WESTFIELD – The Community Preservation Committee voted last night to expand the scope of work being done on one project and requested additional details for expansion of a second project.
Frank O’Brien, a former city fire chief and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Dewey House, requested the committee to approve use of funding appropriated to replace the cedar shake roof of the historic building and to repair the chimney, extending the scope of work to include the heating system which is connected to the chimney.
The committee voted unanimously last April to commit $30,800 for the repair the roof and chimney of the Dewey House on South Maple. The building was constructed in 1735.
The Dewey House Trustees, an arm of the Western Hampden Historical Society, the owners of the historic structure, made the roof repair using materials, cedar shakes, which would have been used during the period when the house was originally built. The group also repaired the brick chimney original to the Dewey House while the roof work is being done.
O’Brien said that while the chimney work was proceeding it was discovered that the original lime and mortar was causing a problem with venting the furnace.
“The chimney keeps clogging up and the furnace is connected to the chimney,” O’Brien said.
CPC Chairman Joe Muto said “if the heating appliance is venting into a chimney that is clogged it’s an unsafe situation because those exhaust gases are coming back into the building.”
O’Brien said the Trustees are looking at several options to resolve the problem. One option is to install a dedicated vent pipe, connected to the furnace, up through the chimney. If that option is not viable, O’Brien said, another option is to replace the oil furnace with a gas system which would have a direct vent to the outside.
O’Brien said that $4,000 of the original appropriation would be used, if allowed by the committee, to resolve the venting issue.
Committee member Dan Kelly said the funding has already been appropriated by the City Council and the committee could vote to expand the scope of work to include the proper venting of the heating system, which is related to the chimney work.
Kelly’s motion was approved by a 5-0 vote.
The committee also considered another request to expand the scope of work. The committee voted several years ago to approve the appropriation of $426,000 for the acquisition of the Boardman Property on Montgomery Road and construction of athletic fields on the site.
Jim Blascak, Program Coordinator of the Park & Recreation Department, reported that the original scope of work has been completed and that there is a balance of $96,000 of the appropriated funding remaining.
Blascak requested CPC approval to use that remaining funding for other site improvements, such as seeding the fields and erecting scoreboards.
CPC member Bill Porter said that before committee considers that request it should have detailed plans of both the improvements and cost estimates associated with that additional work.
“I’d like to see some detail of what he’s proposing,” Porter said.
CPC Member Vince Olinski said that the committee has time to request that additional information.
“None of that work can be done at this time because of the weather, so why not put this off to our next meeting (April 10, 2014) to get more information?” Olinski asked.
The discussion then moved to the issue of accountability of funds appropriated for specific projects. CPC Joe Muto said the board should have tighter control of the funding.
“We should be getting a budget breakdown and what is not used comes back to us so it can be applied to other projects,” Muto said. “I don’t want to set a precedent, having people sit on those remaining funds, thinking of how else they can use it.”
