Finance committee votes to recommend CPA grants to City Council; one item tabled

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15-05-2025

WESTFIELD — The Finance Committee of Ralph Figy, chair, Brent Bean and Rick Sullivan met to review requests for funding from the Community Preservation Committee and mayor in order to make recommendations to the City Council at its May 15 meeting.
The committee voted to recommend all of the grants awarded at a CPC meeting on April 10, with the exception of $400,000 for Westfield Athenaeum renovations, which was tabled to the next scheduled meeting in order to meet with library representatives.
Peter Miller presented the CPC appropriation of $500,000 for rehabilitation and modernization of the city-owned skate park located in Amelia Park on dedicated park land, under the control of the Parks & Recreation Commission.
Miller said the city applied for a Land and Water Conservation grant, and received approval of $800,000 for the project. 'The entire project is $1.6 million. The $500,000 gets us closer — we're at $1.3 million. This at least gets me farther along,' he said.
The LWC grants are not final yet. 'The state makes recommendations to the federal government for their review, and the feds have not signed off yet. We're required to show we have the match that's recommended,' he said.
'This is much more expensive. The cost of concrete is through the roof,' Miller said, adding that the skate park is basically a concrete park. 'We do worry that escalation will cause a problem for us as well.' $800,000 is the maximum grant available from the state.
Rick Sullivan asked if the federal government does not approve the LWC grant, what will happen to the CPC allocation.
City Planner Jay Vinskey said if it's not utilized, it would return to the undesignated fund, but the city would be given some time to raise the funds.
'I would like to rework it,' Miller said.
In response to a question, Vinskey said there is $2 million in the undesignated account from previous years, and if the City Council approves the grants before them, there will be $1 million left in that account.
Cindy Gaylord of the Historical Commission spoke to an appropriation of $2,000 to complete a three-year regional study of the Hampden/Hampshire Canal for placement on the National Historic Registry and $6,000 for a display case for the recently donated collection of historical whips to the Westfield Athenaeum.
'This is the final push to get it on the National Historic Registry,' Gaylord said about the canal study. 'We're almost at the very end. The state said they needed another $2,000 from each of six communities, and four have already donated. 'We're so close - it's been almost three years.'
Gaylord said the whip display case will house a portion of the 52 century-old whips that were discovered unused in an attic in Collinsville, Illinois. The whips were made by the Searle Whip Company in Westfield, and were part of a salesman's collection.
Gaylord said the Commission contributed money towards the purchase and shipping of the whips from Illinois, which was largely paid for by generous private donors. The display cost is anticipated to cost $5,000 for the case, and $1,000 for lighting. 'We will donate the display case and lighting to the Athenaeum under the auspices of the Historical Commission,' she said.
The Finance Committee also recommended an appropriation of $90,000.00 for the Amelia Park Memorial Garden for drainage, rehabilitation and improvements after a brief discussion.
Amelia Park Arena General Manager Billy Fellows said there is a large recreation field in the middle of the arena's 1.3 acre garden that has been rendered useless due to drainage issues.
Fellow said that Amelia Park has the Boys & GIrls Club, the Children's Museum and Westfield Middle School in the complex. 'We could do activities in the garden, which is a community resource.' He said if the field is redone, they could have bocce ball and other games for public access, adding that two years ago, the arena hired a part-time gardener who has completely brought the garden back to life.
Fellows said an inspector told them the garden currently has cheap PC piping for drainage that has collapsed or filled up.
Bean said because the Memorial Garde is on city-owned land and the work is more on the drainage side, the appropriation is 'protecting our piece of ground,' before the committee recommended the funding in a 3-0 vote.
The only negative recommendation from Finance to the City Council was for an appropriation of $250,000 from free cash to the OPEB (other post employees benefits) account to replenish the amount cut during the FY25 budget process, on a request from the mayor. The budget cut left $250,000 in the FY25 budget for OPEB.
Figy asked for a motion to deny the appropriation.
Sullivan said the only reason for restoring the funding, originally in the budget for $500,000, was to match the $500,000 in the FY24 budget, which he said looks good to rating agents. He said he would be in favor of tabling the item, to wait and see how much is in the FY26 budget for OPEB.
'I would prefer to leave it in committee, to see if $250,000 is budgeted in FY26,' Sullivan said.
'There's no plan for this,' said Bean. The estimated OPEB liability for the city is over $300 million.
Figy said the city received its rating that day, May 12, and there was no change in its rating.
The motion to deny the appropriation passed 3-0, and the item will be negatively recommended by Finance to the City Council at its May 15 meeting.
Read the original article on MassLive.