DAVID FLAHERTY
WESTFIELD – The City Council approved the first reading of an order transferring the care, custody, management and control of property on Ponders Hollow Road from the Fire Department to the Park & Recreation Department.
The property transfer is being done to bring the city into compliance with the National Park Service requirement related to construction of the proposed Ashley Street elementary school which will include use of part of the Cross Street playground. The city must transfer property of equal or greater value to the 1.3 acres being lost at Cross Street.
DAN ALLIE
Mayor Daniel M. Knapik has proposed the use of nearly 4.8 acres of land on Ponders Hollow Road to satisfy the transference requirement of the federal agency. Critics of the proposal argue that the Ponders Hollow property, which is divided by a flood-control levee, built by the Army Corps of Engineers, and contains an area that was used as a dump a century ago.
There was a clear division among the council members as they prepared to take the vote for the first reading last night. The action was approved by a 9-4 vote. Voting against the transfer were: At-large Councilors David A. Flaherty, Dan Allie and Cindy Harris, and Ward 4 Councilor Mary O’Connell.
CINDY HARRIS
The council will take the second reading and final passage vote at the Aug. 20 session.
The transfer required nine affirmative votes and appeared that it might fail. L&O chairman, Ward 2 Councilor Ralph Figy, delayed bringing the issue out at several meetings because of the absence of councilors supporting the transfer.
MARY L. O’CONNELL
Residents, in particular parents of school children who will be bused to Russell next year because of the closing of Juniper Park School and the delay in the new school construction by litigation, speaking during the public participation session advised councilors that they will be held accountable in the fall municipal elections for votes against the transfer issue.
Speakers warned Councilors O’Connell and Flaherty “to regain focus before this year’s election” and that they “were responsible for sending (those school children) our (to Russell).”
BRIAN HOOSE
Harris said she opposed taking the transfer vote until the issue of the school construction project, now in the Appellate Court, is resolved to avoid “transferring it out of the hands of the court and putting it into the hands of Boston politicians (the state Legislature). We need to hear from the court first.”
Ward 3 Councilor Brian Hoose argued that the council had to approve the transfer if for no other reason than the fact that the Park & Recreation Department is better suited to maintain the land, and the levee, than the Fire Department.
CHRISTOPHER KEEFE
The Army Corps of Engineers was invited to attend an information meeting on the Little River Levee in that Ponders Hollow Road area. The federal agency does not oppose recreational use of that land, but also made it clear that the city is financially responsible for the levee maintenance.
Hoose said the council “always seems to come up with a reason not to do something. I’m looking for a reasons to do this.”
Ward 1 Councilor Christopher Keefe, who during the committee review of the transfer expressed reservations, said that the financial question, where the money would come from to begin development of the property, could be answered with Community Preservation Act funding.
Taxpayers are paying a surtax to collect the CPA money “and this is what they’re looking for, to use that money for recreational purposes,” Keefe said. “This qualifies. This land is better in the hands of the Park & Recreation Department than it is in the Fire Department.”
