The Westfield Gas & Electric business office will be moved from 100 Elm Street later this month for a short period of time while the municipal utility’s service center is renovated.
WG&E General Manager Daniel Howard told members of the Municipal Light Board last night that the renovation of 100 Elm Street will begin the week of June 22 and completed by the middle of August.
The utility’s first-floor customer service center will be relocated to 108 Elm Street during the renovation.
Howard said the department hired Tighe & Bond to not only develop the design specifications of the project, but to ensure that contractors bidding for the work qualified under Massachusetts General Law (Chapter 14, Section 44-J) and to make a recommendation of the contract award to the lowest qualified bidder.
Howard said that the firm of Burke Construction of Adams was awarded the contract with a bid of $648,000, below the Tighe & Bond estimate by seven percent. Four contractors submitted bids, ranging from Burke’s low number up to $753,000. Howard said that about 80 percent of that bid is related to the interior renovation. The exterior work includes reporting the brickwork and painting.
The interior renovation work to the first floor customer service area is designed to enhance employee and customer security, safety, and confidentially.
Howard said the intent of the renovation is to ensure that the 100-year-old building remains a functional and attractive part of the downtown building scape.
The MLB later discussed the renovation effort and its impact on their meeting location. The last time the interior of the building was renovated, a meeting area was built on the third floor of 100 Elm Street, but never used because of ADA accessibility regulations. A meeting area is set up in the first floor customer service area for the board for their Wednesday night meetings. However, that open space will be eliminated by the reconfiguration of that space.
Since that earlier renovation of the 100 Elm St. building, done in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, an elevator, jointly paid by the city and the Eaton’s Building property owner, was installed to provide access to the upper floors of three downtown buildings, eliminating the prohibition to conduct MLB meetings on the third floor.
MLB members were divided about moving their meeting sessions to the third floor of 100 Elm St. or up to the operations center on Turnpike Industrial Road, located off Lockhouse Road.
Several members argued that the operation center provides greater support in terms of technology, a larger meeting space and abundant parking. Dedicated parking downtown is not as available.
Ward 2 Commissioner Robert Paul said the board members should decide four or five “critical criterion on which to base making the selection” between the two sites.
Commissioner Edward Roman argued that “in the long run the ops center is the best choice.”
That argument was countered by that of Commissioners Thomas Flaherty, Robert Sacco and Jane Wensley who agreed that, while the operations center had better facilities, it is important for the department to maintain its downtown presence.
“The question is of tradition,” Sacco said. “We’re a major municipal department, we should be in the heart of the city. I put significant weight on the presence of the governing board of a major department in the center of the city. It’s a symbolic issue.”
Wensley agreed, saying that the downtown area is the hub of the city and the municipal utility needs to be in that hub.
Flaherty suggested that the board meet on a trial basis in July on the third floor of 100 Elm St., to assess how that meets the board’s space needs, then decide on a permanent location for future meetings.
