WESTFIELD –The City Council’s Finance Committee will consider recommendations for several significant funding requests submitted by Mayor Daniel M. Knapik for sewer improvement projects, to complete the design of the senior center and for conversion of the former Red Cross Chapter House on Broad Street to a homeless student residency.
The Finance Committee is slated to meet tonight at 6 p.m. at City Hall on Court Street to discuss those appropriations and what recommendation to make to the full City Council Thursday night.
Knapik is requesting the council to approve $371,000 from the free cash account to complete the design and related bid documents for the Council on Aging new senior center construction project on Noble Street. Knapik submitted the appropriation at the council’s Jan. 16 session because of a compressed timeline to begin construction.
The Senior Center Building Committee presented the project to the Planning Board in January to begin the board’s review of a petition for approval of a special permit, site plan and stormwater management plan associated with the $7 million construction project. The Planning Board will continue that review tomorrow night.
The board continued the public hearing to give the engineering and architectural team time to modify the plans to address issues by board members raised at the Jan. 21 meeting. The 20,000-square-foot, two-story building is being designed by a team of two architectural companies, Dietz & Company Architects of Springfield which is teaming up with Courtstreet Architects of Newton with the Berkshire Design Group as the landscaping consultant.
The Senior Center Building Committee has established a timeline to push the project toward construction next fall, with the opening of the new facility slated for the fall of 2015. The committee anticipates a construction phase of 14 months beginning in late summer or early fall of this year if the other milestones are met. The $371,000 free cash appropriation is a key element in accomplishing that goal.
The Finance Committee will also discuss an appropriation request of $80,000 from the city’s Community Preservation Act account to assist Domus Inc. with conversion of the Red Cross Chapter building to a residential facility to house 10 homeless students attending high school in the city. The renovation project is estimated at $1.4 million, with the bulk of that funding from the state Department of Housing and Community Development.
The Planning Board voted unanimously last month to approve the site plan submitted by Domus Inc., to convert the former American Red Cross Chapter house into efficiency apartments for homeless high school students. The building will be revamped and will have 11 residential units, as well as common areas. Ten of the units will house students and one will be used to house a proctor on the first floor for supervision and security.
Lentini said Domus is trying to fast-track the project to secure DHCD funding and to complete the property sale with the Red Cross.
The committee will also weigh an appropriation request of $3,450,000 from the undesignated Inflow and Infiltration account to be used for the Gaslight District sewer improvements.
City Engineer Mark Cressotti said the $3.45 million will be used as a component of the Gaslight District infrastructure improvements. That project will also include a $2 million investment to replace water mains in the target neighborhood.
The Gaslight District project will encompass the neighborhood between Elm Street on the east, and Washington Street on the west, Franklin Street on the north and Court Street on the south.
The Gaslight Project would improve the infrastructure and streets, while enhancing pedestrian movement in one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods abutting Elm Street, and was initiated to support downtown redevelopment.
