Good evening. I'd like to call the April 2nd meeting of the Westfield City Council to order. Roll call, Madam City Clerk. Figgie? Here. Harris? Here. Knoppik? Here. Matthews-Kean? Here. Mello? Here. Morganelli? He will not be with us this evening. Oneski? Here. Adams? Here. Ally? Here. Bean? Here. Beltrandi? Here. Burns? Here. Fannin? Here. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Reading the record of the meeting of March 19th, 2026.
Councilor Bean. I'd like to make a motion to accept the minutes without reading, so moved. Second. Motion made and seconded. Any discussion on the minutes? Seeing none, all in favor? Aye. Opposed? Thank you. Communications from the mayor, item one, Councilor Figgie. Public participation. Public participation. Oh, I'm sorry, I went right by it. I know, you're in a hurry. Yep. Now comes the portion of the meeting for public participation. Anyone wishing to address the council may do so by stepping forward. State your name and address for the city clerk. We do this in three-minute increments for a total of 30 minutes. Anyone like to address the council? Don't be shy. Come on up. Hello. Good evening. I'm Kirale Jackier. I'm a junior at Westfield Technical Academy and part of the
aviation program. I'm Skylar Eleman, a junior, also part of the aviation portion at WTA. Welcome. Hi. We are here today to promote a new building for WTA. Over the past few days, we've been looking around the school, looking at all the problems, and boy, are there a lot. So we're just going to get started. First off, in the winters, it's very, very cold. There's no heat in the building at all. We have to layer up. And in the summers, there's no AC. It's really hot. All the windows are open, but it really doesn't help much. The bathrooms, there's limited bathrooms, but the bathrooms that we do have, have
poor supplies. The toilets are not usable. Sink spouts are barely workable, often leaking, spilling onto the floors, leaving puddles all over the bathrooms. And then in a lot of the walls, there are holes, large, large holes, which is not safe. And there's a lot of cracks, and we just can't paint over it because it's falling apart. It's not salvageable at this point. Also, multiple times there have been leaks around the school, leaking from the ceilings. There have been multiple times that we've had buckets in the
hallways, trash barrels just piling with water. There's been multiple floods around the school from missing ceiling tiles. You can see water damage in the ceilings. And then the floor also, there are also chunks missing out of our floor and cracks, and it's uneven too. So a lot of times, sometimes, kids trip over the floors because of how poor they are. Throughout many of the classrooms, the shops, there's limited amount of electrical outlets. There's practically one or two
outlets on maybe one wall across the classroom, making it hard for kids to charge their Chromebooks, do anything with electrical power. And then for the gym, a lot of kids would like to play volleyball in our gym, but the ceiling is just too low, and that takes away from kids wanting to come to Westfield Technical Academy to play those sports because we have a lot of Slavic students, and all of them play volleyball, and that's just a missing opportunity for us. The elevators, which we do have, often break or shut down for
a limited amount of time, making it hard for people who need the elevator, limited access to get from bottom campus to upper campus or upper campus to the top floor. And with that being said, the layout of the school is very poor as well. You have two shops up top and then the rest at the bottom with a gym. It's just not practical. But overall, we're asking you for help because our school is falling apart and it's great opportunities for students like us, and we want to see it grow in the future. Thank you. Thank you. Good job. Anyone else like to address the council?
All these people, nobody wants to talk. Hi, I'm Kathy Hillman, 179 Susan Drive, and I am a member of the school committee. I implore you to vote this in. Our students deserve a good, healthy place to learn. And we have such a wonderful programs there that I always boast about how beautiful our tech school programs are, and they deserve a good building, too. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else like to address the council? Come on up. I'm Jeff Amonte, 36 Loomis Ridge, and VP of Advanced Manufacturing and also chair of the advisory
committee and the advisory board at WTA. WTA is known as one of the best or the best trade school in the state, and a lot of the programs are nationally recognized, and that's shown by the national competitions that a lot of our students just place very well in. We have top-of-the-line programs right now as far as manufacturing goes. The USS Tripoli and its sister ship were just deployed and arrived in the Middle East. Those have 20 JSF, Joint Strike
Fighter, Stoval version aircraft on them each. A lot of the components from that aircraft were built right here in Westfield. They make about 25 of those a month in production, and now those are overseas, defending our country. The THAAD missile, Theater Altitude Defense missile, and the Aegis missile defense systems that are being used over there are built here in Westfield. The guidance systems for those THAAD missiles are built right here. They are the most precision part on those missiles, and they're built by students that graduated from
WTA. Last week, they commissioned the USS Massachusetts in Boston. That is a nuclear-powered submarine. There are 10 nuclear-powered submarines that were deployed at the start of this war to that region. USS Massachusetts, after commissioning, is getting armored up, and it's going to go into that theater. Those components, the weapons systems, the hatches, the toilet system for the submarine, and actually, the toilets on the Artemis II that launched last night were all built here in Westfield by students that
graduated from WTA. So what I'm getting at is that program and all these other wonderful programs that we have here, the IT, the electrical, allied health, aviation, so on and so on, they are all top-ranked programs in the country. IT just won national honors as well. These students need a school and a facility to match the abilities that they have there. They are the top students in the country, and right now they are working out of a
dilapidated facility. So they need a facility to match their skills, and then the sky's the limits for these talented students. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else like to address the council? Nobody else. You ready? Yep, I got two letters. Councilor Figgie. Thank you. I have two letters from citizens who weren't able to make it tonight. First is from Tina Gorman, Special Project Coordinator of the Westfield Council on Aging. "Tonight, School Superintendent Stephen Zaparosky will submit a presentation for a new technical high school. I hope that the city council will seriously consider his request. As a former executive director of the Council on Aging, I know all
too well the lengthy process of transitioning from the dream of a new building to the reality of groundbreaking, final end goal of opening the front door. It involves establishing a need as well as vision, resources, expertise, stamina to move forward and ultimately get the project over the finish line. In my 20 years at the Council on Aging, I've had the privilege of successfully collaborating with multiple shops at our technical high school. Electrical wiring for smoke detector installations through Retire the Fire program, arts and communication for directory wall calendars, brochures, and cable
and radio programming for the city's older adults. Culinary arts for interns at the senior center kitchen. Information technology for 101 computer and smartphone tutorials. Horticulture technology for produce through the hydroponic gardening program, as well as landscape and design for the new senior center grounds, and allied health for assistance with monthly brown bag food distribution and the annual Stand for Seniors program. The students and faculty do an amazing job in less than ideal educational environment. I know firsthand the frustration of making do in a building that is clearly outdated.
With the knowledge that we can do so much more, just as we did at the new senior center, a feasibility study is a step to a brand-new technical high school. And just as with the new city building, beginning the process requires financial resources. A new technical high school is an investment in our students in the trades and ultimately in our community." Tina Gorman.The next is from Efren Luna. "I'm writing to the city council in regards of their April 2nd, 2026 city council meeting and agenda item number five.
Superintendent of School, Stephen Zaparoske, is submitting a presentation for the new technical school listed under Reports to City Officers. I will be out of the city and unable to attend the meeting and public participation. As discussed at previous city council meetings involving the time change from 7:00 to 6:00, councilors agreed that emails could be sent and entered into the record. There's a lack of transparency with the statement of interest to the Massachusetts Building Authority for a new technical school. This presentation is not about a new Westfield Technical Academy, but is a presentation for a new Westfield Comprehensive High School, an elimination of
Westfield Vocational Technical College of Education, as we have known it, the City of Westfield, for decades. Westfield Trade, Westfield Vocational High School, Westfield Vocational Technical High School, and now known as Westfield Technical Academy, is a very highly respected and recognized high school in the state. On June 5th, 2026, at the school's graduation, Mayor Michael McCabe stated that Westfield Technical Academy was the greatest technical school in the country when he addressed the student, staff, and public who were in attendance. According to the data from the Massachusetts Division of Local Services, the average
state's property taxes increased by 5% for 2026. Westfield's tax rate went up 6.5%. The City of Westfield had one of the highest inflation costs of living for fiscal year 2026. The tax increase of 6.5% added to 300% increase in the trash disposal fee and close to 50% in water fee increase along with the restricted water rates for 1,000 gallons and implemented new fees at the transfer station have been devastating to the average taxpayer. The superintendent will come before this council with a presentation of what has been placed on the agenda of the school committee, its subcommittee,
city council, and committees as an SOI for a new technical academy. This is not being transparent with the residents and taxpayers. What would've been transparent and not misleading would be a SOI replacing MTA with a Westfield Comprehensive High School. In March 2nd, 2026 school committee meeting, the agenda was SOI for Westfield Technical High School. Mayor Mike McCabe and chairman of the school committee opened the discussion by presenting financial figures that were not based on facts. The mayor stated, "Let's assume that a new comprehensive high school will cost
$400 million at an interest rate of 4%, the average cost of the taxpayer being only $713 a year for 30 years." These numbers based on assumption are not only low for such a project, but wrong to be used for a request to the city council to approve on behalf of the taxpayers on the back of last year's cost to the taxpayers. Let's be rational and base this presentation on factual and realistic numbers while being honest with the taxpayer of what is really being asked. The costs were more likely to be higher if calculated correctly.
At the same school committee meeting, after some discussion, the superintendent stepped to the podium to ask the mayor, "What if we did just the technical academy by itself for $250 million?" The mayor shut the superintendent down and stated, "That is not what is before us today," although the agenda on the school committee listed SOI with MSBA for WTA, not a comprehensive high school. So this presentation before the city council is actually for a Westfield Comprehensive High School. In April 2025, Councilor Ralph Figgie went before the school committee after a city council vote in March of that year and asked the school committee to
develop and propose a question to be put before the voters in November's municipal election. The school committee never discussed this, nor did they bring it forward what was asked of them by Councilor Figgie, the liaison from the council to the school committee. The voters never got a chance because of the inaction of the school committee. Coincidentally, two weeks after the municipal election, in November, the subject of SOI at WTA surfaced on the agenda of a subcommittee of the school committee. This is not transparency and deceitful to the taxpayer. Westfield Technical Academy has been placed on warning status of
losing its accreditation by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges because of certain conditions at the school, including bathrooms, which the NEASC said was a major issue. The city council has already appropriated funding for these bathrooms to be repaired this summer and address that concern. The city council needs to ask several questions and have answers, including what happens if the city council votes to proceed with the SOI. Is the SOI for a new technical academy or a new comprehensive high school? If SOI is submitted and accepted by the MSBA in June, has the city committed to a funding and feasibility study in September?
Will the voters in the city be afforded a referendum question to decide what would it support if it affects their taxes? If a feasibility study funding is needed, why did this not go before the City Finance Committee instead of the L&O? So many questions are unanswered because the secretive approach and lack of transparency the residents and taxpayers need and deserve the city council to act on their behalf. Please take the taxpayers in mind if this is voted on. A quote by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "It takes less time to do a thing right than it does to explain why you did it wrong."
Thank you for your time and attention to this matter. If I can be of any help, please do not hesitate to reach me. Efren Freddy Luna." Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. Yes. Anyone else before we get going here? Seeing no one, communications from the mayor. Item one, Councilor Figgie. Thank you, Mr. President. Please add Madam City Clerk, read item one, refer to PAC. Second. One, submitting a resolution to accept a grant in the amount of $14,971.52 from the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security and the Department of Fire Services to the Westfield Fire Department under the Fiscal Year '26 Firefighter Safety Equipment Grant Program to purchase public safety equipment for the fire department
Oh, I think you said PAC. I did say PAC, didn't I? Yeah, I don't think we got the right thing here. Communications- Oh, that's the wrong one. That's PAC. That's the finances. Communications from the Mayor, Kate, item one. Yes. Damn. That's for PAC. Okay. The whole thing is- That's for finance. Item one? Yeah. Yeah. Isn't that what I asked for? Yep. But you said send it to PAC. Okay. Just read item one to go to PAC directly. Do I have the wrong agenda? That's what she's-- Somebody's asking. We got the same ones? No. No. There's something- My printout is different than the computer. Yeah. It's not you. All right. Item one is the grant. One is for the... Here, I have a-
Printed one as well. Yes. So this one says- What about the one down in the bottom? Should be down under- That's the one I have. This is the one I have. Yeah, because- So item four can go to PAC, but it's- No, the computer's wrong. Yes. Well, one of the other- We're literally not on the same page. So the paper is right, right? Which one? The paper? I got the paper. Paper, scissors, shoot. Okay. We have it correct on the computer. To clarify, item one is the resolution for a grant for the fire department. Item four is the reappointment of Lenore, which Councilor Figuereas is trying to send to PAC. So they're swapped. Yeah. Now the computer matches the paper. Yes. Okay, so item one, Council Onysko.
I'd love to ask Madam City Clerk to- ... again read item one and refer to L&O. Okay. One, submitting a resolution to accept a grant in the amount of $14,971.52 from the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security and the Department of Fire Services to the Westfield Fire Department under the Fiscal Year '26 Firefighter Safety Equipment Grant Program to purchase public safety equipment for the fire department. Second. Motion made and seconded. Any discussion on sending this to L&O? I have a question. Yes, Council. I don't understand why it's not being sent to Finance. This involves so much money, and I know it's a resolution, but it involves monies and I
think it should go to Finance. We've been handling it. It's a grant, so we usually don't. Okay, that's fine. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? Aye. Opposed? Item two is, Councilor Allie. Thank you, Mr. President. Have Madam City Clerk read item number two and refer to City Properties. Second. Motion made and seconded. Madam City Clerk. Two, submitting a resolution to authorize the mayor to enter into an amended lease agreement between the City of Westfield and the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Westfield, Inc. for an additional 0.2 acres of land to support an expansion at 28 West Silver Street. Any further discussion on sending to City Properties?
You amended it all. Okay. You can explain it if you want. Okay, if I may? Yes, please. Thank you, Mr. President. The original documentation came through as 3.16 acres, which would be the total campus of the Boys & Girls Club. What they are requesting is a 0.2 acres of property in order to expand their teen center. So it's not looking for 3.6 acres additional. They're only looking for an additional 0.2. So would you like to make that amendment, sir? She. Second. Okay, so moved. So amended. Okay. Motion made and seconded.
Any further discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Thank you. This has got to get easier as we go on. Yes. One through four will be the only confusing part. Item three, Council Onysko. Thank you, Mr. President. Would you please ask Madam City Clerk to read item three and refer to L&O? Second. Motion made and seconded. Madam City Clerk. Three, submitting a resolution to authorize the mayor to approve and execute an intermunicipal agreement between the Town of South Hadley, their fire districts, and the City of Westfield for dispatch services. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? Aye. Opposed? Thank you. Item four, Councilor Onysko. Please ask Madam City Clerk to read item four and refer to L&O.
Four? No, it's PAC. Sorry, five. PAC. PAC. PAC. Four, submitting the reappointment of Lenore Banasz. Submitting the reappointment of Lenore Banasz as Information Technology Manager for a term to expire on July 6, 2029. Okay. Mr. President. Motion made and seconded. We'd just like to explain that there was a computer problem when this agenda was being produced, and Caitlin did a phenomenal job. The city clerk did a phenomenal job trying to jump through all the hoops, and things were not going the way they should. So that's why there's a couple of different issues-
Couple of different issues ... with agendas, two different kinds of agendas. We're gonna get through it. Yes. We can get this. All right. So, to go to PAC. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? Aye. Opposed? Before we get to the reports of city officers, Councilor Faniel. Thank you, Mr. President. Motion to suspend the rules in order to take item 18 at this time. Second. Motion made and seconded. Any further discussion? Motion to suspend, all in favor? Aye. Opposed? Under suspension, Councilor. Item 18 is submitting a resolution to authorize the superintendent of schools to file a statement of interest with the Massachusetts School Building Association for
funding of a new technical academy. Second. Motion made and seconded. Further discussion, Council? The L&O Committee has met, and we are, with a three-zero vote, voted to remove this item from committee without a recommendation to allow the superintendent to give his presentation tonight. Okay, so the motion is to remove from committee without action. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? Aye. Opposed? Thank you. Motion to go back to regular order. Second. Motion made and seconded. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Now back in regular order. You have the floor. Okay. What does that mean? I have to double-check my notes here. Maybe. Maybe.
All right. So to be clear, and I think this SOI is for Westfield Technical Academy, and I think given the work that's happening at Westfield High School with the grounds and the fields and other things, it would not make sense to do a larger school. So we are going for Westfield Technical Academy, and I will walk through that piece of part of the presentation. So, and thank Caitlin for pre-loading this for me before the meeting. Yes. Thank you. So, the MSBA statement of interest is due April 17th, 2026. School committee and city council must vote to approve the project before the SOI
is submitted to the Massachusetts School Building Authority. The school committee has voted in favor of that, and of course, here we are at city council. So once selected, funding will be needed for the feasibility study, and funding for the project is typically confirmed within 90 days of selection, and it does go on a ballot. So if you are looking at recent or surrounding communities, Agawam just did this last year. They put in for a new high school, it went to a ballot question that actually passed in Agawam, so they are getting a new high school. Several years ago, the city of Holyoke put in for two middle schools with the MSBA, and that was rejected by the voters.
And then they went back for one middle school, and that was passed by the voters. So the voters have the say to the point of the earlier email, and I think that that is a critical part of the process. So, for our end, what we know is that we have a building that's aging poorly at this point, and I'll get to that in a second. And I want to tell you, we have done some work in terms of capital planning here. The upper campus parking lot, if you've been up there, has been paved, and that was not so paved previously. We've put in about $25,000 to our weight rooms for the students to have
access to that. The student service offices were updated, through capital skills grants. We were able to update and remove walls in the manufacturing department and open the space up really, and other things in terms of we have projects going on now in collision technology. We've had projects going on in allied health and aviation. So the grants have helped a lot for building and equipment. We have put in a new telephone and intercom system, which is essential for safety, and that was about $100,000, I believe, for that particular project. But that was just completed last year. The front entrance concrete project, which would've cost us thousands of dollars,
we actually partnered with MassDOT. If you recall, for any of you who may have been there before, the front entrance was slate, it was all cracked. It was terrible. MassDOT worked with our students, actually. So they put down the new entranceway, which I always love to see that collaboration and saving a little bit of money, too. In 2012, we had new exterior doors and windows for the lower and upper campus. So for those who may not know, the upper campus was built in 1931, and lower campus was built in 1962. And then we have the connector building, which was built in 1994,
which of the three was probably the poorest quality, if I'm being honest, in terms of construction. We upgraded the Tiger's Pride dining room in 2018. We do have the recently approved bathroom project, which I'll get back to as well. And we are now trying to repave the rear parking lot as there are potholes back there that will swallow your car. I see you nodding your head, yes, they're pretty bad. Yes, they are. So we're looking to do that too, coming up. So I guess I just said that part. All right. Now, student enrollment is at or near maximum capacity, and that is the case again. Annually, we have a waiting list of 40 to 60 students, of students that are not
able to get in because of the lack of space. There is cracked and worn-out flooring in upper campus. We have consistent roof leaks and corroded ceilings despite multiple repairs from our maintenance department. It seems like anytime you plug one, another one pops up. I can attest to the buckets being in the hallway on a very rainy day, and it's awful. And for the student bathroom as well, and we've seen the cost of what it is to do four, there are still six more to go that would need to be done if we were going to redo every student bathroom in that building. And the upper campus bathrooms are actually in far worse shape than the lower campus bathrooms,
because they're 95 years old. There's also plumbing issues, which we realize that once we open up that can of worms, it's going to be a lot larger than we ever expected because it's 95 years old. So, we have no ability to add new programs. There's no space. During the lunches, we have not enough room in the cafeteria, so we've had to open up the teachers' lounge for students to be able to eat in, and also the gymnasium. There is some air conditioning in some parts of the building, but if you've ever been on the top floor, and some of you may have gone there when it was the original Westfield High School, I'm not trying to age anybody here, but just saying, it was
hot then, it's not any better now, and it's almost insufferable. And actually, during the hot days in June, the top floor, typically, those classrooms move down into the auditorium or someplace where it's cooler so they can have teaching and learning going on. And then, exterior improvements are absolutely needed as well. And referring to the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, accreditation is at risk. The commission expressed concern regarding the school's facility and the school's adherence to standard on learning resources. That's standard five. Concerns include, but are not limited to the following.
So they talk about the current condition of the building does not adequately support the effective delivery of curriculum and programs and services. And we are at our maximum for electrical outlets. There's no more coming. We really can't do that without redoing our entire electrical system. The roof leaks. There is poor ventilation, and possible mold exposure issues remain unresolved. They have been resolved, the mold part, but it just keeps coming because the roof keeps leaking. The HVAC system is inconsistent with some rooms, this is true, experiencing both hot and cold air simultaneously, and the middle campus air conditioning is completely broken. It does not work anymore.
And then the upper campus, built in 1931, lacks a modern sprinkler system, potentially violating fire codes. That's directly from the NEASC report.So given these concerns, the commission voted to place the school on warning for the standard on learning resources. The existing facility no longer meets the demands of modern technical education. To address this, WTA will provide a detailed data-driven proposal to the Westfield Public Schools district, advocating for a new modern facility that better supports student learning and
industry-aligned programming. So that was their direct recommendation. When you see some of the photos, this is just some of the brick that's starting to fall off and corrode in the lower campus. This is the connector building, the most recent building, and these have been falling apart. I tried to have them fixed when I was the principal years ago. It's not made of material that is meant to last. So here, and some of the pictures are hard, but one of the students actually spoke to that, and when you try to sand this, it's brittle. It just falls apart on you. So there's not much that you can do with it, and this is the conditions in most classrooms in the upper campus building, and the ceilings.
There's more of that. And see, this is not... It'd be very different. You cannot spackle that, for lack of a better term, to make that look better. More sample. This is another, a really good example. We are unable to really repair that. And then also the year that it was built, a lot of this is going to require abatement to fix, which doubles the cost of any project that you put into play. More wall photos in upper campus. And this is the flooring that we were talking about. Once again, we do our best to patch the holes. If we try to lift up the floor, it would trigger that abatement process again, and it would be far more costly than even potentially a new building if we were to try to
rehabilitate the technical academy. And the bathrooms, which we know are 95 years old, and there's not a toilet in this one because of the plumbing issues that are attached to it. But this is how it is. And this is a bathroom in lower campus. This is the one actually by manufacturing. And again, there's plumbing issues there as well, so if we try to repair it, we have to replace all the plumbing, which is going to be very costly. The lockers, they're the same ones that were there long time ago. So what we would like to do is submit this proposal to MSBA. Again, it is due by April 17th. We want to put in for a new technical academy,
realizing that not only would a combined high school be cost-prohibitive, it is the technical academy that is, at this time, really in tough shape. It has outlived its time. If you recall, upper campus was Westfield High School, North Middle, Smith Ave Elementary School, and then Westfield with the expansion project in 1994. With a new building, we would be able to accept all of the students on the waiting list, which would be my goal, so that every student that wanted to attend Westfield Technical Academy could. It would also open up the opportunity for us to add other programming.
And we have, from the business side of the house, I've had folks reach out to me and said, "When are we going to add HVAC? When are we going to add plumbing?" These are fields that we can't find people for. Cosmetology is one that we send kids out of district for, which it would be so much better not to have to do that, to be able to expand our programming. The other thing that this would do is, clearly, it would attract more students from out of district into Westfield to go to school, because we'd have more slots, and it does generate revenue for the general fund. So our thought process, again,
is it a high school of 750? What does that look like? But in the end, that's what the feasibility part comes from, and the MSBA would work with us to look at all things. In your packet, you are going to see, because they will ask me questions about Westfield High School as well, but I may remove those and let them ask. I think that's my plan moving forward. But I think a new Westfield Technical Academy is really needed. I think our students deserve it, and I think in the end, again, tonight we're asking for a vote of approval to submit the SOI. Best case scenario, we're probably eight to 10 years out.
This gets us at least in the hopper, if you will, and there's no guarantee. In fact, probably unlikely that we get selected the first time we submit in this round, but we would keep resubmitting until this happens. I will likely be retired by the time the door is open, but I will come back to visit if that ever happens to check out the building. Last year, to a question from an earlier point, when we looked at having the bathrooms done with a quick quote, it was going to be 300,000. And then we got the real quote, and we didn't have the funding. So that answers the question that you had previously, Kristen. And
I could never have imagined it would have cost that much. I'm floored. And again, I know what the cost is, because when we did the hangar at Westfield Barnes, we had a number. That was the cost. And then they found asbestos, and the cost went up a lot. And that's what really triggers a lot of these costs. So to try to rehabilitate Westfield Technical Academy would cost more, and I believe the MSBA with the feasibility study would tell us that as well. And it's also the way the campus is built. A new school would be much more efficient. Not only modern, but it would meet the needs of technical
education in the 21st century, not back from the 1930s. And I'm happy to take any questions that you would have. Mr. President. Any questions? Yes. Yeah. Go ahead. Just thank you for the presentation. Obviously, I've been around a little bit here on this topic. Just a couple things as you go into the debate tonight to remember. Back in 2011, 2014, thereabouts, MSBA spent a lot of time in the city on the green repair program. You'll remember that, right? And a couple observations at that time, we were the second-largest recipient of repair money in the state, the entire state, and that was a big accolade,
but actually, that's kind of an insult because all that meant is we ran our buildings into the ground so badly that we got to the top of the list to repair. But we spent millions of dollars, and that happened to be one of them. And the observation by the MSBA team at that time in 2012 was, "That building should be demolished. It's not worth saving." Well, of course, back then, we were coming out of the recession, and we didn't have two nickels to scrub together. State aid was horrific, worse than it is now as a percentage of our budget.
There was not an option to do anything different than what we did back then, which was to repair it. And sitting back now, 15 years later, the repair bought us 15 years, and it actually is going to probably buy us five more, or seven, because it is a massive undertaking to get to a school of that magnitude. So remember that. All those years ago, the state's people that do this for a living said, "It's not worth putting money into it. Do a new one now." And it got saved. We bought time. The second thing to remember as we go down the road with Montgomery Road High School is, in that one, they said,
"You've done a great job taking care of that over the years. You should keep taking care of it, because if we ever do a new school for you, you will never get a building built like that, and you'll never have a gym like that, a pool like that, or an auditorium like that, unless you decide to pay for it." And if you are in communication with the other communities around us, all of those nice amenities that make buildings much more than what they are, just basic classrooms and science labs, those all come now on the local taxpayers' dollar because the state is not funding for those things anymore. Or what you're going to get is some kind of hybrid cafetorium type of thing,
which is a disaster. We have a lot of significant decisions to make in a very short amount of time in the city. In this particular one, I'm glad to see this is going to advance because that building, and I thank Mr. Montie for that presentation. But for any of us that have spent a lot of time with those kids, and I have a graduate from last year from the aviation program, he's now an air traffic controller. He went direct to the FAA academy, and he's a controller in New Hampshire, and I have another one going to Embry-Riddle University in the fall. So it does graduate first-class children.
There's no question it does. And they do deserve a first-class building. Mr. Luna, I thank him for his letter. There's a lot to digest there, but this actually is a process that's governed across the state in the same way, and it starts with this process here, which is taking the submission to be asked to be participant in this process. We have a long way to go. So I will be a yes to move this along because I know personally, because I was there at the beginning, it's way overdue on this particular topic with this school. Thank you. Council Adams.
Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Lieutenant. And I totally agree that the school is definitely in need. It was in need when I went there in '80 to '84. It was in need, but I got an education. I got a good one. Right. Probably not as good as the ones they're getting now, but we got a good education and made a living. Just clarification. Yeah. So if we vote on this in November, does it go to the ballot in November or go to the ballot when the state accepts it? Goes to the ballot when the state accepts it. Okay. So that could be eight or 10 years. Okay. Because that was my question- It could be ... when you said November, when I was looking at it- Well, I'm assuming- ... it might be a whole different- We wouldn't have to run a special election, which I know is an extra cost, which is
why I put November up there. Okay. Yeah. I just want to make sure that the people that are living here and their kids are growing up, those are the people that'll be voting on it- Right ... not the people now, if we're that far away. Right. And the other question, do you have a location where you think about putting this? So I was made aware of some land at the airport that could be available. Okay. Do we have to provide that to the state to make sure that's a feasible place- So they would look at- ... before we move forward? If this goes forward, we might want to come up with multiple options. But in the end, they would determine what's feasible. Why we like the airport is clearly because of the aviation program, but there's a
ton of manufacturing businesses right along that same area. And so access and collaboration with businesses, which is really what makes our school function terrifically, it's just the ease of access. And the location, it's out of the way a little bit. But in terms of it's not going on a... You're not putting a big building like that on a postage stamp lot is what I'm trying to say. Yeah. And the only reason I ask that is because I just went through with the police station, and we did a study and we did an RFP and we did a lot of things to find three and a half acres, and it was almost impossible. Right. So yeah, you might want to start working on that as soon as possible because we don't
have a lot of land left. Right. So if you can secure something, it might be something to get working on. Absolutely. But thank you again. And like I said, I'll certainly support this, and we'll leave it up to the voters. It's going to be up to them. They're going to be paying the bill- Right ... I think it's for a 30-year period. So that's a tough one. However, what do we do? Right. I don't know if we have a choice. And the number depends on what the reimbursement rate and the square footage rate of what MSBA is at the time. So after the reimbursement rate was low, so if you remember with Westfield River, when we built that, it was like $364 a square foot. The problem was, because of COVID,
building went up to about 500 plus a square foot. And so the MSBA has since raised their rate of reimbursement. So it's really hard to predict what that cost would be. And so we know what happened to us because of COVID, right? We know that the reimbursement actually worked out to about 50, 60% after because they only reimbursed $364 a square foot. If the number is accurate with what current building projects cost-Our reimbursement rate would be higher. So, if that makes sense. We could do better in a percentage, depending
on where the MSBA has their square footage rate at. Yeah. Just one last question. So what, just so the people that go to the high school, or the children that will be going to the high school, do you have any idea how long that building will last? So we have been, really, as part of our capital plan, kind of putting, repairing that building a priority. We replaced the telephone intercom system. We replaced all of the exterior doors. We've done a lot of flooring. If you've ever walked into the gymnasium entrance, you'll see that entire flooring project has been done. We have done work in the auditorium.
We have done work in the offices. We have repaired part of the roof. So, I'm going to say that I think we can make that building last quite a bit longer. And I also say that, with all the investment in the field and the area that we have, moving it wouldn't necessarily be a great idea, being that we just put all that money into the fields. So, it is a priority of the district to continue maintaining that building. We're actually hoping to even get the lockers painted this summer, so. Which will really take the place up a bit. Okay. Thank you very much. Mm-hmm. Hang on one second. Counselor Figgy, then Fannion, then Ally.
Thank you, Mr. President. A year ago, I was a no. And I think I was the seventh no. Considering all that has transpired in a year, I'm going to be a yes. I'd just like to encourage my fellow counselors to, if you haven't been to the academy, make a visit, because it is not the most appealing building in the world. Our kids do deserve better. So, I just wanted to let people know why I have changed my vote. Thank you. Counselor Fannion? Thank you, Mr. President. Can we go back to the question about the election? When would the election happen for the people to vote on-
So- ... the funding? So typically, they award that funding over the summer. So let's say you find out in August, and if you have to, we would have to have the ballot on the following November. If we get accepted into the MSBA, they give you a timeframe. This year? Well, no. It could, I suppose, if we were miraculously accepted this summer. Okay. That would be terrific, but when people ask, my best guess is we're probably eight to 10 years away from this, at best. You get eight to 10 years before- So once we get selected- ... the people vote on it? Before you get selected. Right. That could probably happen one to four or five years.
I think our photos are pretty compelling of a new building. I think MSBA, the folks that review these applications will see that. But so that was when the funding would have to be allocated. Okay. But I don't think the doors would open for eight to 10. So once you're selected, then it goes to the ballot. Right. The following November. Okay, thank you. Counselor Allen. Thank you, Mr. President. So I have two questions. One, what are the number of students that you would anticipate? And then the other thing is that, do you see, with the Department of Education being broken down in Washington and money coming back to the States and helping... And obviously, I feel the state should be putting way more money into education than they do with this-
You and I both ... $35 billion budget. Yeah. But do you- So, I think that, will the state... They're not going to give us funding for this. I think MSBA is a separate entity, which comes from a penny off a tax somewhere that we pay. Sales tax. Sales tax. Thank you. Yeah. Couldn't remember. Thank you. So your question was again, if... I got caught up on the state funding schools more because I agree with you 100%. Well, one was how many students you think- Oh, yeah. Okay ... because obviously you want to expand the program. So right now we have 550 students. There's a waiting list of 50 kids per year, so that would bring us to 750, if we wanted to accept all the kids, which would be my goal.
And if we wanted to expand programming, that could be larger, but also those extra 50 students per grade would need a shop to fall into as well. So I would say at minimum 750, but that's where the feasibility comes in as well, and they'll ask us questions. So if we wanted to add, ideally I'd love to add, as I said, HVAC, plumbing, cosmetology, and a farm so we could have animal science. That's another shop that we send kids out of district for, and I feel like with so much farming and just the history of Westfield, we should have our own facilities. But so at minimum 750,
but it could be 800. It could be- Right ... more. And don't forget, this now with a new building and programs that are not offered everywhere, we could be in a position where we would attract out of district students as well. Okay, because that was going to be my next... That's where I was going with that. So some of that could be coming. Right. So right now, our out of district students generate about somewhere between $1.5 and $1.7 million a year for the city. The more students we take, the higher that number goes. And because it's such an exceptional program, and you're very right on what you're talking about, we should be going national as far as even trying to get
private donations to something like this. I think once we get to, again, once we get accepted, it's an MSBA grant, which is the chunk of the funding. Correct? I think when it comes to bringing materials and equipment and things for the shops, I think you're going to see some of that because it's already happening now, where the businesses do donate and give our shops... We've done very well with our business partners, and I'm so glad that we have them. So I anticipate that that would just expand. You've got a remarkable track record. That's a horror show.
But what you've accomplished, and what these students have accomplished- Absolutely ... and what you've put up with. Counselor Harris. Thank you, Mr. President. It is a phenomenal school. I've been there many, many, many times, and not only are the students phenomenal, the programs are phenomenal, the staff is phenomenal But I want to address the economic aspect of it. Okay? Our citizens have had so many increases and so many tax increases, and water increases, and this increase, and that increase, and just in general, life has increased to live. So I want the people to understand, this process,
starting it, is not going to cost anything. Is that correct? Right. So that's number one. Number two, if we all approve this beginning of this process, there will be no tax increases for the citizens- Unless they vote on it ... at this time until this reaches the ballot. It may reach the ballot this year, which is very unlikely, perhaps next year or the year after. It is only after then that the citizens have the vote to vote it yes or no-
Right ... that their taxes would definitely increase. So I just want all the citizens to know that that is the process. We here, the 13 of us, are not deciding tonight to increase your taxes. We are saying you can proceed with this paper trail, basically, to get into the possibility of getting a new school. Right. But the citizens have the final decision whether or not the school goes through. It is not those of us sitting here.
Right. Just want to make the citizens aware of all that. But it is a phenomenal school. Thank you, and it's why I mentioned the Agawam and Holyoke situation. Yeah. In Holyoke, they shot down two middle schools- Yeah ... but the voters did end up approving one. So, this would go to the voters. And the other thing is, if we do not get selected this year, this is an annual process that we'd have to do. Mm-hmm. Right. Councilor Mello. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you for the presentation. You already know what I think about those buildings. My question is, does a yes vote tonight require an appropriation? No. No. So not at all. When does the money for the feasibility study come into play?
So they would have to select us first. Yep. And then we would take that up when-- We were able to do it for the River School. Yeah. And I believe that was $900,000 for the feasibility study, somewhere in that range. And so we would have to work together to come up with that funding, but I'm confident that we could do that. And is that before or after the ballot question? So the feasibility study would be done first to determine what we need. Because in order to have the ballot question, you have to know what you need and how much it's going to cost, so you know what the cost would be to the voters. Okay. So is that money in an account somewhere for the schools, or is that an appropriation for later down the road?
If they select us, we need to move that. Like the bond- If they select us, we would need to find that appropriation. But like I said, I think that we would find a way, collectively, to make that happen. And that's a few years off, you're thinking? Yes. Which is how we did it, same thing with Westfield River. We were selected. We had to have funding for the feasibility study. We were able to secure it, and we were able to move forward. Thank you. Mm-hmm. Anything further? Councilor Oniski. Yes, if I may read the resolution- Please ... so we can vote on it. So this is the part that I need, thank you, is the resolution and the vote from the minutes, which I have to submit with the SOI by April 17th.
Yeah. So I'll make the motion. Well, let me read this, then I'll make the motion. Yeah. So the resolution is, well, first the vote number, and then resolve. Having convened in an open meeting on April 2nd, 2026, prior to the SOI submission closing date, the Westfield City Council of Westfield, Massachusetts, in accordance with its charter and bylaws and ordinances, has voted to authorize the superintendent to submit to the Massachusetts School Building Authority the Statement of Interest Form dated March 2nd, 2026, for the Westfield Technical Academy, located
at 33 Smith Avenue, Westfield, Massachusetts, which describes and explains the following deficiencies and the priority categories for which an application may be submitted to the Massachusetts School Building Authority in the future. Number 3, prevention of the loss of accreditation NEASC, spring 2025, school is in warning status for the general condition of the facilities. NEASC listed the following as a priority area for growth, the
school site and plant support delivery of curriculum, programs, and services, 5.1.A. Number 7, replacement of or addition to obsolete buildings in order to provide for a full range of programs consistent with state and approved local requirements. So I'll make a motion to approve. Second. Motion made and seconded. Any further discussion? Seeing none. Roll call, Madam City Clerk. Figgy? Yes. Harris? Yes. Konnopick? Yes. Matthews-Kane? Yes. Mello? Yes. Oniski? Yes. Adams? Yes. Ally? Yes. Bean? Yes. Belchandi? Yes. Burns? Yes.
Fannian? Yes. Congratulations, sir. Thank you. Good luck. I don't know if any of you want to hang around. We'll take a second if you want to. Economics. Yeah. Still going. Well, I'm glad they changed. No, you didn't get this yet. I got this from him. Thank you, Mr. President. Motion to suspend the rules. Second. Motion made and seconded to suspend the rules. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Now under suspension. Counselor Teehan. Thank you, Mr. President. I'd like to make a motion for immediate consideration to approve the annual fortune teller, junk dealer, and junk collector license renewals for
2026 as presented. Second. Without reading? Without reading. Thank you. Motion made and seconded. Any discussion? Seeing none. Roll call, Madam City Clerk. Oh, wait. Never mind. Okay. Biggie? Yes. Harris? Yes. Kneppek? Yes. Matthews-Kean? Yes. Mello? Yes. Oneski? Yes. Adams? Yes. Ally? Yes. Dean? Yes. Beltrandi? Yes. Burns? Yes. Fannion? Yes. Item seven, Counselor Oniski. Thank you, Mr. President. Would you please ask Madam City Clerk to read items seven through 10 and refer to LNO? Second. Motion made and seconded. Madam City Clerk. Eight, First Assistant City Solicitor Seana Reed submitting a resolution to petition the Senate and House of Representatives of the General Court of the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts relative to the amendment of Section 62 of the Acts of 2004 as requested by Lieutenant John Parish, Chair of the Traffic Commission. Nine, First Assistant City Solicitor Seana Reed submitting an ordinance amendment to Chapter 17, adding Section 17-95, general vehicle weight regulations, as requested by Lieutenant John Parish, Chair of the Traffic Commission. 10, First Assistant City Solicitor Seana Reed submitting an ordinance amendment to Chapter 17, Section 17-116, parking prohibited at certain times on certain streets, as requested by Lieutenant John Parish, Chair of the Traffic Commission, by adding no parking on the west side of Malone Avenue
and Allen Avenue from Franklin Street to West School Street during the hours of 8:30 to 9:00 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. 11, First Assistant City Solicitor Seana Reed submitting an ordinance amendment to Chapter 17, Section 17-73, stop signs designated as requested by Lieutenant John Parish, Chair of the Traffic Commission, by adding a stop sign at Crane Avenue at Mill Street. Any further discussion on sending to LNO? Seeing none. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Thank you. Now in the hands of LNO. Petitions, remonstrances, other papers. Item 11, Counselor Oniski. Thank you, Mr. President. Would you please ask Madam City Clerk to read items
11 and 12 and place on file? Second. Motion made and seconded. Madam City Clerk. 12, notification from the State Lottery Commission informing the city of its right to object within 21 days of notice to the issuance of a Keno To Go monitor at Mr. Phillips Discount Liquors, 113 North Elm Street. 13, notification from the State Lottery Commission informing the city of its right to object within 21 days of notice to the issuance of Keno To Go monitor at the Tobacco Barn, 53 Elm Street. Thank you. Anything further on placing on file? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? All right. Let's see. We've got to wait- Four minutes ... four minutes before we can do a public hearing. Do you want to get into a couple of these other things?
Sure. Reports of committees, item 14. Counselor Harris. Thank you, Mr. President. Item 14 is transferring the amount of $100,472.20 from the reserve of future salaries account to the police full-time hourly account to fulfill first year contract obligations of the ratified successor agreement between the City of Westfield and the Westfield Police Officer Coalition for the period of July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2028 on a three zero vote after the finance committee met on 3/25. We recommend that item.
Second. Motion made and seconded. Any further discussion, Counselor? Yes. Thank you. This is going to be for items 14 and 15. Attorney Seana Reed, the City Solicitor, states that these funds for number 14 and 15 will be used to fulfill first year contract negotiations associated with the ratified successor agreement between the city and the Westfield Police Officer Coalition for the period of July 1, 2025 through June 30th, 2028. It is retroactive to July 1. The economic proposed is step reduction, drop
the steps from the end of the 24th year to the end of the 19th year. The cost in year one is .91% for 41,000 plus. The cost for years, in years two and three, is just over 1% each year. For post, this is the state-mandated peace officer standards and training that added some requirements to be certified as an officer. The cost to the city is 1% each year for the three years of the contract. The base wage and increase in COLA is cost to the city is
2% each year. According to City Auditor Morrill, the appropriation required for year one is $184,245.84. Excuse me, $184,245.84 and $104,472.20 will be a transfer within the police department budget, and $83,773.64 will be from the cash, free cash account. The total cannot be transferred from the
department's account as it was reduced during the budget process to help balance the budget, and other city contract monies needed were already transferred. Years two and three will be included in the police budget. All counselors have received detailed information regarding this contract on the shared drive. So we'll vote separately- Okay ... but it's the same item. Any questions? Okay. So you want to vote separately, but you're gonna not discuss the other one again? That's correct. Okay, perfect. Counselor Adams. Just to clarify this, I believe this is for the patrolmen's contract? Yes. Okay. And just to make a note of this, what's gonna happen, I'm assuming,
is the body cam negotiation will come back to us probably for another appropriation. That's right. I think that's- That's not part of this at this point. So I don't know what that number's gonna be, but I believe this is just for their three-year contractNow we got the grant for the body cams. They now have to sit back down with the mayor and come up with a number. It's a change of uniform. They have the ability to go back and ask for more money to wear the body cams. I don't know what that number's going to be, but that is not in this number. Or maybe it won't be money. It could be a day off. Right? I know. Councilor Bean. Yeah, just to add to that, the state police, I believe, got a day of the
vacation time, one day, when they negotiated. Yeah. At least that's how the paper reported it. Just to respond to that, the only thing I'm not sure about, I believe the supervisors have negotiated into their contract. Yeah. I don't know what that number is. I didn't see it. I'm assuming if you're a patrol officer, you're going to want the same thing the supervisors did, and I don't know what the supervisors got. But I assume it's going to be the same number as they got. I would assume. I don't know the answer to that. Anything further? Okay, we're going to roll call on this item. Madam City Clerk. Fahey? Yes. Harris? Yes. Knappick? Yes. Matthews-Kane? Yes. Mello? Yes. Oneski? Yes. Adams? Yes. Ally? Yes. Bean? Yes. Beltrandi?
Yes. Burns? Yes. Fannian? Yes. Thank you. Item 15, we just had discussion on, unless there's anything further. I'll read it, and that will be it. Yep. Thank you, Mr. President. Appropriation in the amount of $83,773.64 from the free cash accounts to the police department full-time hourly account to fulfill first-year obligations associated with a ratified successor agreement between the city and the Westfield Police Officer Coalition for the period of July 1, 2025, through June 30th, 2028, 3-0 vote. Recommend it. Second. Motion made and seconded. Anything further? Seeing none.
Roll call, Madam City Clerk. Fahey? Yes. Harris? Yes. Knappick? Yes. Matthews-Kane? Yes. Mello? Yes. Oneski? Yes. Adams? Yes. Ally? Yes. Bean? Yes. Beltrandi? Yes. Burns? Yes. Fannian? Yes. Thank you. Seeing as it is now 7:01, we're going to go back to the item 13, which is a public hearing on an application for an amendment to a city council special permit C68-05 to include trailer storage at 81 Service Star Industrial Way, Westfield, Mass. Public hearing is now open. I'm assuming that Mr. Levesque will be making a presentation.
Floor is yours. Thank you. Good evening, President Beltrandi and councilors. I'm Rob Levesque from R. Levesque Associates here this evening representing the Scarfo and Pignatere families. The applicant is an LLC, but generally, these owners and hopefully pending owners, have owned or been involved with the subject property for a number of years. This is on Service Star Way. This is a property that was originally granted a special permit to David Wilcox, a trucking outfit out of Southwick, Massachusetts.
Subsequent to that, Louis Scarfo was able to secure the subject property and continue the use of the property. It was originally permitted as a contractor's yard, which also through the permitting process, there was the discussion of a building and also other associated improvements, including, at one point, the discussion of crushing and other uses within the subject property. We're here this evening. It's a little bit tricky, so I'll do my best to explain it. If you remember about a year ago, or maybe less, maybe eight months ago, we were in and we were here on behalf of a gentleman by the name of
Nick Stefano for a trucking facility with a proposed building. That based on the cost associated with construction these days, as well as the cost of the improvements of the site, Mr. Stefano has moved on and is not pursuing that project. The Scarfo family was left with the options before them to try to figure out what to do with the subject property. Louis Scarfo, a few years back, unfortunately, had passed away. And the family is working on figuring out the properties, et cetera. So, a long time relationship with the Pignatere family, specifically Charlie
Pignatere, who are all in the audience, as well as Mark. Mark had helped manage them their property previously. What they would like to do is go back and utilize-- They still have a 2005 special permit that was issued. Associated with that special permit, there is still an order of conditions that was issued and a certificate of compliance that was issued for that project. So, that was a project permitted by DL Bean, Dave Bean, back in 2005 or so, at which time those permits were granted. So, Mr. Stefano had been granted a permit last year,
but these improvements in the building and a lot of the other things that he wanted to do are not on the list, so to speak, for the Scarfo and Pignatere families. So, they would like to utilize the property as it existed. The permit is still in existence. There has been no action taken on the Stefano permit. Kind of clarified this in a letter to the council. So essentially, what they would like to do is utilize the existing yard. One of the tricks being that it is a contractor's yard use, which is the same category as some of the other "trucking
terminal" uses. Unfortunately, I think trucking terminal, we've discussed this in the past, is a misnomer where the storage of empty trailers is considered that. So, we wanted to make sure that we were to the good with regard to zoning. We submitted a zoning determination, and it was determined that the best course of action was to amend the permit and then include the request for, not dissimilar from some of the others you've seen lately, request theAbility to store empty trailers within the subject property.
A little bit of history, and I think you may remember this, Home Depot had been utilizing this subject property for the storage of trailers for a number of years. I've been before you at least three times in recent months and years with solutions for the empty trailer logistical issue. So, there's been a Falcon Drive project that's been approved. There's been something for Mr. Gilaher on South Hampton Road. And this is another component where they would like to, again, try to utilize this subject property to
accommodate overflow trailers from Campanelle Drive and potentially some of the other users in that general vicinity. This is probably the closest one to those uses. So, we're here this evening, and I'll try to wrap it up. So we're here this evening to request an amendment to the original special permit. We do not plan on acting on the new special permit. That's been made clear. The site improvements that we're proposing are very limited, if any. I have had some discussions about potential concerns related to storm water and
other things that we certainly intend to address and hopefully come up with a solution to those items, because we are working under the old permit and not pursuing the new project for wholesale changes. So, hopefully I did a decent job of explaining that. I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have through council president. And generally speaking, we're requesting an amendment to the original permit just to allow for the storage of empty trailers, which just doesn't quite fit into the contractor's yard special permit. Thank you. Councilor Malo. Thank you, Mr. President. This item here, where is it in the materials we have been provided?
This is the original plan from the permit. Based on the discussion I had today, I thought it made sense to bring this so that you could see the site plan that was provided. Certainly happy to make sure that's shared. But this was the plan in 2005 that was approved under that special permit, showing the access to the property, the grading, and then what was proposed at that time. Okay. So, may I talk? Please. In order to wrap my head around all of it, I'm going to need to see the original array and what you want to do,
which is also, I don't think, 100% fleshed out in here. Based on some discussions I've had recently about questions about storm water, I would think that that's fair to say. Yeah. Okay. Because 2005 was before the water protection stuff we've been doing. So, yeah. So just to give you some perspective. So back in 2005, the project was approved under the then current Wetlands Protection Act, which had a different version of the stormwater management guidelines. Those came out in 2008. Oh. So slightly different. Still similar requirements, but not as stringent,
to be fair. So, one of the discussions I was having recently was related to how to handle stormwater and give the same protections that you would get in the 2005 without doing wholesale changes to the site and over-impact that doesn't need to necessarily happen. It's kind of funny where we're in a position where the site could be operated, it has been and could continue to be operated as is for a more noxious use than storing trailers. So we're back before you to hopefully clean that up as a housekeeping item from a zoning standpoint, and
then obviously, as you guys are the city council granting potential, hopefully granting an amendment, obviously we want to make sure that your concerns related to other stormwater and environmental issues are addressed. Thanks. So we're kind of in a funny spot. We can have all those plans and- Yes ... the new ones? Yes. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. So I have a full set of, well, there's not many plans from when they had to do that back then, but there's all the plans that we have that were submitted, as well as the as-built, the order of conditions that was issued, and the certificate of compliance. So conservation had approved this back in 2005.
So we're happy to provide all of that, as well as hopefully creative solutions on how to bring it up to speed without the proponent having to make cost-prohibitive changes to the site. Okay. And we're continuing so that we can look those over and make a decision? Absolutely. Okay. Yeah, we fully expect to continue tonight. Thank you very much. Thank you. Anything further from council? Councilor Matthews-Kane. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you for presenting tonight. The issue is there are things allowed under the 2005 that would not be allowed today. Absolutely. Like for example, the current special permit appears to allow storage
of hazardous materials and chemicals. They don't have any intent to do that. Like is it allowed- So do you mean the 2005 special permit? Under the 205 special permit. Yeah, if there's anything like that that needed to be cleaned up, I don't believe that that's a concern at all. Their goal, truthfully, completely transparent, would be to potentially secure approximately a 10-year lease or more for the storage of empty trailers. So really, we'd be dealing with literally what the trailers have in terms of mechanical, and then empty inside. Okay. Yeah. Would it be fair to ask you to provide a list of things that are allowed under
that 205 special permit that would not be allowed today under local- Sure ... state, and federal? Yeah, I'd have to go back and look. Certainly, anything that's prohibitive today, if that was folded into an amended special permit, we would adhere to that. Yeah, that should not be an issue in any way. Okay. Yep. Councilor Allie Thank you, Mr. President. Just to follow up on that question. So Rob, would these things become new conditions that would be included or amended? That would seem appropriate to me, not being the council. But yes, that would be wonderful, and you could certainly incorporate
anything into the amended permit that seems logical. Councilor Fanion. Thank you, Mr. President. On the original application in 2005, it talked about crushing of materials. Would this be something that they would be looking to do? No. Currently, no. The idea would be literally to store, very similar to what we've been talking about with the other items, to store empty trailers. That said, and I think there was some discussion as to whether or not that was in the original permit, and if that was actually put in or talked about or taken out.
So if it's in the original permit, and we confirm that, then I would certainly need to-- would want to communicate with my client to make sure that... Because there is value to those types of permits, as you can imagine. But I could certainly discuss that with them, and we could see if-- I don't think they would want to forgo the ability to do that on a contractor's yard. That is valuable. But are you clear? I don't know if I'm clear if it's in there in the original permit or not. It's in the 2005. Okay. So is that something that you're asking whether or not they would want to or be willing to omit?
Because last year, when we were doing the Stefano one, we conditioned it out. Okay. We said there would be no crushing materials, because at that time, there was a public hearing, and the neighbors on Bailey Drive were concerned with that noise. Got you. So we pulled that out. Is it okay just to ask them? Mm-hmm. Are you in a position to decide on something like that tonight, or you'd be- Fine. You'd be okay to omit that? Yeah. So for the audience- It's a condition of approval ... they would be okay to omit that from the amended permit. Any other council questions for the first time? Councilor Matthews-Kane. Thank you, Mr. President. Councilor Fanion had submitted a list of questions to
you, and one was about endangered species program review. Yes. I don't understand what it means, so I'm going to read it out loud to you. Neither do I. And I'm going to ask you to translate. Sure. The Massachusetts Endangered Species Program previously reviewed a separate proposal advanced by Nicholas Stefano and issued a conditional no-take letter for that project. Yes. The current owner and pending owner are not pursuing that more recent special permit, instead are referring to the rights establishment of the 2006 special permit. So can you clarify the endangered species program review, how it pertains to this?
Yes. So the Endangered Species Program review, NHESP is the acronym we use. Natural Heritage Endangered Species Program is a state agency under the Division of Fish and Wildlife. They are charged with protecting not only endangered species, but their habitat within the Commonwealth. And what they utilize for that protection is a map of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that includes polygons they call them. So if you fall within these polygons that are hatched areas on the map, you have to file with them, and they don't necessarily let you know off the bat what you're dealing with.
So they don't want people going out and catching these things and getting rid of them. So they want to make sure they're protected. So, in this particular case, there's a polygon. We submitted an endangered species review request for the last project. There's a polygon. We got approval to do the work in the last project. The protection, this is public, is related to the eastern box turtle. So there was very specific pre-construction requirements as well as some perimeter barriers, et cetera, that were required. So they submit a response to our request for review.
They then submitted back, and that's where you see the term no take. So we received a letter that says it will not take the endangered species or its habitat, conditioned upon very specific conditions that they included. So that was for the Stefano project. The reason that the Endangered Species Program required that review is because there was new activities on the site. So not anything that was done back in 2005 continued along that timeframe up until they filed.
So when they filed for new activities, a new building, if you remember, the Stefano project had a new building, different impacts to the perimeter of the property regrading. So what they were basically saying is, "We don't want any turtle mortality or any other species for that matter within that area." So they had a perimeter, and they would be doing pre-construction sweeps. So it's all part of their process. So in this, depending on where we end up, let's just say hypothetically, the council was in a position to feel comfortable issuing an amendment to the permit, provided there was
no other alterations that were required. We would just let the endangered species know that we were no longer pursuing those alterations, and we'd be able to get approval to continue the program of that use. If we change stuff and expand into certain areas, then we would need to let them-- Either way, we're going to let them know. So we would update them to the current plans, and then that no take letter is directly related to that project. Anytime you change a project, you're required to let them know, and that's something. But we want to figure out what we're doing first locally, get the local
entitlements in a perfect world, and then go to the Endangered Species Program explaining that we've been approved locally, and then have that cleaned up. Can I ask a follow-up question? Please. Just I want to make sure I understand correctly. Yep. So would they be in charge of putting the conditions on the project, or are we as council in charge of putting those environmental conditions on the project? They would be in charge of putting conditions related to the endangered species that are protected at the state level on the project. The council should not and would not be inIt's different jurisdictions, kind of two
separate silos. So the council should certainly put conditions on for the local aspects that you would be reviewing, which arguably are what Counselor Mello and Counselor Fannion had discussed, and what you had discussed local. But as far as the endangered species program, that is handled at the state level, and they will condition whatever. If they feel it's necessary, they would condition that. Okay. Thank you. Yep. Thank you. Other questions from the council before we open it up to the public? Is there anyone in the public that would like to ask a question of fact regarding this proposal? Yep. Sir, would you come forward and state your name and address for the city council
clerk, please? Good evening. My name is Jack Adam. I'm co-owner of a company called Manufacturing Technology Group who's located abutting on the property here at 85, abuts right onto 81. We've been there for 30, 25 years. After five years, we put an addition on which abuts directly with the property you're talking about now. We're 15 feet from the property line. You go over to that property line 15 feet and there's a road now, that's a dirt road most of the way. And what happens is the trucks, as they drive to the back of their property, drives
alongside of my property. Think of it, 30 feet away. And these trailers are pulling out back, they're moving sometimes pretty fast. And there's mostly dirt road. And of course, you know what happens with the rain, and you end up with puddles. And in this area here, it really is bad. As a result, the trailers are going by, and you get the bumping sound, and it sounds like guns going off. The vibration is terrible. My building has cracks in it because perhaps from the tractors going by there. But my other side of the building, which is five years older, doesn't have any.
I think right now the way it's set up, it's not going to work out for me and for my business. Okay. So right now, we're asking for questions of fact for the applicant. It sounds like- What are you going to do to improve the road, the driving back? And I don't see what you have any plans. This would be old, but I can take it. Sorry. You want to just hang on, I can- Sure ... hand that to the chair, to the president. Yes. So, it's a good question, and yes, the surface of the area is in somewhat in disrepair. There are some, just like the gentleman said, there's some pockets and puddles, et
cetera. So there's no wholesale changes proposed other than the grading of the surface, which is my understanding a requirement of the tenant. The tenant wants the area to be graded out, and any potholes, et cetera, just cleaned up, and the surface made clear and compacted so that that does not happen, because obviously that affects their trailers as well. So good comment, probably a reality, and that is being addressed and is a requirement of the tenant should they sign the lease. Thank you.
Will there be any maintenance taking place on a monthly basis or a quarterly basis to make sure that the roads retain smooth? I have not had that discussion through the- Please ... president. I have not had that discussion with my client, but it is a good question. I would assume that there is some sort of a requirement in the lease. I don't know if it's triple net where they're required to... I would assume they're required to maintain their own. But, frankly, as part, I don't know if it's monthly, but maybe even quarterly or whatever the appropriate timeframe is. Certainly, items like that could be conditioned by the council as well. What about the maintenance of port-a-potties that you put on the property?
I don't know how that operation would work, frankly. I have not had that conversation. I know that they would want to maintain that. I would think that would be through the tenant, would be responsible for that. So we could certainly talk to the Board of Health, address what they would see would be appropriate. There's no office, there's no intended area, but we do understand the reality of making sure that should somebody need facilities, that they're appropriately provided. And the same for the trash cans- Yeah ... because that's always been overflowed and not properly taken care of. And I think it's fair to say, and just being completely transparent with the
council, I think this came up at the previous public hearing for Mr. Stefano. I think the site was not managed well in the past. That is well known now, and I think certainly maintenance provisions and conditions would be logical. That's it. Okay. Thank you, sir. Again, I'm still not happy with it. We'll be going back to where we were. The past two years has been quiet because we haven't had trailer activity, which has been great. But to go back to having my people feel the vibration of the trucks going by there, the 25 mile speed zone, maybe we should put a hump on that road to keep them moving.
Thank you. Anybody else have a question of fact? Pardon me? No. Anybody else have a question of fact for the applicant? Questions of fact. Anyone like to speak in favor of this proposal? Speak in favor? Seeing none, anyone like to speak in opposition to this application? Too late. In opposition. Counselor Fannion? Motion to continue the public hearing to allow Mr. Leveque to get the answers to the stormwater questions that were asked. Second. Motion made and seconded. Is that- That would be great. Okay. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Thank you, sir. Thank you. Appreciate your time. Okay, back to item 16. Counselor Bean.
Thank you, Mr. President. Finance committee has met with an approval of a submitted request to the council for the approval of an increase in a COLA base for retirees from 13,000 to 14,000. Second. Thank you. Motion made and seconded. Further discussion, council? Yeah. Pretty self-explanatory. This is something we haven't done for a number of years. I did have a printout. It is on the shared drive, which I wasn't sure if I was going to hit it, but there is a printout here on where we sit across the state. We're in a group of five or six or seven. The only city that's
lower than us at this given moment is Amesbury. It's looking at about $30 per person. The retirement board, Liam's here tonight, who oversees that department, and Mark Devine, who's chair, I believe a lot of us know Mark, was at the meeting. They are looking to plan to come in front of us in the next year or two to look to increase it again. Looking at the chart, obviously, I think it's personally needed. And the retirement account itself, for the last 10 years, it averaged out about 10.5% in return. So they're doing an unbelievable job over
there on that particular case. And they're about nine years, I believe nine years out for full funding of that particular piece. And their target was 7%, so they're exceeding all levels. So kudos to Liam and his staff and the board itself. And your recommendation was? 3-0. 3-0. Yes. Any further questions on this? Seeing none, roll call, Madam Clerk. Fahy? Yes. Harris? Yes. Knoppik? Yes. Matthews-Kane? Yes. Mello? Yes. Oniske? Yes. Adams? Yes. Ally? Yes. Bean? Yes. Velchandni? Yes. Burns? Yes. Fannian? Yes. Thank you. Legislative and ordinance, item 17, Councilor Oniske. Thank you, Mr. President. L&O met on March 31st and upon a
3-0 vote, recommended approval of a resolution to accept a grant in the amount of $72,275 from the Massachusetts Executive Office for Administration and Finance Community Compact Cabinets IT Grant Program to the Information Technology Department for implementation of a digital accessibility features. Second. Motion made and seconded. Further discussion, Councilor? Yes. Thank you, Mr. President. In 2024, the US Department of Justice mandated that
municipalities have accessibility for electronic information. So what this means is, for instance, our website would have to be containing accessibility features for folks with vision-based issues. In some cases, it would mean being able to expand and make larger all of the fonts. In other cases, it might mean changing the color of the font. It would also have some other features for people who are dyslexic that make these
readable. Right now, our website, for instance, has a lot of PDF files. The PDF file, if you just scanned this piece of paper here, you're not able to actually read the words. It comes in as one image, a PDF. So part of this grant would be to help change PDFs into readable, I guess, OCR documents so that this could be read aloud to someone with sight disabilities.
There's no match to this program, and Westfield has to meet this requirement by April This would also make captioning available, procurement of document remediation to convert files to readable files on the internet, staff training, and software to do this. Let's see. There will be maintenance after this. Lenore gave a presentation. She wasn't really sure exactly how much, but estimated about 10 to $15,000 a year to
maintain our systems to be available for this disability type audit. The first thing that would happen would be a company going through the website and making sure that everything on the website is available for people with disabilities. Let's see. There is no match, and it's going to turn out to be probably a bigger project just by our discussions and thinking about the website alone. It's really going to be a lot to chew, certainly, to get all this to happen.
But this $72,000 is a start for it, and we approved of this. Questions from the council? Would you read the resolution by title only, and then we'll vote? Well, can I make a comment? Yeah. Councilor Ally. Thank you, Mr. President. So what was not clear was how far back that they would have to go. In other words, this law was passed in 2024, whether or not it would start from when it became law or go back to a certain date, because that could add quite a bit to it, because there may not be a match. But beyond remediation,
there can be a significant cost to adjusting some of these documents, and also there'll be fines going forward for non-compliance. So just to be aware. Good. Anything else? If the resolution, if you'd like me to read that, Mr. President- Please ... I will. By title only. Resolution to file and accept a grant with and from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Executive Office of Administration and Finance for the FY26 Community Compact Information Technology Grant to the Westfield Technology Center. Thank you. Roll call, Madam City Clerk.
Figgy? Yes. Harris? Yes. Knapik? Yes. Matthews-Kane? Yes. Mello? Yes. Oneski? Yes. Adams? Yes. Ally? No. Bean? Yes. Beltrandi? Yes. Burns? Yes. Fannian? Yes. Thank you. Item 19, Councilor Fannian. Thank you, Mr. President. LNO has met and gave a 3-0 positive recommendation for the acceptance of Cardinal Lane by eminent domain taking. Second. Motion made and seconded. Further discussion, Councilor? Yes, thank you. We have received positive recommendations from the Planning Board and the Board of Public Works to accept Cardinal Lane as a city way, and because this is being taken by eminent domain, we would also ask
for a public hearing to be scheduled. Thank you. Any questions on the taking for Cardinal Lane? Seeing none, all in favor? Aye. Opposed? Item 20, Councilor Fannian. Thank you, Mr. President. The City Legislation Ordinance has met, and with a 3-0 vote, gave a positive recommendation for the acceptance of Bigwood Drive by eminent domain taking. Second. Motion made and seconded. Any further discussion, Councilor? Again, we had positive recommendations from the Planning Board as well as the Board of Public Works. And again, this is eminent domain taking, therefore requests a public hearing to be scheduled. Okay. Do you want a public hearing on that first one as well?
Yes, I said that, yeah. Okay, you already did that? Yeah. Okay, so let's do public hearing on both at the next available? Yes, please. Okay. Anybody else? Councilor Adams. Yeah, just a quick explanation of maybe... And maybe the president knows probably more than anybody. Any idea why these weren't accepted back then? Did we miss something? So this has been an ongoing issue, okay? So there's been a number of different reasons over the years why this hasn't happened. The street layouts, typically when Larry Smith was the community development director and planning director, the object was that the developer would keep the entire
right of way in one deed, so the people buying the houses wouldn't own to the center of the road. Mm-hmm. So when the street was done, there would be one deed given to the city. That didn't happen. Okay. Okay? It was procedurally, it got messed up. Same thing happened with the street I live on, in Janelle Drive. As you know, we went through that process, and I had to do it twice. I did it 11 years prior, and it never got done again right, and then we had to do it 11 years later again. So this now is the process that we're going to do to resolve this. Yeah. No, I think the question, and I'm hoping this doesn't happen anymore. Have we addressed that for the new streets that are being done?
So Jay Vinsky's very good about making sure that that doesn't happen. So this process has evolved better. Okay. So we're cleaning up the mess. We have several more to do. No, I know. Yeah. For the future, I just hope we've learned something and we can address it so we don't have to keep going 10 years from now. No, and I agree with you 100%, but I think we're in the right direction. These streets are aged well before. Yeah. So we're just cleaning them up. Yeah, I know. Thank you. Councilor Burns. Yeah, Mr. President. Again, thank all the ward counselors because we've
done, I think every one of us has done at least one street. But follow up on Councilor Beltrandi's statement there. You drive these streets and you say to yourself, Cardinal Lane, you can't believe that it hasn't been accepted. Or other streets, even Bigwood. I lived up there for 12 years. I still can't believe some of these. Yeah. And also in my ward, like Alexander and Daniel Ridge. There must be a blanket way that we can take these streets that are absolutely... We've been maintaining them since they were built. The city should accept them in a blanket manner.
I just think this is a lot of work for a lot of people that doesn't have to be done. We should come up with it. Somebody should come up with a list and say, "Look it, this street is not accepted." Because the last list that I saw, these streets weren't even on there as not being accepted. So right away, we thought they were accepted. Well- There's a lot of confusion by the public. I get calls all the time. That's why we came up with the other ordinance for streets that just are never going to get accepted. Yeah. There's no way that they're going to be accepted.
But we need to address those like we did with that ordinance. And we are doing that. That part we are doing. They're supposedly coming up with a commissioner or whatever to address that. But just for the public's knowledge here, like I said, we need to come up with a list that what is accepted and what's not accepted, if we could. Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President? Yes. Just want just to follow up on that. I'm actually kind of perplexed how this happens. Cardinal Lane has been around for a long, long time, since probably the school went in, right? That's like 1990. Before. Well, I'll give you a better one, Councilor. Rich Crest.
Rich Crest. I can't believe it. So what is going on that we're all of a sudden finding this out now? Because all those streets have been paid with city and state funds for years. Would you like to respond to that? I'm just going to... Mm-hmm. I've expressed my concerns on all these processes, but every time we have a new city engineer and a new city solicitor in the city, we've had a different process. Well, hold on, the process- That's why we're in this place. Yeah, but not the process. I just want to know why they're coming out of the woodwork now. What's been the trigger- To do that. I can answer that. Yeah. Mm-hmm. So when the previous city engineer, the one that left recently,
she started looking into requests for repairs. And when she went back and looked, she said, "We don't have Chapter 90 funds available because these streets aren't accepted." That's when the light went on, and that's what started this whole process of trying to pick up all these streets and get them in so that you can get the Chapter 90 funds. But that's the truth. Is there a list that she generated that lets us all know where that is? There is a list, and I'm sure you could get it through- It's on the website. Yeah. Mm-hmm. I'm just astonished after all these years, like Ridgecrest Drive,
that blew my mind that that was the case. Well, Councilor Bean and I talked today. Yeah. We're going to be circulating a petition to get 51% of the signatures from the residents on the street so that we can move it forward to the acceptance. Yeah. And it's a process. Well, I know. This is an easier process than what we went through before because Councilor Burns, myself, Councilor Faniel- They're all of them ... Councilor Figge, we went around and had the petition done, and then I literally went and got my notary public and notarized all of the deeds for these properties in my ward, just to save
everybody the time and effort that they had to do. Then they switched it. Yeah. And now they changed it, and the process is actually going to be easier. Mr. President, somebody in your ward alone there, they laid sewer pipe there, and the streets aren't accepted, some of them. Yeah. I mean, that's how crazy this thing is. So hopefully this is the beginning of the end of this whole thing. Right. Weren't you the mayor then, Mr. Mayor? I wasn't. Oh. That predated me, back in 1990, as I remember. Councilor Figge and then Faniel. He was still in high school. No, I was out of high school. Thank you, Mr. President. The other thing to remember is for every street we've
stopped, there's a financial piece to this that isn't budgeted. So I have a street that was laid out in the 1800s that I can't get accepted as a public way. Was that in War II? It sure is. How can that be, Councilor? Hey, Belvedere Gardens. Our streets were paved in gold years ago. I don't understand that. Well, that's when we had a mayor. Anyway. The gold days. So yeah, just remember, we're going to make a lot of these, and I don't see... Somebody smarter than me is going to have to figure out how we're going to increase our Chapter 90, because there's X number of
dollars in the pot. It's already divided up, and they haven't increased the number in the pot. So how, if we increase our mileage, are we going to get more money, because there isn't more money to get? Unless we take it away from another city or town. Can I just add to that? Yeah, Councilor. It's not just about Chapter 90 anymore. Free cash has been pulled into that. Mm-hmm. Right. Other pots of money. Lots of it. Because it's city money. Another change of process, right? So Ridgecrest has been paved three or four times since I've lived there, so it is what it is, and-
But it's still trying to be a bigger person ... try to be a bigger person. Well, so the effort is there from the ward councilors, especially. Yeah, but it's futile because- I didn't think you were that old ... you run in, you go to DPW and say that we're not going to accept it because we have no money. Yeah. It's crazy. So all the work you do goes down the drain. Councilor Faniel. Thank you, Mr. President. I just wanted to address the reason why we're learning that a lot of these streets are private ways is because my constituents are coming up to me asking for their roads to be paved, and the first question that is asked of me, is it private or public? Once it's learned that it's private, we have to go
to the process to get it accepted as a public way because we need those Chapter 90 monies. Otherwise, the city has to foot the bill. So that's why these are coming to our attention, because the streets are in disrepair, and the residents are looking to have them fixed, and that's how it's coming forward. Well, in the case of Jenelle Drive and Jean Marie Drive, which are in my ward, I asked to have a catch basin fixed on Jenelle Drive, to be told a week later that they couldn't do it because it wasn't an accepted road, when 11 years prior to that, I went through the whole process to get it
approved, got it accepted, and the law department never did the other end of it, so it just sat there in the drawer. Wow. That's the other part of it. So it's got to be seen through. Anything further? No. Motions, orders, or resolutions. Item 21, Councilor Bean. Thank you, Mr. President. Motion by Councilors Bean, Knapik, and Oneiski to have the Westfield Police Department do an overview and plans for community policing for the upcoming year, with a focus on Hampden Ponds, Walmart, Columbia Greenway, or the bike trail, and the court district. So moved.
Second. Motion made and seconded. Further discussion, Councilor? Hopefully, I've had some discussions with Steve Dickinson, and it's either going to be the end of April or the beginning of May when they're going to come in and discuss. So you're referring this to police? I would just refer it to police. Yeah, that's fine. Anything further? Councilor? Yeah. I'm concerned. Isn't Hampden Ponds a state property? Why are we going to put local jurisdiction into a state facility? Because our officers address all sorts of issues up there, and I don't really see too many state vehicles up there,
to be honest. We do boat patrols, too. So if we take over their job, they're never going to show up. We're not taking it over. We're trying to find out because these are drags on the department. And to be honest, we should have state entities up there doing the policing, and that's not really happening right now. So I think we need to put some pressure on it. Walmart's one of those as well. Walmart's a private property. We're going to police that? Councilor Bean. Mr. President, Chicopee worked, now they're actually paying for security up there, because they've actually, in Chicopee, the Walmart up there, which is one of the worst in the country, by the way.
... debated getting, they put the pressure on, then the city did, and they finally acquiesced, and are now spending Walmart money on making that place safer, not city money. So, not sure why. You know the answers to these questions, Councilor. So, it's a real problem in all these areas at this given moment. Yeah, I know, because the original conversation we were having was about the rail trail and the core district, and now it's expanded out to these other areas. I'm just concerned that we're going to get-- Do we have the manpower? Do we have the resources?
Do we have what we need to go to private or state entities when we have our own issues with our own community here? I'm all for looking for a plan, but I just don't know how appropriate it is to be policing state properties. Councilor Oginski. Thank you, Mr. President. It's absolutely necessary that we police the Hampton Ponds area. One of the areas that the police department patrol is Old Appermount Way, which is not owned by the state, but has parking
issues all over the place to the point where nobody could get to the boat ramp. They're breaking up parties there. It's absolutely necessary. Also, there's a boat patrol, which is really for the safety of not only the people on the water, but the people, the residents of Hampton Ponds who abut the water. So, they are residents, although it's a Great Pond, I believe it's called. It is helping protect those residents. So that's why we're at Hampton Ponds, and I'm glad we've been doing it for as long as I've been city councilor, and it's been
very effective, and I hope we continue to do it. Councilor Adams. Yeah, that's more the issue. This has got nothing to do with these places. This is about a police officer makes $28 an hour, and we don't have enough police officers, because nobody wants to be a police officer these days, and I can't blame them for many reasons. We're way undermanned to do many of these things. Walmart, we have five cars on the road, two cars go to Walmart for every call. Mandatory. Mandatory. We don't have the men to do what we need to do here. So when the police officers asked for 70 people,
we gave it to them. The mayor funded 66. With all the retirements, we have five or six people coming through the academy. We have people going to the state police. We can never keep 66 officers, which affects every single one of these. Are these issues? There's no question. The question is, we have to figure out with the police department how to get more men and women to do these jobs so we can keep the city safe. That's the bottom line. Yep. Anything further? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Item 22, Councilor Melo. Thank you, Mr. President. Item 22 is a motion of Councilors Melo and Fanny to
consider a 12-month moratorium on new data center projects, referred to Natural Resource and Law Department. Second. Motion made and seconded. Further discussion, Councilor? Yes. Thank you, Mr. President. And if Chair Oginski would prefer, we can also share, but I figured he would let us do the work in Natural Resources. Please. Yeah. That's what I thought. Thank you. So we have a moratorium on battery energy storage solutions for systems for a little while, right? A 12-month moratorium. And they would be some people's preferred backup energy for data centers.
But the problem is, if you were to have a new data center proposed now, because of the BEST moratorium, which is absolutely necessary until we figure out what to do with that other permitting thing, they would be burning fossil fuels, right, exclusively. Which we know that they can't do because of DEP air permits. And in Lowell, they applied to extend and expand those air permits and get a variance, and that is what all that row is about now. Westfield is shaped like a bowl, and if Councilor Morganelli were here, he would tell you about the inversion that
happens in the summer and how the pollutants get trapped in the environmental justice areas of our city. Right? All the air pollutants come down and sit in the bowl of the city. These centers are known to increase the temperature of the areas they are, pollute the waters of the area they are, incredible amounts of noise pollution and air pollution. I think that as long as we have the BEST moratorium and we're looking at the clean energy permitting, we need to also protect our residents and our natural resources from these systems until the state-of-the-art
brings it to a place where we can do so safely in a place with as much water under the ground as we have and the shape that we have. Because otherwise, we're just pushing an environmental and a health burden on an already overburdened population. Thank you. Thank you. Anything further? Councilor Allie. Thank you, Mr. President, and I would like to add my name to this. There was some confusion. I tried to do it earlier, but anyways, I thought it was taken care of. I'm going to give you credit for that right now. You're good. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Any announcements? Seeing none. Councilor Harris. Oh, Councilor Figgie.
Yeah. I'd just like to congratulate Councilor Morganelli's son on graduating from basic training, and that's the reason he's not here tonight. So, thank his son for his service. Yes. Yeah. Councilor Allie. Thank you, Mr. President. And I would like to wish everybody a happy Easter. Thank you. Councilor Harris? Motion to adjourn. Second. Second. Motion made and seconded. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Happy Easter, everyone. We're adjourned. Hear, hear