WESTFIELD – James R. Adams is seeking another term as an At-large member of the city council with the goal to continue to promote the interests of children and senior citizens.
Adams said he see the role of At-large councilors to deal with city-wide issues.
“In my opinion an At-large councilor can deal with any issue in the city, except those that fall under a ward councilor’s duties unless asked by that councilor to get involved,” Adams said. “I always try to take on one or two issues that I can focus on for that term.”
“Every councilor has different thoughts, different interests and that’s a good thing because if every councilor takes on different projects, at the end of the day a whole bunch of things get done if they’re in the best interest of the city,” he said.
Adams current goals are adding to the city’s inventory of athletic fields and seeing the senior center project through to completion.
“I’ve always tried to take care of children and seniors,” Adams said. “Our children are the future of our city. Seniors should be rewarded because they’ve given so much to the city over their lives.”
Adams said the Senior Center is more than a facility.
“It becomes their family for many seniors whose spouse may have passed and whose family is spread so far across the country. I’ve heard so many times that they are here without family and that they have no one to support them,” Adams said. “There needs to be a place for them to go talk with people, socialize. (COA Executive Director) Tina Gorman and her staff do a great job for seniors, but they need a better facility.”
Adams said the city’s downtown “has come a long way. We’re seeing the beginning of a good ending, with new restaurants and business. We have a great opportunity to have a private developer come in and put a major project on the Newberry lot.”
Adams said that there is traffic congestion during peak commuting periods, but that recent improvements has improved the flow in many parts of the city.
“During certain times of the day traffic is really bad, but generally I don’t think it’s as bad as in other cities,” Adams said. “As a city, we’ve been fortunate to get state and federal money to get projects done. The progress that we’ve made to fix traffic problems is actually tremendous.”
“We’ve also put a lot of money into our underground infrastructure to correct those problems as well, drainage, sewers, water lines,” he said. “The city council has to continually look at ways to make improvements.”
“I try to look at positive things, look to see what we can make happen,” Adams said. “My approach is let’s move on and try to make the city a better place by the things we do on the council.”
