Ward 4 Councilor Mary O’Connell served as president pro temp at Thursday’s City Council meeting. (Photo by Amy Porter)
WESTFIELD – Ward 4 Councilor Mary O’Connell convened Thursday’s City Council meeting as president pro tempore, due to Brent B. Bean, II’s absence, in the last regularly scheduled meeting until August 24. O’Connell said that a special meeting of the council could be scheduled during the summer if necessary.
Following a robust public participation session, regular order was suspended for immediate consideration on a series of items brought forth by Ward 5 Councilor Robert A. Paul, Sr. on behalf of Mayor Brian P. Sullivan, all of which were voted unanimously by the council with little discussion.
The first item was approval of a 1-year appropriation of $266,880 for FY18 from the Designated Fund Balance account to the PEG purchase of service account for Internet services for the entire City of Westfield for $30,600, and municipal fiber access (building to building connectivity, including Russell Elementary) for $236,280. Paul said the appropriation is an ongoing practice in the PEG account to pay for internet and municipal fiber access.
Westfield Ward 3 City Councilor Andrew Surprise (Photo by Marc St. Onge)
Ward 3 Councilor Andrew K. Surprise asked why service was being extended to Russell Elementary when the school would only be open for one more year, and how much would it cost.
Ward 2 Councilor Ralph J. Figy, who is the liaison to the School Committee, said that state-mandated online testing requires faster internet access. Ward 6 Councilor William Onyski said that adding Russell elementary increased the amount only by $2,000.
Also accepted for immediate consideration was a $158,000 grant to fund the Westfield Barnes Regional Airport Layout Plan. Paul said $142,000, or 90% of the project was federal grant funded, $7,900 (5%) MassDOT/Aeronautics grant funded, and $7,900 (5%) city funded, an amount which was already in the budget. Onyski said the grant is needed to update the master plan, and has a deadline for acceptance of July 28.
Approval of an emergency appropriation of $9,978 to the Health Department for cleanup of the house fire at 40 Park Street also passed. Figy said it was a very sad situation in which two people lost their lives from a small fire on a kitchen stove due to the condition of the house and grounds.
The Council also approved a gift donation of $5000 from Dennis Bolduc, owner of DBA Indian Motorcycle Dealership on Southampton Road for a second e-bike for the Police Department, to help patrol the bike path and other hard to reach areas. Paul said according to Bolduc the e-bike could go 20 mph. “Not bad,” he remarked.
State 911 Department grants of $114,840 and $20,388 awarded to the Public Safety Communications Center were also accepted. The first is an annual grant that will be used for personnel/overtime costs, a replacement server/storage solution and cleaning of the Communications Center. The second grant is a new one that will cover state-mandated training requirements. Paul said the Finance Committee was informed by the department that they would be receiving the training grant.
Also approved was the Green Communities Designation Grant of $266,565 from the Department of Energy Resources (DOER). Paul said the City Council already voted to accept the grant, now they had to vote to accept the money.
CINDY HARRIS
Regular order remained suspended as the council approved for immediate consideration two appointments brought forward by At-large Councilor Cindy C. Harris, chair of the Personnel Committee: Megan Kane as Collector/Treasurer and Mary “Happy” Daley as Auditor for the city, both of whom had been serving the roles in an “Acting” capacity.
Harris said that both positions were advertised and posted for 30 days, and the two candidates selected. Paul, as chair of the Finance Committee, said he had worked closely with both Kane and Daley.
“(Kane) has really worked hard to put such integrity into the office of treasurer,” Paul said. Regarding Daley, he said, “Happy has done a remarkable job giving us insights into the audits. This was probably the most clean budget process we’ve had,” he added.
After the meeting returned to regular order, Harris brought forward a 3-0 positive recommendation from the Personnel Committee to appoint John Bowen as an alternate member of the Planning Board. “It’s very important to Mr. Bowen that Westfield remains a great city,” Harris said before the Council approved the appointment.
The vote was made at the end of the meeting to move the regular City Council meeting from August 17 to August 24, due to the anticipated absence of several councilors.
Before adjournment, Onyski said that the meeting of the Community Preservation Committee to consider a CPA grant of $250,000 for the Rail Trail design work that was cut from the general budget will be held on July 13 at 6:30 p.m. in City Council chambers. Onyski encouraged all the councilors to attend the meeting.
At-large Councilor Stephen Dondley said that acting on the CPC recommendation may call for a special meeting of the City Council, due to an upcoming deadline for a $6.2 million FY19 federal and state grant for the Rail Trail.
