Three new mayors are getting sworn in over the next week in western Massachusetts. Among them: outgoing State Senator Don Humason of Westfield, who served in the legislature for 16 years.
Humason won the mayor’s job with just about 100 votes more than Police Captain Michael McCabe. He said he doesn’t believe the closeness of his victory will affect how he’ll govern.
Don Humason, incoming Westfield mayor: And the reason is because both my opponent and I campaigned on many of the same things.
Those issues were largely involving the city's infrastructure, potholes and road work and street work — water for the city of Westfield, obviously. And the final thing was taxes and government — government transparency, government efficiency.
So whether it was Captain McCabe or myself, the issues were the same between the two of us. It was more of a style difference, I think.
Kari Njiiri, NEPR: One of the things you touched on was clean water. And Westfield has been dealing with those issues stemming from wells contaminated by PFAS chemicals discharged from Barnes Air National Guard base.
That's right.
The city has had some ongoing litigation against the companies that make the chemicals, but the costs of installing the filters and other changes to the water system are huge. How are you going to make this work?
The city council and the former mayor, Mayor Sullivan, had taken out a series of bonds to pay for the construction of the water treatment plants that will be attached to our wells up on the north side of town. And that work is actually in progress. Some of it has been completed, so that the wells are being treated, and the water that comes out of that groundwater well is getting treated.
So as an incoming mayor, I think I'm going to sort of stay the course, follow along with what the current mayor and council have decided to do, and then monitor to make sure that it works.
If it doesn't work, and the water is still contaminated, then we've got to go back to the drawing board, regardless of what that cost may be.
Westfield, through the years, has hosted many refugee families, and President Trump has now given wide power to cities regarding refugee resettlement, saying mayors must consent before additional refugees can be resettled. Northampton's mayor has said yes, and Easthampton, West Springfield, Chicopee. Springfield's mayor has said no. Where will you land on this?
Well, it's a good question. I don't think it's an item that either came up during our debates, or during our campaign, or that's come up since my series of informal meetings with the department heads.
So I think I would probably reserve my rights at this point on whether to say yes or no until I check in with the others in our city that are sort of tasked with taking care of refugees and immigrants to Westfield.
I know that we've done a good job over the years with the people that have come to our city. I don't know what the numbers are now, if there continue to be an influx in Westfield or not. That's something I'd be curious to look into.
You're being sworn in on January 6, the same day that your resignation from the state Senate takes effect, basically leaving the Republican Party with only four members in the 40-seat chamber. Are you worried that your departure from Beacon Hill will further diminish the already relatively small impact of the GOP in state politics?
I was already a member of the minority party in a state where the minority party is a very, very small minority. So in answer to your question, I guess the answer is yes.
I'm worried that my absence leaves the other senators in our caucus tasked with more work. Obviously, they have to be on more committees. They have to do more work as members of the minority. But I certainly believe that they're up to the task.
And I know that if the times were right, and obviously candidates appear, that I think they'll be able to convince the voters to put a few more Republicans into the Senate — and to the House as well — over the next couple of election cycles.
