Representative Don Humason



MERRY CHRISTMAS WESTFIELD! Representative Don Humason, Jr. December 23, 2006 Christmas greetings to everyone! Like George Bailey running through Bedford Falls at the end of Frank Capra’s It’s A Wonderful Life or Ebenezer Scrooge after his post-spirit conversion wishing everyone a Merry Christmas or Tiny Tim and his “God Bless Us, Everyone!” I am happy to offer my season’s greetings to you. The holiday season will be over soon. Can you believe it? We wait all year long for Christmas and Hanukah and New Year’s Eve to come; then they fly past us and are gone again for another year. My wife Janice works in Boston just like me. To get to work each day she commutes with a vanpool that leaves from Chicopee every morning and travels to downtown Boston. Then at 5PM they all drive the van back to Western Mass. Well, the group gets together for a vanpool holiday party every year and we had the pleasure of attending last Sunday. This is a great group of people thrown together by circumstance and the desire to help the environment. And they throw a mean party too. It's been a mild December. That’s great for our heating bills and the municipal snow and ice removal budget, but not so good if you’re a plow driver who needs to earn a living during the winter season or a kid hoping for a snow day home from school. With the lack of snow and frenetic pace to our lives, it sometimes seems like we’re not even “in the Christmas spirit” until the holiday is gone. Westfield, as a city, has the spirit. We’re well decorated and our shops are busy and Santa is visiting with children at his little house at Amelia Park gardens and WOW is giving us a full array of holiday activities like the Westfield Dickens Days and Snowfire. Governor-elect Deval Patrick held a holiday luncheon for legislators at the State House Thursday. I would have gone but I had a prior commitment in Westfield. Speaker Sal DiMasi held a party for House members on Tuesday. And there was a seminar sponsored by the Chairman of House Personnel to instruct representatives in a new online bill filing system for the next legislative session. The new legislative session traditionally begins on the first Wednesday of January. On January 3, 2007, my colleagues and I in the House and Senate will be sworn in for the 185th Biennium of the Great and General Court. The day is always filled with pomp and circumstance. It is a meaningful day for everyone, especially those new legislators who will take the oath of office for the very first time. This will be my third time taking the oath. It is still as meaningful and important to me today as it was when I was first sworn in as Westfield’s State Representative on January 1, 2003. Governor-elect Deval Patrick and Lt. Governor-elect Tim Murray will take their oaths and be sworn in on the day following the Legislature’s swearing in. This will be historical in that this is the first time in Massachusetts history that an African American will be our Governor. I intend to be at that swearing in, and as a student of history and politics I expect to witness an awesome spectacle. Next week I intend to do my end of the year column as a top 10 list. Stay tuned. Massachusetts motorists will be getting a present next year in the form of lower auto insurance rates. The Commissioner of the Division of Insurance certified the decrease in insurance rates that will take effect April 1, 2007. She cited the trend of decreases in claims. The 11.7% drop amounts to about a $120 savings per insured vehicle. The average cost of a yearly premium statewide is now $900. In 2006 the rates dropped 8.7% for drivers. This is the third consecutive year of auto insurance rate decreases. Merry Christmas! Representative Don Humason and his aide Joe Wynn may be reached at their Westfield District office, 64 Noble Street, Westfield, MA 01085, 568-1366. Their Boston address is State House Room 443, Boston, MA 02133, (617) 722-2460. Email address: Rep.DonaldHumason@Hou.state.ma.us *** * * Representing the Good Citizens of Westfield in the Massachusetts House of Representative**
This Site Designed and Maintained by: The Barre Group

MERRY CHRISTMAS WESTFIELD!

Representative Don Humason, Jr.

December 23, 2006

Christmas greetings to everyone! Like George Bailey running through Bedford Falls at the end of Frank Capra’s It’s A Wonderful Life or Ebenezer Scrooge after his post-spirit conversion wishing everyone a Merry Christmas or Tiny Tim and his “God Bless Us, Everyone!” I am happy to offer my season’s greetings to you.

The holiday season will be over soon. Can you believe it? We wait all year long for Christmas and Hanukah and New Year’s Eve to come; then they fly past us and are gone again for another year.

My wife Janice works in Boston just like me. To get to work each day she commutes with a vanpool that leaves from Chicopee every morning and travels to downtown Boston. Then at 5PM they all drive the van back to Western Mass. Well, the group gets together for a vanpool holiday party every year and we had the pleasure of attending last Sunday. This is a great group of people thrown together by circumstance and the desire to help the environment. And they throw a mean party too.

It's been a mild December. That’s great for our heating bills and the municipal snow and ice removal budget, but not so good if you’re a plow driver who needs to earn a living during the winter season or a kid hoping for a snow day home from school.

With the lack of snow and frenetic pace to our lives, it sometimes seems like we’re not even “in the Christmas spirit” until the holiday is gone. Westfield, as a city, has the spirit. We’re well decorated and our shops are busy and Santa is visiting with children at his little house at Amelia Park gardens and WOW is giving us a full array of holiday activities like the Westfield Dickens Days and Snowfire.

Governor-elect Deval Patrick held a holiday luncheon for legislators at the State House Thursday. I would have gone but I had a prior commitment in Westfield. Speaker Sal DiMasi held a party for House members on Tuesday. And there was a seminar sponsored by the Chairman of House Personnel to instruct representatives in a new online bill filing system for the next legislative session.

The new legislative session traditionally begins on the first Wednesday of January. On January 3, 2007, my colleagues and I in the House and Senate will be sworn in for the 185th Biennium of the Great and General Court. The day is always filled with pomp and circumstance. It is a meaningful day for everyone, especially those new legislators who will take the oath of office for the very first time. This will be my third time taking the oath. It is still as meaningful and important to me today as it was when I was first sworn in as Westfield’s State Representative on January 1, 2003.

Governor-elect Deval Patrick and Lt. Governor-elect Tim Murray will take their oaths and be sworn in on the day following the Legislature’s swearing in. This will be historical in that this is the first time in Massachusetts history that an African American will be our Governor. I intend to be at that swearing in, and as a student of history and politics I expect to witness an awesome spectacle.

Next week I intend to do my end of the year column as a top 10 list. Stay tuned.

Massachusetts motorists will be getting a present next year in the form of lower auto insurance rates. The Commissioner of the Division of Insurance certified the decrease in insurance rates that will take effect April 1, 2007. She cited the trend of decreases in claims. The 11.7% drop amounts to about a $120 savings per insured vehicle. The average cost of a yearly premium statewide is now $900. In 2006 the rates dropped 8.7% for drivers. This is the third consecutive year of auto insurance rate decreases. Merry Christmas!

Representative Don Humason and his aide Joe Wynn may be reached at their Westfield District office, 64 Noble Street, Westfield, MA 01085, 568-1366. Their Boston address is State House Room 443, Boston, MA 02133, (617) 722-2460. Email address: Rep.DonaldHumason@Hou.state.ma.us

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Representing the Good Citizens of Westfield in the Massachusetts House of Representative

This Site Designed and Maintained by: The Barre Group