WESTFIELD – Motorists and pedestrians may have noticed something new in downtown Westfield this week.
Construction students from Westfield Vocational-Technical High School have been aiding several local companies in building the long-awaited pavilion on Park Square Green, and Construction Instructor Brian Falcetti has been impressed with the work of his charges thus far.
“We had a good day yesterday, it was the big steel day. We were in and out in about four hours getting the steel erected, and it went really smoothly,” he said Friday. “My seniors are hoping to close in some of the wall sections on their last shop week in two weeks.”
Falcetti stated that the structure’s roof system will likely be put on hold until September due to it’s material makeup.
“The roof’s parts all wooden, and we don’t want them exposed to the weather during the summertime, and they’ll still be able to use the square during the summer,” he said. “We’re going to make it safe and usable for the summer during the next couple of weeks, and then we’ll be out of their until September.”
Falcetti said that once the project resumes in the fall, the roof will be one of several project components that will be completed.
“We’ll probably spend September and October getting the roof on, the cuppola on top of the roof, and then start closing in the exterior with the windows,” Falcetti said. “We may work on the interior through the winter because it does have availability of being able to have some heat in there. It all depends on the weather and how things go this fall.”
Falcetti said that the project’s student team is composed of 14 seniors and eight juniors who’ll be working on the project during it’s off-weeks.
Harold’s Garage, a crane service from Northampton, is doing rigging work for the project, and Cardinal Communications of Granville has been aiding in the tightening and squaring up of the project’s steel work.
“It seems like they had it up in three hours yesterday,” laughed WVTHS Principal Stefan Czaporowski. “We’re glad work has gotten started, for both the kids and our staff too, and we look forward to it being completed in the fall.”
