Finance Committee reviews airport road funding request
By DAN MORIARTY
Staff Writer
WESTFIELD – The City Council’s Finance Committee is reviewing two funding requests submitted by Mayor Daniel M. Knapik for the Airport Industrial Park Road improvement project.
Knapik is requesting the council to approve the transfer of $41,740 from the city’s free cash undesignated account to the Engineering and Law departments needed to reconstruct the industrial road which currently provides access to more than 12 businesses from North Road to the northeast quadrant of Barnes Regional Airport.
City Advancement Officer Jeff Daley said in communication to the City Council that the current access road “has long been non-conforming” the city’s Industrial Subdivision Road requirements.
The current access road between North Road and Elise Street, where there are a number of industrial and aviation-related tenants including Gulfstream, is currently a hodge-podge of street fragments, including two segments of Apremont Way, and a segment of Old Stage Way.
“The current road does not conform to the city’s requirements for industrial park road,” City Advancement Officer Jeff Daley said this morning. “The project is making good headway. We need to request the Mayor (Daniel M. Knapik) and the City Council to approve free cash to pay for survey services and to prepare land-taking documents.”
“When the surveying is done, in six to eight weeks, we will go back to the council to ask for funding to purchase property,” Daley said. “That is our agreement with the state, that we do the surveying and land takings. Then we can ask the state to release the grant for the engineering and permitting process needed to support reconstruction of the road.”
“When the road reconstruction is done, we can request the Westfield Redevelopment Authority to take control of the parcels along both sides of the new road,” Daley said. “The scope of services will be the engineering and permitting for the parcels (to create a new industrial park).”
“By providing this money, we will begin a project that will consist of up to a $2 million grant from the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development MassWorks program” awarded on October, Daley said. “The entire project has been bid and awarded and work will begin as soon as the funding is in place.”
The funding provides $21,740 for the Engineering Department to complete the boundary survey, partial existing conditions survey, a right of way survey and preparation of property taking documents for the Airport Industrial Road improvement project.
The funding also provides $20,000 to the Law Department for appraisals of properties adjacent to Airport Industrial Park Road.
Daley said the road will not only better serve existing business, but will facilitate creation of a new 80-acre industrial park on city-owned land.
Dan Moriarty can be reached at [email protected]
