WESTFIELD – The City Council voted unanimously Thursday night to approve two appropriations requested by Mayor Daniel M. Knapik, one for historic preservation and the other to settle a claim awarded by the state Tax Appellate Board.
The council approved an appropriation of $30,000 from Community Preservation Act funding to preserve headstones at the Old Burying Grounds off Mechanic Street.
Finance Chairman Christopher Keefe, whose committee gave a 3-0 positive recommendation to both appropriations, said the funding for the headstone preservation is an example of appropriate use of the CPA funding.
“This money will be used in restoring some of the oldest gravestones in the city,” Keefe said.
At-large Councilor David A. Flaherty said he “would love to see more of this type of funding, money for historic preservation, rather than some of the other projects funded with CPA money.”
The CPA funding was requested by the Historical Commission for preservation of headstones in the Old Burying Grounds. The Community Preservation Committee approved the preservation project, which requires 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, to preserve a damaged stone which was in dire need of restoration and which could harm people near the stone if it collapsed.
A major restoration effort will begin later this year following the City Council appropriation Thursday night.
The Community Preservation Committee approved a Historical Commission request last month 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.
The City Council also approved an funding request from City Collector Michael McMahon who submitted the $31,800 appropriation because of an Appellate Tax Board (ATB) decision finding that a company at Barnes Regional Airport was over-taxed.
McMahon, in a letter to the City Council, said that the ATB “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 in that communication.
Keefe said that the city usually budgets $500,000 for tax abatements, but a large part of that funding is dedicated to abatements awarded to veterans and that the account did not have “sufficient funding” to pay the tax abatement to Airflyte.
