes or had previously lived transient lives ping-ponging from foster home to foster home.

"We were her third family," Vicki Chapman, 43, of East Sandwich, who adopted the three-year-old along with her wife, Susan Chapman, 49.

The women tried unsuccessfully to conceive after they were married and were headed for a childless early retirement in the Cape Cod town until they met 1-year-old Destiny at a family party two years ago. Destiny was living with her biological mother's cousin after a horrific attempt on her life by her mother's boyfriend in a Mansfield hotel room in 2009, according to published reports.

Vicki Chapman said they were recruited to take the child in, but were immediately unable to because they had a dog prohibited by the state for foster families. However, the dog died, and the Chapmans started their journey from childless business owners to new mothers. In addition to adjusting to the lifestyle change, the Chapmans said they expected Destiny to have special needs because of her history.

"When she had food, she'd gobble it up until she got sick. As if she had never seen food before. And her legs were so weak from being stuck in a playpen all day. But we realized she just needed one-on-one attention," Susan Chapman said.

"Now she's fabulous," Vicki Chapman added.

The adoption was swift and took place in Juvenile Courtroom Two before Judge Patricia M. Dunbar.

"Hi, Destiny. Are you ready to be adopted," Dunbar asked the child seated before her.

"Uh-huh," she responded affirmatively, blonde ponytail bobbing, seemingly more interested in the stuffed penguin and wrapped presents before her.

With a few words, it was done. And there was applause.

The Chapmans, who own their own construction business, said the final decree was a relief as there had been two years of uncertainty and weekly, seven-hour round-trip commutes from the Cape to Springfield for supervised visits with Destiny's birth mother.

By the time the adoption process was over, Destiny's assailant, Matthew Werner, 24, of Brockton, had already completed a short jail sentence for beating and strangling the child, the Chapmans noted. But, it was worth the wait, harship and paperworker to bring their daughter home, they said.

"It's incredible. It's a done deal. She's not going to be taken away from us, and she's going to be on the beach forever," Vicki Chapman said.

The victim was taken to the hospital for injuries that appeared to be non-life-threatening.

MONSON - A 25-year-old Monson resident is scheduled to be arraigned in Palmer District Court today on an assault with a dangerous weapon charge after he allegedly stabbed another man at the Polish American Club on Bliss Street, police said.

Nathan Satterwhite, of Wilbraham Road, was arrested shortly after the disturbance and stabbing at the club was reported at 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, Police Chief Stephen Kozloski Jr. said.

The victim, Nathan Kology, 36, of Bridge Street, was taken by ambulance to Wing Memorial Hospital in Palmer for non-life-threatening injuries, Kozloski said.

More information will be posted as it becomes available.

The park is used by several Comprehensive High School teams, Anna Barry School students and youth leagues.

Republican file photoVolunteers do a clean-up at Garrity Grove Park in this past photograph.

CHICOPEE – The city is hoping to be able to improve a popular park by upgrading playground equipment, the spray park and playing fields.

The Parks and Recreation Department recently applied for an about $350,000 grant that would be used to improve Garrity Grove Park that is located in the Aldenville section of the city. It is off Peter Street and is behind Anna E. Barry School.

The grant would be a matching one that would require the city to provide an additional $150,000 for the project. Recently the City Council voted unanimously to commit the money if the grant is awarded.

“It is a well-used park,” said Stanley J. Walczak, superintendent of the parks department.

Walczak said he has submitted the application. He is unsure when the city may hear if they will receive the money.

The Comprehensive High School football and baseball teams use the about 12-acre park. Youth teams practice baseball, softball and lacrosse there and Barry School uses it for recess, he said.

The last time the park saw any major improvements, with the exception of general maintenance, was in 1995.

Walczak said he would like to see the water spray park features upgraded and add new playground equipment that would include one large stationary climbing structure as well as an additional free-standing swings and a seesaw.

Playing fields would be improved and the basketball court, which is converted to an ice hockey rink in the winter, will be refurbished, Walczak said.

He said he would also like to expand the parking lot to add about 20 spaces and update the walking and jogging path to include fitness stations in different spots.

“We would like to do other things such as replacing park benches, trash receptacles, water bubblers and tree plantings,” he said.

A 16-year-old boy was arrested after one man was killed, and another who responded to a phony ad online, was injured.

CALDWELL, Ohio – A 16-year-old boy has been charged with attempted murder by Ohio authorities who are investigating the killing of one man and the wounding of another who had responded to a phony job ad on Craigslist.

The sheriff and prosecutor in southeast Ohio’s rural Noble County said in a news release Friday that the teen also has been charged with one count of complicity to attempted murder.

The officials say they cannot comment further because of a gag order imposed by a judge. A lawyer for the teen sought the gag order, citing the “highly sensational” case.

A judge issued a gag order Friday on behalf of the juvenile suspect.

The boy’s attorney sought to stop authorities and prosecutors from speaking about what the lawyer described as a “highly sensational” case. Noble County Sheriff Stephen Hannum said in an email Friday that he would release no information due to the gag order.

Cadaver dogs found the body of a Florida man this week in a grave in a remote area outside Caldwell, a small village about 80 miles east of Columbus, after a jobseeker from South Carolina was shot but ran away through the woods, the sheriff said.

Two men were taken into custody, but no names had been released. The Akron Beacon Journal identified the suspects as a 52-year-old man from Akron, about 90 miles away, and a 16-year-old student from Stow-Munroe Falls High School in the Akron area. The sheriff declined to confirm that in an earlier email on Friday, before the gag order was issued.

“Frankly I’m just trying to align my ducks to prevent damaging my criminal case,” Hannum wrote.

Jail officials said they could not confirm that they were holding an inmate who was a suspect in the case.

Stow-Munroe Falls Superintendent Russ Jones identified the juvenile suspect as a 16-year-old junior at the high school. On Friday, Jones declined to elaborate on the teen’s background or activities but said there was no security issue at the school.

“The incident in question originated from Noble County, which is in southeastern Ohio, had nothing to do in any way, shape or form with any of our students or staff nor at school grounds,” he said.

Sheriff Hannum said the South Carolina man escaped from the remote area on Nov. 6 and went to police, who later found a hand-dug grave that they believe had been intended for him.

The man had been told to carry his belongings to Ohio because he’d be living at the farm, and investigators believe robbery was the motive, he said.

Five days after the South Carolina man was shot, authorities received a call from the Florida man’s twin sister, concerned that her brother had not been heard from since Oct. 22 in Parkersburg, W.Va., the sheriff said. The twin, in Boston, said her brother had responded to what she believed was the same Craigslist ad, which sought a caretaker for cattle on a 688-acre farm.

Investigators then found the Florida man’s body.

Authorities had said an autopsy on the Florida man was being performed Thursday. A message seeking comment was left Friday for the Noble County coroner.

The singer, best known for the 1990 hit “Because I Love You (The Postman Song),” was arrested after performing at the MassMutual Center.

SPRINGFIELD – Singer Stevie B is in a Massachusetts court for a hearing on what the state says is more than $400,000 in unpaid child support.

The singer, best known for the 1990 hit “Because I Love You (The Postman Song),” was arrested Sept. 30 after performing at the MassMutual Center in Springfield. He spent several days in jail and was released after he made an $11,000 payment.

Stevie B, whose full name is Steven Bernard Hill, told The Associated Press he disputes the amount an Agawam woman claims he owes in support for their two daughters.

His lawyer said previously that the singer planned to present documentation of all the payments he has made during a court hearing Friday in Hampden Probate and Family Court. Stevie B lives in Las Vegas.

The postings were discovered Thursday and the students have been disciplined, officials said.

03.09.11 | Photo by Julian Feller-Cohen – A Belchertown Police cruiser.

BELCHERTOWN – Police and school officials are investigating Facebook postings, characterized by some as threatening, made by several Belchertown High School students against their peers

The incident marks the second time this week for Hampshire County in which threatening posts involving high school students and others have surfaced on the social media site.

Superintendent Judith Houle said the Facebook postings came to light on Thursday. They were made by a “couple” of students who have since been disciplined, she said.

The superintendent, citing an ongoing investigation with police, declined to characterize the postings as threatening or incidents of cyber-bullying.

“To be honest with you, they are very vague and generic,” Houle said of the posts.

Belchertown Police Chief Francis Fox, who could not immediately be reached for comment, told CBS3, however, that a parent notified authorities after they learned some students made threats on Facebook.

Houle said the names of specific students were mentioned on a list posted on Facebook, but added that there was no credible threat against the school.

“As with anything like this there is always multiple layers,” Houle said “Facebook is a place where students often say things that they wind up regretting later. I say this as a matter of course.”

Houle said the high school was not locked down and that no arrests have been made. Houle, citing privacy laws, declined to give the exact number of students disciplined or the nature of that discipline.

Plans have been in the works for some time, Houle said, to co-sponsor an event with Ware Public Schools designed to raise awareness of bullying and cyber bullying.

The free event, featuring Dr. Elizabeth Englander as speaker, will be held Jan. 26 at 6:30 p.m. in the auditorium at Ware High School. Both parents and students from both communities are invited to attend, Houle said.

“Dr. Englander is an expert in this field,” Houle said.

On Tuesday, Northampton police arrested a 17-year-old former Northampton High School student suspected of threatening both students and staff on Facebook via song lyrics that had been posted on Facebook.

Ryan Andrews, of 232 Haydenville Road, Leeds, was charged with making threats with serious public alarm and two counts of threatening to commit a crime (murder and rape), police said.

At his arraignment Tuesday, Andrews denied the charges. He is due back in court on Dec. 28.

He was released on the condition that he stay away from both the Northampton and Easthampton high schools, and that he have no contact with the victims. He is also required to undergo a mental health evaluation and to refrain from using all social media.

He was also ordered to reside at an address in Leeds, to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet and to abide by a curfew that requires him to be home between the hours of 5 p.m. and 7 a.m.

Assessors are recommending that all property owners pay a single rate of $13.35 per $1,000 assessed value.

NORTHAMPTON – The average homeowner can expect to pay about $118 more in property taxes in fiscal 2012, if the City Council gives final approval to the new rate next month.

Assessors are recommending that all property owners pay a single rate of $13.35 per $1,000 assessed value, up from the current $12.96 rate or about 3 percent.

Property values remained about the same, said Joan C. Sarafin, principal assessor. In most cases, they used 2010 values, she said.

The average home is valued at $302,000. Last year, that property owned paid $3,939 in property taxes and next year will pay $4,058 – about $30 per quarter more.
With only 20 percent of the city commercial, assessors recommended that all property owners pay the same rate.

Sarafin Friday said she believes raising rates for those property owners would not be prudent. A shift would mean a residential rate of $11.72 per $1,000 but a rate of $20.05 for a commercial property owner.

That translates to $502 less for the average homeowner but a $3,537 hike for the average commercial property owner. She thinks that would lead to businesses leaving the city.

She said the state Department of Revenue does not recommend assessing higher rates for commercial property if the percentage of commercial property in a community is less than 20 percent.

She also does not recommend a residential exemption, which shifts the burden to more costly homes. Many of those costly homes are apartment buildings. “Higher tax bills means higher rent,” she said.

“There is no free lunch. You can help one section, the other one pays,” she said.

“I don’t think this is the time to burden one (group) over the other.”

The City Council is scheduled to vote on the recommendations at is meeting next Dec. 1.

The graduate students came armed with a slide show,easel pads, maps, a new color brochure -- and, most of all, enthusiasm about an area they said had “great potential.”

SOUTH HADLEY –- “We would love some kind of grocery store in the Falls,” said Diane LaRoche. “And a farmers’ market we could walk to!”

LaRoche was one of about 50 residents of South Hadley who showed up for a program called “Community Conversation: South Hadley Falls," at Town Hall on Wednesday.

Residents were almost outnumbered by the team of graduate students from the University of Massachusetts who, under the guidance of faculty, had been working all semester on new visions for South Hadley Falls.

The neighborhood used to be a bustling commercial center, but declined as factories and stores closed up and left. “Revitalizing the Falls” has been a goal of the town.

UMass professor Mark Hamin coordinated the university-town collaboration.

The grad students came armed with a slide show, easel pads, maps and a new color brochure about the Falls. They envisioned everything from high-tech industrial parks to a trolley to “remediation ponds” to a riverfront water park with a four-story climbing wall.

They also came armed with enthusiasm about an area they said had “great potential.”

“When it comes to engineering, you’re not afraid to tackle anything,” said graduate student Nathan Frazer, referring to the 18th-century ancestors who built the first commercially navigable canal in the Northeast in South Hadley.

The graduate students had worked in five groups, each with its own vision for South Hadley Falls. They presented their ideas briefly in slides, then split up to take their posts at five different display tables. There, members of the audience browsed and asked questions as they munched on a splendid array of snacks.

The grad students then shepherded the assembly into small groups, and that’s where residents had their say.

“If we have a nice shiny new library,” said resident Richard Orlick, “we need a factory next to it to support it.”

Resident Larry Dubois said the Falls started declining when the rotary on Route 202 was built, because north-bound traffic began crossing the 202 bridge instead of the bridge in the Falls.

For buildings in the floodplain of the Falls, Dubois said the solution was to add second stories to existing buildings and save ground floors for parking. He also liked mobile vendor carts for a “street market” effect.

Other suggestions that came out of the groups: A hotel for businesspeople and golfers, a nightlife (new Falls resident Adam Roberts said he likes hanging out at the Egg and I, but he’s always the youngest person there), bikeways, performance spaces, sidewalks, safe intersections.

Jeffrey LaBrecque, manager of the Village Commons, liked the idea of clustering similar businesses together, like the restaurants in Northampton and the auto shops on West Springfield’s Riverdale Street.

One of the student displays showed how a cluster of auto shops in Denmark solved ecological and visual problems by creating a fabulous living roof of grass, like giant arms hovering over the shops.

Hamin said the team will use all the information residents had provided, work it into their proposals, and come back in January for another presentation.

“I think it went great,” said Joshua Chase, a graduate student in Landscape architecture and Regional Planning. “Everybody was quite involved and quite honest.”

To add more comments to the discussion, email southhadleyfalls@gmail.com.

Connecticut State Police say Koistinen was driving more than 70 miles per hour in a 35 zone when he struck Henry Dang, who was riding his bike late at night.

File photo / Hartford CourantWindsor Locks police officer Michael Koistenen, left, walks into Hartford Superior Court in December of 2009, with his father, Windsor Locks Police Sgt. Robert Koistenen, for his arraignment in connection with the death of 15-year-old Henry Dang.

HARTFORD — A former Windsor Locks police officer charged with manslaughter for an off-duty car accident that killed a 15-year-old boy has rejected a plea deal and intends to go to trial.

Michael Koistinen turned down an undisclosed offer by prosecutors Friday in Hartford Superior Court.

State police say Koistinen was driving more than 70 miles per hour in a 35 zone in October 2010 when he struck Henry Dang, who was riding his bike late at night in Windsor Locks. Authorities say Koistinen had been drinking alcohol before the crash, but his blood-alcohol level wasn't tested and he wasn't charged with drunken driving.

The 25-year-old Koistinen was fired last December. His father, Windsor Locks police Sgt. Robert Koistinen, was charged with hindering the investigation and rejected a plea deal Thursday.