• LOCAL NEWS LOCAL STORIES LOCAL ADVERTISERS • E WARE REGION FOR 1 ING TH 29 YE SERV ARS Vol. 135 No. 4 12 Pages (Plus Supplements) USPS 666100 $31 PER YEAR - $1.00 A COPY THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2021 www.warerivernews.turley.com A TURLEY PUBLICATION ❙ www.turley.com Officials, residents question Baystate Health By Eileen Kennedy and they said it was not financial- Palmer and the majority of cancer Staff writer Virtual Town Hall held to discuss Mary Lane closure ly responsible to invest in it when care at D’Amour Cancer Center in there are not enough patients to Springfield, Baystate Health can WARE – Baystate Health offi- Baystate Health officials have and residents with the news that Baystate Health Eastern Region sustain it. provide better care for all patients, cial held a Zoom Community Town said they will demolish the site and emergency and cancer care would President and Chief Administrative “This touches me personally,” including those from Ware and sur- Hall Tuesday to give residents and remove the debris and offer the site be gone in six months. The state Officer Molly Gray briefly went Keroack said. “Both my parents rounding towns. others a chance to ask questions as a green space if that is what the Department of Public Health will over the plans to close the facility, were born in Mary Lane in the They also pointed out that over about their plans to close the Mary town wants or it will work with the hold regulatory hearings about the which is due to a lack of patients 1920s, and I know this is difficult the last several years Baystate Lane satellite emergency facility town if it has another use in mind. end of the emergency facility and and the difficulty in keeping phy- news for our community.” Health has invested in the Mary and cancer care at the Ware health Baystate Health officials the closure of entire building. sicians, they said. The hospital Gray said by consolidating Lane campus, adding Healogics, a center by June and close everything announced their plans in late Baystate Health President building itself also needs at least emergency care and physician else within two years. January, surprising town officials and CEO Dr. Mark Keroack and $5 million in upgrades and repairs, practices at Wing Hospital in Please see BAYSTATE, page 2 Family hopes for info Fifth-grade to return to help solve murder to Ware Middle School masks must be worn as they have He died on Feb. 2, 2018, from Additional school William J. Dziedzinski been since from the beginning, blunt force trauma of the head and days begin soon she said. was murdered on injuries to the neck, according to Due to some rearranging, the his death certificate. Ware Middle School will bring “Someone in Ware has to know By Eileen Kennedy Feb. 2, 2018 Staff writer back all of its fifth-graders as of what happened, and it pains me March 1, with six feet of social By Eileen Kennedy that they are just allowing this distance between them all, DiLeo turmoil and pain in our family,” WARE – At its Feb. 17 meet- Staff writer ing, School Committee members said, and the change of the bus said his daughter-in-law Amanda seating limits has helped make it Dziedzinski, who has been acting approved Ware Junior Senior WARE – It’s been just over High School hybrid students possible. It is hoped that the full three years since William J. as the family’s spokesman since it fourth-grade will return soon as occurred. “What really brings me going to full school days for their Dziedzinski was found dead on the two in-person days and adding well, she said. sofa in the home he shared with down is that someone knows and If social distancing remains at they continue to allow us to feel a third in-person day for hybrid his girlfriend, Julia Surprise, at 24 learners at all levels, which will six feet between students, it will Clinton St., and his family is hop- this way. I wouldn’t wish this on be impossible to bring back all my worst enemy.” be done on a rotating basis among ing anyone who knows more about Courtesy photos cohorts. High needs students will students, she said. it will come forward with informa- William J. Dziedzinski, center, with his two sons, Michael Dziedzinski, at left, and Eric Dziedzinski, at right. attend school five days a week. tion to solve it. Please see MURDER, page 6 The additional days will begin the Grades weeks of March 8 and March 15. In a follow-up to student indi- School Superintendent vidual subject failure rates dis- Dr. Marlene DiLeo said the cussed at the last meeting, DiLeo Department of Early and said the following percentage of Hardwick Pond invasive plant treatment to begin Secondary Education has given students failed at least one sub- new guidance on school bus seat- ject: 14% of fourth-graders, 15% is a nonprofit organization formed tion formed a team to put togeth- the phase 1 and 2 lab costs totaled ing, allowing more children to of fifth-graders, 30% percent Native endangered to “restore, preserve and protect er a plan to show they can treat around $3,400 each. They are now ride one each bus, solving one of of sixth-graders, 50% of sev- orchid found the ecological health of Hardwick the invasive plants with herbicide, working with their team to plan the obstacles to having all chil- enth-graders, 54% of eighth-grad- Pond,” according to their website. without harming the rare orchid. a field test on a five-acre area of dren return to in-person learning. ers, 53% of ninth-graders, 34% of Back in 2018, the town helped In 2019 they began phase 1 of this the pond in May or June when the “It’s a great step forward,” she 10th-graders, 36% of 11th-grad- By Paula Ouimette ers and 28% of 12th-graders. Staff writer the association secure a bond from plan, by testing in a laboratory. orchids bloom. The area would said. the state in the amount of $67,500 After the success of phase 1, in cover the southwest corner to the Once COVID-19 regulations Gaps HARDWICK -- Hardwick Pond to remove the invasive aquatic 2020 the team moved onto phase submerged island near the boat went into effect, the state said plants, namely fanwort and milfoil, 2, which was to ensure they would landing/parking lot. The cost to there could only be one student Academic and social-emotion- Preservation Association President al gaps will be identified, DiLeo Gary Mascitis and Vice President which are overtaking Hardwick not harm the surrogate orchid. The treat the five acres is $14,000. per bus seat, instead of the nor- Pond. During this time, they dis- report from phase 2 showed that Zinni, along with biologists and mal two, and every other seat had said, and the district is building a Bill Zinni provided the Board of recovery plan to address them. Selectmen with an update on the covered an endangered orchid that the all of the surrogate orchids botanists from the Natural Heritage to remain empty. Now students aquatic plant control treatment is native to the area, growing from were unaffected by the herbicide. from the same family and/or same plan at the pond. The association the sphagnum moss. The associa- Mascitis and Zinni said that Please see HARDWICK POND, page 2 cohort can share seats, although Please see WARE SCHOOL, page 10 Everett Allen: Liberation, repatriation and a return home Editor’s Note: Last week, the Quaboag For Everett, it lasted 86 days end- was at Swinemunde where we slept Current ran the first half of the chapter James ing with liberation and repatriation. out in an open field in the rain J. Paugh has written about West Brookfield resi- It took place during one of the after traveling 25 miles with no dent Everett Allen, and his service during World coldest and snowiest winters in food or water. That was Feb War II, which included time as a prisoner of recent European history and 14th, and a night to remem- war. Paugh is writing a book to be called, “It’s then, turned warm, creating ber.” (ALLEN, REPORT Enough for Any Man, 100 Stories: Allies POW’s muddy, mucky and barely walk- AS A PRISONER OF WAR in NAZI Germany.” It will recount 100 stories able roads. 1945) Though they marched of Americans who were WWII prisoners of war. They left the camp in groups over 200 kilometers in the last This installment covers liberation from the camp of 200 to 300 ragged men and week, things would continue where he was a Prisoner of War and making his packed what they could from to worsen for Everett and the way to Allied lines, and his trip home. We thank their barracks. Everett had a war- men. Over the next 24 days, they Everett Allen for his service to our country, and time log that had notes of his experi- would march another 270 kilome- Paugh for sharing the full story with our readers. ences, but he tossed it away. He had ters on meager rations of food and Sgt. Everett Allen of an overcoat that he would cut slits the Army Air Corps. water. into to create big pockets to hold Hunger was a constant compan- By James J. Paugh III his food supplies. At the time, he ion in not only the Stalag, but on the smoked cigarettes and was certain to have spots forced march.