Westfield’s Melissa Hartman checks a radio communication headset as her pilot Harland Avezzie checks his PT-23A World War II aircraft. Members of the non-profit 501(c) 3 educational museum are attempting to construct a building to protect the vintage aircraft and vehicles which would be open to the public. Avezzie is president of the Pioneer Valley Military & Transportation Museum located at Barnes Regional Airport. (File photo by Frederick Gore)
WESTFIELD – The Westfield Aviation Museum, led by President Harland Avezzie Sr. and Treasuer Paul Dion, has been in existence for over a decade under the title of Pioneer Valley Military and Transportation Museum and they hope that they have built up enough capital and support to build a museum in Westfield.
“We want a living museum with vehicles that are running and aircraft that are flying, and to be able to give kids rides,” said Avezzie, owner of North American Restorations of 40 Franklin Street. “It’s all about education. Let kids experience stuff that you’re not going to experience anywhere else.”
Avezzie’s group is taking pointers from New England Air Museum in Windsor Locks, Connecticut, on how to build their own museum.
“We’ve spoken about going down with them and seeing how they’ve gone about coming up with logos and ideas. I’ve worked with them a lot, so I’m very familiar with them,” he said.
“And it took them over 17 years to get their first building up. You’ve got to find donations,” added Dion, who stated that the Westfield Aviation Museum has accumulated almost $200,000 from local businesses, veterans and military vehicle enthusiasts toward building the facility on their leased property at 20 Airport Road.
“We finally have the money to put up a 75 foot by 100 foot building,” added Avezzie. “There are some issues with the lease. There are eight acres of land at the airport. But we want to get this thing up and running and break ground as soon as possible.”
“We’ve had three different attorneys look at it and they’ve said that the lease is valid,” Dion said. “It was signed by the airport commission and by the mayor at the time.”
He added that he feels that the city’s Law Department doesn’t want the group to build on the property.
“He was telling me he doesn’t feel the lease is valid and we keep asking them why and we really never get an answer,” Dion said. “We’re trying to continue and work with the city as best we can but we want to stay on that property because we need access to the runway. Eventually we’d like to have three buildings that will allow us to have two display buildings and one for restoring aircraft.”
“Paul is a builder, he’s a contractor, and he thinks we can do it,” Avezzie said of Dion, who added that the organization has a 12-person board and a large group of volunteers.
Westfield residents Harland Avezzie and his passenger Melissa Hartman prepare to lift off from Barnes Regional Airport in a World War II PT-23A aircraft. Avezzie is president of the Pioneer Valley Military & Transportation Museum at Barnes Regional Airport. (File photo by Frederick Gore)
They believe that the building’s construction would enable them to host events.
“We’d start holding events up there probably once a month, which would bring carshow type stuff and fly-in’s,” said Avezzie. “I really believe that this thing, once we get it going, will take care of itself and the money will come to expand it. There are grants we can apply for if we had an actual building.”
Both men see the facility as one of great educational value to area students.
“We could do programs with students hands-on about how to build an airplane,” said Dion. “It would only help with our museum plans.”
“We understand that they’re trying to do an A&P (airframe and powerplant) course at the vocational school,” Avezzie said. “We have no problem sharing the property with them.”
Westfield Mayor Daniel M. Knapik isn’t sold on the project just yet though.
“We have our own reservations about the viability of something they are trying to pull off on their own,” he said. “We’re trying to have a dialogue with their group to discuss how the city and the museum can collaborate on something that can fit their needs and a future voc-tech A&P program.”
“Anything over 20 years has to be approved by City Council and theirs never was,” said Knapik of the group’s lease.
Knapik also questions whether the group has sufficient funds to complete the project.
“(Dion) said he has $175,000, but you can’t build what he wants to build for $50 a square foot. The old saying is ‘you can build it, but can you operate it?'” he said. “An aviation museum is a nice thing, but a structure with somebody’s relics in it isn’t an aviation museum and that’s what we’re concerned about.”
Knapik used the Westfield Whip Manufacturing Company as an example of how a museum project can get off the ground.
“Here’s an operating business that still has an income stream that’s tied to a 100-plus year history in this city,” he said. “They went out, got a feasibility study with a consultant, demonstrated how they could rehab the building – part of it a living, working operation, and another part of it paying tribute to the industrial history of the city.”
