The Westfield District Court will stay in its current location with the signing of a new five-year lease for the courthouse building, owned by Monarch Properties of Springfield.
Paul C. Picknelly, president of Monarch Properties, joined court officials and local legislators for a press conference yesterday morning to announce the deal. The announcement ends the uncertainty engendered by trial court officials in July, immediately after Gov. Deval Patrick signed the state’s new budget, when they announced that 11 of the state’s 101 courthouses would have to be closed to cope with budget shortfalls.
One of the reasons cited for closing the Westfield court was that the courthouse is privately owned and savings could be realized by moving the Westfield court into state-owned buildings which currently house other courts.
At the press conference, State Sen. Michael R. Knapik (R-Westfield) was joined by State Reps. Don Hummason (R-Westfield) and Nicholas Boldyga (R-Southwick), Philip A. Contant, the senior justice at the Westfield Court, Picknelly, Thomas A. Kenefick, president of the Hampden County Bar Association, and other court officials when he announced a “five year contract to keep this courthouse an instrument of justice” for the residents of the area.
Knapik noted that closing the court in Westfield would have been a severe hardship for the residents who have business in the court and for the law enforcement agencies in the cities and towns that the court covers. He singled out Kenefick for his efforts to publicize the impact that the closure of the court would have on the residents of the areas.
Contant and other speakers at the press conference cited the cost saving actions already taken by the trial court system which have included an absolute hiring freeze since 2008.
He said that the fight to keep the court in Westfield has been “a long battle” but said he “couldn’t be happier with the results.”
Contant had pointed out during the discussions to avert the closure, and reiterated yesterday, that 83,000 residents are served by the court and that it is already a hardship for many of them to get to the Westfield court. The burden, he said, would be much greater if their alternative was to travel to courts in Great Barrington, Holyoke or Chicopee.
He said “access to justice (was) the primary thing that closed the deal” with the Picknelly family, who he called “terrific landlords” and said had made “significant concessions” in the lease agreement.
“We have some security for at least the foreseeable future” thanks to the new lease, he said.
Picknelly said “the lease was negotiated with lower rates for five years” and Contant added that the court’s rent will be “less than it is now, even five years from now.”
Picknelly called the Westfield court “one of the nicest courthouses” and thanked Knapik for his “assistance to make sure this building continues to operate as a courthouse.”
Kenefick called closing the Westfield courthouse “unimaginable” and acknowledged a “debt of gratitude” Knapik, Picknelly and Contant for their efforts in the successful struggle to keep the court open.
