Facilities Director Bryan Forrette and Mayor Brian P. Sullivan meet with the Finance Committee on Feb. 14. (Photo by Amy Porter)
WESTFIELD – Director of Facilities Bryan P. Forrette has been in the spotlight lately in City Hall. First the Finance Committee asked him to come in on Feb. 14 and tell them about his work, which the committee then reported back to the City Council the next day. Mayor Brian P. Sullivan joined him at the Finance Committee as Forrette is a direct report to the Mayor’s office.
Forrette, who was hired approximately three years ago, said his job is to oversee the day to day physical structures of every building owned by the city. While the school department has its own facilities group, he also works with them on some bulk purchasing items and energy efficiency projects.
Using paper products as an example, Forrette said they recently bought toilet paper and paper towels in bulk. “Before, literally every single building had different products. We got pricing; in year one, we saved $8,000, then $7,000, then $6,000,” he said.
Another savings has been in copiers. Before, every department had its own copiers and paid their own licenses. They now have 25 copiers all on the city’s network under the Information Technology department.
Another part of Forrette’s job is working on the Green Communities grant of $266,000 that the city received as a result of signing the Community Compact partnership with the Baker-Polito administration. The bulk of that money is being spent to change over the lighting in the schools to LED light. Sullivan said North Middle School has just been completed, and Westfield High School is next.
The city is also using the grant to buy an electric vehicle for the city’s pool of cars, which they are downsizing, according to Sullivan, who said Westfield Gas & Electric will put some charging stations at City Hall for employees. Other charging stations are located at St. Thomas, at both Big Y’s, Stop & Shop and at the G&E operations city.
Along with the savings in energy bills for these projects, the City also receives incentive payments from G&E. “Most items are eligible through G&E,” Forrette said.
The Mayor said the city is looking at Green Community grants of $800,000 to $900,000 to continue the work.
At the Finance Committee meeting, At-Large Councilor Matthew Emmershy asked whether they’ve outlined other ways to get spending under control, such as more insulation in roofs. “There is room to make everything a little better,” Forrette replied.
Sullivan said Forrette has already insulated half of the roof at the Fire Station, which reduced the amount of heat they were using. “With Green Communities, we’re doing the other half of the building for weatherization. Their use of gas is going down as well,” Forrette said.
“This position started because we had no inventory of each of our buildings. Before that, it was the problem du jour. That was the first thing he did,” the Mayor explained. He said the money for the position came from the facilities cost in each department budget. Now they are starting to look at long term preventive maintenance, although they are not there yet, he admitted.
Sullivan said they are looking at all the boilers, all the roofs in the city, and the floors, windows and caulking in City Hall, which needs to be maintained. “Maintenance is always the first thing that gets cut,” Sullivan said.
They are also talking about a combined facilities department. Sullivan said with the school department’s trades people, and with Forrette’s expertise, “It makes a whole lot of sense,” But, he added, “It won’t happen this year.”
