Seklecki, with the department since 1983, will lead the Holyoke force until Pluta hires a new chief.

File photo | The RepublicanFILE – Holyoke Police Department Capt. Frederick Seklecki demonstrates a bar code reader used in evidence room inventory control. Seklecki will be interim chief when Police Chief Anthony Scott retires on April 30, Mayor Elaine Pluta said on Thursday.

HOLYOKE – Capt. Frederick J. Seklecki will be the interim chief when Police Chief Anthony R. Scott retires April 30, Mayor Elaine A. Pluta said Thursday.

Seklecki, a 28-year veteran, will lead the Police Department until the city hires a new chief, which Pluta said she expects to be in June.

“He knows the department. He’ll do a good job,” Pluta said.

Scott, who turned 65 Tuesday, has been chief since 2001. He must retire within the month in which he turns 65, under state law.

A search committee is reviewing 40 candidates who applied to be chief from New England and New York. The committee will recommend three to five finalists to Pluta, who has sole authority under the city charter to hire the police chief.

Seklecki began with the department Jan. 26, 1983.

In his nearly three decades on the force, Seklecki said he has done nearly every job in the department. That includes foot and cruiser patrols, crime scene investigations and his current duty as head of the Technical Services Bureau. The bureau handles processing and storing of evidence, maintenance of electronic equipment, firearms training and crime data reporting.

“It’ll be a little bit of a change of pace. Chief Scott’s been great, he’s been bringing me up to speed,” Seklecki said.

Other captains have more seniority than Seklecki but were ineligible to be interim chief: Capt. Alan G. Fletcher began Aug. 11, 1968, but he is a candidate for the chief job here, and Capt. Arthur R. Monfette began Oct. 20, 1978, but he is on the search committee, Pluta said.

Holyoke Police Dept. websiteHolyoke Police Capt. Frederick Seklecki

Police are asking the public to help identify the gunmen responsible for shootings outside a Dwight Street bar and a State Street convenience store.

Staff Photo by DON TREEGERThe Chessmen Lounge, 459 Dwight St., Springfield, was the scene of an early-morning shooting Thursday that sent a local man to the hospital with multiple gunshot wounds.

Updates stories published Thursday at 9:26 a.m., and Wednesday at 6:48 p.m.

SPRINGFIELD – With three shooting victims in three days, Springfield police are asking city residents to help investigators catch the gunmen responsible for the crimes.

Springfield Police Capt. William P. Collins said he had no new information about either Thursday’s shooting outside The Chessmen Lounge on Dwight Street or Tuesday’s shooting outside Express Gas & Food Mart on State Street.

According to police, a 35-year-old city man was shot three times after exiting the bar at 490 Dwight St. shortly before 2 a.m. Thursday. Police said the victim was in serious but stable condition at Baystate Medical Center.

Police Capt. Cheryl C. Clapprood said a gun was found inside the victim's car.

“This guy was up to something, too,” Clapprood said of the man, who sustained gunshot wounds to the groin, hip and knee.

The victim told police he encountered two men outside the bar, and they began shooting at him.

The assailants were described as two black men, one of whom was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt with a white T-shirt underneath. They were last seen running down Lyman Street, police said.

Clapprood said The Chessmen Lounge is not known for being a trouble spot.

That said, there was a shooting outside The Chessmen Lounge in 2009 and a murder-kidnapping outside the bar in 1984, according to Republican archives.

A bartender at The Chessmen Lounge contacted by The Republican Thursday afternoon declined to comment about the shooting.

Staff Photo by DON TREEGERSpringfield Police Detective James McCoy photographs blood stains and evidence in the parking lot of Express Gas & Food Mart, 1107 State St. The store was the scene of a double shooting with two teenage victims late Tuesday afternoon.

Earlier this week, Springfield police scoured sections of the Bay and Upper Hill neighborhoods for a gunman responsible for shooting two 19-year-old city residents outside a State Street convenience store late Tuesday afternoon.

One teen was hit in the leg, the other in the abdomen in the parking lot of Express Gas & Food Mart, 1107 State St. The victim with the abdominal injury underwent emergency surgery at Baystate Medical Center, where he was listed in serious but stable condition.

The teenagers each were shot once by the same caliber weapon, according to Springfield Detective Lt. Trent Duda, which would suggest only one shooter in the case.

"At this point we're not sure," Duda said Wednesday.

The daylight shooting was reported just as the afternoon rush hour was getting underway. The State Street convenience store is located between Dresden and Cortland streets.

Police are asking anyone with information about either shooting to call the Springfield Detective bureau at (413) 787-6355. Police said those wishing to remain anonymous can send a text message to “CRIMES” (or 274637) and should begin their message with the word “SOLVE.”

Republican staff writer George Graham contributed to this report.

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75 Pakistanis will come to Massachusetts and 20 Americans will travel to Pakistan in 2014 as part of a $1.5 million U.S. State Department Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs grant.

The Republican | Diane LedermanZareef Ul Maani, left, and Sharif Hussain, to his right, review tax numbers with Hadley Town Administrator David Nixon. The government officials from Pakistan are here as part of a State Department grant to the Massachusetts Municipal Association and the Amherst-based Institute for Training and Development. The men will spend two weeks with Springfield officials beginning Monday.

HADLEY – Town administrator David Nixon is sitting at a table in his Town Hall office, explaining how the tax system works to two visitors who have tax sheets to better understand.

This day is one of many here for the two men from Pakistan who are among a delegation of 15 people visiting communities across the state. Their tour is funded by a grant from the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs to the Massachusetts Municipal Association and the Amherst-based Institute for Training and Development.

The program will see a total of 75 Pakistanis come to Massachusetts over two years, and 20 Americans will travel to Pakistan in 2014 as part of the $1.5 million program.

Next week, Sharif Hussain and Zareef Ul Maani will visit Springfield. They will spend two weeks in the City of Homes to get a look at how a larger city functions. Both men work in government in Pakistan. It is part of a 40-day tour of the U.S.

So far, they have witnessed Hadley’s annual town election on April 12. “It was very organized, transparent,” said Maani, who is a public administrator at the provincial level in the northwest area of Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa.

They sat in at a School Committee meeting and visited both the elementary school and Hopkins Academy, the town’s high school. “Very clean,” Maani said. He was also impressed with the parents who appeared before the School Committee and asked questions.

The visitors are here to learn about the government and to share culture.

“It’s expanding awareness of the complexity of people and cultures and society. These Pakistanis are very influential people,” said Julie Hooks Davis, co-executive director of the Institute for Training and Development.

The Pakistani participants are either mid- or upper-level government officials, she said. On this day, they were sharing with Nixon how their government systems differ.

Hussain, who is the deputy secretary in the Establishment Department of the government of Kyber Pakhtunkhwa, said that most taxes in Pakistan “are raised by the federal parliament. We don’t have tax collecting authority with the local government.” Nixon has been explaining about Massachusetts’ property-tax limiting measure Proposition 2½, as well as Hadley’s single tax rate and what a debt exclusion is.

This marks the two visitors’ first trip to the United States. It has been a surprise from the very beginning, said Maani, who added he’d expected “a tough time at the airport,” but “they welcomed us.”

“People have been so friendly,” Maani said. “We feel at home ... If (people) in Pakistan knew (how) people in America are, there would be long friendships.”

He acknowledged that he had not thought Americans would be as hospitable and friendly as he believes Pakistan’s people are, and Hooks Davis indicated the response is among the program’s goals.

“This kind of change in their attitudes will be shared not only by friends and family but by their colleagues, by the people who work with them,” Hooks Davis said.

What surprised both men was how college students here must work while they attend school. In their country, Hussain said, families will support their children through college until they’re 29 or 30. School is not any less expensive, but there are interest free-loans to help.

Maani was surprised that the Hadley town administrator must do so much work alone, right down to unlocking the doors to Town Hall when he arrives for work.

He noted the solitary life of Americans, expressing surprise that people eat alone in this country. “I can’t eat alone,” he said, noting that he always dines with at least two friends.

Also in their country, it’s not typical for people to live alone. Hussain lives with his wife, his parents, his three single brothers, his sister, and his married brother and his wife. He said it was difficult to leave his family for this trip, as he’d never been away for such a long period of time. “My mother had tears in her eyes, my father had tears in his eyes,” Hussain said, and he had tears, too.

For his part, Nixon said the program is providing him a good learning experience as well. “I feel I’m learning more than I am able to impart,” he said. Nixon is hoping to go to Pakistan in 2014 with other Americans.

So far, Hooks Davis said, the program “is exceeding our expectations. The generosity of the host communities, the warmth and welcome they’ve extended, exceeded expectations. We’re very grateful.”

Using contaminated soil at the closed landfill was distracting people from the benefits of a solar project there, officials said.

The Republican | Diane LedermanAmherst's capped landfill is the site of a proposed solar project.

AMHERST – Officials will not use arsenic-contaminated soil to grade the closed landfill even though state officials said using the soil poses no health risks.

Town Manager John P. Musante said the issue of using the soil “was becoming a real distraction” during the discussions earlier this month about creating a solar generating station at the site.

“There is no risk,” he said. But he said “there was a lot of anxiety.” The main thing is he didn’t want those concerns “to jeopardize what out main objective is.”

The town is working with Boston-based BlueWave Capital LLC to build a solar generating system that could produce 4.75 megawatts of electricity, enough to provide energy to all town buildings and schools, street lights and more. Depending on the cost of energy over time, the project could save the town about $25 million during the next 25 to 30 years.

Officials held a meeting with residents earlier this month to talk about the project, and residents raised concerns about the contaminated soil, along with the solar project.

The projects are separate, and even if the town didn’t proceed with the solar project, it still has to comply with a state Department of Environmental Protection order to regrade the site. That agency determined the town could use 4,000 cubic yards of soil contaminated with agricultural arsenic from the roundabout construction project near Atkins Country Market.

Musante, meanwhile, said town officials will meet with neighbors of the solar project in small groups to answer more questions. More than 100 people attended a recent meeting raising concerns about the effect of the project on the environment as well as its aesthetics.

Musante wants to address those concerns because, he said, the project will benefit the whole town. Officials want to “figure out a way to mitigate any prospective (problem).” And he reiterated that this is just the beginning. The project will have to undergo a range of permits, a process during which anyone with concerns will be able to comment.

School Committee member Jacob R. Oliveira said the failure of many Ludlow High School graduates to complete a four-year degree is a concern.

File photo | The RepublicanLudlow school superintendent Theresa Kane said the percentage of Ludlow High School grauduates attending four-year colleges has declined over the past four years.

LUDLOW – The percentage of Ludlow High School graduates attending four-year colleges has declined between 2007 and 2010, School Superintendent Theresa M. Kane said.

The school district’s strategic plan mentions the decline as a challenge for the school district.

The percentage attending a four-year college fell from 45 percent from the class of 2007 to 34 percent in the class of 2009 before rising to 42 percent from the class of 2010, according to figures in the school district’s strategic plan. Of the class of 2008, 40 percent attending a four-year college.

Kane said the school district sends many students to two-year colleges after graduation, but many of those students do not continue their educations to obtain bachelor’s degrees.

“Some don’t complete an associate’s degree,” Kane told the School Committee.

School Committee member Jacob R. Oliveira said the failure of many Ludlow High School graduates to complete a four-year degrees is a concern.

Oliveira said that 25 percent of jobs in the state are projected to be in health care and education, which require advanced degrees.

Oliveira said only 16 percent of jobs are projected to be in manufacturing.

School Committee member James P. Harrington said the largest employers in the area are Baystate Medical Center and the MassMutual Financial Group, both of which employ highly skilled workers.

According to the federal census, 17.3 percent of adults in town have some college education and only 11.6 percent of adults have a bachelor’s degree, Kane said.

The percentage of residents who said a language other than English is spoken in the home has dropped in the last 10 years from 25 percent to 21.2 percent, Kane said.

She said that 10.3 percent of residents responding to the most recent census reported that they spoke English “less than very well.”

Kane said that 10 years ago 25 percent of those responding to the census said there were adults in the home who spoke English “less than very well.”

Investigators are reconstructing the crash that killed 78-year-old Antoinette Stark, a Holyoke woman who had been shopping with her 71-year-old cousin.

Greg Saulmon / The Republican04.20.2011 | WESTFIELD - The scene of a fatal accident at the intersection of Route 20 and East Mountain Road Wednesday.

Updates story published Thursday at 10:37 a.m.

WESTFIELD – Westfield Police Lt. Jay Pitoniak said it’s still unknown if any citations will be filed in connection with a fatal three-car collision on Route 20 that claimed the life of a Holyoke woman Wednesday.

“It’s probably too soon to tell,” he said Thursday, adding that crash investigators will examine speed and other possible contributing factors.

"When they reconstruct it they’ll look at that,” Pitoniak said.

Antoinette Stark, 78, of 330 Rock Valley Road, Holyoke, died from injuries sustained in the 2:30 p.m. Wednesday crash at the intersection of Route 20 and East Mountain Road. She was pronounced dead later at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, police said.

Updates on the conditions of two others hospitalized in the crash – including the driver of the car in which Stark was a passenger – were not immediately available Thursday evening.

Stark was riding in a Toyota Camry driven by her cousin, Linda Barcomb, 71, of 160 Nonotuck St., Northampton. Barcomb was eastbound on Route 20 when she turned north onto East Mountain Road and collided with a Chevrolet Suburban that was westbound on Route 20, police said.

The impact sent Barcomb’s vehicle into a Toyota Corolla that was waiting at the traffic light on East Mountain Road, police said.

The crash forced the closure of the intersection for several hours Wednesday. Westfield and state police from the Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Section continue to investigate.

Additional information on the crash, including seat belt usage, was not immediately available.

According to CBS3 news, Stark and Barcomb were returning from a shopping trip when the crash occurred.

“She was loved by everyone who knew her. She was just a wonderful person,” David Stark, the deceased woman’s son, told CBS3.

Republican staff writer George Graham contributed to this report.

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The 7-year-old boy was handcuffed after he became violent while working on an Easter art project and threatened teachers with scissors.

Submitted photo

By COLLEEN LONG

NEW YORK — The new head of the nation's largest school district said Thursday he would look into the case of a 7-year-old special needs boy who was handcuffed by police after he became violent while working on an Easter art project and threatened teachers with scissors.

Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott, speaking to reporters after an event to showcase public service projects, said there are occasions when students may need to be restrained and it's up to school officials and safety officers to decide.

"There are opportunities that present themselves where a student may be in danger to either him or herself or to other students," he said.

First-grader Joseph Anderson became upset last week at his Queens elementary school because his art project, Easter egg painting, didn't look the way he wanted. Department of Education officials said the school tried to defuse the situation and then called police when there was a concern the boy would harm himself or others. Police said he was violent and threatening, biting and spitting, and officers restrained him and took him to a hospital for evaluation.

The boy's mother, Jessica Anderson, said he has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, delayed speech and emotional problems. She said she is upset that he was taken to a hospital in handcuffs even though she said she was on her way to get him, and she told the Daily News he was traumatized by what happened.

"If he hears an ambulance, he runs under the bed and screams, 'They're going to get me,'" she told the newspaper.

Walcott spoke to Anderson on Thursday, a day after the Daily News first published the report on her son. He said he would look into the matter and make sure he's satisfied with the answer.

"We have many incidents that take place without handcuffs being used, and there are other means to engage, and so people do not make this decision lightly," he said.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg appointed Walcott to head the city's 1.1 million-student school system on April 7, after publishing executive Cathie Black resigned following a brief and tumultuous tenure.

The issue of handcuffing students has gotten increasing interest in the courts in recent years.

The city was sued this month after a 10-year-old girl involved in a classroom fight was taken from her school in handcuffs. The Bronx girl claimed she was interrogated at a police station last April until she was released into her mother's care three hours later.

The police department disputed some of her claims, saying she wasn't interrogated and was in custody for just over an hour and a half.

But the girl's lawsuit recalled similar complaints made when a 12-year-old Queens girl was led from her school in handcuffs last year after she doodled on her desk with an erasable marker and when a 5-year-old Queens boy was handcuffed in 2008 by a school safety agent and was taken to a hospital's psychiatric ward after he threw a tantrum, knocking things off a desk in a principal's office. Both of those cases also resulted in lawsuits.

The recurring issue led the New York Civil Liberties Union to file a lawsuit in federal court in Brooklyn last year challenging the practices of the police department's school safety division. Among the allegations was that police arrest students for minor violations of school rules that aren't criminal activity.

Ensign insisted he's done nothing wrong, but said he could no longer expose his family and constituents to the intense focus on his extramarital affair with a former staffer and the ethical allegations clouding that relationship.

File photo | Associated PressFILE - Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., announced he will resign amid an ethics investigation. Ensign said Thursday, April 21, 2011, he will send Vice President Joe Biden a letter Friday making the resignation official. He said he has not violated any laws or rules, but said he could no longer subject his family, friends and constituents to further investigations. The Republican, who is under investigation by the Senate Ethics Committee, announced in March that he would not pursue re-election. (AP Photo/Isaac Brekken)

By CRISTINA SILVA

LAS VEGAS — Embattled Republican Sen. John Ensign of Nevada announced Thursday that he will resign amid an ongoing ethics investigation, a move that should spare him from the continued embarrassment of the closely watched probe.

Ensign insisted he's done nothing wrong, but said he could no longer expose his family and constituents to the intense focus on his extramarital affair with a former staffer and the ethical allegations clouding that relationship.

"For my family and me, this continued personal cost is simply too great," he said in a statement.

Ensign said he will send a letter making the resignation official to Vice President Joe Biden on Friday. His exit will end the Senate Ethics Committee investigation.

But the senator could still be vulnerable to questions about his role in the aftermath of the affair. The husband of his former lover, who was also a former aide to Ensign, has been indicted for illegally lobbying the senator's staff.

The Justice Department and the Federal Election Commission investigated and then dropped cases against Ensign with little explanation. The ethics committee, however, named a special counsel in February to look into the matter.

In his resignation notice Thursday, Ensign said that appointment shook him because he had hoped the investigation would end with the Justice Department.

Ensign announced in June 2009 that he had an extramarital affair with Cynthia Hampton, a former member of his campaign staff, and that he had helped her husband, Doug Hampton, a member of his Senate staff, obtain lobbying work with two Nevada companies.

Federal law prohibits a former senior Senate aide from lobbying the Senate for one year after terminating employment.

Ensign announced in March he would not pursue re-election in 2012 to protect his family from campaign attacks involving his role in Doug Hampton's lobbying career. He added that the Senate investigation hadn't influenced his decision.

"If I was concerned about that I would have resigned, because that would make the most sense because then it goes away," he said last month.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, the government watchdog group that requested the Senate ethics investigation, criticized Ensign Thursday for not resigning sooner.

"Sadly, it's not because he's seen the error of his ways, or even to 'spend more time with his family,'" executive director Melanie Sloan said in a statement. "The truth no one is likely to admit is that Sen. Ensign is being pushed out to give the Republican party a leg up in the 2012 election."

Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval will now appoint someone to serve the remainder of Ensign's term, and choosing U.S. Rep. Dean Heller or another Republican would give the party the advantage of incumbency in a highly competitive seat that could decide which party controls the Senate after 2012.

Sandoval endorsed Heller minutes after his campaign announcement in March. Democratic U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley is also running and is considered the strongest Democratic contender.

Former Gov. Bob List, now a member of the Republican National Committee, urged the governor to appoint Heller to the seat as Nevada Democrats quickly began their campaign to influence Sandoval's decision.

"Nevada needs a senator who is focused on creating jobs and protecting our middle class, not ending Medicare as we know it and giving more tax breaks to the rich, like Dean Heller is trying to do," Nevada Democratic Party spokesman Zach Hudson said.

Associated Press writers Sandra Chereb in Carson City and David Espo in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

Trooper Michael Isom was transported to Boston Medical Center with serious injuries.

RANDOLPH — A Massachusetts state trooper has been injured after his cruiser was struck from behind by a suspected drunken driver.

A police spokesman says the trooper was in his cruiser at about 2:30 a.m. Friday working a construction detail on Interstate 93 south in Randolph when he was struck by a Land Rover operated by 47-year-old Leslie Minasian of East Bridgewater.

Trooper Michael Isom was transported to Boston Medical Center with serious injuries. Minasian was treated and released from Norwood Hospital. She is scheduled to be arraigned in Quincy District Court on charges including second offense operating under the influence.

The cruiser with its blue lights on was in the far left lane of the highway, which at the time was closed to traffic.

The crash remains under investigation.

Patrick is calling for "a much more fundamental overhaul" of the beleaguered state agency.

Associated PressMassachusetts House Speaker Robert DeLeo, left, shakes hands with Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Roderick Ireland during a joint press conference at the Statehouse in Boston Thursday, April 21, 2011 where they discussed and unveiled legislation designed to overhaul the state Probation Department. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

By Kyle Cheney

BOSTON — Although a powerful array of lawmakers, lawyers and judges lined up to reject his plan to take control of the state Probation Department, Gov. Deval Patrick said Thursday that the solution offered by Speaker Robert DeLeo to fix a scandal-plagued judiciary may not go far enough.

Patrick told the News Service that he appreciates DeLeo’s proposal to “professionalize the hiring and promotion” within the judiciary, as well as across state government, a plan intended to turn the page on a patronage scandal that enveloped the Probation Department last year.

“But I’m also mindful that it’s the Legislature’s interference and the judiciary’s lack of oversight that got us into this mess to begin with,” Patrick said late Thursday after signing copies of his new book at the Prudential Center, “and I think it’s going to take a much more fundamental overhaul to fix it.”

In the wake of the patronage scandal that exploded into public consciousness in November, after an independent investigator described rampant patronage and mismanagement within the Probation Department – likely at the encouragement of the Legislature – Patrick doubled-down on a plan to wrest control of the probation agency from the judiciary. His plan would have merged it with the state Parole Board, already under the control of the Executive Branch.

However, lawmakers and top judges quickly questioned the proposal, and eventually DeLeo and Senate President Therese Murray indicated they planned to move in a different direction. DeLeo’s proposal, formally unveiled yesterday at a State House press conference, would maintain the Probation Department under the judiciary’s control but implement several new layers of oversight and revise hiring across state government to publicly identify successful job applicants who received a boost from public officials.

At the House press conference, Roderick Ireland, who Patrick promoted to chief justice of the Supreme Judicial Court in December, stood alongside DeLeo to support the speaker’s plan and restate his long-held public view that probation should remain under judicial control.

Patrick said Thursday that DeLeo’s proposal to install a civilian administrator to run the court system’s non-judicial business mirrored a plan he offered in January.

“I think that’s exactly right,” he said.

Patrick said he had yet to see DeLeo’s plan in detail but had read about it.

The police chief said there were 940 arrests in 2010, up from 740 in 2009.

Police Chief Robert P. Frydryk

PALMER – Acting Town Manager Patricia A. Kennedy has returned a police officer position to the fiscal 2012 budget, a move that pleases Police Chief Robert P. Frydryk.

“I hope the funding remains. It’s important to at least maintain our current staffing. Our activity level is certainly not diminishing,” Frydryk said this week.

Kennedy initially was not going to fund a replacement for Officer James J. Lynch, who is retiring at the end of the month.

She added the position back in after updated local aid figures were released last week – Palmer stands to receive $1.6 million in unrestricted local aid and $10.5 million in Chapter 70 education aid; Palmer’s assessment for charter school tuition also dropped $30,000, freeing up money in the budget.

“That helped us out,” she said.

“I think it’s a good budget and if they (the Town Council) choose to put money somewhere else, that’s up to them,” Kennedy said.

Still in the budget are the new part-time positions of recreation director and economic development director, for $12,000 each, plus $2,000 each for expenses. Despite being a charter requirement, the town has never had a recreation director due to a lack of funding and other budget needs.

The economic development director position is one of the charter changes that passed at the November election.

As for the police, Frydryk said his department continues to be busy, with 940 arrests in 2010 compared to 740 in 2009. So far this year, there have been 260 arrests, he said. Out of the 940 arrests, he said 108 of them were for simple assault. Two rapes also were reported and there were 48 operating while under the influence arrests.

The Town Council’s budget discussions will continue at its May 4 meeting at the Town Building.

17-year-old Gaby Rodriguez did the experiment as part of a senior project on stereotyping.

Associated PressIn an April 20, 2011 phoyo, Toppenish High School senior Gaby Rodriguez talks about rumors and stereotypes at a school assembly in Toppenish, Wash. during which she revealed that for the past 6 1/2 months --€” the bulk of her senior year at Toppenish High School -- the 17-year-old A-student faked her own pregnancy in order to test the reactions of her friends and family, for a senior project.

TOPPENISH, Wash. — A high school student who faked her pregnancy for six months as a social experiment stunned a student assembly this week by taking off the belly bundle.

Only a handful of people knew that 17-year-old Gaby Rodriguez wasn't really pregnant, including her mother, boyfriend and the principal, according to the Yakima Herald-Republic.

They helped keep the secret from some of her siblings and her boyfriend's family and students and teachers, all as part of a senior project on stereotyping.

Before the revelation, she asked several students and teachers to read quotes people said about her during the course of her experiment.

"Her attitude is changing, and it might be because of the baby or she was always this annoying and I never realized it," her best friend, Saida Cortes, read.

It grew quiet in the gym as more and more quotes were read aloud, Yakima Herald-Republic reported. Then Rodriguez dropped her bomb: "I'm fighting against those stereotypes and rumors because the reality is I'm not pregnant."

She had been nervous about how the crowd might react. After all, she had been lying to them since October.

"In essence, she gave up her senior year," said Principal Trevor Greene. "She sacrificed her senior year to find out what it would be like to be a potential teen mom."

"I admire her courage. I admire her preparation. I give her mother a lot of credit for backing her up on this," he said.

At first Rodriguez's mother wasn't sure what to make of the idea, either.

"I thought she was crazy," says 52-year-old Juana Rodriguez, adding it was difficult to lie to family members.

But she felt she needed to support her daughter, who enlisted two mentors from Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital's Childbirth Education Program to help her with the project.

Rodriguez began wearing her homemade, basketball-sized, prosthetic belly to school after spring break. Before that, she wore baggy sweaters and sweat shirts to conceal her faux pregnancy.

Her supposed due date was July 27, not quite two months after graduation.

Rodriguez and her boyfriend, 20-year-old Jorge Orozco, met at the homecoming game when she was a freshman and he was a senior. They started dating just over three years ago.

When Rodriguez told him her plan, "I thought she was nuts," the 2009 Toppenish High School graduate said. "I thought I was going to end up getting into problems with her brothers. I didn't really want to get into problems with anybody."

"I was doing it for her," he says, adding, "My parents thought it was going to be a boy."

Rodriguez — who has a grade-point average of 3.8 — came up with the idea during her sophomore year Advanced Placement biology class with Shawn Myers. She's in his anatomy class this year.

"You saw the side comments and the looks at her stomach," says Myers, who says he wasn't disappointed — "just concerned" — when she told him she was pregnant.

He says he wondered: "How are we going to take all of the potential that's in this girl and make sure it manifests itself and not let this define who she is and let it be a roadblock to what she wants to accomplish?"

It's a question Hispanic teens are more likely to face than white teens, Rodriguez found in her research. Black and Hispanic teens continue to have higher pregnancy rates than white teens.

And most teens at Toppenish High School — about 85 percent — are Hispanic, Yakima Herald-Republic reported.

Rodriguez plans to attend Columbia Basin College to study social work or sociology in the fall. And, she said, "I'm not planning to have a child until after I graduate."

The dwelling, a mobile home-type structure, was the subject of complaints by unnamed residents, who suggested it lacked the required permits and violating zoning laws.

Angela D. Plassmann

NORTHAMPTON – The strange saga of Angela D. Plassmann took another twist this week as she removed a controversial mobile home on her property despite her insistence that it was there legally.

The dwelling, a mobile home-type structure, was the subject of complaints by unnamed residents, who suggested it lacked the required permits and violating zoning laws. Plassmann’s mother reportedly lived in the structure. Building Commissioner Louis Hasbrouck was in the process of investigating the situation when the neighborhood woke up Wednesday to find the home gone.

Plassmann, a first-term city councilor representing Ward 3, abruptly resigned from that post earlier this month, claiming she was being harassed by an unnamed department head for political reasons. Her vaguely worded statement suggested that there was criminal wrong-doing involved and that she would seek legal satisfaction against the city. Plassmann declined to elaborate further and has refused to talk with the media.

Although Plassmann did not cite any details about her conflict with the city, it came to light that the Planning Department had asked Hasbrouck to look into complaints about the mobile home on the 180 Fair Street Extension property where she lives with her husband, Jon Plassmann. After eying the structure from the road, Hasbrouck sent a letter to couple’s lawyer, Patrick J. Melnick, saying that it appeared to be a “manufactured home” and, thus, was not in compliance with local zoning laws. Moreover, Hasbrouck wrote, the Plassmanns appeared to lack a permit for the structure and were in apparent violation of flood zone regulations.

In a response to Hasbrouck Friday, Melnick maintained that the structure is not a “manufactured home” but a “recreational park trailer” that is licensed as such. Rather than “quibbling” about the matter, however, the Plassmanns decided to remove the structure from the premises and end “a public spectacle for what they consider to be a private matter,” Melnick wrote.

Melnick had previously sought to learn the identities of the complainants, but the city says it is its policy to keep the source of zoning complaints confidential. In his letter to Hasbrouck, Melnick said he considers it “unfortunate” that the complainants remain anonymous.

“We do live in a free country where we have the right to know of and confront our accusers and know the basis of their accusations before we have to answer for them,” he wrote. “The Plassmanns are quite sure that the motives of the secret informant(s) have nothing to do with the fact that the Plassmanns had a recreational vehicle at their home.”

Plassmann again did not return calls on the matter Friday. Smoke could be seen coming from the chimney her house, which is surrounded by “no trespassing” signs. Hasbrouck said he intended to inspect the property to verify that the mobile home is gone. If so, he said, there is no longer an issue to investigate.

“Everything’s good with me,” he said.

Plassmann swept to victory in 2008, defeating incumbent Robert C. Reckman. In her abbreviated term on the council, she frequently voted in the minority and opposed several spending measures. Plassmann wanted to raise the fines for marijuana possession, saying drug enforcement was high on her political agenda , but she made little headway on that issue.

The city has scheduled a special election for Aug. 2 to fill Plassmann’s seat.

Ross, ironically, went on to become Dostie’s fellow inmate at Framingham State Prison.

File photo / The RepublicanSandra Dostie is seen with one of her defense lawyers Frank Antonucci, during her trial/

NORTHAMPTON – Sandra A. Dostie’s defense lawyer betrayed her trust by discussing her case with a neighbor who included the information in a damning magazine story, according to a newly filed court document. The alleged breach of attorney/client privilege is the basis of the motion for a new trial sought by Framingham lawyer Sandra F. Bloomenthal on Dostie’s behalf.

The motion, received Wednesday at Hampshire Superior Court, asks the court to throw out the 1995 first-degree murder conviction that resulted in a life sentence for Dostie, now 42. The jury found that Dostie smothered her five-year-old stepson, Eric Dostie, with a pillow in their Easthampton home. Prosecutors said Dostie resented the child support her husband Steven Dostie was paying Eric’s mother and the care Sandra Dostie had to pride the sickly boy, who had hemophilia. The jury rejected Dostie’s story that two men had barged into the house, beat her and bound her with duct tape, and killed Eric.

Dostie was represented at trial by Springfield lawyer Frank E. Antonucci and Janice Healy of Conway. Healy subsequently took a job in the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office and now works as deputy district attorney under Northwestern District Attorney David E. Sullivan.

According to the motion, Healy disclosed privileged information about Dostie to reporter Pippin Ross, her neighbor in Conway and a close friend. Ross went on to write a lengthy story about the case for Boston Magazine. The story is included in the motion as an exhibit. It states that Dostie’s defense team had contemplated changing her plea to not guilty by reason of temporary insanity and arguing that Dostie, who was pregnant at the time of the killing, was temporarily psychotic. Otherwise, it is unclear what information the article contains that did not come out at trial during testimony.

Also attached to the motion is a letter from Ross to Healy apologizing for the trouble the magazine story might cause her.

“... had I understood the ramifications you’re so convinced will befall you because of my piece,” Ross wrote, “I never would have written it in the style I did.”

Ross goes on to say, however, that Healy was not the “defense team” source to which she made reference and that Healy was not the sole source of her information.

“Believe me,” Ross wrote, “our relationship as neighbors and the mothers of two good friends suprecedes (sic) a juicey (sic) sentence or two. What seems so ironic in this situation is how we both somehow thought we were being helpful to each other.”

Northwestern First Assistant District Attorney Steven E. Gagne said his office is reviewing the motion and cannot comment on it at present. Antonucci is out of the country and could not be reached. Ross did not respond to a request on her blog for an interview.

Ross, ironically, went on to become Dostie’s fellow inmate at Framingham State Prison. Although she enjoyed success as a reporter for the Amherst-based public radio station WFC-FM and as a freelance writer, Ross was beset by an alcohol addiction that brought her down. In 2005, she was convicted of operating under the influence of alcohol, fourth offense, and sentenced to a year in jail. She compounded her troubles by forging documents seeking her early release. In 2006, she pleaded guilty to forgery charges and conspiracy to escape from jail. As a result, the court tacked 2-4 onto her sentence and sent her to the state prison for women in Framingham.

Bloomenthal confirmed that Ross and Dostie talked while both were incarcerated in Framingham, but declined to disclose the nature of their discussions.

In 1997, the Supreme Judicial Court upheld Dostie’s first-degree murder conviction on appeal. As Bloomenthal explained it, her motion does not constitute another appeal but seeks a new trial on the basis of new evidence. The motion will be sent to Judge Constance M. Sweeney, who presided over the original trial, for consideration. Steven Dostie, Eric’s father, could not be reached for comment on the matter.

Trustees failed to declare state-approved reasons for holding closed-door meetings.

Republican staff photo by Don TreegerSteven E. Como, chairman of the Holyoke Soldiers' Home board of trustees.

HOLYOKE – The board of trustees of the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home will learn rules such as the importance of citing a state-approved reason before closing the door on the public at a meeting.

Trustees will be among those attending a seminar that the office of Attorney General Martha M. Coakley will give about the Open Meeting Law May 25. The seminar will be 6 to 8:30 p.m. at Northampton High School on Elm Street, officials said.

Trustees requested the training after The Republican in February raised questions after reviewing 56 pages of minutes and notices of trustees’ meetings going back to July 1. The meetings were to discuss candidates for Home superintendent.

Board chairman Steven E. Como, of Pittsfield, said Thursday the Open Meeting Law training would be on May 25 in Northampton, but referred questions to Coakley’s office.

Harry Pierre, a spokesman for Coakley, said Friday the training is open to the public.

“A lot of municipal officials have signed up because they want to know (the law), so they don’t commit an Open Meeting Law violation,” Pierre said.

The Republican reported in March that trustees in the fall and winter failed to cite in open session reasons why they were going into executive session several times. The Open Meeting Law requires such a reason be cited before a governmental body can close the door on the public.

Examples of reasons the law allows for closed-door sessions are collective bargaining and litigation.

Trustees acknowledged to the Patrick administration that they didn’t cite a reason in open session for going into executive sessions, Jennifer Kritz, spokeswoman for the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, told The Republican last moth.

Trustees also interviewed five candidates for superintendent in closed-door session instead of in open session, she wrote.

The Republican review came after the Patrick administration refused to reveal the identity of the finalist for the $106,000-a-yearjob of superintendent despite the board of trustees having referred its recommended candidate to state officials in early November.

The state acknowledged Feb. 23, after The Republican posted a story earlier that day on MassLive.com, that Paul Barabani, 60, of Chicopee, was the new superintendent.

At a ceremony for Barabani held outside on the Soldiers’ Home grounds Thursday, Como joked about the Open Meeting Law problems: “The five legal counsels that I have tell me that I must say that this is an open meeting.”

The seven-member board is a volunteer panel appointed by the governor to oversee the Home and represent the four Western Massachusetts counties.

Besides Como, the board consists of Margaret E. Oglesby, of Springfield, James J. Tierney, of Holyoke, Walter J. Zarichak, of Westfield, John J. Fitzgerald, of Longmeadow, all in Hampden County, and Cynthia R. Watson, of Granby, in Hampshire County, and Bernard L. Jones, of Colrain, in Franklin County.

The Soldiers’ Home, on Cherry Street, opened in 1952. It provides residential beds and outpatient clinic services including optometry, ear, nose and throat and social services.

The clinic treats 2,200 veterans a year, officials said.

The Home has 356 employees and a yearly budget of $19.4 million.

The city has sent the matter of the breaching of two sewer pipes that spewed sewage into a wetland near the Westfield River on to the district attorney's office.

AGAWAM – The city has turned over the matter of the breaching of two sewer pipes that spewed raw sewage into wetlands near the Westfield River to the Hampden County District Attorney’s Office.

As to whether there is an investigation, Mayor Richard A. Cohen was tightlipped Thursday about the incident, which took place late last month on private property off Meadow Street.

“I can’t say a word because it has been turned over to the district attorney’s office,” Cohen said.

Cohen also declined to say how much repairs have cost the city or identify who breached the pipes, referring all questions to the district attorney’s office.

Hampden County District Attorney Mark G. Mastroianni could not be reached for comment late Thursday.

Catherine Skiba, regional spokesperson for the state Department of Environmental Protection, which worked closely with the Department of Public Works on repairs, would not identify the contractor who breached the pipe.

“We can’t discuss an ongoing investigation,” Skiba said.

A contractor doing work on property off Meadow Street nicked a 10-inch and a 20-inch sewer pipe, according to Department of Public Works Superintendent Christopher Christopher J. Golba. The Department of Public Works was called in when it was reported to them that there was a backhoe unattended and submerged in wetlands. The site is posted with a “No Trespassing” sign.

The pipes run from a pump station on Main Street and flow to the Springfield Regional Wastewater Treatment Facility on Bondi’s Island.

Golba had said earlier that the city would pay for repairs and seek reimbursement from the contractor. Cohen had said the city would correct the problem because it is an environmental issue, investigate the matter thoroughly and then take “appropriate action.”

Marianne Hancock, the driver of the car, was treated and released following the Thursday accident that killed her husband.

AMHERST – The Northwestern District Attorney’s Office has identified the man killed in Thursday’s accident on Bay Road and South East as George W. Hancock of 27 Teaberry Lane in Easthampton.

His wife, Marianne Hancock, the driver of the car he was riding in was treated at Cooley Dickinson Hospital and released.

This is all the information available at this time, according to a statement from the district attorney office.

Hancock died as a result of a two-car crash in Amherst shortly after 1 p.m. Thursday. State and Amherst and police are continuing to investigate. Hancock was a passenger in a Toyota Camry that collided with a Chevrolet 3500 pickup truck.

Both vehicles were heavily damaged. The Camry was southbound on South East Street, while the pickup was eastbound on Bay Road. Amherst police have identified the driver of the truck as James E. Hasbrouck, 51, of Belchertown. No charges have been filed at this time.

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The fire was sparked by careless disposal of smoking materials, Deputy Chief James McInerney said.

Don Treeger / The RepublicanChicopee firefighters battle house fire at 23-25 Lagadia St.

This is an update of a story originally posted at 8:40 a.m.

CHICOPEE – Improper disposal of smoking materials was the cause of a Friday morning fire on Lagadia Street that displaced two families.

No injuries were reported and a Chihuahua, initially reported missing in wake of the fire, was found to have been hiding under salvage covers that firefighters had placed on top of furniture in the living room to protect it from water damage.

Deputy Chief James McInerney said the Chihuahua came out of its hiding place when its owner returned to look for it after the fire.

The fire, largely confined to the attic, was reported by a passerby shortly before 8:20 a.m. An occupant called 911 a few moments later.

The first arriving companies found smoke coming from the attic and the main entry to it was on fire, McInerney.

Firefighters cut several holes in the roof to vent heat and smoke. Water used to extinguish the blaze compromised the building’s electrical system and the power has been shut-off.

Fire damage was limited to the attic and there was water damage throughout the two units.

McInerney said an electrical inspector will need to inspect the property’s wiring before power can be restored and the families can move back in.

Those displaced have found temporary places to stay, he said.

Seventeen firefighters responded to the blaze, McInerney said.

The U.S. Coast Guard donated the steel-hull boat to the Fire Department, but it needed rewelding and painting.

The Republican | Mark M. Murray Holyoke provisional Fire Chief William P. Moran, center, admires new rescue boat last month with Pablo Gonzalez, 17, left and Carlos Morales 15, right, both sophmores at the Dean Technical High School, who were among students that did the body work and painting of the vessel.

HOLYOKE – It will take a lot more than a City Council proclamation to oust the dark cloud that shadows Dean Technical High School, but teacher Richard A. Foy said recognizing student achievement can only help.

Dean students and teachers were honored Tuesday for repairing and painting a donated boat that is now a Fire Department rescue vessel.

The council proclamation comes as Dean struggles with a designation by the state as a chronically underperforming school. That so-called Level 4 label is because of poor student academic performance, a high drop-out rate for high school students and other problems, officials said.

“All the teachers in all the shops at Dean are really working hard through all the turmoil that’s going on,” said Foy, Dean auto body teacher.

Foy, welding instructor Luis A. Colon and most of the students who worked on the boat were honored before the City Council meeting.

“That’s what we wanted, to recognize the kids,” Colon said.

The U.S. Coast Guard donated the 21-foot-long, steel hull boat last year, but it was banged up. Parts of it had to be rewelded, and a special epoxy paint that clung to the surface had to be applied, Foy said.

The boat has a 4.2-liter, inboard diesel engine, which makes it stronger and better able to maneuver upstream on the Connecticut River than the Fire Department’s previous boat, Lt. Thomas G. Paquin has said.

“It felt good to give back to the community and be recognized for it,” said sophomore Xaviel Colon, 16, son of Luis Colon.

Mayor Elaine A. Pluta christened the new boat March 9.