WESTFIELD – Council on Aging Executive Director Tina Gorman reported to the Council on Aging Board of Directors Monday afternoon that state Representative John Velis (D-Westfield) has secured $50,000 in House of Representatives 2015 budget for use in support of the new senior center.
Gorman said the budget line item must also be approved in the Senate’s version of the budget and eventually by Gov. Deval Patrick who can exercise his line item veto. Typically differences in the House and Senate budgets are decided by a conference committee to reconcile those differences.
Generally, the House and Senate pass differing versions of the budget. A six-member Conference Committee made up of the House and Senate Ways and Means chairs and vice chairs and a senior minority member of each chamber, convenes to resolve differences and draft a compromise budget proposal. The Committee releases the compromise budget for a full vote. The House and Senate vote; upon enactment the budget is sent to the Governor for his signature.
Gorman said that Velis originally intended to secure the state funding for FFE (furnishing, fixtures and equipment) for the proposed senior center.
“A one-time state grant has to come to my department and has to be expended through the city’s Purchasing Department, which could be done in coordination with the Friends of Senior Center which is raising funds to furnish the center,” Gorman said yesterday morning.
Gorman said that she also requested Velis to present a bill for funding separate from the state’s senior citizen allocation to local Councils on Aging, noting that a state representative secured funding which was then subtracted for the state Elder Grant program, affecting the bottom line of every Council on Aging in the state. The state Elder Grant provides $8 per senior citizen in the Council’s district, which in Westfield, with about 8,000 senior, totals $64,000 a year.
Gorman also informed the board that a $7.5 million bond request will be submitted to the City Council tomorrow night to secure funding for the construction of the proposed 20,000-square-foot, two-story structure.
About 800 square feet of the senior center will be dedicated to the city’s Veterans Services Department because of the overlap between the COA and Veteran Services in providing services to seniors, many of whom are veterans.
Mayor Daniel M. Knapik, during his first mayoral campaign, agreed to support a construction budget of $7 million. The $7.5 million bond request actually has a construction budget under Knapik’s budget because it includes an 8 percent contingency.
Tim Singleton of Diversified Project Management of East Hartford, Conn., the city’s Owners Project Manager, said Friday at the Senior Center Building Committee meeting that the $7.5 million bond request includes a $539,000 construction budget contingency, about 8 percent of the low combined bid submitted by Forish Construction Inc. of Mainline Drive.
Gorman said that she anticipates the bond request will be sent to the City Council’s Finance and Legislative & Ordinance committees for further review. Gorman said that hopefully the bond will be brought out to the full City Council for the first reading at the June 5 meeting and that the second reading and final passage will occur at the June 19 City Council session.
State law required a 20-day appeal period following the final passage before the city can expend funds based upon the bond. Typically the actual construction is financed through bond anticipation notes (BANs) and the bond actually sold following competition of the project when the exact dollar amount is known.
