WESTFIELD – The Legislative & Ordinance Committee voted Wednesday night to keep a $758,000 bond in committee while it is further investigated by the Finance Committee and will seek a vote to kill a$1,850,000 bond when the City Council meets next Thursday.
The $758,000 bond will be used to purchase the development rights of the East Mountain Country Club through a conservation restriction which will be placed on the deed and recorded in the Registry of Deeds.
The bond request submitted by Mayor Daniel M. Knapik reflects a vote of the Community Preservation Committee which approved the funding over three years. The CPC funding will be used to pay the bond.
The issue was first brought to the CPC in July of 2012, and then the proposal was revised and resubmitted to the CPC in February of 2013 when the CPC members voted to approve the funding spread over three years.
The issue lingered while city officials considered what was legal pertaining to the appraisal on the value of the property if it were to be developed, as well as conducted a survey to identify the 120 acres which will be restricted under the development.
There were also technical issues, such as identifying a funding vehicle to make payment, spreading the allocation of CPC funding over the three-year time frame. The CPC members were concerned that making a one-time payment directly with CPC funding would deplete the board’s reserves and inhibit it from funding other projects.
The Community Preservation Committee makes recommendations to the mayor and the municipality’s legislative body, the City Council in Westfield’s case, for the acquisition, creation and preservation of open space; for the acquisition, preservation, rehabilitation and restoration of historic resources; for the acquisition and preservation of land for recreational use; and for the creation, preservation and support of community housing that is acquired or created.
The mayor can choose either to submit a CPC appropriation request to the City Council for its review and approval or to decline to support the appropriation by not submitting it to the council for further action.
The L&O will give a negative recommendation on a bond request of $1,850,000 for energy efficiency improvements at the city Wastewater Treatment Plant.
The council approved the first reading of a bond request to replace energy-inefficient equipment at the city’s Wastewater Treatment Plant at its Oct. 16 session after elements of the bond were eliminated and the amount was amended by the Finance Committee.
The Finance Committee balked at the original amount and requested Water Resource Superintendent Dave Billips to revise the bond by reducing the scope of work.
Billips submitted a revised bond request of $1,477,000 which will be used to replace two over-sized Turblex Blowers used in the sewerage plant treatment process to aerate effluent in the treatment tanks. Billips said the blowers were installed as part of the last plant expansion by the construction contractor and are too large for the city’s facility. The Turblex Blowers currently in the plant have a resale value of about $500,000, income which will be applied toward retiring the bond.
The Law Department ruled that the City Council does not have the authority to amend a bond request, that the bond figure is an executive branch decision.
L&O Chairman, At-large Councilor Brian Sullivan said the negative recommendation is to allow Mayor Daniel M. Knapik to resubmit the bond in the lower amount approved by the Finance Committee.
“The mayor needs to resubmit the bond request as adjusted by the Finance Committee,” Sullivan said Wednesday night.
