WESTFIELD – The Finance Committee met on Thursday during the snowstorm, one of the few City Council committees that continued to meet during the short week between holidays.
ROBERT PAUL
Robert A. Paul, Sr., chair, said that he and Matthew T. VanHeynigen voted to continue the first item on the agenda, the appropriation of $250,000 from the Community Preservation undesignated account for the Hotel Bismark façade, at the request of Peter J. Miller, Westfield’s director of community development. Dave Flaherty, the third member of the Finance Committee, was on holiday with his family.
Paul said that Miller made the request to allow more time to complete some work that is being done on the CPA agreement. The appropriation vote was continued for two weeks.
Also continued for two weeks was the transfer of $249,335 into the FY16 Engineering construction account from the FY17 Engineering and Public Works construction and salary accounts. The transfer is to pay for prior year bills. Paul said that city engineer Mark Cressotti was on vacation and unavailable for the discussion.
The Finance Committee did vote unanimously, 2-0, to recommend a bond order in the amount of $5 million for the repair, purchase and installation of water treatment and distribution.
According to Francis Cain, assistant director for the city’s Department of Public Works, the bond order is for the design and building of a treatment plant for wells 7 and 8 to remove contaminants so they can be brought back online. Wells 7 and 8 have currently been offline since January.
In addition, the bond will be used for the refurbishing and/or replacement of a new water tank on East Mountain Road, and some work on the other tanks as well, Cain said.
He said the department has already engaged an engineering firm using internal funding to start the design for the treatment plant and to look at the site to determine its location and footprint. In addition, they plan to start bench scale testing of the water by sending a quantity to a testing facility in Washington State, to determine the filter media needed in the new plant.
Cain said they are moving aggressively due to the need to build a treatment plan relatively quickly, with the goal of having something in place by the summer. They also may look at building a temporary, interim plant utilizing components that could be brought into the final solution.
The bond order will now go for a first reading at the next City Council meeting on Jan. 5.
