JEFF DALEY
WESTFIELD – Health Director Mike Suckau said to the Board of Health last night that the city is proceeding with phase 1 of the process to secure a lift in the tipping tonnage at the Twiss Street Transfer Station, from the current 50 tons per day to 199 tons per day.
Suckau said the Tighe & Bond, the city’s consultant on that project, is preparing data that the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MEPA) will review to determine if the per-day tonnage increase is possible.
“Phase 1 will include a schematic design of the facility and the MEPA environmental notification form,” Suckau said.
Suckau said that City Advancement Officer Jeff Daley has been assigned those additional duties by Mayor Daniel M. Knapik because there is a significant economic development component to the transfer station expansion.
Daley said that a Tighe & Bond document on the expansion project was sent to the city last summer, but there has been no financial investment in the process. Phase 1 is projected to cost the city $63,700 in engineering consultations and reports.
“The mayor and members of the City Council want this project to move forward,” Daley said to the Health Board. “We are prepared to go to the (City) Council for a free cash allocation. The mayor wants this to move forward because it is an economic development project.”
Suckau and Daley said that the increase in tipping tonnage will provide different opportunities, from allowing private trash haulers to use the facility to hiring private investors to operate the facility.
“There are no hard numbers for different options,” Daley said. “Whatever (financially) benefits citizens of the city the most is what we’ll go with. This is phase 1 to determine if the project is feasible, we have to start the (MEPA) paperwork to see if we can do it.”
“The build out of the facility, if the MEPA permit is issued, is between $1 and $2 million,” Daley said. “We plan to keep all of the city’s options on the table.”
Daley said those options include continuing to operate the facility through the Health Department, or to consider some level of privatization of the transfer station to generate revenue, over the term of the contract, for the city.
“We want to do something that to add revenue,” Daley said. “But whatever option is exercised, there will be no layoffs of the current municipal labor force.”
Suckau requested the Board of Health to authorize the phase 1 contract with Tighe & Bond.
