WESTFIELD – The Finance Committee will review two appropriations submitted by Mayor Daniel M. Knapik to the City Council at the September 4 session and make recommendations to the full City Council Thursday.
Finance Chairman Christopher Keefe said this morning that the City Council meeting has been pushed back to 8 p.m. Thursday and his committee plans to meet at 7:45 p.m. to discuss an appropriation of $30,000 from the Community Preservation Act account and an appropriation of $31,800 from the city’s reserve of unforeseen account to the city Collector’s Office.
The CPA funding was requested by the Historical Condition for preservation of headstones in the Old Burying Grounds. The Community Preservation Committee approved the preservation project, which require an affirmative vote of the City Council to appropriate that money.
The Historical Commission has already initiated restoration of headstones at the Old Burying Grounds off Mechanic Street, using money raised last year at the inaugural ‘ghost tours,’ as well as donations, about $5,000, to preserve a damaged stone which was in dire need of restoration and which could harm people near the stone.
The real restoration effort will begin later this year when the Community Preservation Act funding approved last week by the Community Preservation Committee goes through the City Council appropriation process.
The CPC approved a Historical Commission request for $30,000 to begin the Old Burying Grounds restoration project because of the historical significance to the city. The oldest legible stone is dated 1683, just 63 years after the founding of the Plymouth Colony.
City Collector Michael McMahon is requesting the $31,800 appropriation because of an Appellate Tax Board decision finding that a company at Barnes Regional Airport was over-taxed.
McMahon, in a letter to the City Council, said that the tax board “abated” Airflyte, Inc., tax assessment. The company is due the abated amount, plus interest.
“This request is the result of an administrative court order and is a legal debt incurred by the city,” McMahon said.
McMahon said the city has not had similar situations in recent years and does not typically include funding in the city’s annual budget.
“So it does not seem prudent to budget and tie up a substantial sum of money when it is not known if it will be needed,” McMahon said.
City Council President Brent Bean II said that the council meeting will start at 8 p.m. because several members will be arriving late. Bean said that he will be returning from a trip to Washington D.C. and that both At-large Councilor Brian Sullivan and Ward 5 Councilor Robert Paul, Sr., a member of the Finance Committee, have scheduling conflicts as well.
