Mayor Seeks to Waive 'Pour License' Fees for 2021
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FAMILY LOCAL SPORTS Baby’s Holiday Smith first lights signs X-Mas PAGE 5 PAGE 8 PAGE 3 AGAWAM ADVERTISER NEWS A TURLEY PUBLICATION ❙ www.turley.com December 24, 2020 ❙ Vol. 42, No. 43 ❙ $1.00 www.agawamadvertisernews.turley.com Mayor seeks to waive ‘pour license’ fees for 2021 By Shelby Macri by Johnson and Sapelli states to during the pandemic,” Johnson last month, but wanted to see if and felt that this waiver would [email protected] waive the collection of certain al- said. “The mayor and I feel that things would look up for these help to show that. cohol license fees in 2020, it also the one-time waiver of these fees businesses this month. The Liquor Last Friday, Sapelli said he was AGAWAM – Mayor William declares that an emergency exists will help these businesses during License Commission unanimous- confident that the waiver would Sapelli is proposing waiving the and allows the council to act on it their time of need. The goal is to ly voted to advise waiving the fees be approved by the council and 1,500 dollar alcohol establish- and make a vote. get through the pandemic with on Oct. 21, Sapelli explained that the council would show support ment fees for certain businesses “Typically it has to go on the the least amount of local busi- he wanted to wait because Dec. for the affected businesses. that were affected by COVID-19 agenda as new business, then be nesses and local jobs.” is typically a busy month for ban- There will be a revenue loss throughout the year. The waived discussed, and moved to old busi- Local and small businesses quet halls and restaurant du to from the waiver. Sapelli estimates fee will apply to licenses that are ness on the next agenda.” Sapelli awnd restaurants have suffered large group parties. the town will lose about $55,000. classified as on-premises or “pour said. “This is the last meeting of during their closures and this The additional seating restric- To absorb the loss, Sapelli said licenses.” the year and we had to get this waiver is an acknowledgment of tions and guidelines that have there is extra money in differ- The City Council President done in one meeting rather than the hard year these businesses been placed on restaurants and ent areas of the budget, as well Chris Johnson and Mayor Sapelli two.” Sapelli decided to waive the have dealt with. banquet halls due to the upcom- as some CARES Act funds and are sponsoring a resolution and fee entirely due to the closure of Package stores had remained ing holidays and expected spikes, grants that can help as well. emergency preamble at the Mon- business during the pandemic open during the pandemic and is a further reason that encour- “We’re in a good position, we day, Dec. 21 Agawam City Coun- and the restrictions they had to received fewer limitations and aged Sapelli to waive the fee for can certainly cover a short fall of cil meeting. The votes from that follow when they reopened. He are not included in the waiver. these businesses. “This is a small 55,000 from other areas where we meeting were not available due to further explained that this waiv- Package stores are currently be- way to help businesses, we’re saved money.” Sapelli said. the early holiday press deadline. er will help restaurants, banquet ing forced to close by 9:30 p.m. business friendly and we feel their He says the town government The Dec. 21 meeting was halls, and clubs as they have suf- and non-package stores that sell pain.” Sapelli said. “Now they can is in favor of helping out the busi- scheduled to be the last city coun- fered even during re-opening. alcohol must cease alcohol sales keep that money in their till, it’s nesses who have suffered this year cil meeting of the year and the last “Some of these licensees have at 9:30 p.m. to comply with the not a lot but it can help their ex- and this holiday season, as they meeting before the licenses go into been forced to close or substan- governor’s order from Nov. 6. penses.” The Mayor’s Office and will decide on waiving the fee for effect. The resolution sponsored tially curtail their businesses Sapelli sought to waive the fee City Council is business friendly licenses starting on Jan. 1, 2021. Town remains in ‘red’ Winter begins as local infections rise By Gregory A. Scibelli Agawam is currently on break [email protected] for the Christmas and New Year’s holiday, but continued surge AGAWAM – Heading into could result in a change in the the holiday week, Agawam re- current hybrid model going full mained in the “red” with a rising remote. Agawam spent two weeks COVID-19 infection rate, accord- learning remotely in November, ing to statistics released by the but returned to the hybrid model Department of Public Health last just before Thanksgiving. Thursday, Dec. 17. Agawam also recently went As of press time, Agawam had through a town hall closure as a reported a total 1,247 total case of result of two employees contract- COVID-19 in the community. The ing the virus as well as a perceived community’s number of new cas- positive test by Mayor William Sa- es had slowed to a crawl and was pelli. at about 600 total cases with few The mayor would later find active cases prior to October. out he had a false positive, though When the statewide surge be- that was not the case with the gan in October, Agawam saw its other employees and town hall caseload creep up. Agawam went was closed for almost a week. It into the “red” or the high-risk cat- would later be re-opened, but it egory as classified by the state. is still not open to the public un- When the formulas for determin- less a person requests an appoint- ing risk-level were re-done, Aga- ment. wam moved back into the yellow, Sapelli gives occasional up- or moderate risk category. Aga- dates on how the town is respond- wam has since moved back into ing to the virus on the town’s web- Bobby Johnson runs a town snowblower on one of the sidewalks on Main Street in the aftermath of the first major snow- the red during the past two weeks. site. storm of the season last Thursday. PHOTO BY GREGORY A. SCIBELLI Agawam’s last reported average The town will likely be mak- daily incidence rate per 100,000 ing announcements in the com- is 52.4, a higher number than the ing months about sites where Local man sentenced for defrauding VA hospitals Dec. 10 numbers. There have been residents can get the COVID-19 30,302 tests administered in to vaccines. Vaccines will soon be BOSTON – A vendor for sever- Mastroianni to two years of pro- gas inspections that never took the town and Agawam was sched- coming to the town, likely to be al Veterans Affairs medical facili- bation. In August 2020, Wojcik place. Medical gas supply systems uled to host a COVID-19 testing distributed at pharmacies like ties was sentenced today for de- pleaded guilty to one count of deliver piped gases, including site at Six Flags New England on CVS and possibly the Stop & frauding the VA by creating false wire fraud. compressed air, nitrous oxide, Monday. The town-sponsored test Shop. Both businesses are signed invoices and reports for medical Wojcik, as the owner of Alli- nitrogen and carbon dioxide into side was only for Agawam resi- up to be vaccine distribution sites. gas inspections that never took ance Medical Gas Corporation, operating rooms, recovery rooms dents. There are currently two approved place. engaged in a scheme from May and patient rooms. Medical gas Agawam previously had test vaccines that are being rolled up, Chester Wojcik, 49, of Aga- 29, 2014, through March 5, 2015 to supply systems must be inspected sites, but they were available to one from Pfizer, and the second, wam, Mass., was sentenced by defraud the VA by creating false and maintained regularly to en- any resident of Massachusetts. late last week, from Moderna. U.S. District Court Judge Mark G. invoices and reports for medical DEFRAUD ❙ page 2 413.283.8393 • Facebook: @AgawamAdvertiserNews • Email: [email protected] Page 2 ❙ AGAWAM ADVERTISER NEWS ❙ December 24, 2020 Digging out Discount tickets IN THIS ISSUE available for 2021 Big E Crossword..........3 WEST SPRINGFIELD – Give the gift of fair fun in 2021 Opinion ..............4 and put The Big E under the tree. Big E advance discount tickets, Value Passes, and Mid- Sports ................8 way and Cream Puff vouchers are available for sale, just in time for holiday giving! Classifieds .......10 Get your tickets to the 2021 Big E, which takes place Sept. 17 to Oct. 3, online at TheBigE.com and at the Box Of- Public Notices ..11 fice, which is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday through Dec. 23. 12 PAGES Ticket options available are: Single Day admission tickets – $12 adults/$8 children 6-12 17-Day Value Passes – $40 adults/$20 children age 6-12. Eucharistic This offer includes four FREE Giant Slide tickets for each Value Pass sold. Adoration at Opening Day tickets (good for use on Sept. 17 only) – $10 Midway Magic Vouchers – $25 St. John’s Six-pack of Big E Cream Puffs - $25 All tickets, passes and vouchers are “print at home” AGAWAM – All are wel- documents, making the gift a perfect last-minute shop- come and invited to join us ping option.