Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 5/13/2020
WESTFIELD – The Southwick Select Board met for a regular remote meeting on May 5 to discuss the Town Meeting, talk social distancing changes and accept CARES Act funding.
One of the first orders of business at the meeting was a discussion around the board of health’s new policy that requires residents to wear facemasks, alongside the governor’s order that went into effect on May 6.
Chief Administrative Officer Karl Stinehart explained this policy is just one of the ways the town is trying to get things back to normal. “That is something that everybody needs to follow as part of our getting back to business, using social distancing, using plexiglass barriers, making sure meetings are held remotely and limiting face to face contact,” he said.
The board then unanimously accepted a CARES Act grant for $8,972 for EMS COVID-19 services and a motion to allow the Southwick Public Library to create its own YouTube channel.
As part of a three-year plan, the select board also had to vote on a motion to increase the transfer station sticker fees by 10 percent. Select Board Chair Russ Fox then explained why the town elected to increase the fee each year. He said, “Because of recycling our costs are going to increase dramatically at the transfer facility. And we already agreed to a three-year plan to continue the increase so people wouldn’t be hit with a large lump sum, but it would be a gradual increase.”
Board Clerk Joe Deedy then gave an update on the DPW Brush Program and his thoughts on extending the program. “It’s going fine, we were supposed to do it for two weeks, this will be the second week. Since the governor bumped to May 18, I would like to do one more week past our two, and hopefully, by then we have some process at Town Hall so we can start getting those metal goods again,” he said.
The board unanimously approved the motion to extend the program another week.
With Southwick’s Town Meeting just over a month away Fox then talked about some of the ways the town was preparing for the logistics of the event, including using disposable microphone covers. “I spoke with our moderator Mr. Putnam, we’d like to get that group together to plan for the Special and Annual Town Meeting,” he said. “We suggested that we would start that after the May 19 election because that was taking the top priority, and he did want to get disposable covers for the microphones.”
Stinehart then jumped in to explain that the microphones the town was planning to purchase were out of stock on Amazon and they were currently looking for an alternative. During public comment one of the residents listening to the meeting suggested that using a Bluetooth speaker could be an alternative to the microphones.