WESTFIELD – The City Council voted Thursday night to approve an appropriation of Community Preservation Act funding to repair an historic hangar at Barnes Regional Airport which will house the Westfield Vocation Technical High School aviation program.
The council unanimously approved the appropriation of $166,000 for the repair of the hangar.
The council also approved the first reading of a $334,000 bond which will also be used to restore the envelope of Hangar #2, constructed by the federal Work Project Administration (WPA) in 1939. That bond will be financed with future CPA funding.
The city’s Historical Commission has listed the hangar as an historic structure, a vote required to support the Community Preservation Committee’s decision to allocate funding to restore the exterior of the 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.
Westfield Vocational-Technical High School (WVTHS) last year formed an advisory committee and compiled resources from the state and local businesses for the formation an Airframe and Powerplant (A&P) Program for aviation technology, which would allow WVTHS students to study in the shadow of Barnes Regional Airport and to join the aviation industry upon graduation in maintenance, manufacturing, air traffic control, airport management, engineering and airport design positions.
The goal of the advisory board, which is currently raising funds from governmental and private sources, is to have the A&P program off the ground by September 2015.
City Advancement Officer Joseph Mitchell, who is a member of the WVTHS advisory board and the former chairman of the Airport Commission, said the building is in a state of disrepair.
“It is at the point where you fix it or level it,” he said.
Mitchell said the state has awarded a grant of $1.1 million to ignite the aviation education program and that Gulfstream Corp has also approved $200,000 over four years to the program. Mitchell said the advisory committee is seeking to raise an additional $1.9 million to equip the facility and initiate “the
first of its kind” high school vocational aviation training in the state.
Finance Chairman Brent B. Bean II said the state support is an endorsement of the need for aviation training.
“I have never seen anyone get a $1.1 million grant from the state quicker,” Bean said. “I think it was one meeting with Secretary (Greg) Bialecki (of Housing and Economic Development in the administration of Gov. Deval Patrick) when he visited (Barnes Regional) Airport.”
Ward 2 Councilor Ralph Figy, chairman of the Legislative & Ordinance Committee, said the WVTHS program” is the first of its kind in the state. The only other high school aviation program is in New York City.”
At-large Councilor Cindy Harris said the city is “fortunate to have such an unique, and extremely creative, program.”
Several councilors did have concerns about committing future CPA funding.
“If it wasn’t such an important project, I’d vote against it,” At-large Councilor David A. Flaherty said. “This is the type of project that could be done with free cash. It’s a one-time expenditure.”
Ward 4 Councilor Mary O’Connell, the council liaison to the CPC, said that she would request a spreadsheet showing current commitments of CPA funds and funding available to finance future projects.
The $334,000 bond order, which was recommended by a 3-0 vote of the council’s Legislative & Ordinance Committee, will be on the council’s Feb. 5 meeting agenda for a second reading and final passage.
