WESTFIELD – The Community Preservation Committee voted last night to increase funding to preserve a hangar at Barnes Regional Airport which both the city’s Historical Commission and the state have deemed to be of historic significance.
The committee voted 6-1 to increase funding from the original estimate of $470,000 to $498,000 based upon the assessment of the protect engineering and archetural consultant, Reinhardt Associates, Inc., of Agawam.
City Advancement Officer Joe Mitchell said that Reinhardt reports the work, which has to conform to the standards of the Secretary of the Interior, will preserve the envelope of the historic structure.
The 10,000-square-foot hangar was built in 1939 with a brick, wood and steel structure that fell into disrepair in the 1970s when the original facade was covered with aluminum siding.
Mitchell said the rehabilitation plan is to repair the “envelope” of the structure and restore it to its original appearance. The Airport Commission has endorsed the reuse of the hangar for the Westfield Vocational Technical High School aviation technology program.
Mitchell said the goal is to begin construction this spring and have the hangar ready for students either in the fall of 2016 or by January of 2017, noting that freshmen at WVTHS spend the first part of the school year attending all of the shops before making a choice as to which shop they intend to pursue.
Much of the discussion among committee members was how to present the financing package to Mayor Daniel M. Knapik and the City Council. The clear desire of the committee majority was that the $498,000 should be spread over three years.
“I really don’t want to put all of our revenue into one fiscal year,” said CPC Chairman Joe Muto. “If we approve it, it’s to be drawn out over three years,
Mitchell said the WVTHS Aviation Council is seeking $1.9 million in funding from state and federal government agencies and from the private aviation sector. One company has already committed to funding $200,000, over four years, for operation of the education program.
COC Member William Porter, who voted against the motion to increase the CPC funding, suggested that the group seek donations from the private sector to cover the difference between the two cost figures.
“I’m really reluctant (to approve the addition funding),” he said. I got the impression there was plenty more out there.”
“This is a great project,” said CPC member George Martin. “We’ve already allocated most of the money, so I have no problem with a slight increase.”
In other business, the committee approved the use of $11,852 remaining in the contingency funds for the WHIPP Museum.
The City Council approved the appropriation of $737,470 from Community Preservation Act accounts at its Feb. 25, 2013 session, with $379,985 coming from the CPA reserve for historic preservation account and $357,485 from the undesignated reserve account. That funding appropriation included a $27,000 contingency to cover the cost of unforeseen problems arising during reconstruction of the bu8ilding envelope.
The museum concept was initiated to create a living museum at 360 Elm Street but Carol Martin, who owns the Westfield Whip Manufacturing Company, said that WHIPP, Inc., merged with Westfield Museum Inc., a group formed to showcase the city’s industrial history, thus expanding the scope of the original living museum concept to include a display area that will be used for other aspects of the city’s industrial past. The merger of the two 501-C3 organizations was effective as of July 1, 2012.
Last night Martin said that during reconstruction, to preserve the exterior of the historic building, the last remaining whip factory in the Whip City still manufacturing whips, it was discovered that exterior storm drains were connected to the interior plumbing of the building, a problem which had to be resolved. The $11,852 depletes the contingency funding.
