Ward 2 Councilor and City Council President Ralph J. Figy (WNG File Photo)
WESTFIELD – The City Council will hold the last regular meeting for fiscal year 2019 this Thursday, June 20, before next week’s public hearing and FY20 budget review on Tuesday, June 25, and final passage on Thursday, June 27 at a Special City Council meeting.
At this Thursday’s meeting will be a public hearing on special permit/site plan application for a truck terminal for Old Dominion Freight Lines at Medeiros Way. Old Dominion withdrew its application without prejudice in October for a truck terminal at the site.
Several letters to the editor of The Westfield News have been written against increasing the truck traffic in the area and urging people to come to the public hearing. One letter was also written in support of the commercial enterprise.
Council President Ralph J. Figy said following the closing of the public hearing, the request will be referred to the Zoning, Planning and Development (ZPD) sub-committee.
The special permit application from Old Dominion is available for review at www.cityofwestfield.org under City Council, Special Permit Applications.
A potential action item for Thursday’s meeting that has been tabled for several months is the proposal from the Department of Public Works for a stormwater fee increase. The proposal was recommended by the Legislative and Ordinance committee in April, and sent back to the City Council for a vote, where it was tabled for a report from the city auditor on how stormwater fees currently being collected are used.
The proposal recommended by L&O increases residents to $50 over three years, in $10 per year increments, and increasing the cap for commercial properties to $5,000.
Figy said he wants the proposal, which requires a simple majority of seven to pass, to be brought to a vote at Thursday’s meeting.
“Hopefully, it will culminate with a vote one way or another. Either we increase it, or we don’t,” Figy said.
Other business at Thursday’s meeting includes request for immediate consideration of donations to the Parks & Recreation Department’s Youth Scholarship Fund, and to the Police Department Special Response Team.
An appropriation request of $40,000 from the Infiltration and inflow Undesignated Account to the DPW’s Sewer and Wastewater Treatment Account is to complete work currently being done, Figy said.
Also on the agenda are recommendations from the Finance, Legislative and Ordinance, Personnel Action and License committees, some of which will require action by the Council.
