The City Council is working on the budget for Fiscal Year 2014 for a final vote at the July 8 meeting. The Council’s Finance Committee will continue holding meetings with the city’s department heads. These meetings are open to the public and start at 6:30 p.m. Next week’s meetings will take place on Monday and Wednesday at the Voc-Tech and on Thursday at South Middle School. Please double check on the city website at www.cityofwestfield.org for any updates on these and future meetings. The Finance Committee meetings I’ve attended have focused on identifying necessary expenses, pinpointing where cuts can be made and looking at a 5-year projection that would keep the city in solid financial ground.
Westfield City Hall is currently closed for the summer while undergoing extensive renovation to update the interior and the heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems. Many offices have relocated to the Westwood Building, and at city buildings at Sackett and Washington streets. To visit a particular city office, please visit the website or call ahead to find the temporary location of the office you are seeking. The city’s phone number is 572-6200.
On May 29, I attended the Massachusetts Municipal Association (MMA) and City of Quincy event to showcase Quincy’s Revitalization Initiatives. The New Quincy Center is the largest historic downtown revitalization in the U.S. My goal was to find the take away for Westfield given our similarities, differences and Westfield’s progress with the proposal for the Elm Street redevelopment project. Westfield, incorporated in 1669, has a population of 41,000 and is 47.3 square miles. Quincy, incorporated in 1630, is located 8 miles from Boston, has a population of 93,000 and is 27 square miles. Both cities date back to the sixteen hundreds. Westfield has less than half the population but a larger footprint. The master plan for the New Quincy Center will serve a larger number of residents in a densely populated area near a large city. It’s a bold public-private partnership between the City of Quincy, StreetWorks (a developer and master planner) and private investors to develop retail space, office space, hotels, residential units, and parking garages. First, two city-owned parking lots were sold to the developer (they call this the ‘marriage.’). Next, they held 30 community meetings, including charettes, to engage the community. And finally, their ambitious goal is for the City of Quincy to buy back the developed properties once it reaches 75 percent occupancy and the city can count on 3/4 of tenants paying rent and/or city taxes. Other positive outcomes are the new and continuation of jobs, as well as new businesses that add to the tax base.
While the scope of our and their downtown renovation projects differ, there are two important similarities. First, both Westfield and Quincy have invested state and federal dollars in infrastructure upgrades. Westfield’s “growing pains” included projects funded with American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) federal funds and earmarks, and state funds that brought our utilities, streets, streetscapes, and sidewalks up to modern, efficient and accessible standards. And second, both redevelopment projects count on public-private partnerships for their success. At Thursday’s City Council meeting, we approved a “Resolution authorizing the Mayor to sign the Second Amendment to the Memorandum of Understanding for Joint Development Master Plan of the Westfield Elm Street Redevelopment and Intermodal Transportation Center” (Westfield City Council Meeting 6-6-13 Agenda).
As our city moves forward, it’s imperative to look at the whole picture and address the financial challenges ahead. The tax dollars we spend have to support the residents, businesses and municipality efficiently, and also set the groundwork for prosperity in the short and long term.
Councilor Agma M. Sweeney
Westfield City Council At-Large
The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not represent positions by The Westfield News.
