The resolution calls for less sulfur to be put into gasoline.

Chicopee Mayor Michael Bissonnette.Republican file photo | John Suchocki 

CHICOPEE – With three highways running through the city, Mayor Michael D. Bissonnette took the lead to support a national proposal to reduce pollutants coming from automobiles.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors last week unanimously adopted a resolution to support cleaner gasoline and improved emission standards which has been proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency. The vote was taken during its annual meeting in Las Vegas.

As vice chairman of the committee on the environment for the council Bissonnette said he was asked to help sponsor the resolution. He with about two dozen mayors from other cities, including Holyoke Mayor Alex B. Morse proposed it at the conference, which is made up of about 1,300 mayors from cities with a population of more than 30,000.

This week he was praised by the American Lung Association for supporting their environmental efforts.

The proposal called Tier 3 Cleaner Gasoline and Vehicles Standards calls for a reduction in the allowable levels of sulfur in gasoline. It also calls for cars to be manufactured with higher emissions standards, said Janice Nolan, assistant vice president for national policy for the American Lung Association.

If adopted, the changes would raise the cost of gasoline by less than 1 cent a gallon. Upgrading emissions on newly-manufactured vehicles will cost less than $150 per vehicle. The technology already exists for both improvements, she said.

“It would be the equivalent of taking 33 million cars off the road,” she said.

With three highways converging in Chicopee, Bissonnette said he felt it made sense to sponsor the proposal.

“Car emissions have an effect on people who have asthma and lung problems," Bissonnette said, adding he understands the issue is even more important to him because two of his sisters have died from lung cancer.

In addition, reducing the consumption of gasoline and the country's dependence on fossil fuels can ease a national security issue that risks the lives of men and women serving in the military, he said.

Over the past decade, thousands of military troops based in Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee have been sent to Iraq and Afghanistan as well as other countries to support wars. In addition five men from Chicopee have been killed in the two wars since 2005.

Bissonnette has been working closely with the Environmental Protection Agency over the past few years mainly on efforts to find creative and less-expensive solutions for cities mandated to reduce the amount of sewage being dumped into waterways across the country.

The resolution also received support from Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and Cambridge Mayor Henrietta Davis.

The $8.2 million project was originally expected to finish in August 2014.

CHICOPEE - A new Davitt Bridge reopened at 5 p.m. Wednesday, after 14 months of it being torn down and reconstructed.

The bridge was originally expected to be opened Monday, but heavy downpours and frequent rain prevented workers from painting traffic lines on the bridge until Wednesday, Mayor Michael D. Bissonnette said.

Construction was more than a year ahead of schedule. The work was originally expected to be completed in August 2014 but a contract that called for double shifts helped speed up the work.

The $8.2 million reconstruction was funded and run by the state Department of Transportation. Northern Construction Service, LLC, of Weymouth was hired to do the work.

A ceremony is expected to be held on Veterans Day to re-dedicate the bridge to Rev. William F. Davitt, a World War I lieutenant who was killed in action 90 minutes before the Armistice on Nov. 11, 1918. He was the last American officer killed in the war.

Decades before the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City, lesbians and gay men were living freely and openly in a place called Cherry Grove, N.Y.

By FRANK ELTMAN

CHERRY GROVE, N.Y. — Decades before the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City, lesbians and gay men were living freely and openly in a place called Cherry Grove.

The seaside resort on Fire Island, about 60 miles east of Manhattan, was known as far back as the late 1940s as a sanctuary where gay writers, actors and businesspeople from the city and beyond escaped to relax, hold hands and show affection in public.

"It's probably one of the earliest examples of don't ask, don't tell," Carl Luss said after learning in June that the Cherry Grove Community House and Theater, opened in 1948, added to the National Register of Historic Places. The theater was cited for being the oldest continuously operating gay and lesbian theater in the United States.

"The message is, we have arrived, finally," said Diane Romano, president of the Cherry Grove Community Association.

"We remember when we could be arrested just for being gay," Romano said. "To now be applauded and to be allowed to marry and to be recognized by the government for being a gay theater for so many years is just thrilling. It's thrilling."

Cherry Grove is one of about 17 hamlets and villages on the 30-mile long barrier island five miles off the southern shore of Long Island.

Virtually obliterated in a 1938 hurricane, the community now has about 250 houses that can sell for $400,000 or more. Two miles of white, sandy beaches facing the Atlantic are accessible via a network of narrow boardwalks. Denizens either walk or get around on golf carts; no cars are permitted in most Fire Island communities.

Cherry Grove and the nearby Pines neighborhood are the predominantly gay communities on Fire Island, although the Pines developed its reputation as a haven decades after Cherry Grove.

"By the nature of its isolation and beauty, it became a safe haven for gay people, where they could not be afraid of repercussions from work, or anger from their families about being gay," said Thom "Panzi" Hansen, president of the Cherry Grove Arts Project. He and others noted there were occasional raids in which police would enforce laws prohibiting same-sex dancing or ticket people for lewd behavior, but largely because the island was so isolated from the mainland, they were generally left alone.

Landlords and businesses desperate for cash after the Depression, the 1938 hurricane and World War II generally overlooked their tenants' sexual orientation in order to fill what were then largely rental properties, locals said.

Every July Fourth, a ferry filled with men in drag travels from Cherry Grove to the Pines in a fun-loving commemoration of a man in drag being refused service at a bar in the Pines in 1976. The event commemorates the advances of gays, lesbians and transgender people in the ensuing decades.

Notable Cherry Grove visitors and residents have included poet W.H. Auden; playwright Tennessee Williams; author Truman Capote; actresses Nancy Walker, Tallulah Bankhead and Hermione Gingold; comedian Kaye Ballard; and New Yorker journalist Janet Flanner.

Residents sought landmark status for the Community House and Theater to jump-start interest in funding a renovation of the 151-seat barn-like structure.

It is only the third gay-rights landmark to get the federal designation, joining the Stonewall, where gays clashed with the New York Police Department for three days in 1969 over harassment, leading to the modern gay rights movement, and the Washington, D.C., home of Dr. Franklin E. Kameny, who became a gay rights activist after he was fired from his job with the Army Map Service in 1957 for refusing to answer questions about his sexual orientation.

The walls of the theater's basement dressing room feature autographs of many of the performers who called the stage their temporary home. While some were willing to sign their real names, Luss said, others left only initials or aliases, still reticent to out themselves publicly even in a relatively safe atmosphere.

"It was a secret hidden in the open," said Luss, who wrote the application for landmark status. "Everybody sort of knew they were all on the same page and as long as there wasn't you know, ultra behavior, people were satisfied."

Gay visitors would — and still do — catch a Long Island Rail Road train in Manhattan for the 75-minute trip to Sayville and slowly begin to relax.

Once they got on a ferry for a 20-minute ride across Great South Bay to Cherry Grove, "personalities changed. The uptightness just began to fall off. You would see men start to chat with each other and laugh and smile," said Jack Dowling, who began visiting Cherry Grove as a teenager in the 1950s and now, at age 80, lives there.

Once on Fire Island, they would hold hands and kiss as they walked through town, Dowling said. Others dressed in drag for celebrations such as an annual baseball game on the beach.

"It was a safety zone," said Dowling, a painter and writer. Other gay enclaves were beginning to gain popularity in such places as Provincetown, Mass., San Francisco and Key West, Fla., but Cherry Grove "was without question the leading place that was predominantly gay," he said.

With acceptance of gays and lesbians evolving to the point where the Supreme Court has granted federal benefits to gay couples who are legally married, Romano and others say Cherry Grove — where visitors are greeted by oversize American and gay liberation flags fluttering in the wind — is more than ever seen as a comfortable place for gays and straights to visit for the day, a weekend or all summer long.

"I don't think we're getting as many young people as we used to," Romano said. "Now you can be gay almost anywhere."

Troy Files, who has been coming to Cherry Grove for about seven years, said people will always be attracted to what he called "a gay and lesbian Mayberry RFD."

"You can be gay in the middle of Pennsylvania and be safe now," Files said. "But for us, it's a hidden jewel. We're all here to have fun. The theme of Cherry Grove is 'unity in the community,' and it truly shows."

Esther Newton, a University of Michigan women's studies professor who wrote "Cherry Grove, Fire Island," predicted that despite social changes, the Fire Island community will remain a gay enclave long into the future.

"In the next 50, 75, 100 years, there will be gay people and lesbians who will want to go to a place like the Grove," she said. "There's nothing else like it."

Rescue personnel from the Springfield Police Underwater Search and Rescue Team found the girl under water about 10 feet from shore.

An update to this story was posted at 7:03 p.m. Wednesday.

SPRINGFIELD — A 10-year-old girl was rushed to the hospital by ambulance after falling into the Chicopee River late Wednesday afternoon.

Rescue personnel from the Springfield Police Underwater Search and Rescue Team found the girl under water about 10 feet from shore in the Indian Orchard neighborhood at 5:54 p.m., said Springfield Fire Department Public Information Officer Dennis Leger. The call for help came in at 5:02 p.m.

Leger, aide to Fire Commissioner Joseph Conant, said the girl was under water for about 70 minutes. He said the girl was swimming with a group of friends, went underwater and apparently became trapped under at clump of submerged trees.

The search took place at the end of Water and Pinevale streets on the banks of the river.

No further information was immediately available.

This is a developing story and will be updated as our reporting continues

The map below shows the approximate location near where the girl went underwater:

The accident has closed one lane of traffic on Route 20.

An updated version of this story is now available at MassLive.

 

BRIMFIELD - A car and motorcycle collided on Route 20 Thursday afternoon.

Local police were on the scene investigating the accident, a state police spokesman said.

The accident closed one lane of Route 20, backing up traffic.

Information about injuries or how the accident happened was not known immediately.

More details coming on MassLive and in The Republican.

In once rundown urban districts across the country, including South Boston's seaport area, craft breweries have helped to transform the neighborhoods around them.

By TALI ARBEL

In once rundown urban districts across the country, craft breweries have helped to transform the neighborhoods around them.

Small business owners tackled the hard work of transforming industrial buildings, many of which had sat empty as demographic changes pulled manufacturers and residents to the suburbs.

Small-time, independent brewers have been one of the beer market's growth drivers. The number of breweries in the U.S. catapulted from 92 in 1980 to 2,514 as of May 2013, according to craft beer trade group Brewers Association. Barrels shipped have more than doubled in the past decade, and craft beer now makes up nearly 7 percent of a U.S. beer market that is growing slowly overall, according to trade publication Beer Marketer's Insights.

As the breweries churned out beer, they drew visitors and eventually new, young residents — and more small businesses.

Here's a look at six breweries whose presence helped to change their surroundings:

DOWNTOWN DIGS: Boulevard Brewing opened in 1989 in its Kansas City, Mo. Westside neighborhood, creating a brewery out of a building that had been a railroad's laundry. While it probably would have been cheaper for the company to be in the suburbs, the brewery's managers are "committed urbanists" who like the idea of contributing to the vitality of the central city as opposed to building on undeveloped land in the suburbs, says Boulevard's CFO, Jeff Crum.

The building's renovation ranged from replacing pipes to cutting out a skylight to make room for tanks. And in order to grow, Boulevard had to buy the land around it from different owners, get approvals from neighbors and get the city to rezone the land around it.

The brewery, at first, struggled to attract visitors, but now draws about 50,000 people annually as the area around it picked up alongside a broader renewal in nearby downtown Kansas City.

"Not very many years ago this would be an area you'd stay the hell away from," says Danny O'Neill, who started a coffee roaster, the Roasterie, down the street from Boulevard in 1993. Boulevard helped him find his building, and nowadays the coffee factory and brewery host tours and weddings. "Somebody has to go in there first, and I think that's the role that Boulevard played," O'Neill says.

ON THE WATERFRONT: Harpoon Brewery opened on the South Boston waterfront in 1986, when it was surrounded by auto body shops and little else. Now the brewery draws more than 85,000 people a year from tours and tastings, and thousands more from festivals. These days, the city is focused on redeveloping the area. New apartment and office buildings, restaurants and a convention center sit nearby.

Harpoon recently negotiated a 50-year lease with the city. The rent will rise over time, but generally, long leases provide protection from spikes that can happen when an area becomes so popular that property values skyrocket.

RUST BELT REVAMP: Great Lakes opened in Cleveland's Ohio City neighborhood in 1988. The downtown neighborhood was "perceived as dangerous and blighted" into the 1980s, says Eric Wobser. He works for Ohio City Inc., a nonprofit that promotes residential and commercial development while trying to preserve the neighborhood's older buildings.

Great Lakes built a brewery and a brewpub. Other breweries and businesses — a pasta maker, a bike shop, a tortilla factory, as well as restaurants and bars — followed. Newcomers flock to the neighborhood, even though Cleveland's overall population is still declining. The city repaved the quiet street next to the brewery, Market Ave., with cobblestones, and poured millions into renovating a nearby 19th-century market.

BREWERY BUBBLE: In the waterfront Ballard section of Seattle, home to fishing shops, shipyards and boat fueling facilities for decades, six breweries have sprung up in the past two years. They joined Hale's Ales and Maritime Pacific Brewing, which both opened in Ballard in the 1990s.

Hale's Ales in 1995 took over a facility that had housed an industrial hose manufacturer and before that a maker of engines.

The neighborhood has become "softer," says Hale's Ales manager Phil O'Brien. "What used to be fishing shops are little restaurants — what used to be hardware stores are now coffee shops."

While Ballard is still a hub of maritime industry, it has landed higher-income apartment buildings and has attracted restaurants and nightlife.

BROOKLYN BRANDS: When Brooklyn Brewery opened in the Williamsburg section of the New York City borough in 1996, its neighbors were mostly deserted warehouses and factories. Today, Brooklyn Brewery is surrounded by modern apartment buildings, trendy bars, shops and restaurants. There's still some graffiti, but that hasn't deterred the influx of new residents willing to spend a lot of money to live there. In the past decade, home values in the Brewery's neighborhood have more than doubled — up 145 percent, according to real estate appraiser Miller Samuel. Brooklyn Brewery and another local craft brewer, Kelso, worry that rising property values will eventually force them out of their current neighborhoods.

ACROSS THE BAY: The tech boom has made one brewpub's growth plans more complicated. In San Francisco, 21st Amendment brewery is two blocks from AT&T Park where baseball's Giants play. Along with the bustling technology sector, 21st Amendment helped to transform the city's SoMa neighborhood.

"People refer to use as the granddaddy of the neighborhood," says 21st Amendment founder Nico Freccia.

Now the company wants to build an 80,000-square-foot brewery — but property values are too high. The company has opened offices in the East Bay, and is scouting space there for the brewery, hoping to help revitalize an Oakland neighborhood.

Harpoon Brewery opened on the South Boston waterfront in 1986, when it was surrounded by auto body shops and little else. Now the brewery draws more than 85,000 people a year from tours and tastings, and the city is focused on redeveloping the area.

By TALI ARBEL

NEW YORK — To see how a small business can transform a neighborhood, just follow the barrels.

About 30 years ago, beer lovers wanting to create their own drinks started taking over abandoned old buildings in rundown city districts, refitted them with tanks, kettles and casks, and started churning out beer. The byproduct was a boom in craft beer drinkers: Barrels shipped have more than doubled in the past decade, according to trade publication Beer Marketer's Insights. Craft beer now makes up nearly 7 percent of the slow-growing U.S. beer market.

But beer drinkers weren't the only beneficiaries. The arrival of a craft brewery was also often one of the first signs that a neighborhood was changing. From New England to the West Coast, new businesses bubbled up around breweries, drawing young people and creating a vibrant community where families could plant roots and small businesses could thrive.

It happened in Cleveland. Once an industrial powerhouse, the Rust Belt city has been losing residents since the 1950s. Manufacturing jobs disappeared. The city nearly went bankrupt in 1978.

Marred by abandoned buildings and boarded-up stores after several hard decades, the downtown Ohio City neighborhood, just west of the Cuyahoga River, which divides Cleveland, was "perceived as dangerous and blighted" into the 1980s, says Eric Wobser. He works for Ohio City Inc., a nonprofit that promotes residential and commercial development while trying to preserve the neighborhood's older buildings.

Enter Great Lakes Brewing, which opened in 1988. Over the years, it's built a brewery and a brewpub from structures that once housed a feed store, a saloon and a livery stable.

"We resurrected all of them," says Pat Conway, who founded Great Lakes with his brother, Daniel. "We've beautified the neighborhood, provided a stunning restoration."

Other breweries and businesses — a pasta maker, a bike shop, a tortilla factory, as well as restaurants and bars — followed. Newcomers are flocking to the neighborhood, even though Cleveland's overall population is still declining. The city repaved the quiet street next to the brewery, Market Ave., with cobblestones, and poured millions into renovating the West Side Market, whose origins date back to the 19th century. Today, more than 100 vendors sell produce, meat, cheese and other foods there.

What's going on in Cleveland is happening across the country. Trendy small businesses like breweries and younger residents have been returning to downtown neighborhoods in many cities across the U.S. The biggest cities are growing faster than the suburbs around them, according to Census data.

Another benefit of the brewery boom: Manufacturers like brewers typically pay workers more than service businesses like restaurants or shops do. That's good for local economies.

But for some, the bubbles are bursting. In Brooklyn, N.Y., breweries are feeling the heat from rising real estate costs.

When Brooklyn Brewery opened in the Williamsburg section of the borough in 1996, its neighbors were mostly deserted warehouses and factories. Today, Brooklyn Brewery is surrounded by modern apartment buildings, trendy bars, shops and restaurants. There's still some graffiti, but that hasn't deterred the influx of new residents willing to spend a lot of money to live there. In the past decade, home values in the Brewery's neighborhood have more than doubled — up 145 percent, according to real estate appraiser Miller Samuel.

Rising prices might force Brooklyn Brewery to exit the trendy scene it jump-started. It has two buildings in Williamsburg, the brewery and a building across the street where it stores and ages its beer. Leases are up in 2025, and Brooklyn Brewery's co-founder and president, Steve Hindy, is already worried that the company will get kicked out of its warehouse. Once an iron foundry, the building, built in 1896, has been bought by developers who Hindy says won't renew the lease. He suspects that they want to convert the space into apartments.

The landlord, Solomon Jacobs, says he doesn't yet know what's going to happen with the lease.

But Hindy is already scouting other, cheaper neighborhoods in Brooklyn.

"We sowed the seeds of our own demise here," Hindy says.

Gentrification is pressuring at least one other nearby brewer. Kelly Taylor, who owns Kelso, is looking for new space in Brooklyn or the Bronx because he thinks his landlord won't renew the lease in 2017. In Kelso's neighborhood, the Clinton Hill section of Brooklyn, home prices have almost doubled over the past 10 years, according to Miller Samuel data.

"He'll tear down and build something more lucrative," Taylor says speculatively of his landlord.

However, the building's manager, Fred Sanders, says the lease was just renewed last year for five more years, and he hasn't had any conversations with Kelso about the future.

Even if the brewery owners don't have confirmation that they'll be forced to move, history shows they have reason to be concerned. Winifred Curran, a geography professor at DePaul University in Chicago, studies how gentrification changes cities. She wrote her graduate-school dissertation on how gentrification in Brooklyn's Williamsburg neighborhood affected small manufacturers. Small businesses struggled to stay put while developers converted factories and warehouses into lucrative lofts and swarms of wealthy new residents drove up prices, she says. She warns that the appeal of revitalized neighborhoods can decimate small businesses, both old and new.

"You can try to use the establishment of manufacturing businesses to be the wedge that allows gentrification to happen, but then you need to protect those businesses," Curran says. Otherwise "the market creates this demand for industrial space and then kills the goose that laid the golden egg."

Outside of New York, costs are lower, and many brewery owners in other cities say they haven't felt similar pressures from developers. But New York flashes a warning sign for what can happen when neighborhoods become popular.

One brewery, in Boston, is relatively protected. Harpoon Brewery opened on the South Boston waterfront in 1986, when it was surrounded by auto body shops and little else. Now the brewery draws more than 85,000 people a year from tours and tastings. These days, the city is focused on redeveloping the area. New apartment and office buildings, restaurants and a convention center sit nearby. Harpoon recently negotiated a 50-year lease with the city. The rent will rise over time, but generally, long leases provide protection from spikes that can happen when an area becomes so popular that property values skyrocket.

On the country's other coast, the tech boom has made one brewpub's growth plans more complicated. The 21st Amendment brewery, in San Francisco, is two blocks from the Giants' baseball stadium, which opened in 2000 and, along with the bustling technology sector, transformed the city's SoMa neighborhood from abandoned warehouses to hot spot. Now the company wants to build an 80,000-square-foot brewery — but that's not possible in SoMa.

"The manufacturing element of the business has been priced out," says 21st Amendment's founder, Nico Freccia. The company has opened offices in the East Bay, and he's scouting space there for the brewery, hoping to "help anchor the revitalization" of an Oakland neighborhood.

Similar dreams are fueling a new beer company in New York. Bronx Brewery is setting up shop in the Mott Haven section, next to a lumberyard, a manufacturer and the plant that prints the New York Post.

"We really want to be in the Bronx, be a part of a south Bronx community that's growing like crazy," says Chris Gallant, co-founder of the brewery, which will have a space for visitors. "We hope to get as many people there as possible — it'll definitely serve as marketing," he says.

About 29 percent of Bronx residents live in poverty, compared with 15 percent for all of New York state, according to Census data.

"I think that entire area is going to increase in value," Gallant says. "That's great for the south Bronx. But it could put us in a tough spot 10 years from now."

Read more about six cities brewers have helped transform.

Longmeadow listetd asd best communtiy to raise kids.

LONGMEADOW — With its stellar school system, its lush tree-lined streets and historical single-family homes, Longmeadow has been selected as the best place in Massachusetts to raise children by the financial literacy and consumer advocacy website NerdWallet.

"This study in particular is part of a series, of all 50 states, and Massachusetts is the latest addition," said Mike Anderson, an analyst for NerdWallet.

Anderson said many factors were taken into account when selecting which communities would be considered.

"We specialize in actionable advice, including recommendations on checking and banking products, brokerage accounts, and, in this case, real estate," he said. "A mortgage principal, in a vacuum, doesn't tell young families much about the cost and quality of living in a given city. It's much more than that, it's the cost of real estate as well as levels of income and education."

The quality of education in Longmeadow has always been a reason for young families to move to the community of about 15,000 residents. In 2012 Family Circle Magazine listed Longmeadow as one of the top 10 towns in the country, also citing the school system as a reason for its decision. Newsweek also named Longmeadow in its top 500 schools of the nation coming in at 413.

School Committee Chairman Michael Clark said residents are very proud of the school system and are willing to invest in it.

"Longmeadow's schools are consistently a determining factor in what makes this community a great place to live," Clark said. "From Family Circle to Newsweek to NerdWallet, we are incredibly honored by the recognition we receive. I think that these rankings are a testament to the value this community places on education. As a School Committee, we are very thankful to the community for their support of our goals and our mission."

Anderson said the website used several sources to come up with its top 10 list.

"We pulled data from the Census and GreatSchools.org. Census data is a fantastic resource, but it’s also not the most useful in and of itself. What does it matter that the value of a home in Longmeadow is $351,500? Our job is to make that data more accessible and transparent, so we look at that number in light of income levels and the quality of education," he said.

GreatSchools is a well respected non-profit that families use to evaluate a given school district. The group aggregates standardized test scores from public schools across the nation. They then evaluate a given school’s scores in comparison to the state average, arriving at a final rating on a 1 to 10 scale – 10 being the highest. Longmeadow is rated a 9.

Longmeadow was the only Western Massachusetts community to make the top 10 list. The top 10 list is as follows:

• Longmeadow


• Wilmington


• Winchester


• Lexington


• Brookline


• Marblehead


• Reading


• Needham


• Somerset


• Milton

late-corn-crops, rain, june

Nearing the end of a washout June, Mike Wissemann surveyed his nearly 180 acres of sweet corn in Sunderland and Greenfield.

"I thought, this corn looks like hell," he said recently, part of a chorus of farmers bemoaning the wet weather of June.

Weather measurements at Bradley International Airport state the total rainfall for the month neared 11 inches - more than twice the monthly average of 4.35. While it may have been a boon for lawns, it was too much of a good thing at the wrong time for many local corn crops.

The result of the month-long deluge: knee-high corn stalks in low-lying, wet fields as July 4 approached (the unofficial kick-off of sweet corn at farm stands); fields that were not passable to pick; fertilizer washed away, leaving many farmers uncertain about the quality of all their crops; and certainly sweet corn as a scanter commodity for Fourth of July cookouts.

Wissemann said most of his corn had begun perking up as the holiday approached, and he will likely be able to offer fresh sweet corn just a few days behind schedule this month at his roadside stand at Warner Farm on South Main Street in Sunderland.

"What sweet corn really is, is a must-have for every roadside stand. It's the backbone - and then you sell everything else," Wissemann said, adding that his main fields are quite level so he escaped a total washout. "It's all very soil-dependent."

He said the ideal corn climate for this region is wet early and dry late; this year the weather flip-flopped to farmers' detriment.

At Wanczyk Farm in Hadley, their Route 9 farm stand was doing a brisk business Wednesday afternoon with - you guessed it - a large "fresh corn" sign as the draw. Stand manager Karen Costa noted that sweet corn is every Massachusetts farmer's longest-running crop and echoed Wissemann in that it is easily their top seller.

"We'll run out of this corn in a couple of hours and then no one will buy anything else on its own," she said, between busily ringing up customers.

She added that she believed theirs was the only stand in Hadley that began selling corn a few days before the holiday and that it was a struggle to get there, given the wacky weather.

"It takes a lot of care to get corn ready at the right time," Costa said.

Elsewhere in Hadley there were fields and fields of corn stalks not nearly as high as they should be for early July. Farmers also noted the wet weather sullied the strawberry season as well.

Rows of not nearly knee-high corn in a field off Rocky Hill Road in Hadley. Staff photo by Mark Murray 

Mashoud Hashemi, a faculty member at the University of Massachusetts Extension Stockbridge School of Agriculture, estimated most corn farmers will be about three weeks behind schedule and could lose up to 30 percent of the crop.

"Those who started planting later, mid-May, they couldn't get into fields and having fertilizer washed away will result in less yield," Hashemi said, adding that consumers will likely see prices for corn and other vegetable crops go up.

He said that silage crops - most commonly known as "cow corn" in these parts - which dairy farmers use to feed their cows, also will be affected and will be more costly than the sweet corn fallout.

He reiterated that vegetable farming problem is very soil-specific; hence, why Cecchi Farm on Route 57 in Feeding Hills is sitting pretty.

Sitting pretty on sandy soil on a hill, that is.

"Some of the fields we're having trouble with but we're pretty sandy here, so we're doing OK," Michael Cecchi said.

The blockbuster trade helps the Bruins free up cap space.

The Boston Bruins released the following statement today regarding the trade of Tyler Seguin, Rich Peverley and Ryan Button:

Boston Bruins General Manager Peter Chiarelli announced today, July 4, that the club has acquired forwards Loui Eriksson, Matt Fraser, Reilly Smith and defenseman Joe Morrow from the Dallas Stars in exchange for forwards Rich Peverley, Tyler Seguin and defenseman Ryan Button.

Eriksson appeared in all 48 regular season games in 2013 for the Stars, notching 12 goals (tied for first on the team) and 17 assists (tied for fourth on the team) for 29 points (tied for second on the team) with eight penalty minutes. The 27-year-old has spent seven seasons with Dallas from 2006-2013, where the winger has amassed 150 goals and 207 assists for 357 points with a plus-31 rating in 501 career games. Eriksson played in his 500th career NHL game on April 25, 2013 against Columbus. The forward also played in his first NHL All-Star game in 2011.

The forward has appeared in 22 NHL playoff games in his career, earning four goals and five assists for nine points with eight penalty minutes.

The 6-2, 196-pound native of Gothenberg, Sweden was selected by the Dallas Stars in the second round (33rd overall) of the 2003 NHL Entry Draft.

Fraser skated in 12 games with Dallas in 2013, where the forward notched one goal and two assists. The 23-year-old forward also appeared in one game for the Stars in 2011-12, making his NHL career totals 1-2=3 totals in 13 NHL games.

Prior to joining Dallas, Fraser skated in 135 games from 2011-2013 with the Texas Stars (American Hockey League), where the winger recorded 90 goals and 31 assists for 121 points. In the 2012-13 season with Texas, Fraser led the team with 33 goals and was second in points, with 52. In 2011-12, Fraser led Texas in goals (37) and points (55) through 73 games. On April 11, 2013, Fraser was selected to the 2012-13 AHL Second All-Star Team, as voted on by the American Hockey League coaches, players and media.

Before joining the Texas Stars, Fraser skated in 257 games with the Kootenay Ice of Western Hockey League from 2008-2011, amassing 87 goals and 87 assists with 403 penalty minutes. The winger ranked among the top three in PIM’s with Kootenay from 2008-11.

The 6-2, 204-pound winger hails from Red Deer, Alberta and was signed as a free agent by the Dallas Stars on November 17, 2010.

Smith appeared in 37 games with Dallas in the 2013 campaign, earning three goals and six assists for nine points with a plus-eight rating. In 2011-12, the forward appeared in three games for the Stars, making his NHL totals 3-6=9 in 40 games.

The 22-year-old skated in 45 games for the Texas Stars 2012-13, notching 14 goals and 35 assists with a plus-20 rating. Prior to joining the Texas Stars, Smith played for three seasons at Miami University (Ohio), where he skated in 121 games, tallying 66 goals and 56 assists for 122 points. Smith led Miami University in 2010-11 and 2012-13 in goals with 28 and 30 respectively.

The 6-0, 185-pound forward from Toronto, Ontario was selected by the Dallas Stars in the third round (69th overall) of the 2009 NHL Entry Draft.

Morrow split time between the Texas Stars and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (American Hockey League) in 2012-13, skating in 66 games, notching five goals and 14 assists for 19 points with 39 penalty minutes. Prior to playing in the AHL, the blueliner spent five seasons (2007-2012) in the Western Hockey League with the Portland Winterhawks. Morrow skated in 227 games with Portland, registering 33 goals and 111 assists.

The 6-1, 206-pound native of Sherwood Park, Alberta was selected by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round (23rd overall) of the 2011 NHL Entry Draft. Joe Morrow was traded to the Dallas Stars along with a 2013 fifth-round pick from the Penguins in exchange for forward Brenden Morrow and a third-round pick in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft.

In three seasons with Boston (2010-2013), Peverley skated in 127 games, accruing 21 goals and 46 assists for 67 points with a plus-10 rating. The 30-year-old forward appeared in 53 postseason games with the Bruins, including all 25 playoff games in the 2011 Stanley Cup Championship run, posting nine goals and 10 assists.

Peverley has skated in 380 NHL games in his career, racking up 77 goals and 134 assists for 211 points with 152 penalty minutes. In 59 NHL postseason games, the winger has accrued nine goals and 12 assists for 21 points.

The 6-0, 195-pound native of Kingston, Ontario was signed by the Nashville Predators as a free agent on January 17, 2007. On February 18, 2011, Peverley was traded to Boston by Atlanta for Boris Valabik and Blake Wheeler.

In three seasons with Boston (2010-2013), Seguin skated in 203 games, registering 56 goals and 65 assists with a plus-56 rating. In 2011-12, the forward became the youngest player in club history to win the team’s scoring title at 20 years old, when he set career highs in goals (29), assists (38), points (67) and plus-minus rating (+34). The winger was a member of the Bruins 2011 Stanley Cup Championship team and was selected to the NHL All-Star game in 2012.

Seguin skated in all 22 of the 2013 playoff games, notching one goal and seven assists. The 21-year-old appeared in 42 postseason games for Boston, tallying six goals and 12 assists for 18 points, with a plus-six rating.

The 6-0, 182-pound native of Brampton, Ontario was selected by the Boston Bruins in the first round (second overall) of the 2010 NHL Entry Draft.

Button skated in 60 games with the Providence Bruins (American Hockey League) this season, registering 15 penalty minutes. Button also skated in five games for the South Carolina Stingrays (East Coast Hockey League) in 2012-13, earning a plus-four rating. In 60 AHL with the Providence Bruins from 2010-13, the 22-year-old blueliner recorded three assists and racked up 33 penalty minutes.

In 2011-12, the D-man skated 30 games with the Reading Royals of the ECHL, scoring one goal and five assists for six points. From 2007-

Registrar Rachel Kaprielian said the deceptive websites are typically reached by customers using online search engines.

BOSTON – Officials are cautioning Massachusetts car owners to be aware of deceptive websites trying to mimic the state’s official Registry of Motor Vehicles site.

Rachel Kaprielian 

Registrar of Motor Vehicles Rachel Kaprielian is warning that fake websites have been created to mislead customers.

The state’s official website is: www.MassRMV.com.

Kaprielian said the deceptive websites are typically reached by customers using online search engines.

She said customers should avoid any site that refers to the “Department of Motor Vehicles” or the “DMV” since the word “Department” and the abbreviation “DMV” are not used in Massachusetts.

Kaprielian said consumers should also avoid any sites seeking to charge fees to receive basic information or forms as well as websites offering to conduct business online for RMV customers.

The state also doesn’t charge to check license, registration or title status.

The shooting happened at about 3:30 p.m. as people were celebrating the July 4 holiday.

SPRINGFIELD — A 19-year-old woman was shot and killed Thursday afternoon on Federal Street.

The shooting happened at about 3:30 p.m. as people gathered outside to celebrate the July 4 holiday.

The shooting happened at 60 Federal St., next to the City View Commons Apartments, which is near Springfield Technical Community College. Police were searching the grounds and a nearby empty parking lot for evidence.

The victim was found in the rear of the apartment building, Police Capt. Cheryl Clapprood said.

Police are still sorting out details of the homicide and are uncertain if the woman was an intended target or just a bystander, Clapprood said.

Officers are currently interviewing a possible suspect, she said.

"It is so sad. this neighborhood is terrible, I've been trying to move out," said Brenda Nichols, who lives just around the corner from the shooting. "It is mostly just rowdiness."

Police closed off part of the street, near the intersection of Worthington Street, while they searched for evidence. Roadwork is currently being done on the street so construction trucks and other equipment were parked in the middle of the crime scene.

Onyx Acevedo said he moved onto Federal Street, right near the shooting, about six weeks ago and is now concerned about his new neighborhood.

"I heard the shots. I thought they were fireworks," he said. "It was like one-two-three, pop-pop-pop," he said.

One man walked around the corner distraught over the thought that the victim was a friend. No one could tell him if it was.

This is the 11th homicide of the year in Springfield.

A motorcylcist was air-lifted to UMass Memorial Medical Center following an accident on Route 20 in Brimfield.

This is an updated version of a story posted at 4 p.m.

BRIMFIELD – A collision between a car and a motorcycle on Route 20 near County Line Hardware reported at 2:47 p.m. Thursday resulted in the motorcyclist being airlifted to UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, according to police.

Police Chief Charles T. Kuss said a Life Flight helicopter took the victim, who has severe but non-life threatening injuries, to that medical facility. The police chief said the accident occurred when the driver of an east-bound Hundai Sonata turned in front of the westbound motorcycle to go into a gasoline station at the hardware business

The motorcyclist had the right of way, according to Kuss, who said the driver is in custody.

Police did not release the names of either the motorcyclist or the driver, both of whom are male.

Police from Wales, Sturbridge and Brimfield police as well as state police and personnel from the state Department of Transportation responded to the call.

As of 5 p.m. the westbound land of Route 20 in the vicinity of the crash was still closed.

Mandela's health is "perilous" and he is being kept alive by life support, according to documents.

JOHANNESBURG -- Nelson Mandela is being kept alive by a breathing machine and faces "impending death," court documents show, as his family gravesite was restored Thursday.

Mandela's health is "perilous" and he is being kept alive by life support, according to documents filed in the court case that resulted in the remains of the former South African president's three deceased children being reburied Thursday in their original graves.

"The anticipation of his impending death is based on real and substantial grounds," the court filing said.

"He's basically gone," said Charlene Smith, an authorized biographer of the former anti-apartheid leader. "He's not there. He's not there."

A younger person put on mechanical ventilation -- life support -- can be weaned off the machine and recover, but that it can be difficult or impossible for an older person. The longer a person is on ventilation the less the chance of recovery, said the chief executive of the Faculty of Consulting Physicians of South Africa.

"It indicates a very poor prognosis for recovery because it means that he's either too weak or too sick to breathe on his own," said Dr. Adri Kok, who has no connection to Mandela's care. "Usually if a person does need that, any person, not keeping in mind his age at all, for any person it would be indicative of a grave illness."

"When they say 'perilous' I think that would be a fair description," she said.

In Mandela's hometown, Qunu, on Thursday, the bodies of three of his children were returned to their original resting site following the court order.

Family members and community elders attended a ceremony on the Mandela property that included the singing of hymns. The reburial took place in Qunu, where Mandela grew up and where the former president has said he wants to be buried. Forensic tests earlier confirmed the remains were those of Mandela's children.

Grandson Mandla Mandela moved the bodies to his village of Mvezo -- Nelson Mandela's birthplace -- in 2011. The two towns are about 25 kilometers (15 miles) apart. Fifteen Mandela family members pursued court action last week to force the grandson to move the bodies back to their original burial site.

Mandla Mandela -- the oldest male Mandela heir and a tribal chief -- told a news conference on Thursday that "my grandfather like myself would be highly disappointed in what is unraveling."

The bitter family feud comes as Mandela remains in critical condition nearly a month after being hospitalized for a recurring lung infection.

Mlawu Tyatyeka, an expert on the Xhosa culture of Mandela's family, said the court case over the graves was decided quickly because the family knows that Mandela will soon die.

"It's not a case of wishing him to die. It's a case of making sure that by the time he dies, his dying wish has been fulfilled," he said. "We have a belief that should you ignore a dying wish, all bad will befall you."

Meanwhile, Mandela's wife said the former president is sometimes uncomfortable but seldom in pain while being treated in a hospital.

Graca Machel spoke about her husband's condition at a fundraising drive for a children's hospital that will be named after the 94-year-old anti-apartheid leader.

"Whatever is the outcome of his stay in hospital, that will remain the second time where he offered his nation an opportunity to be united under the banner of our flag, under the banner of our constitution," she said.

Mandela, who was hospitalized on June 8, remains in critical but stable condition, according to a statement Thursday by President Jacob Zuma's office. Zuma visited Mandela Thursday, said the statement.

Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years during white racist rule and was freed in 1990 before being elected president in all-race elections. He won the Nobel Peace Prize along with former President F.W. de Klerk.

The judge presiding over the swearing-in of new U.S. citizens told his own immigrant story.

Immigrants being sworn in as new U.S. citizens during a Fourth of July ceremony at Old Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge.Republican photo/ Sandra E. Constantine 

STURBRIDGE – New U.S. citizen Jacqueline Wawera hopes to pay her new country back by joining the Air Force as a nurse.

She was among the 95 immigrants from 44 different countries who took the Oath of Allegiance while being sworn in as new U.S. citizens during a ceremony Thursday at Old Sturbridge Village.

“I’m very happy. I’m going to be able to serve the country that I love,” the 32-year-old Springfield resident said just before the special Fourth of July swearing-in. “I’m going to be able to vote and join the military.”

Wawera came here in 2006 from Kenya, where she had worked as a photographer. She came here for the chance to work and get an education and is enrolled in Springfield College’s registered nursing program.

Jacqueline Wawera of SpringfieldRepublican photo/ Sandra E. Constantine 

As for joining the military, she said, “It (the U.S.) has helped me achieve all my dreams, so why not give a little back?”

Forty-four-year-old Donna T. Patterson, who comes from Jamaica, was similarly excited about becoming a U.S. citizen.

“This is like getting married,” said Patterson, who is married. “This is my second marriage, to America. That is how it feels to me.”

One of her first acts as a new American will be to get a passport to travel to England, according to Patterson.

Hundreds of people looked on as the new Americans got sworn in under sweltering skies in front of the village’s Meeting House.

The ceremony included music by the Old Sturbridge Village Fife and Drum Corps and a rendition of “America the Beautiful” by the Old Sturbridge Village Singers. The performers were all in Colonial-style dress.

They took an oath to renounce allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignty of which they have been a subject or citizen and support and defend the Constitution and the laws of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

They also pledged to take up arms on behalf of the country if required by law and to perform noncombatant service in the U.S. armed forces when required by law. The new citizens also promised to “perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by law.”

They swore that they took the oath “freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion.”

Henry J. Boroff, a U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge based in Springfield, welcomed the new citizens.

U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Henry J. Boroff welcomed newly sworn in U.S. citizens during a ceremony at Old Sturbridge Village in SturbridgeRepublican photo/ Sandra E. Constantine 

And Boroff had his own immigrant story to tell. He shared the fact that his parents, who spent time in Nazi concentration camps, were originally from Poland.

The judge said the new Americans can now celebrate July 4 as not just the signing of the Declaration of Independence but as the day they became U.S. citizens. He spoke of the patriots who signed and fought for that document.

“We honor them and our country by preserving what they did for us almost 240 years ago by marking July 4 as the birthday of the principles that have guided this nation,” Boroff said.

The fire killed several pets and left more than a dozen people homeless.

SPRINGFIELD – Fire Department investigators continue to probe the suspicious fire in Forest Park that destroyed two homes and five cars early Wednesday morning.

Inspectors are continuing to interview witnesses to piece together what happened. The homes at 46-48 and 42 Chase St. have been torn down, said Dennis Leger, aide to Fire Commissioner Joseph Conant.

The fire is believed to have started on the front porch of 46-48 Chase St. Residents were able to escape without injury but more than a dozen people have been left homeless from the blaze. A number of pets were killed.

NASCAR confiscated the teams' roof flaps, which are designed to keep cars on the ground during spins and wrecks at high speeds, for further inspection. Penalties could be possible.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Thirty-one cars, including 16 in the Sprint Cup Series, failed inspection before Thursday's practices at Daytona International Speedway.

NASCAR confiscated the teams' roof flaps, which are designed to keep cars on the ground during spins and wrecks at high speeds, for further inspection. Penalties could be possible.

The cars involved included all three Joe Gibbs Racing entries (Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth), all three Roush Fenway Racing entries (Greg Biffle, Carl Edwards and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.), all three Michael Waltrip Racing entries (Clint Bowyer, Martin Truex Jr. and Michael Waltrip) and both Roger Penske Racing entries (Joey Logano and defending series champion Brad Keselowski). Cars driven by Jamie McMurray, Trevor Bayne, Casey Mears, Marcos Ambrose and Aric Almirola also failed inspection.

The roof-flap spacers had been illegally machined down to reduce weight.

NASCAR inspectors made those Cup teams install new, unaltered roof flaps before drivers were allowed on the track for the first of two practices.

Inspectors then went to the Nationwide garage and found similar issues on 15 cars.

"When you find something in one garage, you communicate to the other garage," NASCAR spokesman Kerry Tharp said. "We looked into it and this is what we found."

Nationwide drivers facing possible penalties include Bayne, Brian Vickers, Reed Sorenson and Travis Pastrana.

About 100,000 people jammed the city to watch the fireworks.

SPRINGFIELD - The scorched heat did not keep revelers from coming out to celebrate the Fourth of July in Springfield.

Judith A. Matt, president of Spirit of Springfield, which organizes the event, said about 100,000 people jammed the city to attend the fireworks,which were shot off from the Memorial Bridge over the Connecticut River.

Patricia Nguyen and her family said they got to Riverfront Park about 2 p.m. to get a good spot to watch the fireworks.

Nguyen said she lives in Lee now, but one of her daughters till lives in Springfield, and it has become a family tradition to watch the fireworks from the Riverfront.

“If you can get a spot in the shade, there’s a good breeze off the river,” she said.

“I’ve been coming since I was 8 years old,” said her daughter, Catharine Nguyen. “She’s been coming since before she was born,” her mother said.

Those arriving at the park were bringing in coolers and lawn chairs.

“There are some food vendors, but we encourage picnicking,” Matts said.

The Springfield fireworks were sponsored by MassMutual and Tower Square. “We couldn’t do this without them,” Matt said.

This year MGM sponsored the Motown group, the Commodores, with guitarist-trumpeter William “WAK” King and drummer Walter “Clyde” Orange performing some of the group’s biggest hits, like “Brick House,’ “Three Times A Lady” and “Machine Gun.”

Before the Commodores there was a performance by Dan Kane’s Rising Stars which performed all kinds of music - from patriotic to pop.

Matt said she wondered whether the postponement of the Hartford, Conn., fireworks, also on the Connecticut River, would bring more people to Springfield.

Public safety officials postponed a holiday fireworks display on the Connecticut River in Hartford because the river was too high after the week’s heavy rains.

Areas of Riverfront Park in Hartford, including boat ramps used to launch the fireworks barges, were under water.

The Hartford event had not immediately been rescheduled.

Hundreds of people lined up in New York to tour the reopened Statue of Liberty.

By COLLEEN LONG

NEW YORK – The Statue of Liberty reopened on the Fourth of July, eight months after Superstorm Sandy shuttered the national symbol of freedom, as Americans around the country celebrated with fireworks and parades and President Obama urged citizens to live up to the words of the Declaration of Independence.

Hundreds lined up Thursday to be among the first to board boats destined for Lady Liberty, including New Yorker Heather Leykam and her family.

“This, to us, Liberty Island, is really about a rebirth,” said Leykam, whose mother’s home was destroyed during the storm. “It is a sense of renewal for the city and the country. We wouldn’t have missed it for the world.”

Nationwide, Boston prepared to host its first large gathering since the marathon bombing that killed three and injured hundreds, and Philadelphia, Washington and New Orleans geared up for large holiday concerts. A Civil War reenactment commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg drew as many as 40,000 people to Pennsylvania. In Arizona, sober tributes were planned for 19 firefighters who died this week battling a blaze near Yarnell.

Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, speaking at the reopening of the Statue of Liberty, choked up as she told the crowd she was wearing a purple ribbon in memory of the fallen firefighters.

“Nineteen firefighters lost their lives in the line of duty, and we as a nation stand together,” she said through tears.

The island was decorated with star-spangled bunting, but portions remain blocked off with large construction equipment, and the main ferry dock was boarded up. Repairs to brick walkways and docks were ongoing. But much of the work has been completed since Sandy swamped the 12-acre island in New York Harbor, and visitors were impressed.

“It’s stunning, it’s beautiful,” said Elizabeth Bertero, 46, of California’s Sonoma County. “They did a great job rebuilding. You don’t really notice that anything happened.”

The statue itself was unharmed, but the land took a beating. Railings broke, docks and paving stones were torn up and buildings were flooded. The storm destroyed electrical systems, sewage pumps and boilers. Hundreds of National Park Service workers from as far away as California and Alaska spent weeks cleaning mud and debris.

“It is one of the most enduring icons of America, and we pulled it off – it’s open today,” National Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis said. “Welcome.”

The statue was open for a single day last year – Oct. 28, the day before Sandy struck. It had been closed the previous year for security upgrades. Neighboring Ellis Island remains closed and there has been no reopening date set.

Elsewhere in New York, throngs of revelers packed Brooklyn’s Coney Island to see competitive eating champ Joey Chestnut scarf down 69 hot dogs to break a world record and win the title for a seventh year at the 98th annual Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest. Sonya Thomas defended her title with nearly 37 dogs.

In his weekly radio address from Washington, Obama urged Americans to work to secure liberty and opportunity for their own children and future generations. The first family was to host U.S. servicemen and women at the White House for a cookout.

Atlanta and Alaska planned holiday runs – thousands were racing up a 3,022-foot peak in Seward. In New Orleans, the Essence Festival celebrating black culture and music kicked off along the riverfront.

The celebratory mood turned somber in Oklahoma and Maine with fatal accidents during parades. In Edmond, Okla., a boy died after being run over by a float near the end of the town’s LibertyFest parade. In Bangor, Maine, the driver of a tractor in the parade was killed after the vehicle was struck by an old fire truck.

In Boston, attendance for the city’s celebration appeared down, with crowds on the Charles River Esplanade seeming smaller than in recent years while a robust law enforcement presence greeted revelers gathering for a performance by the Boston Pops and a fireworks display.

Among those at Boston’s festivities was Carlos Arredondo, the cowboy hat-wearing marathon attendee who became part of one of the indelible images of the bombings’ aftermath: helping rush a badly wounded man from the scene in a wheelchair, his legs torn to pieces.

Arredondo said the July 4 celebration – an event authorities believe the bombing suspects initially planned to target – is an important milestone in the healing process, not just for him but also those who were stopping to tell him their own stories of that day.

“I think there’s no better place to be,” said Arredondo, wearing his cowboy hat and a “Boston Strong” shirt in the marathon’s blue and yellow colors.

Kathy Concileo had staked out a nice spot for the evening’s concert, near center stage. The Norwell, Mass. woman said she was surprised at the turnout.

“As much as they say we’ve healed and moved on, I think this shows that people are still afraid to come out in a crowd,” she said.

But Christopher Dixon, 48, of Nashua, N.H., who brought his daughters and grandson for the first time, said he had no worries about security.

“It’s safer today than in your own backyard, I think,” he said.

Not everyone was welcoming the masses – Hermosa Beach, Calif., was ramping up police patrols after years of drunken and raucous behavior from revelers. Hartford, Conn., postponed fireworks because the Connecticut River was too high.

Nationwide, anti-surveillance protests cropped up in a number of cities on Independence Day with activists speaking out against recent disclosures that the National Security Agency has been secretly logging people’s phone calls and Internet activity. In Philadelphia, more than 100 people marched downtown to voice their displeasure, chanting, “NSA, go away!”

But in Union Beach, N.J., which was destroyed by Sandy, residents had something to celebrate. The working-class town won a party and fireworks contest from the television station Destination America and USA Weekend magazine.

“It’s wonderful. Everyone’s been so depressed,” said Mary Chepulis as she watched a local band perform on a stage that stood where the home next to hers had been.

Every July 3, she and her friends and family would stand on a deck packed with people, food and coolers and watch the fireworks. Next week, she’ll find out if the grant money she’ll receive is enough to rebuild the home where she lived for 15 years.

Associated Press writers Bridget Murphy in Boston, Katie Zezima in Union Beach, N.J., Christopher Weber in Hermosa Beach, Calif., and Stacey Plaisance in New Orleans contributed to this report.

At least four state parks with swimming areas were closed after reaching capacity Thursday.

The July 4 holiday kicked off an expected four-day heat wave that comes with oppressive humidity.

The heat combined with the fact most people had the day off from work forced at least four state parks with swimming areas to take the unusual step and close to visitors after they reached maximum capacity Thursday.

Hampton Ponds State Park in Westfield, Chicopee Memorial State Park, C.M. Gardner State Park in Huntington and the D.A.R. State Forest in Goshen all closed.

“We hit capacity at about 11 a.m. and we are full and we will be closed for the rest of the day,” said Andrew Gloss, supervisor for Hampton Ponds State Park.

At Chicopee State Park a police cruiser was parked at the entrance stopping people from entering.

C.M. Gardner State Park in Huntington was packed with picnickers even though the parking areas had filled. The park, located alongside the east branch of the Westfield River, opened at 7 a.m. and reached capacity an hour later, Gloss said.

A steady stream of overflow traffic snaked its way to the nearby Knightville Dam and Littleville Dam recreation areas run, where visitors were directed to when the state park closed.

Temperatures hit at least 91 in Springfield and 93 in Westfield but the humidity made it feel hotter, said Meteorologist Mike Skurko of CBS3, media partner of The Republican and Masslive.com.

“Dewpoints have been in the mid 70s which is unbearably oppressive. The heat index in Chicopee was 101,” he said.

The same weather is expected to continue Friday, Saturday and Sunday with temperatures in the low 90s and oppressive humidity, Skurko said.

A heat advisory is in effect. People are warned they should drink plenty of water and limit activity.

The heat wave should break by Monday with a weak system that will bring scattered rain, but temperatures will still be in the mid and upper 80s and the humidity will remain high, Skurko said.

Staff writer George Graham contributed to this report.