TONIGHT Mostly Cloudy. Low of 13 The Westfield Search for The Westfield News News SearchIFE for TheDOES WestfieldNOT NewsCOUNT “L Westfield350.com The Westfield BY YEARS OME SUFFER News . S Serving Westfield, Southwick, and surrounding Hilltowns A LIFETIME“TIME ISIN THEA DAY ONLY, AND SO WEATHER GROWCRITIC WITHOUTOLD BETWEEN TONIGHT THE AMBITIONRISING AND.” THE Partly Cloudy. SETTINGJOHN STEINBECKOF THE SUN.” Low of 55. www.thewestfieldnews.com Search for The Westfield News Westfield350.comWestfield350.org The WestfieldNews — AuGUSTA JANE EVANS “TIME IS THE ONLY VOL. 86 NO. 151 Serving Westfield, Southwick, and surrounding Hilltowns 75 cents VOL.88WEATHER NO. 35 MONDAY,TUESDAY, FEBRUARY JUNE 27, 11, 2017 2019 CRITIC75 Cents WITHOUT TONIGHT AMBITION.” Partly Cloudy. JOHN STEINBECK Low of 55. www.thewestfieldnews.com VOL. 86 NO. 151 TUESDAY, JUNECity 27, 2017 Council votes on 75 cents few changes to Special Permitting Authority By AMY PORTER ity, and to assign two that were previously Correspondent unassigned. The recommendations came after WESTFIELD — Ward 6 Councilor William several months of work in sub-committees Onyski brought a 3-0 recommendation from and public hearings in both bodies. The City the Legislative & Ordinance committee to Council voted to approve 12 to 1, with Thursday’s (Feb. 7) City Council meeting to At-large Councilor Dave Flaherty opposed to WILLIAM ONYSKI MARY ANN BABINSKI DAVID FLAHERTY move four items from the City Council to the Ward 6 City Councilor Ward 1 Councilor At-large City Councilor Planning Board for special permitting author- See City Council, Page 7 Close scores at Science Fair require second day of judging By AMY PORTER they’re going into, into their proj- culinary arts class. The Art Correspondent ects,” Sweeney said. Department also set up an exhibit in WESTFIELD – The Westfield Figy said the WTA students are the gym, entitled “How colors make High School’s Annual Science and going to set up an exhibit at their you feel.” Engineering Fair was held on school during the next academic “I was very impressed with the Thursday, with an open house for week, to share their projects with the organization and diversity of the the public at 5:30 p.m.to view the other students, in what she called “a judging field, and the projects the projects students had worked on for totally cool addition” to the pro- kids put out. I learned some things many months. Lauren Figy, gram. today,” said City Council President Supervisor of Science, Technology 95 judges, the most ever, spent the Ralph J. Figy, who participated as a Lauren Figy, STE supervisor with WHS Science teachers Jon Tyler, Kate and Engineering said there were 241 day on Thursday interviewing stu- judge. Pawul, Renee Sweeney, Deb Aldrich and Ben Hatch. (Photo by Amy Porter) total projects exhibited this year, dents about their projects. Figy said Thirty top projects were chosen among them 41 from Westfield the diverse group of judges came on Thursday and marked with blue Pawul. The top 20 projects were certain solid materials in response Technical Academy, who participat- from throughout the community, balloons. Lauren Figy said the scor- then selected to go to the Region I to applied mechanical stress. The ed for the first time in the fair. representing all different disciplines. ing was so close, the top 30 were Fair at the Massachusetts College of science department was buzzing WHS Science teacher Renee As part of the STEAM (Science, going to present again to the science Liberal Arts in North Adams. about her project, but Yana was not Sweeney said she enjoyed having Technology, Engineering, Arts and faculty on Friday. First place winner, Yana able to attend Thursday’s open the Westfield Technical Academy Math) event, the Show Choir sere- “They will be able to get feedback Chumakova’s project was called house due to a scheduling conflict. students participate. “They did a naded the judges at a lunch which on what to change before the region- “Piezoelectricity,” which is the great job of applying the vocations was prepared by Margaret Toomey’s als,” said WHS Science teacher Kate electric charge that accumulates in See Science Fair, Page 3 Big Y initiative Noble hospital helps environment, nonprofits lock down By LORI SZEPELAK Correspondent now a State Police SPRINGFIELD-As Big Y Foods, Inc. sets its sights on phasing out single use plastic bags in 2020 from its 70 supermarkets and specialty stores, along with its Big Y Express Gas and investigation Convenience locations, it has also launched a By PETER CURRIER Big Y Cares campaign that will benefit non- Students are seen playing chess at Powder Mill School on Correspondent profits. Thursday afternoon. (Photo by Greg Fitzpatrick) WESTFIELD — Baystate Health officials have said that the The Big Y Community Bag Program with the lockdown at Baystate Noble hospital Sunday is related to an Giving Tag is in full swing and for every pur- investigation by State Police and the Hampden County District chase of a reusable bag by customers, $1 will be Attorney’s office. donated to a local nonprofit. According to the The lockdown began at 11 a.m. and was lifted at around 12:30 company website, each time a shopper pur- Game of chess p.m. Sunday. chases the special bag, they will have the “Westfield police responded to Baystate Noble Hospital due to “power” to direct a $1 donation to a nonprofit the belief that there was a threat to their security,” said Westfield of their choice within seven days of their pur- growing at Police Captain Michael McCabe, “When we arrived we deter- chase. If the customer does not direct the dona- mined that the threat no longer existed.” tion within seven days, it will automatically be Police and hospital officials were unable to specify what they donated to the nonprofit the store leadership at believed the threat was. that location has selected for the month. Southwick school In order to ease the transition from plastic By GREG FITZPATRICK bags, Big Y is offering special discounted pric- Correspondent ing and promotions on the reusable bags SOUTHWICK – More than seven years ago Jose “Joe” through December. Linares wanted to start a chess club for high school students The program is designed to make it easy for in the Pioneer Valley. shoppers to give back to their local community “I found that there was very little interest in the area,” said while supporting the environment, according to Linares. “I found that you’ve got to start earlier.” the company’s website. Linares, a part of the Western Massachusetts Scholastic “Single use plastic bags can no longer be Chess League, reached out to the school district in Southwick viewed as a long-term solution for our stores,” in the fall of 2018 to see if they’d be interested in having the BAYSTATE NOBLE HOSPITAL said Richard D. Bossie, vice president of store league get established in their school system. Linares had operations, in a statement. “Our customers and already started a league at the Roberta G. Doering Middle School in Agawam, where he’s a chess coach. See Big Y Initiative, Page 6 Once he got in touch with Powder Mill School Principal Snowmobile drag race Erin Carrier, Linares was then able to start a chess league at Powder Mill for fifth and sixth grade students, which began with over 20 students. – a first for fairgrounds The first class was on December 6, 2018, and now the By LORI SZEPELAK chess club at Powder Mill School takes place every Correspondent Thursday from 2:45 p.m. until 3:45 p.m. Linares also has the BLANDFORD-For the first assistance of Micah Winston, who runs similar chess clubs time, the Blandford Fair is spon- for other schools in the local area. soring a Snowmobile Drag Race “What we’re trying to do is get chess moving because it’s on its expansive grounds on North Street. such a great thing,” said Linares. “The drag race was suggested by individuals involved in the Linares receives free chess sets from the Massachusetts fair as a potential fundraiser,” said Bruce Wyman, longtime Chess Association and teaches the kids about different tac- president of the Union Agricultural and Horticultural Society tics in chess and how to make your opponent make a mis- that sponsors the Blandford Fair. take and waste a move. The drag race fundraiser is slated Feb. 23 with gates opening The hope for Linares is to have some of these kids con- at 6 a.m. Registration is planned from 6 to 10 a.m. with racing tinue to get better at chess and one day defeat him, who’s starting at 8 a.m. In the event of inclement weather, the race will be rescheduled to March 2. See Game of Chess, Page 7 See Snowmobile Drag Race, Page 5 PAGE 2 - MONDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2019 WWW.THEWESTFIELDNEWS.COM THE WESTFIELD NEWS TONIGHT TUESDAY WEDNESDAY Snow. Rain. 24-27 39-42 Today, Mostly cloudy, with a high near 35. North wind 5 to 7 mph. Tonight, Mostly cloudy, with a low around 13. North wind 5 to 7 mph. Tuesday, Snow before 4pm, then snow and sleet. High near 27. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New snow and sleet Mostly Cloudy. accumulation of 2 to 4 inches possible. Tuesday Night, Sleet be- fore 11pm, then freezing rain and sleet between 11pm and 2am, then freezing rain after 2am. Low around 27. Chance of precipi- tation is 100%. New sleet accumulation of around an inch pos- sible. Wednesday, A chance of freezing rain before 8am, then a 13 - 14 chance of rain between 8am and 2pm.