MARY L. O’CONNELL
There is some update on the possible start date of the Western Avenue project.The City has received notice from the State that the We may be in line to move up the Western Avenue project by a few years. Currently, the project is set to begin in 2018 but the state is offering an earlier possible start date of 2017. We absolutely need an upgraded stormwater system along Western Avenue as well as repair of sidewalks along the southern route of Western Avenue. The State is also requiring that the 11-foot-wide multi modal trail to run along the northern side of Western Avenue be included. This is news of the mixed blessing sort. We do need state funds to complete the infrastructure upgrades BUT I am not sure that a boilerplate multimodal trail plan that works well in Eastern Massachusetts urban communities fits in Ourarea.
We will be holding our first Neighborhood Advisory Board (NAB) Meeting of the year on Wednesday November 9th in Room 203 at 5 PM in the Woodward Building on the University’s campus. The meeting will be held in the Mahoney Conference Room in the Woodward Center. NAB was created several years ago as a collaborative group of Neighbors and Staff and Students of Westfield State University to discuss neighborhood concerns and WSU activities. If you have anything that you would like discussed at this upcoming meeting, please do not hesitate to contact me. The meetings are open to the public.
I recently was privileged to attend the Opening Ceremony for the Gandara Esperanza Women’s Program. The Center, located on the grounds of the Western Mass Hospital, provides a short term residential program for women as they work through their recovery AFTER detoxification. The Program provides a much needed option for so many in our Community. Lt. Governor, Karyn Polito, The Secretary of Health and HumanServices, Marylou Sanders, and other officials including Mayor Sullivan, Senator Humason, Representative Velis, and Mike Knapik, Director of Governor Baker’s Western Massachusetts office also attended.
The proposed Elementary School Project remains in a holding pattern. The Federal and state government are requiring new OR corrected appraisals of the Cross Street property (and following, of the Ponders Hollow site). Neither the Commonwealth or the National Park Service (Department of the Interior) have received any corrected appraisals. As overseer of the Land and Water Conservation Fund program, the Massachusetts Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs is responsible for ensuring this purposely arduous process is not circumvented. The difficult process to un-protect protected land should not be easily dismissed and misused. There are also several issues of the project in Court awaiting disposition.
ThePurple Heart Trail(PHT) will be on the agenda of the Breakfast of Champions Event to be held next Wednesday, November 9 from 8-10 AM at the Arbors in Westfield. The City designated Rte. 202from the Holyoke to the Southwick border as the Westfield Purple Heart Trail in May of this year. We are now working towards funding and the legal process for sign installation to officially designate the PHT.
Elections will be held next Tuesday, November 8. (Please remember that Ward 4A voters will vote at the Second Congregational Church and not at Juniper Park School.) How important it is to exercise our right and responsibility to vote. We are so fortunate to live in this great country AND Community and need to hold up our end of the bargain by voting in our free elections.
Good Health to all,
Mary O’Connell
Ward Four, City Council
