Storms Rips Off Two Apartment Building Roofs
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Serving the city HOLYOKE since 1995 FREE the May 22, 2020 Local news. Local stories. Local advertisers. A TURLEY PUBLICATION ❙ www.turley.com [email protected] www.sun.turley.com Diocese agrees Memorial Day on reporting Storms rips off two misconduct ceremony to SPRINGFIELD - The Roman Catholic Diocese be held online apartment building roofs of Springfield has entered By Shelby Macri into a “Memorandum of Understanding” (MOU) [email protected] with the district attor- HOLYOKE – Although neys’ offices of the and the recent pandemic has Northwestern Berkshire, caused many cancellations, Hampden districts, setting though the celebration of out a standard procedure Memorial Day will be in for the reporting of all sex- full swing and hosted by the ual misconduct allegations United Veterans of Holyoke. known to the diocese. The United Veterans This agreement is the of Holyoke, the Veteran’s result of extensive discus- Services, and the Holyoke sions over the last year with Media are working together to the three district attorneys’ stream a Memorial Day Tribute offices, addressing concerns on Monday, May 25 at 11:30 over inconsistencies in how a.m. - 12:15 p.m. There will past abuse allegations were be special highlights includ- reported by the diocese. ing a montage of departed The MOU outlines pol- residents from the Holyoke In addition to the roof, some Soldiers Home, some remarks brick siding ripped off this DIOCESE, 3 from Mayor Alex Morse, building. Bricks ripped off one the Holyoke City Council of the roofs and laid in a pile Applications President Todd McGee, State on the sidewalk following the Representative Aaron Vega, storm. Photo by Gregory A. Scibelli accepted for and a keynote speaker SFC business aid Luis “Louie” Delgado. The By Gregory A. Scibelli Master of Ceremonies for this [email protected] Applications are still event will be Chris Sims of the being accepted for the War Memorial Commission. HOLYOKE – A severe Covid-19 Holyoke Business “We’re trying to stick to thunderstorm that brought Emergency Operations our normal program with- heavy winds tore the roofs of East Dwight and West ing its windows and wind- Grant Program, adminis- in these restrictions of Social off two apartment buildings streets, caused extensive shields. The debris damaged tered by the city of Holyoke Distancing.” Sims said. in the city late last Friday damage to the buildings, and several other cars in the and Greater Holyoke “However, performance mea- night. The damages left 141 the ground below. area. Chamber of Commerce, sures such as procession of people homeless. In one case, bricks that It was believe a micro- using Community The two buildings, tore off the building fell Development Block See CEREMONY page 9 located at the intersections onto a nearby car, shatter- See STORM, page 6 Grant funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Funds should be used CANAL WORK CONTINUES by businesses to help them Velis wins senate seat remain open, retain employ- ees, or adapt business oper- By Gregory A. Scibelli lous cities in the district, tak- ations remotely or online [email protected] ing Westfield, his hometown, during the public health by more than 2,200 votes, emergency. Grant funds WESTFIELD – and winning in Democratic- Following in the footsteps of leaning Holyoke and AID, 3 his predecessor, John Velis Easthampton. He also won a has won a special election to small section of Chicopee and become the new state sena- Southampton. HPS establishes tor for the Second Cain car- ‘re-opening’ team Hampden and ried the votes in Hampshire District. Republican-heavy HOLYOKE – On A special Southwick, as Thursday, May 14, HPS election post- well as the small established the HPS poned from March towns of Granville, Reopening Leadership 31 took place on Tolland, Russell, team. This team is charged Tuesday with all and Montgomery to with developing and coor- the bells and whis- go with his victory dinating the plan to reopen tles, or more like in Agawam. school for Fall 2020 and masks, social dis- But despite the communicating with all tancing, and a lot splits in the overall stakeholders. It is criti- of hand sanitizer at John Velis communities, Velis cal to note that the current polling locations. won by a consid- climate due to COVID-19 In Agawam, Velis was erable margin, carrying 64.2 continues to change rapidly not victorious as his challeng- percent of the vote. He gar- and we are still awaiting er, political newcomer and nered 10,083 votes to Cain’s official guidance from the Southwick businessman John 5,619. Governor’s office and the Cain, carried the town by just Velis succeeds Donald Department of Elementary 39 votes. Humason. Humason took the and Secondary Education Agawam Town Clerk seat six years ago when it was (DESE). We are planning Vincent Gioscia released pre- occupied by Mike Knapik. for multiple scenarios and liminary results late Tuesday, Humason was the state repre- contingencies. showing Cain received 1,347 sentative for Westfield at the An area of bridge near the canal is worked on as construction has votes to Velis’ 1,308. But HPS, 9 resumed in the city. Photo by Gregory A. Scibelli Velis carried the most popu- See VELIS page 12 ◗ In The News Community Foundation re-opens online Giving Portal SPRINGFIELD – The Community its serving residents across Hampden, Valley Gives to facilitate community and services improve the quality of life Foundation of Western Massachusetts Hampshire, and Franklin counties. generosity and to give donors an easy for countless local residents from all (CFWM) has re-launched the successful People can learn about community chal- way to learn about and donate to many walks of life. Valley Gives website, Valley-Gives.org. lenges and can donate to one or many nonprofits. Most importantly, Valley In its six years of one-day online The “one-stop-giving” online platform causes—all with a few clicks on the cen- Gives is one more way to help reduce the giving combined, Valley Gives Day aims to connect donors with local non- tral, online platform. devastating human cost of COVID-19.” raised more than $10 million for non- profits struggling to provide vital com- The website also is a means for indi- Donors can contribute on the Valley profits in the region. In 2018, its final munity programs and services—partic- viduals to create a “peer-to-peer” fund- Gives website using a credit card, mobile year, more than 400 nonprofit organiza- ularly during the COVID-19 crisis. The raising page for a local nonprofit, set a payment apps, or Automatic Clearing tions participated in the event. Community Foundation will promote the goal, and reach out to their networks of House (ACH) payment. In addition to Valley Gives, which Valley Gives website widely to introduce friends and family to raise dollars for the GiveGab donated the cost of the directly connects individual donors with donors to nonprofits in need. organization. Valley Gives platform. According to nonprofits, the Community Foundation Formerly a single giving day event, According to Katie Allan Zobel, Zobel, “GiveGab’s tremendous generosi- established the COVID-19 Response Valley Gives will remain “open” for President and CEO of the Community ty in providing the platform pro bono and Fund for the Pioneer Valley. Grants months to come and will give nonprofits Foundation of Western Massachusetts, their willingness to expedite the start-up awarded through the fund provide emer- a needed fundraising boost. From cultur- “Many nonprofits in the Pioneer Valley made this possible.” gency support to nonprofit organizations al organizations to environmental pro- region have had to reduce programs and The Community Foundation of in Western Massachusetts serving the grams and educational services, local cancel fundraising events due to the Western Massachusetts launched Valley needs of the most vulnerable populations nonprofits are facing many financial COVID crisis. Others have been chal- Gives, a 24-hour marathon day of giving, affected by the pandemic. To date, the challenges triggered by the pandemic. lenged to meet increased needs for ser- in 2012. The event was created to raise Fund has raised $4.3 million from 500 Visitors to Valley-Gives.org can vices and essentials. Many donors are critical dollars for the Pioneer Valley donors and has already awarded grants find a menu of more than 135 nonprof- eager to help. We decided to re-open nonprofit community, whose programs totaling nearly $2 million. Western New England announces Eversource reminds customers to plan to re-open campus remain vigilant against scams SPRINGFIELD – Western New testing, tracing, and isolation protocols REGION – As part of Eversource’s • Callers asking for personal or England University has announced its along with social distancing and clean- efforts to support its customers and account information or insisting on intention to resume on campus classes ing standards, along with following the communities during the pandemic, the specific, unusual payment methods: for the fall semester, after being forced guidance of local, state, and federal energy company is reminding people to Eversource will never ask for personal to move exclusively to online instruc- agencies. The University has multiple remain vigilant and protect themselves information over the phone in this man- tion for the spring and summer due to work groups evaluating all aspects of against scams. The COVID-19 outbreak ner and does not accept payments via the COVID-19 pandemic. Western New University operations, including health has led to an increase in scam activity, gift cards, pre-paid debit cards or other England University President Anthony and safety standards, the curriculum, with sophisticated scammers finding common tools used by scammers. S. Caprio announced the plans in a let- and the residential community.