I would like to thank Patrick Berry, owner of the Westfield News Group for his invitation to the City Council members to submit articles to the newspaper. He has proposed a weekly rotating schedule and this should allow you to be informed on the issues that affect Westfield.
I would also like to thank the voters for electing me to the City Council. It is a high honor to once again have an opportunity to represent the citizens of Westfield in elected office. Congratulations to Mayor Sullivan on his election. A new administration, filled with new energy has an opportunity to make great progress.
The Council President, Brent Bean, has assigned me to the following committees of the Council;
DANIEL M. KNAPIK
Business Development, City Properties, Government Relations and Chairman of the License Committee.
An exciting development is occurring now on Elm Street. The Flahive Building, recently purchased by the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority (PVTA), has been demolished. Construction of the new PVTA facility has started, with a finish proposed for mid winter 2017. I could be wrong but the construction of this facility would represent the first significant new building construction on the main Elm Street corridor in decades. This is certainly good news.
Additionally, the City Council has appropriated over $500,000 and transferred it to the Westfield Redevelopment Authority so that the remaining parcels on the Urban Renewal Plan site can be acquired. It is very likely that the acquisitions and the remaining demolition of the Bowling Center will be completed by this time next Spring. The site then would finally be in a position to be developed. A story that began in 1986 with the JJ Newberry’s fire appears to be primed for a final chapter to be written over the next few months.
Also in that general area, the very large storage building formally owned by Berkshire Bank should be demolished in the next few months. This will provide for additional parking in that area. With the full rental of the University Apartments it will certainly be a welcome addition. Staying with that area, I stopped by the Press Room last Saturday for the kick off of Bike Week, and I must say, it was quite a busy morning with bikers and students stopping in for morning refreshments. Work continues on the Gas Light District, which is a welcome upgrade for those neighborhoods.
Speaking of biking, I recently read that the final section of the Columbia Greenway Rail Trail has been pushed back to a 2020 start. That is very disappointing to hear. My advice to Mayor Sullivan is to use that as a call to action…don’t take no for an answer…enlist the support of Senator Humason and Representative Velis and travel down to Boston and make our case for alternate funding for this section. To have a trail nearly finished and then delayed by DOT due to other demands in the pipeline for up to four or more years to me is unacceptable. DOT has many demands in front of it and we compete for funding with our region as well. So a delay today, could also mean as 2020 nears we could get delayed again.
I have always believed that this trail, very complex in its scope, planning and construction, needs to have an ongoing construction effort annually to get to the finish line. And certainly having this main downtown section in an unfinished state for four years is a huge problem. This trail needs to get finished in a timely fashion. Many years ago we entered into an agreement with the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), granting the DCR an interest in the Trail. This agreement has led to approximately 4 million dollars in DCR related grants to date. Our relationship with DCR has been very good and productive. DCR funding coupled with city funding has created the trail we have today. There has been a fair amount of change in personnel in the agency including the Commissioner’s office and the new folks may not be aware of how important this Trail is to our downtown redevelopment efforts. My recommendation is to invite Secretary Beaton, and Commissioner Roy to Westfield to ride the trail (I bet we have someone in town that may be willing to loan a bike or two to our state partners for the day) to make our case for additional DCR funding for the trail in the coming years.
In recent Council news, a response from the city solicitor from a previous motion for a legal opinion on who is responsible for snow removal on the proposed Western Avenue Multi-use Trail, nearly derailed a rather smooth running meeting. After many minutes of debate, I made a motion to refer it to committee with a request that the ward 3 and 4 councilors work with the Mayor and the affected citizens to work out a solution acceptable to all. As I mentioned in the debate, the city already removes snow along the sidewalks on Main Street after the citizens complained that the snow load is very large as the sidewalks are along Main Street. The multi-purpose trail is large enough to allow a pickup truck mounted plow to clear the snow. I’m sure in the end, there will be some abutters who will be unhappy with the trail just because it wasn’t there before, but for the goal to achieve enhanced safety and walkability in the city, the trail makes sense.
I was also pleased to see an applicant has filed for a taxi license. The past holder failed to renew the license leaving the city without a taxi service. We will have a committee meeting next week with the applicant as the public hearing was met with no opposition to the operation to be located on Elm Street. Additionally, a schedule for budget meetings was also proposed and it will be published soon.
This weekend is Run Westfield…an exciting event for Westfield. Good luck to all the walkers and runners. Next week is the Memorial Day Parade. Leading up to the parade our veterans will tour our city schools and will be greeted by student presentations thanking them for their service. This is a long standing tradition in Westfield. I have many fond memories of my own time in school when way back when the veterans of World War I were in attendance and a large contingent of World War II veterans were there as well. Today, the majority of Veterans are from the Vietnam War and Gulf War Era but we still are lucky enough to have a few World War II and Korean War Veterans in attendance. The parade is always such a great event and it is the highlight of our city’s veteran’s council sponsored events. And as the holiday approaches, let us not forget the reason for the holiday, it’s often referred to as the official kick off of summer fun season, but that is not correct.
The following passage is reprinted from the website …. usmemorialday.org. This site was established in 1994 to serve as the central point of information on Memorial Day and to help restore its original intent…
“ Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in service of the United States of America. Over two dozen cities and towns claim to be the birthplace of Memorial Day. While Waterloo N.Y. was officially declared the birthplace of Memorial Day by President Lyndon Johnson in May 1966, it’s difficult to prove conclusively the origins of the day.
Regardless of the exact date or location of its origins, one thing is clear – Memorial Day was borne out of the Civil War and a desire to honor our dead. It was officially proclaimed on 5 May 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, in his General Order No. 11. “The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land,” he proclaimed. The date of Decoration Day, as he called it, was chosen because it wasn’t the anniversary of any particular battle.
On the first Decoration Day, General James Garfield made a speech at Arlington National Cemetery, and 5,000 participants decorated the graves of the 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers buried there.”
I would encourage all of our citizens to take a moment of time on a daily basis to remember all those men and women that gave the ultimate sacrifice to our nation for our freedom and remember that the fight for freedom is still going on as American servicemen and women are in harm’s way all over the globe. May God bless America.
Regards,
Daniel M. Knapik, City Council At-Large
