That's my point. Good evening. I'd like to call the June 5th, 2025 meeting of the Westfield City Council to order. Roll call please. Madam City, Allie. Here. Bean. Here. Handy. Here. Burns. Here. Fanon. Here. Figgy. Here. Harris. Here. Matthews. Kane. Here. Mellow. Here. Morgan. Elliot. Here. Oniskey. Here. Sullivan. Here. Adams Here. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. Serving Republic for stands. One Nation under God in Indivisible with Liberty Justice Trial.
Thank you. Reading of the record of the meeting of May 15th, 2025. Councilor Bean. We can make a motion to accept the minutes without reading for May 15th, 2025. Second. Motion made it second. And any discussion on the minutes? Seeing none. All in favor? A Opposed. Now comes the portion of the meeting for public participation. Anyone wishing to address the city council may do so by stepping forward. State your name and address for the city clerk and we do this in three minute increments, which may be extended. Mr. Levek? Uh, good evening, Mr. President and counselors. Um, Rob Levek from our Leveque Associates.
Also, uh, seven Harvest Moon Lane here in the city of Westfield, uh, as a land consultant and as an owner of property in the city of Westfield. Um, also, uh, a business who represents a number of businesses in the city of Westfield that both own property and conduct, uh, different activities like construction or selling rugs or electrical work or whatever it might be. Um, we are very concerned with regard to the new ordinance that was passed 1773, I believe it is, um,
the Wetlands Protection Ordinance. Um, we are respectfully requesting, uh, through a petition that was signed by an over 125 people today. Um, and also, um, letters that are also provided, I believe. Uh, and, and I apologize for the last minute, what were provided to, uh, very late in the day today to, uh, Kaitlyn. Um, we are herein requesting, and I have a number of folks that wish to speak, we're requesting that the city council revisit this ordinance. Um, there are very specific jurisdictional changes
that have been made to, uh, since the previous ordinance. Um, hugely impactful and most importantly, as you have granted the powers to the Conservation Commission for writing their own regulations. Um, they basically have carte blanche with regard to how they're, um, regulating these areas. It's very concerning. It will take, and I'm not exaggerating, it will take thousands of acres of developable land off the city of Westfield's Map. Um, so I know you're, um, only have so much time.
There's a, there's a, uh, petition one a, just so it's referenced on the multiple sheets, um, with over 125 signatures. Uh, there's also a letter or recent letter regarding the ordinance from Green Miles Lipton, LLP, specifically Attorney Michael Pill. Uh, and there are a number of letters that I submitted to both the mayor and, uh, the president of City Council, uh, with regard to this as well. Um, I'll let the others speak. Thank you. Thank you. If you want to just, uh, give those to City Court, you already have them. Okay, thank you. I think so. Hello everyone. Uh, John Ray, makers 77 Massey Street.
Also a local business owner from jail, Ray Makers and Sons. I'd like to thank you for your time, um, up here, just like Rob on the same ordinance. Uh, first as a taxpayer to City Westfield. Uh, this for projects I'm working on with Rob would stop even a large one that he's had permitted that we're almost in the final stages of that would bring hundreds of thousand dollars of taxes. And as I've seen problem for our city, for all of you has been, uh, tax income and a little deficit. Our schools are being hurt. This is just another step to hurt us as a town all
for protecting the environment, all for all that. And I don't see how this change affects anything in that. Um, but hurting our town, I think as a contractor hurts my business tremendously. Stops projects that I've spent countless hours time with Rob, with the owner, with clients. And, uh, I just fully disagree with this and I'd like to take that into consideration. Thank you. Good evening. Bob Goyette, uh, 25 Tiffany Circle,
owner Heritage Homes. Um, like to reiterate the same on the, um, overreach of the Wetlands Protection Ordinance. Uh, we, um, as a company own a significant amount of land in town, um, as stakeholders had zero say in this, um, was just, uh, uh, brought, uh, made aware of it by Rob and, um, impacts us significantly, uh, to the millions. Um, so, uh, thank you for hearing us
and appreciate you, um, uh, taking it back into, um, uh, revisiting it. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else like to address the council Councilor Ley, Uh, if I can ask a question to the chair. Sure. Um, I guess Sir Rob or whoever on, does your petition of the letter specify like the, the portion of the ordinance change? That's, uh, Yes. It's all so, So there, I'm sorry, through the president. It does. Um, there are, there are, uh, items that are a major concern.
There's also a number of items that have changed that I believe a list of the items that have changed would be very eye-opening for the city council. I know it's hard when you get a document and frankly, if you're not reading wetlands protections documents every day like we do, you don't realize what it really necessarily impacts or doesn't impact. We all want to protect the wetlands in a proper way. Um, and there's science-based performance standards that are in place to do that under the Wetlands Protection Act and obviously under the previous ordinance, um, which we've never had a problem with, we understand.
Um, this is a very significant overreach and it's not just what we spoke about in the petition, but there are other aspects related to enforcement and control that this gives to the Conservation Commission that is pretty aggressive. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Yes. Yeah. Just through the chair point of point of clarification or point of order, I don't think we've got this technically on our agenda, we don't. So I mean, I personally have no problem with making a motion to refer it to the appropriate committees. However, if it's not on the agenda and someone's gonna raise a flag in terms
of the open meeting law, I have no problem supporting this motion or bringing this motion forward at our next meeting. Right. I just wanna do it the way at the will of the chair. I, I think procedurally that's what we need to do. Okay. So if you wanna make a motion for the next meeting, Then we can. So I'll, I will make a motion, but I'll file it so it's appropriately filed with the clerk for the next motion for the next meeting to send this to committee for that review. Second. Um, and I would also maybe throw in that we may need some other legal help on this because this went through the law department.
Law department. Yeah. So to have people coming forward now with issues is a little, quite frankly, problematic for me. Um, but I will make the motion so that we do follow the appropriate open meeting laws and have it referred to, uh, whether it's natural resources and or l and o. So you'll just craft the motion for the next meeting. Yeah. Thank you. Anyone else like to address the council? Uh, Charlie Pier three 70 East Mountain Road. Um, definitely begging you guys to review this, this, these amendments. I've been in the construction business with the scarf
for family for 54 years. This is one of the worst. Ricky know, I've been to a ton of meetings in my career. Like you, this one of the worst situations I've seen us getting into, but I hopefully you're able to do it correctly. Okay. Uh, we appreciate your help and not going good down our conservation department. Thank you. Anyone else like to address the council Mayor Communications from the mayor of the floor, sir. Thank you, Mr. President. Hope it's everybody's well today there's actually no rain on a graduation day, so, uh, it just happens to be 91 degrees. This, uh, this budget has been a
difficult budget to prepare. Um, and I want to thank members of council specifically, uh, the, uh, president of City Council and also Ralph Figy through, uh, for helping sit in on some of these budget hearings and some of the, uh, direction that we've taken with this specific budget. Um, I came before you probably in March or April. I don't really remember. Um, and we spoke briefly about the, um, the issues that this budget was going to face and the number of unexpected, um, things that really were beyond the control of the city management staff
or financial, uh, team to, um, to be able to foresee some of those things were special ed increases of 1.1 million transportation increases of 1.3 million mandatory staff increases of just under a million contractual obligations of 1.8 million. Healthcare increase of 5.8 million. Utilities cost increase of 15% across the board, trash and recycling fees of one of a $2.3 million deficit,
uh, a tax decrease when we used free cash last year to give a, uh, tax break to folks and to offset the budget deficit from last year. Um, that came out to a negative 1% in the budget, which was money that was not captured. And we'll see how that becomes problematic later. And then last but not least, we had a $5 million inflationary, um, cost set into that. So all of those totaled really brought the number that we were trying to manage to about $17 million over of our last year's budget that was submitted.
So how did we go about it? I've submitted a letter to you. Um, I think you'll find it all on the council share. Um, the FY 26 budget, as I've said, has been very difficult. Um, we use the $5 million of free cash. We will not have $5 million of free cash to use this year. Our budget looks like it's gonna come in on free cash balance of somewhere around 3%. The Department of local services suggests that number should be five. So we're already a little bit under it, but I'm not worried about it because, uh, quite honestly, when the new free cash numbers comes in in, uh, November,
I think that there will be more than 5% total overall. So I'm not really too, too concerned about that. Um, and this year's budget, we've included no new personnel across the board. Um, we've included no vehicles across the board, but believe it or not, we've tried to figure out how to keep the mandatory, uh, excuse me, the appropriate level of services status quo. So there is no real decrease in services that are gonna be provided by the city and FY 26 over FY 25, even though we've had this $17 million to gap to close.
Um, we closed a couple of schools this time around. Um, so those are coming off the books. Fort Meadow School, Abner Gibbon Franklin came off the books and then we added a state-of-the-art Westfield River Elementary School, which will, um, certainly help us. That also helped us on the school side. And it allowed us to, um, reduce some costs of personnel and services that were, uh, combined in all three schools and now have been appropriated into the one Westfield River School. Without getting into detailed explanations of levy limits,
levy ceilings, and their interrelatedness to city financing this year, we'll be addressing the growing excess capacity between the levee limit and levee ceiling, which currently stands around $12.5 million. Now, I remembered sitting through council meeting in the, in the cheap seats back here over the last 15 years, and I kept hearing that it was a really good thing if we had a, uh, if we had some excess capacity built into our levy. Um, as it turns out, um, the state doesn't wanna see excess capacity and le it because when you in the levy,
because when you go to ask them for help, um, they say, spend your own money. Now, I don't know if that's appropriately so, but it seems to me like it's, it's hard for me to argue against. Um, so things that we expected that they might help us with Chapter 70, chapter 74, and chapter 90, which are state, um, funding sources. Um, there really was not a lot of help at all, to be honest with you. Unrestricted government, uh, aid went up about $120,000, um, which isn't really an awful lot of anything. Um, we made some use of free cash in 2025, uh,
to relieve some of the pressure off the financial, uh, off FY 26. Um, we looked to have about $2 million of free cash used in FY 20 six's budget, um, in order to offset some of the costs. Now the, the rubber starts to meet the road on you have been presented with, I think it's a 214 page budget, give or take. I'm sure you've all studied it inside and out. I'm going to give you kind of a thumbnail read on really what you should be paying attention to. In my humble opinion, you should go to the mayor's recap,
which is probably within one of the first three pages of the budget. It should say estimated budgeted review of ex uh, expenditure. Um, and it should look like something like this. So if you're looking at it, you'll see where we try to, uh, how we try to balance the budget. So as everybody knows, there's only three ways to balance the budget. You balance it through new growth. And as you heard behind us, that hasn't been exactly exemplary. Um, you can pick up through, um, some local receipts.
Um, this year we are gonna get an advantage of a local receipt that's, that is significantly higher than it's been before, and you can do it through taxation and excess capacity, monetary use. So when you look down that, um, list of things, you'll see that in order for us to have closed this gap of $5.7 million and use $2 million in free cash and use another $2 million of, of revenue increase, which came from the, um, trash collection fee, quite frankly, we were able to balance the budget. Now, it is not a comfortable budget for anybody in the room.
Everybody knows what people are going through. But if you're gonna try to figure out a way to cut the, um, $17 million and you don't have any new growth and you don't really have any local receipts, and the only thing left for you to do is to tax the 2.5% and then tax the excess capacity, the excess capacity is only created by not taxing up to the levee limit over time. So what I would suggest you do, and this is gonna be your process moving forward, is I would look at pages 1 94 to two 14.
Those are the appendices in the back, and they will walk you through essentially all of the items that I've just talked about. They will show you DLS, they'll show you tax levies, they'll show you free cash year over year over year. They'll show you how our money is being spent this year and this year's physical budget. But I want you to particularly pay attention to page 2 0 3, which is the DLS recap of really where our trends are. There you go. Um, that kind of says it.
All this points out that we don't have really any new growth and we have excess capacity in our levee limits. And that excess capacity in our li levee limits keeps getting built in to, um, keeps getting increased because our taxation isn't quite in balance with where it should be. So folks, it's, it's a d difficult, difficult budget process. If you look at the other sheet that I provided to you, you'll see it's the mayor's cut sheet, which you guys will be very familiar
with 'cause you've seen it. This is now your fourth year with me. I didn't create this. It's been around for a while. You'll notice that it says that the mayor's cuts totaled a positive amount. Well, that seems ridiculous, right? So when you look at the positive amount, that only because there's an offset of a positive number within the insurance category of $3.5 billion. So the actual number of cuts that came from my office, which are highlighted in red, and you can pretty much see that every single department has a red highlight in it,
with a couple of exceptions, um, totaled about just shy of, uh, $3.2 million. The school department budget was cut by $5.2 million. The school department's budget is listed at 75 million 5 66, 3 39. Um, that is up from 72 million. So they saw about a 4% increase. It's important for us to realize that that 4% increase while it is greater than the city budget, is a necessary increase. The unfunded, now I'm looking at Dan,
the unfunded mandates are really kind of crushing the school department's budget and they're crushing the taxpayer. So, um, I've tried to address it. Uh, as you know, I'm a member of the legislative, um, advisory council for the governor. Um, I've tried to address it with the governor. The problem lies within the legislature. So if the legislature is the body that creates the rule and then they don't fulfill the rule that they create, they're the only ones that can fix that rule. So, um, if you have any influence at all
with your state legislatures, uh, uh, state legislators, I would ask you to or urge you to ask them to fund where they say they're supposed to fund. So, in By example, there are two examples that I'm gonna give you. Sorry, I I I know I'm doing this quickly 'cause I have to run. But, uh, there are two examples. I can give you the MSBA contract, which is supposed to be funded at 80% of Massachusetts school building author authority contract. Well, if you were to use the same math as they did in, uh,
the Westfield River Elementary School, Westfield River Elementary School costs 61 million and change, they reimburse us at about 32 million, which is roughly 50%. They're supposed to be reimbursing us at 80%. But in fairness to them, somehow they've created their own exemptions. So if they exempt pieces of the puzzle, they can still say that they're funding 80% of the non-exempt pieces of the puzzle. And if you look at, um, special ed or circuit breaker, if you will, they're supposed
to be funding it 70, uh, 5%, and they're actually funding at 44%. That little difference there is worth about $1.5 million. So why I can't, you know, why other cities and towns can't really get to, uh, the legislators to get them to fund it with a $10 billion surplus is beyond me. Kate, can you go back to, uh, the one nineties for a second? Uh, yes. I can't really see that far. So you're gonna see a graph of the state.
I'm not really great with colors. I I think I could figure out yellow and green, I hope. But when we talk about, uh, I just wanna make sure that I mention it when we talk about excess capacity, Keep going. You, you're almost there. Right there. See all the yellow on the eastern side of the state. So all the yellow on the eastern side of the state, when you wonder where you, when you wonder where your money's going to, that yellow represents excess capacity limit, I think of 1% or 2%. I think that's what it is on the western side of the state. You see some more green, meaning that when we go
to the state and we ask the state for more money, the money tell, they tell us to spend your money. But when people on the eastern side of the state go to the state government, they say, we're only at 1%. Oh my gosh, there's no way we can get out of this. You need to help us fund this. So this is why I'm trying to take a little different tact in this FY 26 budget that we've taken before. So I hope that you understand it. Um, if there's anything else that I can bring to your attention, um, I'm more than happy to do so.
But I think that really kind of wraps up my summary. Um, It was a difficult budget year. That's all I can say. And I want to thank, um, lemme go back to my notes so I don't leave anybody out. I want to thank Vicki Morrow. Um, this 214 page document is created by Vicki and her staff. Um, by probably August of 2025, we will have our gold standard budget that we've been working for, for four years, uh, working towards for four years. It's not, it doesn't really have a trace like a bond rating. It doesn't have a a, you know, a,
a big effect in, in that level. But if the state sees that you're trying to manage your money with good practice, good resources, and good budgeting, you know, maybe they're more amenable to kind of helping us out in the long run. 'cause we're trying to do the right thing with our budget for our taxpayers. So thank you to Vicki Morrow, personnel director Annie Larcom, assessor, Ashley Brown, treasurer collector. Matt Barnes, Westfield Public School Finance Director Shannon Barry, attorney Shannon Reed, council. Ralph Figgy, city Council President John Beran and Superintendent Stefon Browski for all the help
that they have been in working collaboratively with this budget. I greatly appreciate their assistance. Thank You. Thank you very much. Off to graduation. Thank you. Item two Council, you want, We should accept You set. Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead. Make a motion to accept the, the proposed budget and refer to finance Second. Motion made it second. Any discussion? Counselor? May we also post it online so that the public can see? I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you. May we also post it online so that the public may have access. Okay. The public record. That's fine. Kate? Mm-hmm. Okay.
Thank you. Anything further? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Item two, councilor Figgy. Thank you Mr. President. I'd like to make a motion requesting immediate consideration of the transfer in the amount of $120,818 and 53 cents from the police department full-time hourly account to the replacement equipment account to purchase 15 new taser, 10 electronic control devices. Second. Motion made it Seconded. Further discussion, counselor? Yes. Thank you, Mr. President. Um, the $120,000 became available due to, um,
two unexpected retirements within the department. Um, this is seen by the department as probably a one time opportunity. The tasers that will be replaced were purchased in 2016 and are a one shot variety, meaning that you only have one shot if one of the barbs doesn't hit the target, then your SOL you either got a, use the taser to touch the person to connect the or not have that. The new tasers will have 10 different shots available, which would allow the case of a miss. Um, this will be safer not only for the citizens,
but also the officers involved. This is to purchase 15 new tasers. Now there's more than 15 officers. So what this means is that each shift will be sharing the same piece of equipment. Um, so that, that's, that's where we're at. It's time sensitive due to the timing in the fiscal year. So I would ask for your support on this. Council B? Yeah. Thank you. Uh, to the, to the chair of finance. Um, are we, are we in a situa? How, first of all, how long does this particular equipment last and are we looking at an upgrade next year
on these particular items? Well, the, the current tasers have been in service since 2016, so that's almost 10 years. So I would think that this isn't a reoccurring expense. If funds become available, they may purchase more to have more on hand, but I, I don't see this as an annual expense. Okay. Thank Anything further? Councilor? Ey, Just a quick question. So each taser costs about $8,000. I didn't do the math, but I'll Josh, you Right? Alright,
well I might be close, right? You good? 8,000. So, um, and so you get 10 shots with each one of these things. Are they able to replenish the actual unit going forward? Yes. Yeah. Oh, so then there, It it's like a clip in a nine millimeter. It, it's a cartridge that is loaded in. So yes, it can be replenished. So then the actual, um, gun, if you want to call it that, the actual taser right? Um, would last a little bit longer than that, right? Yes. Right. Okay. Consular app. Yeah. Just a quick, you know, some people may find this a
little, yeah, we're gonna TAs people three or four times, but let's make it clear here. This is probably gonna save their life because if you have one shot and somebody's coming at you, the gun comes out next. So by giving me police officers another chance that they may not hit these two prongs may keep that person alive. When, if you give 'em one shot, it may not. So I certainly think this is a great idea for the safety of everyone, the officers and the person that they're involved with. Councilor me. Thank you, Mr. President. Um, is there any information available about how often they're used, how often we're training, whether
or not they require more training if you do these? Is there any Other We don't, we don't have anything background on file right now with us. No, but I, I can speak to that. Um, please do. There's annual training that's involved in all officers. All officers are in order to carry a taser, are tased themselves in part of the training. Um, I think speaking with Captain Hall the other night, maybe 10 times a year, up to about 10 times a year, a person's been tased,
but the taser has been pulled maybe a hundred times. So just pulling the taser is a great deescalation technique and allows to remain calm and control the situation. So it's not something that happens every day. Yes, counsel, Thank you. And, and using a taser reduces the amount of times that a service weapon has to be pulled. I think that, and, um, correct me if I'm wrong, we have some representatives of the police department here is, I think that taser is preferred over their side arm. Thank you. Anything further? Roll cop ma'am.
City court. Allie? Yes. Bean? Yes. Beltran? Yes. Burns? Yes. Fanon? Yes. Fige? Yes. Harris? Yes. Matthews. Kae? Yes. Mellow? Yes. Morgane? Yes. Oniskey? Yes. Sullivan? Yes. Adams? Yes. Thank you. Item three. Councilor fiy. Thank you. Please have Madam City Clerk read item three and refer to finance. Second. Second. Motion made and seconded. Madam City Clerk Three. Requesting acceptance of a grant in the amount of $1 million from the office of Local Defense community. Co cooperation to the Westfield Barnes Regional Airport
to use to, to be used to mitigate noise for the community surrounding the airport. Any discussion on sending it to finance? Seeing none. All in favor? A. Opposed? Now in the hands of finance Item four, councilor Figi. Thank you Mr. President. I'd like the motion to suspend the rules for immediate consideration. Second. Motion made it second. And any discussion on immediate consideration? See none. All in favor. A. Now under immediate consideration, Councillor Fike. Thank you. I'd like to make a motion for me consideration or accepting a grant Any honor. Um, 4,100
and dollars from the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security Department of Fire Services from Fire Department Student Awareness, fire Education, and Senior Awareness Finest Education Funds. Second. Second. Motion made it seconded. Further Discussion Council? Yes. It is a grant that comes through the Executive Office of Public Safety. Uh, on an annual basis, the fire department and the senior center have for the past several years, have, have, uh, obtained this grant and allows for education in the classroom of the public schools for students on fire safety as well
as providing, uh, safety lock boxes for seniors and replacement of smoke detectors and homes. Uh, there's no match to this. The chief and the Council and Aging Director requested immediate consideration, but it didn't come through that way from the mayor's office. So I would appreciate the support on this. It is time sensitive at the end of the fiscal year. Any discussion? Seeing none. Roll call pleasing. Allie? Yes. Bean? Yes. Virany? Yes. Burns? Yes. Fanny? Yes. Gie? Yes. Harris? Yes. Matthews. Kane? Yes. Mellow?
Yes. Morgan Alley? Yes. Oniskey? Yes. Sullivan? Yes. Adams? Yes. Thank you. Item five. Still under suspension. Counsel? Yes. Thank you, Mr. President. I'd like to make a, a motion for immediate consideration for the appropriation of 1,004,000, um, $1,004,232 79 cents from free cash. The purchase of service account, DPW Snow and Ice Fund. Second Motion made it seconded. Further Discussion. Can We just, the point of that's a different number. Yes. Well, It's broken down, which I'm fine. I just,
We we need to break this down in my opinion, because the lump is coming out of free cash, it's going to five different accounts. Yep. So I think it's five different votes. So that's why I'm, I'm not doing the total of what, I'm starting with the 1.04 for purchase of services. The next motion will be for 409,000 for supplies and so forth. I I Can we just make sure the top line that's it's gonna equal that. I think. I thought it was 1,000,250, but it's what was said. But what's the, what's the actual number? I have no problem breaking it out. Yeah.
The appropriation of 1,488,000. Okay. And 56 cents from free cash. The Department of Public Works know nice accounts cover FY 25. Winter as follows. Thank you. Perfect. Thank you. Okay, so we're at $1,000,004,232 79 cents to the purchase of services account. Any discussion on this? This has been, we all know that this has been covered coming. We know that we underfund this line item in every budget. Uh, so we were in good shape up until the last storm,
which was a four day event over a holiday weekend. So they're kind of shot up the cost. So purchase of service is 1 million plus. Councilor Melo. Thank you Mr. President. Just for my own clarification, this is purchase of services, but only for snow and ice or like a general purchase of services in the Department? No, just Specific. Only Snow and ice. Specific to snow and ice. Thank you very much. All of these will be specific to snow and ice. Thank you. Anything further will call police Manam City Court. Allie? Yes. Bean? Yes. Bill. Andy? Yes. Burns? Yes. Ion?
Yes. Gie? Yes. Harris? Yes. Matthews. Kane? Yes. Meow. Yes. Morgan. Elliot. Yes. Oniskey? Yes. Sullivan? Yes. Adams? Yes. Next item. Counselor. Thank you. Motion for immediate consideration of $409,917 and 64 cents to the snow and ice supply accountant. Second. Well, she made it seconded for the discussion Council. Now this is just the amount that they spent on supplies, which is, includes sand, salt, uh, brine material, things like that.
Anything further? Seeing None. Real comment. Allie? Yes. Bean. Yes. Pal. Andy? Yes. Burns? Yes. Fanon? Yes. Fki? Yes. Harris? Yes. Matthews. Kane. Yes. Mellow? Yes. Morgane? Yes. Oniskey. Yes. Sullivan? Yes. Adams? Yes. Thank you. Next item, counsel. Thank you, Mr. President Ocean for immediate consideration. $61,750 and 13 cents to the snow and ice overtime account. Second. Motion made it seconded. Further discussion. Council Overtime's Overtime. Anything further? Seeing none. Roll call place. Allie? Yes. Bean. Yes. Bel. Andy? Yes. Burns? Yes. Fanon?
Yes. Gie? Yes. Harris? Yes. Matthews. Kane? Yes. Meow. Yes. Marelli? Yes. Oniskey? Yes. Sullivan. Yes. Adams? Yes. Next item, counsel. Media consideration of $6,000 to the additional small equipment account for snow and ice circuit. Motion. Made it seconded. Further discussion? Yeah. The $6,000 cost to purchase three electronic measuring devices for the brine tanks. Previously they would have to look inside and guesstimate how much fluid? 6,100. Okay. No, that's the next one. That's, yes.
We're on 6,000 left. Uh, so this will allow them to have a digital readout as to the amount of salt, amount of water when they're making brine and how full the tank is. Anything further on the brine? Seeing none will call please. Allie? Yes. Bean? Yes. Bill. Strandy. Yes. Burns? Yes. Fanon? Yes. Vicki? Yes. Harris? Yes. Matthews. Kane? Yes. Mellow? Yes. Morgane? Yes. Oniskey? Yes. Sullivan? Yes. Adams? Yes. Thank you. Final item, sir. Thank you. Immediate consideration of $6,100 to the additional capital equipment
account for snow and ice. Seconded. What the hell? Well, she made it seconded. Any further discussion, sir? Yes. Uh, this 6,000 $6,100 is for the purchase of a storage container. The DPW currently has one. They're going to combine the two to become a, um, storage facility for the specialized salt that they use when they make brine. So this will allow them to have storage. Uh, covered. Any questions? Seeing none will comment. Allie? Yes. Bean? Yes. Beltrani? Yes. Burns? Yes. Ion?
Yes. Figy? Yes. Harris? Yes. Matthews. Kane? Yes. Mellow? Yes. Morgane? Yes. Oniskey? Yes. Sullivan? Yes. Adams? Yes. Thank you. Item six while under suspension. Councilor Figy? Yes. I'd like to make a motion for immediate consideration of the appropriation of $1,025,000 from free cash to the health insurance benefits account to cover the deficit caused by the increasing health insurance. And FY 25. Seconded. Motion. Made it seconded. Further discussion, counsel? Yes. This was brought to our attention when we
reinstituted the 250,000 that was cut during last year's budget process. We were told that there will be another item coming in that would be an increase. And this increase is 1.25 million. Councilor Sullivan? Yeah, I just, I don't have a question on this. We've actually had, um, the, uh, personnel director in on this, but just in for next year's budget, there's a pretty significant increase there. Um, and so I just wanna make sure that we put her on notice and if she needs to bring any other support to the budget meeting for next year
for this year's budget hearing. Um, that she does that. 'cause the 35% just Yeah. Seems way outta whack. It does. Wow. Yeah. Okay. Anything further? Seeing none. Welcome Police. Allie? Yes. Bean? Yes. Beltran? Yes. Burns? Yes. Fanon? Yes. Figgy? Yes. Harris? Yes. Matthews. Kain? Yes. Meow. Yes. Morgane? Yes. Oniskey? Yes. Sullivan? Yes. Adams? Yes. Thank you. Um, Kate, I got a different agenda in front
of me, I think, than what's on the screen. Next item I've got is an appropriation of 121,000 for free cash Committee was gonna Do. That's what I, that's what I got. Okay. That's not what we have on the screen. Motion To return to regular order. Second. Second. Motion made it seconded. Further discussion. All in favor. A. Aye. Okay. Back in regular order. Item seven, councilor Figgy. Yes, please have item, uh, mad City Clerk Read item seven, eight, and nine. Refer. Refer to finance Second. Second. Motion made and seconded. Madam City Clerk. Seven appropriation of $121,000 from free cash to the flood control purchase of service account
to clear trees on Little River Levee. Eight. Transfer of $145 and 85 cents from the Health Department Fiscal year 25 reimbursement account to the fiscal year 24 reimbursement account to cover the cost of a prior year bill owed to Granger. Nine. Request for consideration and approval of an earmark in the amount of $35,397 and 1 cent from the fiscal year 26. Reserve for future salary increases account to fulfill the first year contract of the ratified successor agreement between the Westfield Municipal Professional Employees Association and the City of Westfield. Thank you. Any discussion on sending to finance? Seeing none. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed?
Thank you. Let's see Item 10. Councilor Oniskey. Thank you Mr. President. Make a motion to suspend the rules for immediate consideration for items 10 and 11. Second motion made to suspend the rules. All in favor. A. Opposed Now under suspension councilor. Thank you Mr. President. Item 10 is submitting a resolution to accept the gift donation, the amount of $1,420 from Jeff Park and the 10 Bridge Brewing Company to the Parks and Recreation Ski, uh, ski Park account. Second. Motion made and seconded. Discussion council.
Thank you Mr. President. Uh, this is continued efforts by, uh, Jeff Burke to, um, to help with funding, uh, the skate park. They held a, uh, fundraising event at Tin Bridge Brewing Company and came up with $1,420 Further. Any further discussion? Would you like to read the Resolution? Uh, if I may, by title only, a resolution of the city council of the city of Westfield for acceptance of a gift pursuant to MGL 44 53 A to Westfield Public Works Park and Recreation Division. Thank you. Roll call. Madam Sim. Clerk
Allie? Yes. Bean? Yes. Beltran? Yes. Burns? Yes. Fanon? Yes. Fige? Yes. Harris? Yes. Matthews. Kane. Yes. Meow. Yes. Morgan. Elliot. Yes. Oneski? Yes. Sullivan? Yes. Adams? Yes. Thank you. Item 11. Still under suspension. Counselor. Thank you Mr. President. Number 11 is submitting a resolution to accept various inkind donations from the Westfield River Watershed Association to the Conservation Commission for use of the 2025 Earth Day cleanup. Second. Motion Made it seconded. Further discussion, council?
Yes. Thank you Mr. President. Uh, in April, the Conservation Commission sponsored an Earth Day cleanup picking up, uh, trash throughout the city. And it looks a lot better than it, than it did, that's for sure. So through, uh, Westfield River, uh, or Westfield River Watershed Association, donations were made by Big Y Berkshire Consulting Group, home Depot Two Rivers burritos, maple Leaf Pub, and stop and shop, uh, for the event. Okay. Anything further? Would you like to read the resolution, Sir? If I may by
title only, please. Uh, resolution of the city council of the city of Westfield for acceptance of an in-kind donations to the Conservation Commission. Thank you. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion to go back into regular order. Motion to return to regular order. Second. Motion made it second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Now regular order. Councillor Harris, item 12. Thank you Mr. President, please ask Madam Clerk read 12, 13, 14, and 15 and refer to the Personal Action Committee. Second Motion. She made it seconded. Madam City Clerk 12. Submitting the appointment of Hope Trembley 32 Bates Street as a member of the cultural commission for a term
to expire in June 20, 28. 13. Submitting the appointment of Bob O'Brien, 77 Lumus Avenue as a member of the Council on Aging for a term to expire February, 2027, filling the vacancy left by Eileen Rockwall. 14. Submitting the re, the appointment of Carol Sissick 3 23 Buck Pond Road as a member of the housing authority for a term to expire in February, 2030. Filling the vacancy left by Thomas Gavin. 15. Submitting the appointment of Samuel McMan 2 88 North Road as a member of the historical Commission for a term to expire in February, 2026. Filling the vacancy left by Cindy Gaylord. Any discussion on sending to PAC? Seeing none. All in favor? A Opposed Now in the hands
of PAC reports of city officers. Item 16, council bean. Uh, thank you Mr. President. Uh, motion, uh, city clerk Caitlyn Bruce Submitting the order for polling locations for the 2025 election. So moved. Second. It's a motion to place, uh, on the table. Excuse me. Second. Motion made and second to place on the table. Yep. All in favor? Opposed? No. Item 17. Council B. Item 17 is a motion to place on file the city, uh, the city clerk Caitlyn Bruce, submitting a letter requesting the assignment
of the police officers for the polling locations for all 2025 elections be designated to the police chief. So moved. Second. Motion made it. Second. Discussion Counsel? Nope. Just something we do every year. Okay. Just to place on file. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Petitions, demonstr, and other papers. Uh, item 18, council Matthews Kane. Thank you Mr. President. I'd like to make a motion for the city clerk to read item 18 and refer to license Second. Motion. Made it seconded. Madam City Clerk I schedule A hearing. Oh. And schedule the public Hearing at the earliest convenience.
Second. Motion made it seconded. 18. Matthew Turon, owner applying for junk dealer and junk collector licenses for Ian Jewelers. LLC 81 Elm Street. Thank you. So that would be when now for the public hearing. We can have it on June 23rd. Okay. Thank you. Any further discussion? See none. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? All on for public hearing. Item 19, council ky. Thank you Mr. President, would you please ask Madam City clerk to read Item number 19, refer to LNO and Law. Second. Motion made. And second Madam City Clerk 19. First Assistant City solicitor Shannon Reed.
Submitting the following ordinance amendments to chapter 17 as requested by Sergeant Juanita Mahias, chair of the Traffic Commission. Section 17 dash one 11 Places where parking is prohibited, generally adding, or within 20 feet of either side of a March crosswalk section 17 dash 42, no turn on red. Adding from Western Avenue into the main commuter lot for Westwood State University. Section 17 dash one 15. Parking prohibited at all times on certain streets by amending Lydon Avenue to include the entire north side and adding Valley View Drive both sides from City View Road to Hege Drive. Thank you. Any further discussion? Seeing none.
All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Now in the hands of LO and law Item 20. Council Fanon. Thank you Mr. President. Number 20. It's Rve Associates Inc. Submitting a zone change petition on behalf of Christopher m Bard of of 44 Tannery Road from rural residential to commercial C to better accommodate a proposed residential development motion to refer to zoning planning and development and planning board and schedule a public hearing at the earliest practical Date. Second. Motion made it second. And any discussion? Seeing none. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Item 21 is a continued public hearing on an application
for special permit site plan approval stormwater permit for a contractor's yard with the associated improvements pursuant to zoning ordinance section three dash 1 33 1 4 dash one 10 and six dash ten one to be located at 81 Service Star Industrial Way Westfield Mass submitted by our Leveque Associates, Inc. On behalf of Nicholas w Tano. Public hearing is now reopened. Uh, thank you Mr. President and counselors, uh, here on behalf of Nicholas Tano for the property at 81 Service Star. Um, we have received a, uh, uh, the commission
voted on an order of conditions, which is yet to be issued, but we did, they did close the hearing and, and give us, um, an order of conditions. In addition to that, we also have, I believe, sign off from Joe Kitner with regard to, um, the stormwater review. So we, I believe are, uh, on our end would be comfortable with the council closing the hearing and I, and whatever steps you need to take after that. Thank you. Any questions from the council? The only question I had is the, they ha have the conditions been issued, So is the order of conditions.
So they closed the hearing. They voted, but it takes a few days for the conservation office to get those out. I don't know that we've received those yet, But they've actually been voted on and Approved. They've been voted on all the conditions. So The committee's not gonna have a problem if they haven't been issued to the public yet. I just, I'm not, look, I just don't want to get it hung up on a technicality. Well, it's gonna, it's gonna go to you, it's gonna go to ZPD. Oh, Sorry. So I'm looking at the wrong, I'm looking at the wrong chair, I apologize. Yeah, no, it's gonna go to ZPD and then, So as long as, as long as Madam Chair's good with that, then that's great. Okay. Before, I'm fine with it. Before we do that, anybody have any
questions? Councilor fan? Um, at the last, um, public hearing, I think it was Councilor Sullivan that asked a question about previous permit that was, um, located there and if those conditions would be following this permit and you had, um, responded that you would get that information. Yep. Uh, I spoke with the proponent and they are generally comfortable with the con conditions that were previously issued. So all the conditions that are listed on the previous permit are gonna move forward with this permit? Yes. They just would, their hours of operation were, um, you know, sim similar in nature as well. So we're gonna move all those conditions forward. Yes.
Okay. I just wanna make sure 'cause that's gonna come into the committee. Okay. Um, can, is that something that gets reviewed in comm? Sorry, for the president? Is that something that gets reviewed in committee? Yes. Yes. Yes. Board. Yeah. Thank you. So before we, before we get a motion to close, let's just, if there's anybody that wants to speak in favor of the project in favor, anybody like to speak in opposition to the project? No one for opposition In that case I'll look for a motion. Motion Motion to close the public hearing. And second to ZPD Motion made it seconded. Any further discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed?
Thank you sir. Item 22 is a continued public hearing for a zone change petition for a portion of 1 46 and one 70 Main Street, 12 95, 8 0.77 acres from rural residential to residency to yield further residential opportunities from the subject property submitted by our Lavec Associates on behalf of Alice Elk Wilkis. Thank you. Public hearing is now reopened. Council, uh, council Mr. Leve? Uh, thank you Mr. President Rob Leveque from our Leveque
Associates here this evening, representing the Wils family. Uh, it was behind me to my right. Um, as requested by the council at the last city council meeting that we attended, um, we had done some work to truncate the zoning map request so that we were not including the entirety of the frontage along Main Street. Um, so we truncated the request for residency so that we can provide, um, or le or essentially leaving the rural residential portion down near the intersection that we discussed. We've also revised the, um, kind of the, the angle
along the, um, floodplain, um, to basically reduce the size of the zoning, uh, I'm sorry, the residency request. Uh, we also have received a letter from the engineering department and we responded and I believe that was provided back to the council. Um, essentially just understanding, I think we're all on the same page about the restrictions related to the floodway. I'm sorry, floodplain misspoke. Um, and again, we are, we're excited to think, oh, I'm sorry. I, there was also a request from, uh, councilor Sullivan with regard to maybe a concept of what could be there. We understand that it's not no binding,
but I do have that somehow. It's the other tab. It's on the other tab of the top. I can't see that. I'm sorry. My eyes are horrible. Looked at too many plans over the years. Sorry. Awesome. Okay, so Knock anything over here. So it was requested that we show, you know, the potential of what could go here. So these buildings that I'm showing here are very similar in size, as you can see to the adjacent property that was zone residency years ago. Uh, that was a project pursued by Mr. Bergeron. Um, so I basically took those footprints and put 'em on here. I can get about 50 units on that property.
Um, it might not look exactly like this, but generally we would anticipate some sort of townhouse style community playing off of what was done next door. This, um, concept is completely, um, just a concept. We had thrown some concepts together years ago back when, um, I believe the city was looking, um, in working with, um, uh, appraiser's office, Crowley appraisers looking at the subject property, uh, with the potential for ball fields. So the intersection that we talked about
at Noble is down here. Uh, obviously the zone zoning map amendment would truncate. So this concept is based on what just would be zoned residency. The remaining is just a concept that could be worked, done many different ways. Um, I do wanna speak on behalf of the family who is, um, would love a legacy project here. Um, with regard to ball fields or something like that. Right now, it'll probably remain agricultural in the family. Um, but, um, we did speak to, to that even earlier today where if the city does have some interest,
they potentially would be interested in reengaging. So, so, um, that's It. Councilor Mellow. Thank you, Mr. President. Um, Rob, can you tell me in your, in your mockup right, eyeballing, how much impervious surface is that and where would it, where would the water go? So I don't have a square footage of impervious, impervious surface calculated. Again, this is just a, you can see it's a hand concept 'cause we don't want to be overly formal. Um, that said, uh,
the storm water could either go in the ground underground and so through a treatment trained normal storm water, uh, into subsurface infiltration systems, um, which is a very effective solution or it could go to a surface basin. Uh, in this case, uh, I'm not showing the storm water drastically other than there would be, I haven't, I'm showing a, a place for storm water along the toe of the slope that exists. So there's a kind of a long narrow basin that I'm showing, but it could go underground. There's a lot of different methods, uh, all of which would require the water quality
that you would expect. May I? Yes. Um, so here the reason I'm asking is if all of that impervious surface were developed in residency, if it were made residency and that impervious surface were developed, right, it's 27,000 gallons per acre. Per inch, right. That you have to manage. So if, if all water that gets infiltrated in the ground is gonna end up flowing to the river, if it do, we need to be careful about a zone change
and what's allowed in that zone. When you think about where you're gonna put storm water, if you do put that much impervious surface on it, right, like I'm just, I'm worried that we're gonna take something that's a floodplain and just make it an ed. Like, like If they, if I may counsel, yeah, please. I don't wanna confuse the two issues. This is his zone change application. Anything to do with the development of the site afterwards, it's gonna fall under the storm water management that's required. Mm-hmm. I mean, it's kind of really putting them in a position
that they shouldn't be in for the zone, But if, but if we make a zone change, then things are by right. But it doesn't change the storm water management part, part of the project. That's a whole separate issue, But it changes what you can do. Right. So that's, I I just think that I, I'm just Rob, is there a landscape architect where you can tell me that there's a way to not make all that water end up in that field? Sure, yeah. So through the president, yes. We're, we're, um, when we get to that step, the site planning, actual site planning and engineering design, we're required to match pre
and post development runoff flows. So we can't increase the amount of water going to a design point. We have to match it. So basically, for lack of a better description, if you think of storm water going through an hourglass, right? So the sand through the hourglass is metered out at a rate. Well, we can't, you know, if you have a pre-development hourglass before development happens and that sand or that storm water is going through that hourglass pre-development, we can't increase it. We can't make that hole or that, or the gap in the hourglass bigger to let more water go through.
We have to maintain pre-development conditions for the flow. So the water will go where it goes. Now generally, um, we'll have to match those flows, but we will also have to control it, detain it long enough that we can then let it out at the same rate. And before we let it go, we have to provide water quality so that we're taking all the total suspended solids and all the other concerning, uh, materials that could get into storm water out before it's discharged.
So you'd have to retain it in a pool or assistor. Uh, typically it would be either a surface basin, either an infiltration basin, detention basin, uh, there's a number of different types of basins, or it could be a subsurface infiltration system, which is also similar in nature, but is underground. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Councilor Sullivan? Yes, thank you. And I appreciate the fact that what you've shown here is the potential development is not contingent on this vote, nor necessarily what the say. So my, my questions, um, and I will support this, um, moving forward, um,
for a whole host of reasons, but not the least of which is part of the presentation that we had tonight from the mayor was that the city has an anemic $500,000 in growth. This is a growth opportunity. So we have to balance those growth opportunities, increase the growth opportunities. So I will be supporting this, um, and that you've shown what I think could potentially be the public way there. So that remains and then just, not that it necessarily impacts this boat, but then there's another white house that comes on the other side of that road. Yes. Is that already c Already Is that already zoned the same way?
No, that's, so that would remain rural residential. Um, is there a reason to have that remain? I believe it's the same ownership, Correct? It is, it is. Um, they frankly don't love the house. They've never, they managing the house has been a problem for the family based on our discussions. Um, we would expect that that would be, you know, if they, if that this property gets, you know, if there's something that happens to us in the future that, that would go with it. Um, they don't have a lot of interest in that particular, and also I wanted to maintain that rural residential so that the city felt comfortable that new residential wouldn't extend that.
Not to say you couldn't do a single family home, but um, that new, you know, residency intensity, residential wouldn't, wouldn't go down that way. Okay. I, and thank you and the family for going above and beyond what you needed to present for this. Appreciate That. Thank you. Anything further from the Council Councilor Matthews came Just to reiterate the opening, the potential opening, does that align with the, um, streetlight that's already there? Yes, it Does. Okay. There's a jog there in the mass or in the, uh, in the street right of away. That is correct. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. And, and this is still conceptual, but Yes.
Agreed. And, and just this is to reiterate a point, that's all outside the floodplain, right? This area? Any, any. So houses, uh, residences have habitable dwellings have to be out of the floodplain or above the floodplain. So all of this is in fact out of the floodplain. Um, there, the, the floodplain line kind of curves back and forth here. We just drew a straight line for the zoning purposes, but We would have to stay out of the flood plain with anything that we do for, for the houses themselves. Okay. Thank you. Yep. Thank you. Anything further? Anyone in the public like to
speak in favor of this project? Speak in favor. See? None. Anyone like to speak in opposition to this proposed opposition? Seeing none. And I look for a motion. A motion to close the public hearing. Second. Motion made it second. And any further discussion on closing the hearing. And motion to refer to ZPD. Second. Refer to ZPD. All in favor. A Aye. Opposed? Public hearing is now closed. Thank you. Item 23, councilor Beam. Uh, thank you Mr. President. Should I go there? You ready to go? Up top? Yep, go ahead.
Item 23 is a public hearing on a petition of the city council to amend the zoning ordinance to expand uses allowed in the industrial aid district. Public hearing is now open. Counsel Bean, you have the floor. Thank you, Mr. President. Um, this is something that we've, uh, talked about a few, maybe a few months ago, maybe a month or so ago. Uh, it's been talked through, uh, zoning and planning, which I, I appreciate their help in, in vetting of this particular process. Um, this particular, uh, zoning, uh, amendment is to extend the use option in the industrial a district in order to facilitate reuse of vacant industrial space
with lower impact or smaller land use from, uh, the commercial a usages and putting them back into industrial. A, uh, they were removed probably we were, uh, vinky and I were thinking about oh seven or oh eight when, uh, this particular change happened. So that usage, uh, came out of those. That particular zone, um, was on the council at the time. Uh, and I'm venturing to guess that we were trying to take these uses and really focus in on the downtown and try to develop that particular area, not in our industrial area.
So, um, what I'm looking to do is, uh, put those, uh, uses back into like those professional uses. Um, you know, it's, uh, what's it, hairdressers, nail salons, medical facilities, chiropractors, those, you know, lighter uses, passive uses for that particular zone. What we're seeing is, um, there is vacant, um, uh, businesses, uh, and there's also vacant areas within those businesses that they could then use smaller portions of their building to, um, develop, create a bigger tax base like we just talked about
as the mayor was just, and, and Councillor Sullivan mentioned about a half a million dollar in growth. So hopefully this isn't any silver bullet, uh, by any way, shape, or form. I have had a couple of inquiries, um, by individuals that are interested in doing something like this. In particular, like a hairdresser in a, in an existing building that's in industrial zone. Not sure if that's going to, uh, happen at this time. Uh, you know, our process is a bit daunting and long. Uh, so I'm not sure if that person has found another area at this big given time. So I'm just trying to create options.
And I, I think this is a, a, a nice way and, uh, a passive way to use some of the industrial zone area. It's going to be existing buildings, so we're not gonna be taking and building new structures. There are some, if some, you know, retrofitting needs to happen in construction, then they'll do that. But, um, it's not gonna be something that someone can buy a, you know, five acre parcel and drop a, uh, a nail salon in there and use up all that land. That's not something that would be permitted underneath these particular zoning issues. Questions from the counselors? Councillor Meow. Thank you, Mr. President.
Um, is there any in your mind, um, sort of caveats about businesses, uh, when they have to use septic, particularly over the aquifer? Like, uh, I'm thinking if you have a hair salon, you really need to be on sewer, right? If you have, um, a dry cleaner, you really don't want 'em over the aquifer. Like, are there, um, sort of a list you have where It Can be? We do. And if I can bother Councilor Fanon on that, do you have it open by any chance on the usage? I do. Can you, can you just go through
that quick list, if you don't mind? So what was going, what would be, what would be added would be a retail store designed primarily to provide daily service to the residents of the immediate surrounding neighborhood and with gr with a ground floor area not to exceed 750 square foot. Um, a service oriented stores such as barbershop, beautician, but not including laundry or dry cleaning establishments. Retail service store or custom store, such as a bakery, uh, food store, um, jewelry store, radio, television or household appliance repair store and floors. Provided that any article made shall be sold at the retail
from that premises in the area devoted to processing or storage shall constitute not more than 40% of the gross floor area, a branch bank or similar financial institution, realty office, medical or dental. Medical or dental clinic would be the things that we were looking to add in this change. I would, I would just be nervous about hair and barber or nails, um, if it was septic. Understood. Thank you. Councilor Riley. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. So this would just basically put back in the things that were taken out Yeah. In 2007,
2008. Okay. Give or take, don't hold me to the year, but it's right around that time. Um, not knowing the real reason, but I, I assume it's just that we were trying to focus in on downtown. It's some of these retail uses. Any other questions from the council? Anyone in the public like to ask a question of fact regarding this application? Question of fact and seeing none. Anyone like to make a comment in favor? I'm in favor. Brent being 94. Thank you. Anyone like to make a comment against this proposal? Seeing none. I'd like
to have a motion to close the public hearing. Motion to close public hearing. Refer to ZPD Second. She made it seconded. All in favor with age comes wisdom In favor. Aye. Aye. Opposed? Reports of committees. Finance committee. Item 24. Councillor Figgy. I, councilor Sullivan has this one. Thank you. I'm sorry. Yes. Thank you Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. President. Um, finance committees met and recommends the appropriation and the amount of $400,000 from the community preservation undesignated fund. Uh, fiscal year 25 account to the CPA Atheneum, um,
historic account for the rehabilitation and restoration efforts at the Atheneum. I move approval. Second. Motion made it seconded. Further discussion, counsel? Yes, at the finance committee meeting, uh, Lynn Salt, Debre Arts, Joe fla, and Director McClain. Uh, were present and, uh, detailed. Um, the list of repairs that will be done, um, and renovations that will be done, um, to the building most. Um, but not all of the work is exterior. Um, so it'll be the doors on the Elm Street side, which, um, will, um, still have the original patina on it,
which is a hundred years, um, old. Um, so those will be, uh, rehabilitation rehabilitated. Um, there'll be exterior cleaning of the entire building. Um, mostly, uh, removing exhaust and grit again from almost a century. Um, on the corner, um, the water tables at the top, um, of the building, if you go by, they serve a purpose to create, um, watershed off of those buildings that is actually original construction that is there. Um, so in order to keep the integrity of the building both exterior
and interior, um, those need to be, um, fully re rehabilitated. So that work will be done. Um, the front stairs on both the front entrance of the Atheneum facing on Elm Street, as well as the, um, children's Mu, um, athe, um, library on the side. Um, those, that granite steps will all be, um, pulled out and then reset. So it'll be the same granite but reset, um, and balanced. Um, so that, that will be able to, um, last for another century. Um, the one interior part of this project is in the Great Hall.
So inside they're gonna repair and paint. Um, and it obviously is not just the usual repairs, um, on that ceiling, it's a 35 feet high. Um, which is actually, and I was surprised for those that are familiar with the St. Mary's Church, it is actually as high as the St. Mary's, um, ceiling, um, in, in at St. Mary's. Um, but the ceiling in, in the Great Hall has deteriorated. Um, and it's made of a certain material that if it gets wet at all, it just, um, totally deteriorates and falls. So that needs to be, um, totally rehabilitated.
So that is the one interior piece of work, um, that will be done here. There will be no structural changes, um, at all. And, um, the total cost of this project is 850,000. So they either have already raised, um, they believe they have $330,000 in hand already of money that they've raised. Um, but they will do a capital campaign for the remaining $120,000, um, to, to get to the full, um, budget of $850,000. Thank you. Any questions, comments regarding this? Yes.
Seeing none. Roll call. Madam Suit. Allie? Yes. Bean? Yes. Beltran? Yes. Burns? Yes. Fanon? Yes. Fige? Yes. Harris? Yes. Matthew Cain. Yes. Meow. Yes. Morgan. Ellie. Yes. Oniskey? Yes. Sullivan? Yes. Adams? Yes. Thank you. Item 25, Councillor Figi. Thank you. Mr. President Finance Committee has met. And on a, uh, two zero vote votes to approve the acceptance of a grant in the amount of $7,339,940 in the United States Department of Transportation Pipeline
and Hazardous Material Safety Administration to the Westfield Gas and Electric Light Department under the Natural Gas Distribution Infrastructure Safety and Modernization grant program. Second. Motion made it seconded. Councilor Figi. Thank you Mr. President. Uh, this actually is the second part of a multi grant application. The $10 million first share has already come in. And construction has started on replacing the, the low pressure mains and services to houses already. This additional $739,940 will add
to that 10 million to be phase two of the project. Um, uh, the Gas and electric Commission accepted the grant at their last meeting. Basically, this, this will replace the oldest, um, gas pipes in the city as part of their capital plan. Uh, the department will pay up front and then be reimbursed. Um, so this is just more federal money to help the GE do what they had planned to do. NAA, but not having to use rate payer money.
Thank you. Any counselor Sullivan? Yes, we did. Um, have on the council share the list of the streets that are gonna be done. Some of this pipe is really old. Um, and as, uh, the chair said, um, this is work that actually the GE did have, in fact, in their schedule. So this will save them that money. Um, and while we're not really supposed to talk about it, because that was the directive from the federal government, uh, 'cause we did spend a little bit of time talking about is this money actually going to come in? And it is because it's for reliability of gas lines. Um, we're not supposed to talk about the gas leak situation,
but this will also solve the methane, um, leaking, which is obviously good for the environment, but that is not supposed to be talked about. But I don't always follow direction. That's a, that's a new federal requirement to not talk about it. Not a Westfield gas electric. Right. It's like A zone change. But you didn't hear that from him? No. You can, you can hear it from me. Any, anything further? Roll call. Mad City Court. Allie? I think so. Bean? Yes. Beltran? Yes. Burns? Yes. Fanon? Yes. Figgy? Yes. Harris? Yes. Matthews. Kae? Yes. Mellow? Yes. Morgane? Yes. Oniskey? Yes. Sullivan?
Yes. Adams? Yes. Thank you. Item 26, councilor Figgy. Thank you. Uh, finances met and approved the following finance committee meetings to discuss the budget. Everyone has, should have received this. It's on the council chair. Um, the first budget hearing will be in person on Monday, June 9th, five 30. Room 2 0 1 will be engineering and DPW and the enterprise fund. Second will be a Zoom meeting. It will be on Tuesday, June 10th. The third will be Wednesday, June 11th. Also a Zoom meeting.
Um, Monday, June 16th will be the next meeting that will be in person in room 2 0 1. The time has changed from five 30 to six 30 to allow for the, uh, pride flag raising. The last, uh, committee meeting on the budget will be Tuesday, June 17th at five 30. And that will be the schools also on June 17th will be a finance committee meeting for the items that came in for tonight. Special city council meetings will be Monday, June 23rd. That will be a six o'clock public hearing on the budget.
Tuesday the 24th at six will be budget reconciliation. And then the vote on the budget will be Monday, June 30th at 6:00 PM Council Morgane. Thank you Mr. President. Um, I'm wondering if the, the meetings in room 2 0 1 will be recorded and posted it on our city website. Um, I had not considered that. I could ask Pete if we could do that. I'll ask, certainly Check in. Yep. Sure. Absolutely. Do I need a motion for that? So, no, no, no. I, I'll ask. Thank you. Thank you for bringing that up. It's been a lot to try to work in a such short period of time. Oh yeah. 'cause the budget's been so delayed,
but we'll get it done. Thank You. Council Councilor Melow. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. Um, if it please the chair, uh, 2 0 1 is equipped to have the Zoom hybrid. And if you did that, it would record just in case nobody else is able to come in and do it for you. Well, part of the problem with this is this room gets used a lot. Mm-hmm. So it's not always available. When it is. We will be here and we will be i'll, I'll ask to have it recorded one way or the other. Thank you. Anything further? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Thank you. Council fiy, uh, legislative in ordinance item 27.
Council ky. Thank You Mr. President. Ano met on June 4th and upon a three zero vote, recommended approval and sending back after that to, um, for a petition for street acceptance for Big Wood Drive. Second. Second Motion made it seconded. Council? Yes, Mr. President? Uh, what what I'd like to do with this is get approval of the city council to move forward with, uh, release deeds and layout orders for acceptance of, um, big Wood Drive. So that's why the motions sounds a little bit odd.
Uh, big Wood Drive has been vetted and accepted or recommended for acceptance by the DPW Commission, by Engineering and by the planning board. So this is another street that we can accept and hopefully further get some, uh, some Chapter 90 money. Although it would be a very small amount. Anything else? Anything further? So what is your motion against sir? Motion is to recommend acceptance of the street by full city council and then to send back to l and o and await signature of actually creation
of release deeds and layout orders. And then signature of, uh, release deeds and layout orders. Second. All set in favor? Aye. Anyone opposed? Seeing none. Item 28. Councilor Adams. Yes. Thank Mr. President. A resolution for acceptance of a gift, donation of a police service dog and essential related equipment. Valued at $13,325 from Hometown Foundation, Inc. To the police department to support the reestablishment of a canine program in the department. Second Motion made it seconded. Further discussion. Councilor Adams?
Yeah, a few years ago, I think it was a few years ago, um, the officer who had the dog retired, which means the dog retires with the officer. Um, so Westfield hasn't had a dog since. And as you know, with budget restraints and a lot of other things they needed, as you could see, the tasers were in front of us tonight. Um, we were fortunate enough, and I believe it was through our good counselor, Oniskey was speaking with somebody he worked with who trained dogs. And he actually turned them on to this hometown, um,
foundation, the, this hometown, whatever it was here. Foundation. Foundation that, um, the last officer who had the dogs was Christopher Coach, wrote a grant and they, we, we, we, we were accepted for the 13,000, which is free to the city. The training is free, it's at the sheriff's department. Um, the training is with narcotics. The training is with mostly for, uh, tracking people, building searches, evidence recovery, uh, narcotics and no explosives.
That's for the state, that's for the state police. Now what they found is when somebody is fleeing or somebody is missing, we need the dog right away. Now we can call South Africa, we can call the state police, but if that dog's not available, that may not happen. Something that Chris, uh, officer, coach said the other night, which was pretty amazing, that he thinks with our dogs, that some of them that he had, it saved the lives of five people. That's pretty amazing. Um, that that dog saved five people. That there were several different incidents,
but just in that alone, um, that's pretty amazing what that dog can do. There are four officers who actually wanna do this. Unfortunately, the chief is gonna only be able to pick one. Um, that's Why he is got all those things on the shoulder. Let let the dog decide. Yeah, let The dog, I mean, however, he said, every officer that stepped forward is any of 'em could do this job. So compliments to the, the four people that stepped forward to do this. 'cause it's pretty much they're gonna do it on their own shift. It's not gonna cost us anymore.
This whole program is not gonna cost us anything. Um, and we're hoping to get it off the ground, I think they said in August or September and get this dog back on the streets so we can use it anytime we need it. And back to Councilor Oniskey. He's the one who put them and the police department in touch with this foundation, um, to get this program going. So counselor, thank you for doing that. At no cost to the city. Thank you. Anything further? Okay. Would you like to read the resolution by title only? Yes. Uh, by title only. Be it Resolved at the city council.
The city of Westfield hereby accepts 13,325 donation from the Hometown Foundation, Inc. To be used to reestablish canine program for the Westfield Police Department. So moved. Second. Second. Motion made it seconded. Any further discussion? Seeing none. Roll call. Mad City Court. Allie? Yes. Bean? Yes. Beltran? Absolutely. Burns? Yes. Fanon? Yes. Gie? Yes. Harris? Yes. Matthews. Kane. Yes. Ella? Yes. Morgane? Yes. Oniskey? Yes. Sullivan? Yes. Adams? Yes. Thank you. Personnel action Committee Item 29 Councillor Harris.
Thank you Mr. President on oh 5 20 25. Personnel Action Committee met regarding the following two items. Number 29 is submitting the appointment of Jennifer Thilan 18 Vine Street as a member of the Historical Commission replacing Carlene Banish for a term to expire February, 2026. And we recommend that appointment. Second. Motion made it seconded for the discussion. Counselor? Yes. Thank you. Um, she states she's a dedicated educator at Westfield River Elementary School. With over 10 years of experience in education, has a strong passion for historical preservation.
She serves as a board member of the Dewey House and is a member of the Western Hand Historical Society. She's led numerous local history programs for students and families fostering appreciation for Westfield's heritage. She has attended the ghost tours and local history lectures, hosted multiple local history walk-in tours. Founded a history club for elementary students and was selected as trip chaperone for student delegations to Washington dc She looks forward to contributing her enthusiasm and expertise to our historical commission and promoting community engagement in regards
to local historical preservation. Her sincere interest in promoting Westfield's history and her civic pride makes her a great asset to this commission. Thank you. Anything further? Council fee? Yes. I'd like to thank this opportunity to thank Carlene Bish for her many, many years of dedicated service to this organization. Uh, she will be missed. Anything further? Callam city clerk. Allie? Yes. Bean? Yes. Yes. Burns? Yes. Fanon? Yes. Gie? Yes. Harris? Yes. Matthews. Kane. Yes. Meow. Yes. Morgan? Yes. Oniskey? Yes. Sullivan? Yes. Adams?
Yes. Item 30. Councilor Harris. Thank you Mr. President. 30 is submitting the appointment of Barbara Martone 33 Murphy Circle as a member of the Council on Aging. Replacing John Leary Junior for term to expire in February, 2027. And we recommend that appointment. Second. Second. Well, she made it seconded. Further discussion please. Yes. Thank you. She's volunteered at our senior center since 2017. Um, she is presently still volunteering in various capacities, including volunteer companion program, which assists those with medical, transportation, grocery shopping, and other errands and companionship.
She's helped in food services in the kitchen and in the dining room set up and serving at all special events. She assists with the Brown Bag Program and Senior Farm Share Program, which distributes food to those that qualify for this state program. She assists seniors in regards to the process of a A RP tax assistant program. She does weekly bingo set up and clean up helping those participants with cognitive mobility and sensory challenges. And she assists in many of the special events such as the Annual Health and Wellness Fair. She received the certification of appreciation from the friends at the Westfield Senior
Center for her outstanding service to Westfield's older adults during the COVID Pandemic when the center was closed to the public. She worked as a support worker at the Mental Health Association of Greater Springfield for many years, as well as working in a facility for adolescent services. She also worked at Savage Arms in Noble Hospital. And Tina Gorman, who was the former director at the senior center and now special projects, wanted to make a point that during COVID, um, Ms. Martone volunteered and that she was indispensable during that time when everybody was unsure of what could
and couldn't be done, that she wanted to make sure that that was mentioned. Anything further? Councillor Figgy again, I'd like to take the opportunity to thank John Leary Jr. For all the various boards, commissions, council, you name it. He's probably done it. Many. Uh, so thank him for his years and years of service to the city of Westfield. Otherwise known as Jack. Yes, absolutely. And I think Holyoke too. I mean, he was like everywhere. So, yeah. Okay, well roll call minimums. Clerk. Allie. Yes. Bean? Yes. Yes. Burns? Yes. Fanon? Yes.
Fige? Yes. Harris? Yes. Matthews. Kane. Yes. Meow. Yes. Morgan. Ellie. Yes. Oniskey? Yes. Sullivan? Yes. Adams? Yes. Thank you. Zoning Planning and development. Uh, councilor Fanon. Item 31. Thank you Mr. President. Zoning planning and development met on June 3rd, 2025 and with a two zero favorable vote approved the zone change for the petition for TV Realty and development for zero lock House Road from industrial A to re C to construct multiple duplex units submitted by Michael Vents. Second Motion made it seconded.
Further discussion, counselor? Yes. Um, we had the public hearing on this zone change request at our last meeting. Um, there was no opposition from the public and, um, the zone chain is contiguous with other residents. Um, see districts in that area. Any questions, comments from the council? Motion for first reading by title only. Second. Motion made and seconded. Go ahead. Would you please In city council on June, what is June 5th, 2025? An ordinance amended the code of ordinances.
City of Westfield, appendix B zoning adopted September 3rd, 1987 Relative to a zone change at zero lock house road from all industrial A to all resident C. Second. Motion made. Second. Any further discussion? Roll call. Madam C. Clerk. This is just first reading. I'm sorry. Refer to second. The next meeting. Oh, I'm sorry for second. Okay. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion for second reading. Motion for second reading. Yes. Second. Second. Motion made and seconded for second reading on our next meeting. All in favor? A. Opposed?
Now on for second unfinished business. Item 33. Councilor Burns. No, there's one more. Got 32. First one. 32. 32 ahead of myself. Very busy. You're gonna get busier. 32. Councilor fan. Thank you Mr. President. Zoning planning and development met on 6 3 20 25 and with A two zero gave a favorable vote for a zone change petition for 66 Holyoke Road from residence B to business B to use the rear area of the business purposes submitted by our LaBeck associates on behalf of Michael Sitz. SEC. Motion made it seconded for the discussion. Council Fanon
Again, we had the public hearing at the last, um, city council meeting and there was no opposition. And again, this parcel is contiguous to other, um, business B residences. Anything from the council? Seeing none. Would you like to Motion for first reading? Second Motion Made it seconded. Would you like to read it Please? In ordinance amending the code of Orange City of Westfield Appice B zoning adopted third, September 3rd, 1987 relative to a zone change map at 66 Holyoke Road from residence B to business B. Thank you. All in favor? A. Aye. Opposed? Council
Motion. Motion for second reading at the next meeting. Second. Second. Motion made it seconded. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Now on for second unfinished business. 33. Council burns. Yeah. Thank you Mr. President. Uh, motion to remove item number 33 from table. Chapter 16 of the ordinance is section 16 dash 1 0 7. Temporary repairs on private waives. Second. Motion made and seconded to take off the table and I'll on the table. Sir, The reason it would we put it, it was put on the table is the fact that the, uh, ordinance wasn't ready from legal.
They didn't have the time. It is ready. Um, if, if there's any questions, I I can answer 'em, but it's if not, um, motion for first reading and by title only. Second Motion made. And second. Council bean. Yeah. Uh, sorry. Councilor Burns. Um, what was the reason for The table Wasn't ready? Because it, the, um, ordinance wasn't ready at the time of last meeting. So you had discussions with a law department? We had discuss Well, yeah. And it wasn't prepared before our actual session.
They didn't have the time. It wa it was, it was the meeting Was that the, the day before. So they did. It was legit. Thank. Any, any questions, Anything further? I seeing none. Would you read the by title alone? An ordinance amending the code of ordinances. City of Westfield, adopted June 17th 90 19 93. Second Motion made it seconded. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Councilor. Motion for second reading. Final passage. Next city council meeting. Second. Second.
Motion made. And second. Any discussion? Seeing none. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Okay. Sign for second. Reading. Any announcements? Councilor Figgy. Thank You Mr. President. I'd like to congratulate Councilor Adams and Harry Rock on their special award from the Council on Aging they received this week. Thank you. Anything else? Thank you Mr. Congratulations to all the 2025 graduates. Yes. Congratulations this week. Council Sullivan. I didn't know if the chair wanted to recognize the creator of our gift here.
Yes sir. Since he is now in the room. Wasn't at the time of the start Of the meeting, but These are actually very, very nice. It's also my b tomorrow too. Well, happy Birthday Kevin. Very good, thank you. Alright. And before we go, I'm just gonna take a second to recognize one of our residents of Westfield who's retiring tomorrow from Channel 22 after 37 years. Yeah. Yeah. Rich Settler. Wish him luck in his retirement. Any further? Councillor Harris. Motion to adjourn. Second motion made it seconded. All in favor. A opposed Goodnight everybody. Thank you.