WESTFIELD – The City Council voted last night to approve the appropriation of nearly $40,000 for two community preservation projects as requested by Mayor Daniel M. Knapik and recommended by the City’s Community Preservation Committee.
The Community Preservation Act (CPA) requires that 30 percent of the funds raised through the surtax be used for three specific purposes, with 10 percent dedicated annually to each of those special accounts, which are: low and moderate income housing, recreation and open space, and historical preservation. The remaining 70 percent is placed into the unrestricted account and can be used for any purpose allowed by the Community Preservation Act.
Last night the council approved appropriations for historic building preservation and open space acquisition.
The council approved a request of $30,800 to repair the cedar shingle roof and chimney of the historic Dewey House, constructed in 1735, located on South Maple Street.
Finance Committee Chairman Richard E. Onofrey Jr., the Ward 5 representative, said that the Dewey House Trustees, which is an arm of the Western Hampden Historical Society, the owners of the historic structure, plan to make the roof repair using materials, cedar shakes, which would have been used during the period when the house was originally built. The group will also repair the brick chimney original to the Dewey House while the roof work is being done.
The appropriation was unanimously approved with little discussion but the other appropriation, $9,900, was debated at length. That appropriation will fund a survey of the farm land located on Northwest Road being purchased from John Pitoniak.
The City Council, in January, approved $381,500 in funding to purchase more than 62 acres land currently owned by Pitoniak. Several councilors questioned the appropriation proposal.
Ward 4 Councilor Mary O’Connell, in whose ward the property is located, asked why additional funding is being requested now for the survey after the purchase has already been initiated.
Shouldn’t (the survey) have been done before (the purchase)?” O’Connell asked.
City Solicitor Susan Phillips said the need for a survey was identified only within the past two weeks when the attorney representing Pitoniak presented the deed to the city under the purchase process. Phillips said that the “old deed” is woefully inadequate to protect the city’s interests.
“So we decided that the only way we could have a deed to satisfy all of our requirements is to do a survey and attach it to the deed when it is filed (with the registry of Deeds in Springfield),” Phillips said.
The city had originally intended to have the Conservation Commission serve as the agency enforcing the conservation restriction on the land, but was informed by the state that the city could not both own the land and enforce the conservation restriction, Phillips said.
The city has entered an agreement with the Massachusetts Audubon Society, through a local chapter, to serve as the conservation restriction enforcement agency for the city.
Phillips said the Audubon Society has different requirements than agencies, such as the Winding River Land Conservancy, with which the city has dealt with in the past. One of the requirements is that monument markers be erected to clearly designate the boundaries of the property, which will be done as part of the survey process.
The purchase of the 62.9 acres is part of 113 acres Pitoniak parcel which will be under conservation restrictions.
That appropriation was also approved by a unanimous 23-0 vote following Phillips presentation.
