Free Republic

1st aerial kill of Desert Storm subject of motivation for Westfield's Air National Guard 104th Fighter Wing WESTFIELD – There is no easy way to explain the experience, the rush, of piloting an F-15 Eagle jet fighter, peacetime or in combat. “There is nothing else like it,” said Air National Guard Brig. Gen. Jon K. Kelk, credited with the first Iraqi MiG-29 aerial “kill” of Desert Storm in January 1991. “There is every emotion, every element of excitement, intrigue. In combat, multiply that ten times,” he explained Friday as he prepared to motivate members of the Massachusetts Air National Guard’s...

Armed with surgical masks and hand-made placards drawing attention to clean air, Westfield Concerned Citizens continued their opposition to a proposed 431 megawatt natural gas fired electrical generating plant here Thursday. The group, which formed shortly after the $400 million plant was proposed in 2008 by Pioneer Valley Energy Center, was among more than 150 people at North Middle School attending a public hearing on a federal Environment Protection Agency pending air quality permit for the plant. “The mask makes a statement,” said registered nurse Gail S. Bean of Westfield. “The mask prevents toxins from entering the lungs,” she explained...

Gulfstream Aerospace has picked Westfield-Barnes Regional Airport as the new site for a $23 million maintenance facility for its new ultra long-range G650 corporate jet. The project, announced Friday, is expected to add 100 jobs to the 130 technicians Gulfstream already employs at the airport. There will be 200 construction jobs associated with the 100,000-square-foot hangar. Construction starts in April and the building is expected to be ready by the middle of 2013, according to Gulfstream, a unit of Virginia-based General Dynamics. Gov. Deval L. Patrick expressed his excitement for the project. “It goes announcement by announcement, ribbon cutting by...

Westfield State University's venture into solar power is producing savings on electricity and enhancing its science curriculum. Operational since March, solar panels installed atop Bates and Wilson halls have generated some 17,043 kilowatts of electricity for the two buildings. The $520,000 project was unveiled by college and state officials Monday. Funding for the project came from WSU and the state through the Clean Renewable Energy Bonds and federal funding from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. State Energy Secretary Richard K. Sullivan Jr. called the project "significant" in reducing fossil fuel emissions while producing electrical power for the college campus....

Armed with signs stating “Stick to Wind“ and “Healthy Kids not Smokestacks,“ some 30 members of Westfield Concerned Citizens on Wednesday called for Pioneer Valley Energy Center and its parent company Energy Management to “scrap“ plans for a $400-million, natural gas-fired electric generating plant here. ... Project manager Matthew A. Palmer declined comment about the demonstration. He did note, however, that the state Department of Environmental Protection has issued its air-quality permit and most recently upheld that decision with dismissal of an appeal filed by the concerned citizens’ group. “This decision demonstrated that (Pioneer Valley Energy) will be the cleanest,...

The Planning Board has agreed to review and consider regulations governing the posting of political campaign signs and submit a recommendation to the City Council for adoption in August. The review was requested by City Councilor David A. Flaherty who called existing regulations “outdated and not enforced.” The councilor, preparing to launch his re-election campaign for a second two-year term, presented planners with a proposed new ordinance that will govern the placement and use of “temporary free-standing ground signs” for political campaigns, sales, promotions, educational or religious organizations. “This is not a perfect list, but it is a base line,...

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) - The National Weather Service in Taunton is now able to confirm some information regarding the tornado that passed from Westfield through Springfield and eastward into Monson. Some of the hardest hit areas will be classified with a rating of EF3 or higher on the Enhanced Fujita damage classification scale.

WESTFIELD — City officials say no one was killed, and no injuries attributed to yesterday’s tornado have been reported. Mayor Daniel M. Knapik said in a briefing this morning that despite national news service reports that two people were killed in Westfield, no one suffered bodily injury from the storm. Knapik said the city is receiving help from a variety of state and regional resources, including the Army National Guard’s 357th Engineers from Pittsfield, the State Police and the Southampton Fire Department, and a caravan of state workers is on its way from Boston, he said, to assist local residents...

NECN is doing a stellar job of tracking two or three "historic" tornado storms.

WESTFIELD – How much does it cost for a 60-foot-tall clock tower erected as one of the capstones of a now nearly $80 million project to build a new bridge across the Westfield River here? The price tag for the new clock that’s debuted along Routes 10 and 202 on Elm Street is $500,000. Whether it was federal, state or city money which paid for it isn’t exactly clear; the buyer apparently remains a mystery. No matter what public funding source paid the bill, though, it’s among the expenditures for a project that’s been four years in construction, four decades...

WESTFIELD – The city’s tax collector’s office is the target of an investigation into allegations of missing funds. An independent audit found “some irregularities” in the tracking of tax collection receipts, Police Capt. Michael McCabe confirmed on Thursday. ... There have been news reports that as much as $60,000 may be missing from the city coffers.

With a new “Addams Family” musical debuting on Broadway this week, the town of Westfield unveiled its own tribute to its homegrown master of the macabre Monday. A group of students, educators and historians gathered at Westfield High School to lift the curtain on six painted wooden letters spelling the last name of Charles Addams, the legendary New Yorker cartoonist and Westfield native. Addams, who died in 1988, lived in Westfield until leaving for college in 1929. He moved to New York City in 1931 and began submitting his cartoons to the New Yorker in 1935, joining the staff full-time...

This is my first post, bear with me. ...a student's absence can be excused for an illness, a family death, or an educational experience...Singing in a choir for the president of the United States, as Westfield Middle School eight grager, Brianna Tull, learned, dosen't count...was told she couldn't earn crdit for homewrok, tests and quizzes given that day