To the Editor:
To pre-empt any misunderstanding I need to respond to a comment made at our last city council meeting regarding funding of a maintenance agreement for one year for the newly installed 24 million dollar Siemens heating and air conditioning systems. It was said that our city workers should be able to do this or put it out to bid for a cheaper contractor to manage it.
During this discussion I pointed out that if we lose our warrantee, or due to the specialized nature, the system goes down, due to a non-Siemens specialist working on it, that I would not want to be the council member who will go to the taxpayers of Westfield to explain ruining a $24 million system. That it would make that person “feel like an idiot”.
One of my fellow councilors must have misheard what I said and gave a rebuke that I should not refer to the city employees as idiots. That is certainly not what I said. Most city employees who know me know I hold them in high regard and often compliment them in the paper, to their supervisors, or in person for the good work they do. But, in that in talking with some employees they said they watched the meeting, and while they knew what I said, I am not taking any chances of a misrepresentation of what I said will spoil the good working relationship that I have built with our city employees.
Secondly, in reading Monday’s Westfield News the front page, the comments from two new businesses regarding a poor market for their businesses.
While new to the council I have been involved in community development issues for many years, and have my degree in urban planning. Back in ’08 when I ran for State Rep., and since then, I have been outspoken about all that taxpayers have invested in our city center development, and some of the missteps that have been made. As the chart on page 3 of Monday’s paper shows, and I pointed out, Westfield’s economic goes from low in the center to high the further you go out. As such we need to focus on bringing those with the higher incomes into the city center and that the plans laid out by the previous administration failed to do so. Instead, we added more to the lower-income center. While I value the contribution that WSU brings to the city, the students are not of the income of Mt. Holyoke, Smith, and Amherst. And, while we service their needs, we must service the tax investment as well. Along with this was my concern that with the agreement to have so many students living in the city center that parking for customers to our stores will be adversely impacted.
Hopefully, the current efforts will bring in a parking deck, and a building to house some new business and that this will act as an attraction to other businesses. And, that those now concerned will stay and see this through.
If we really want to lower taxes, we must attract new businesses. Not only retail but next generation industrial, and to do this we must, unfortunately, invest in our infrastructure, and the conditions and resources that will keep old businesses and attract new ones. The competition for them by other communities, other states, even other nations are steep. But, it is a matter of adapt and compete, or die.
Brian Hoose
Ward 3 City Councilor
