Representative Don Humason



MEPA By State Representative Don Humason, Jr. January 5, 2008 Happy New Year. Next Monday, at 9:30 AM, at the North Middle School auditorium, our recently elected municipal officials will be inaugurated. The public is invited and welcome to attend. Acting Mayor Charlie Medeiros will hand the reigns of municipal government to incoming Mayor Mike Boulanger. I think Charlie did an admirable job as the city’s acting chief executive and would like to commend and thank him for his service. I look forward to working with our new mayor, the members of the City Council, School Committee, Municipal Light Board, and our new Athenaeum Trustee. Congratulations to you all on your election and swearing in. My condolences go out to the family of Westfield’s Brigadier General Edward Slasienski who passed away last week. I first met Ed many years ago as we both worked on an event for the Westfield State College foundation. I later learned Ed was active in St. Joseph Church and the Westfield Kiwanis. Ed served his country as a pilot in the Army Air Corps and Air Force. He later became commander of the 104th Fighter Wing up at Barnes. He will be sadly missed. The Massachusetts House and Senate are back in session after our Christmas break. We now await Governor Deval Patrick’s Fiscal Year 2009 budget recommendation and his State of the State Address later this month. That will kick off the lengthy state budget process which will culminate with a new spending document signed by the governor for the start of the fiscal year July 1. It’s that time again. The 4th annual Penguin Plunge to benefit the Amelia Park Children’s Museum is coming up on Saturday, January 26, behind the old Brass Rail in Southwick. There’s nothing I won’t do for my district or for a good cause like the Children’s Museum. “Freezin’ for a Reason” is just one of those things. Feel freeze to join me! On Thursday, a MEPA hearing was held in the Council Chambers of Westfield City Hall on the proposed Pioneer Valley Energy Center. What follows is some of my testimony in support of the project. I am a legislator, not a scientist or engineer or environmental or energy expert. That is what the MEPA process is for. I want what is best for the people I represent in the city of Westfield and the people of the surrounding communities. From all I’ve read and heard thus far on this proposal, I think this project will be good for Westfield. It will provide Westfield with the maximum benefit with a minimum impact: The tax benefit to the city, high paying jobs during construction and facility operation, the extensive benefit of clean, state of the art power generation, a large natural gas customer of the G&E which will help them buy gas at a higher volume and a better rate, little usage of city services, minimal traffic impact (gas comes in by pipeline, power goes out by wire), and no disruption to neighbors due to its location in the middle of the Servicestar Industrial Park. I have to commend Matt Palmer, the Project Manager from Energy Management, Inc. He has met and spoken with me on several occasions and has shown great willingness to be open and forthcoming with information, always willing to answer my tough questions. I applaud EMI’s desire to be open with the residents and officials of this city and thank them for bringing plans for a state of the art energy generation facility to our town when they could have very easily looked elsewhere. My constituents will, of course, have questions about the facility. It is entirely appropriate that questions be asked. But I believe Matt Palmer and EMI will have the right answers, and if they do not, then they will work to make it right. MEPA, the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act process is, by design, a slow, methodical, and comprehensive process. In the past critics have complained that MEPA made Massachusetts an impossible state in which to locate or expand a business or industry. But I believe that the comprehensive and thorough review of any of the environmental impacts of this project on our air, water, land, and general quality of life in Westfield will bear out the fact that this project will be good for Westfield. I believe the Pioneer Valley Energy Center is the right proposal, in the right location, at the right time for Westfield. Representative Don Humason and his new aide Sarah Latour may be reached at their Westfield District office, 64 Noble Street, Westfield, MA 01085, 568-1366. Their Boston address is State House Room 542, Boston, MA 02133, (617) 722-2803. Email address: Rep.DonaldHumason@Hou.state.ma.us
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MEPA

By State Representative Don Humason, Jr.

January 5, 2008

Happy New Year.

Next Monday, at 9:30 AM, at the North Middle School auditorium, our recently elected municipal officials will be inaugurated. The public is invited and welcome to attend.

Acting Mayor Charlie Medeiros will hand the reigns of municipal government to incoming Mayor Mike Boulanger. I think Charlie did an admirable job as the city’s acting chief executive and would like to commend and thank him for his service.

I look forward to working with our new mayor, the members of the City Council, School Committee, Municipal Light Board, and our new Athenaeum Trustee. Congratulations to you all on your election and swearing in.

My condolences go out to the family of Westfield’s Brigadier General Edward Slasienski who passed away last week. I first met Ed many years ago as we both worked on an event for the Westfield State College foundation. I later learned Ed was active in St. Joseph Church and the Westfield Kiwanis. Ed served his country as a pilot in the Army Air Corps and Air Force. He later became commander of the 104th Fighter Wing up at Barnes. He will be sadly missed.

The Massachusetts House and Senate are back in session after our Christmas break. We now await Governor Deval Patrick’s Fiscal Year 2009 budget recommendation and his State of the State Address later this month. That will kick off the lengthy state budget process which will culminate with a new spending document signed by the governor for the start of the fiscal year July 1.

It’s that time again. The 4th annual Penguin Plunge to benefit the Amelia Park Children’s Museum is coming up on Saturday, January 26, behind the old Brass Rail in Southwick. There’s nothing I won’t do for my district or for a good cause like the Children’s Museum. “Freezin’ for a Reason” is just one of those things. Feel freeze to join me!

On Thursday, a MEPA hearing was held in the Council Chambers of Westfield City Hall on the proposed Pioneer Valley Energy Center. What follows is some of my testimony in support of the project.

I am a legislator, not a scientist or engineer or environmental or energy expert. That is what the MEPA process is for. I want what is best for the people I represent in the city of Westfield and the people of the surrounding communities. From all I’ve read and heard thus far on this proposal, I think this project will be good for Westfield.

It will provide Westfield with the maximum benefit with a minimum impact: The tax benefit to the city, high paying jobs during construction and facility operation, the extensive benefit of clean, state of the art power generation, a large natural gas customer of the G&E which will help them buy gas at a higher volume and a better rate, little usage of city services, minimal traffic impact (gas comes in by pipeline, power goes out by wire), and no disruption to neighbors due to its location in the middle of the Servicestar Industrial Park.

I have to commend Matt Palmer, the Project Manager from Energy Management, Inc. He has met and spoken with me on several occasions and has shown great willingness to be open and forthcoming with information, always willing to answer my tough questions.
I applaud EMI’s desire to be open with the residents and officials of this city and thank them for bringing plans for a state of the art energy generation facility to our town when they could have very easily looked elsewhere.

My constituents will, of course, have questions about the facility. It is entirely appropriate that questions be asked. But I believe Matt Palmer and EMI will have the right answers, and if they do not, then they will work to make it right.

MEPA, the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act process is, by design, a slow, methodical, and comprehensive process. In the past critics have complained that MEPA made Massachusetts an impossible state in which to locate or expand a business or industry.

But I believe that the comprehensive and thorough review of any of the environmental impacts of this project on our air, water, land, and general quality of life in Westfield will bear out the fact that this project will be good for Westfield.

I believe the Pioneer Valley Energy Center is the right proposal, in the right location, at the right time for Westfield.

Representative Don Humason and his new aide Sarah Latour may be reached at their Westfield District office, 64 Noble Street, Westfield, MA 01085, 568-1366. Their Boston address is State House Room 542, Boston, MA 02133, (617) 722-2803. Email address: Rep.DonaldHumason@Hou.state.ma.us

This Site Designed and Maintained by: The Barre Group