WESTFIELD – The City Council Thursday referred the proposed four-year lease to provide office, instructional and testing space to the Red Cross in the City Hall building at 59 Court Street.
Mayor Daniel M. Knapik submitted a resolution to the council on Thursday, Jan. 19 to the City Council seeking authorization for “a lease with the American Red Cross for the use of certain rooms in city hall.”
Knapik that the pact, which will provide office and program space, and will give the Red Cross Chapter time to seek another suitable location for its administrative and programming functions.
Knapik said he was stepping in to provide the office space in an effort to keep the Greater Westfield Chapter of the Red Cross in Westfield, bucking a National Red Cross consolidation process of folding small chapters into regional Red Cross districts.
“We had to find a cost-effective way to keep the local chapter in Westfield. The long and short of it is that we don’t want this (local chapter) to be gone from Westfield,” he said.
“If we lose our local chapter, we’d be consolidated into the Springfield Regional District,” Knapik said. “My concern is that if regional disaster occurs, all of the resources would go to Springfield. Having our own executive director positions the city to be better able to procure assets in those situations.”
The Westfield Red Cross Chapter Board of Directors will also have to approve the lease proposal which will provide administrative and classroom space on the third floor of city hall, classroom space on the second floor and a testing area on the first floor.
“The chapter will pay monthly rent with an annual escalator,” Knapik said. “The term of the lease is four years or until they find other suitable space. There is no penalty for early termination.”
Knapik said the goal of the local chapter is to vacate its building at 48 Broad Street by March 1, 2012. The local chapter, established in 1923, has been ordered by the national organization to divest ownership of the facility at 48 Broad St. The chapter has been at that location since 1945 when that building was donated to the Red Cross by Whip City Manufacturing Co.
A motion was made on the floor to refer the lease agreement resolution to the council’s Legislative & Ordinance Committee. An amendment was offered by At-large Councilor to also send the resolution to the City Property Committee.
Flaherty’s amendment initiated a discussion not only of the council review process, but also the merits of providing municipal space to a non-municipal organization.
“I do love the Red Cross,” Flaherty said. “But is this something we should be doing?”
“I’m opposed to this,” he said. “We’ve been moving people out of city hall to create space. The city should not be in the business of subsidizing any business and nonprofit organization.”
Flaherty said that the lease price of $1.38 per square foot of space is a “significant discount of between 80 and 85 percent” of the office rates in commercial buildings in the city.
The council members defeated Flaherty’s motion to refer the resolution to the City Property Committee. The issue will be reviewed by the L&O Committee.
