City Council approves Community Preservation Committee grants
WESTFIELD — The City Council on May 15 unanimously approved all of the Community Preservation Committee grants before it on recommendations from the Finance committee, with some discussion on taking another look at the Community Preservation Act in Westfield.
In discussing the recommendation from the Finance Committee to approve the Community Preservation grant of $500,000 for the rehabilitation and modernization of the existing skate park located in Amelia Park, Councilor Ralph Figy said the request came through the Community Development office. He said the skate park is on a piece of dedicated park land assigned to the Parks & Recreation Department.
The city has been approved by the state for a federal Land & Water Conservation Grant for $800,000, which Figy said is not final yet but looking good and surviving through the process. He said a skate park advocacy group is trying to raise $25,000 for the park, which has been estimated to cost $1.6 million.
'If for some reason the grant from the feds doesn't come through, this money will not be spent but sent back to the undesignated account for CPA for further work on how to fund this project,' Figy said, adding that after approving the grants on the agenda and a pending grant for the Athenaeum, it will leave $1.4 million in CPA undesignated funds.
Councilor Rick Sullivan, a member of the Finance Committee, said if the LWC grant doesn't come through the Community Preservation grant will revert back to CPA funds.
Councilor Karen Fanion said as liaison to the CPC, she attended the meeting where the grant was awarded. She said it is an appropriate use for recreational funds, and the park will be for all wheel sports, including bikes, rollerblades, skateboards, scooters and wheelchairs.
'It would be a really good use of appropriate funds for a community that often has children saying there's nothing to do here,' said Councilor Kristen Mello, adding that she would also like to have the city engineer's approval due to its location near the Little River.
Also approved was $90,000 for the Amelia Park Memorial Garden, which is a part of the Amelia Park Arena. Sullivan said the request came through the Amelia Park Arena General Manager Billy Fellows for work that will be done in the center of Amelia Park for drainage, to pull up the sod and put in new piping.
Sullivan noted that the Memorial Garden sits on city property, as does the Boys & Girls Club and Children's Museum. If it ceases to operate, it would revert back to the city. He said in the past, the Memorial Garden has been maintained by the arena through donations and operations, and has not required contributions from the city. There will be an access plan where gates would be open to the general public to go in and use and take a walk around, and the arena is looking to create recreational opportunities for more active public use.
'They used to do musical concerts there, but it's now unusable, all soggy in there, not safe underfoot,' Sullivan said.
The council also approved $6,000 for a custom display case to display historical whips recently obtained through the Historical Commission and donated to the Westfield Athenaeum. Councilor and Finance Committee member Brent Bean said a local business will create the display case.
'The whips that they have can't be properly displayed — the idea is to make the public see and enjoy them,' said Mello.
'I want to thank the donors. They actually took the money out of their pockets to preserve these whips,' agreed Councilor James Adams.
Last approved was $2,000 to complete a regional archeological study of the Hampden-Hampshire Canal for listing on the National Historic Registry.
'My fifth or sixth grade history project was on the Westfield Canal - so I'm very happy about this,' said Councilor Bridget Matthews-Kane.
'I am going to vote for this, but the [Community Preservation funds] can't just be looked at as a maintenance account for these different projects. It's supposed to be for housing, historical, land preservation and recreation,' said Sullivan before the vote. He said designated funds are set aside for each category, and the undesignated funds get spent on these projects.
'Nothing has gone towards housing at all and very little for land preservation; mostly recreational and historical,' Sullivan added.
'I've always been an advocate for land, which is what it was for. Here's my worry a little bit — with our taxes going up, so do our CPA funds. I pay $1,000 a year for it — that's just me. I think we're using it for a lot of different things. With our taxes going up, so will CPA be going up,' said Adams.
'I've heard people aren't always on board. If it's owned by the city, I'm always for it. But if it's a private club; people have come to me to say why am I spending my taxes on a private club,' Adams added.
'People are coming to me to say many things we're spending on, but this particular vote is about $2,000 to finish up the canal thing. We make mistakes bigger than that,' said Mello.
'I approached the chair of the Finance Committee with the exact situation, and he was going to look into his committee discussing that,' said Councilor Cindy Harris.
Read the original article on MassLive.
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