WESTFIELD – City Engineer Mark Cressotti was notified Friday by a state official to proceed with the Columbia Greenway Rail Trail project.
Director of Sustainable Development Kurt Gaertner, of the Executive Office and Energy & Environmental Affairs, contacted Cressotti by email Friday to state that “at long last” the $2 million grant for the next phase of rail trail work has been signed and that “you have notice to proceed.”
Cressotti said this morning that he began processing the rail trail construction contract, awarded last spring by the Board of Public Works to ET&L Corporation of Stow, last week in anticipation of the state releasing the grant funds.
“It takes a couple of days to get through that process,” Cressotti said. “The contractor will be getting (the contract) for signature this week, so they can order the steel for the new bridge. I anticipate work to remove the existing bridge (over South Meadow Road) and some excavation will begin by mid February.”
The City Council voted at its Dec. 5 meeting to accept the $2 million grant from the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.
That grant has been held in limbo for nearly two years while the city completed an Article 97 process with the National Park Service regarding the use of a section of the Cross Street playground for the proposed Ashley Street elementary school construction project. Under the Article 97 appeal, brought by residents opposing the school project, the state froze all funding for park projects in the city. The Columbia Greenway is considered a linear park.
The federal agency notified the state Nov. 18 that it would accept the city’s proposed relocation and replication of the playground, thawing the funding freeze.
“The fact that the state has signed off on the grant is obviously a good thing,” Community Development Director Peter J. Miller Jr., said this morning. “The National Park Service notified the state that it was satisfied with the city’s environmental assessment to replicate the Cross Street playground with the potential purchase of the Wielgus Trust land (off Main Street).
“The city hopes to begin negotiation with the Trust,” Miller said. “I anticipate doing so in the New Year.”
