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The Westfield News Serving Westfield, Southwick, and the surrounding Hilltowns
www.thewestfieldnews.com
VOL. 83 NO.111
SATURDAY, MAY 10, 2014
always have been known to survive any kind of bad training.”
— Anna Freud
75 cents
Plant retool vs. shutdown discussed
Senior Center Committee seeks $7.5M bond By Dan Moriarty Staff Writer WESTFIELD – The Senior Center Building Committee voted Friday afternoon to request Mayor Daniel M. Knapik to submit a $7.5 million bond to the City Council Thursday to fund the construction of a new senior center. The Committee’s vote came immediately after bids for the general contractor were opened by Purchasing Director Tammy Tefft. The contractors submitted packets for the construction project and six alternate construction and equipment options. The apparent low bid was submitted by Forish Construction of Mainline Drive with a base price of $6,184,541 and a combined price of $6,324,625 for the construction and six alternated. The other bids were submitted by Marois Construction Inc. of South Hadley ($6,427,000); Sage Engineering Associates of Westfield ($6,672,000); Eastern General Contractors of Springfield ($6,864,000); Enfield Builders Inc., of Enfield, Connecticut ($6,468,000); RAC Builders Inc. of Agawam ($7,800,000); D.A. Sullivan & Sons Inc., of Northampton ($6,298,000); Orlando Annulli & Sons of Manchester, Connecticut ($6,715,322; and WJ Mountford Company of South Windsor, Connecticut ($6,825,000). The committee did not vote to select a general contractor. Tefft said that the contract submissions still have to be vetted to ensure they comply with the bid specifications and state bidding regulations before the committee can award the contract. Tim Singleton of Diversified Project Management of East Hartford, Conn., the city’s Owners Project Manager, said that the $7.5 million bond request includes a $539,000 construction budget contingency, about 8 percent of the low combined bid. Tefft requested the committee to vote to approve all six alternates advertised with the construction contract. The contract was structured with the lower cost options to endure that the bids would fall below $7 million. The alternates replace less expensive materials with better material, such as granite curbing instead of concrete. Another alternate, #6, is the installation of an emergency generator so the senior center could be used as an emergency shelter in the case of a natural disaster, such as the 2011 Halloween
“Creative minds
Jessica Menzone, an employee for the Town of Southwick, places a paper election ballot in a voting machine as part of a test for the upcoming local election and town meeting. The local Annual Election and Town Meeting will be on May 13, 2014 and May 20, 2014, respectively. (Photo by Frederick Gore)
Clerk expects low turnout at election By Hope E. Tremblay Staff Writer SOUTHWICK – Although Southwick Town Clerk Michelle Hill is always hopeful every eligible resident will exercise their right to vote, she is not very optimistic this time around. “I always hope for 100-percent but it’s an uncontested ballot except for one race, so in reality, there will probably be very low turnout,” said Hill. Southwick’s registered voters can weigh-in on Election Day this Tuesday, May 13. The one contested race is for the Park and Recreation Commission one-year seat. The post was made available by the resignation of Li-Ling Waller and the person elected will serve the remainder of her term – one year. Running for the seat are residents Jocelyn S. Linnekin and Jeanne Reed Waldron. Parks and Rec Commissioners Susan E. Grabowski and Kelly Magni are also seeking re-election for three-year terms. Incumbent Russell S. Fox is also hoping to retain his seat on
the Board of Selectmen, as are School Committee members Jeffrey T. Houle and Jean Marie McGivney-Burelle. Both incumbents are seeking another threeyear term. David R. Recoulle is running for a three-year term as an assessor, and Roy M. Benson is running for a three-year set on the Cemetery Commission. Gene H. Theroux is seeking election to the Dickinson School Trust, which is a three-year term. Water Commissioner Luther F. Hosmer is hoping to be re-elected to a three-year term on the Water Commission, while fellow commissioner David Brian Meczywor is running for re-election to a one-year seat. Library Trustee Michael J. McMahon and Nancy M. Zdun are running for three-year terms, and David Howard Sutton is running for a five-year term on the Planning Board. That seat was vacated by Selectman Joseph Deedy upon election and was filled by Terence Welch, who will See Election, Page 7
See Senior Center, Page 7
City Council to review HR post By Dan Moriarty Staff Writer WESTFIELD – The City Council’s Personnel Action Committee will review the job description of the city’s personnel director post, ending the exploration of a combined City Hall and School Department human resource department. Mayor Daniel M. Knapik said Thursday that the duties of the two offices are distinctly different and require disparate skill sets because of special review of employees, contractors, as well as volunteers, who deal directly with schoolchildren, a vetting process required by the state Board of Higher Education. The City Council and the School Committee began to look at combining municipal and school office and administrative functions as a means of curtailing the increasing costs of maintaining separate staff who often perform similar duties. The city’s Law Department is currently providing the School Department with legal services, especially in the area of labor negotiation, eliminating the need for the School Department to hire law firms. The School Department’s payroll staff is currently in City Hall and at some future time, Knapik said, will be rolled into the municipal payroll office. Human Resource offices were also a candidate for the consolidation, where the School Department HR supervisor would be the head of the unified department and the city hall HR supervisor serve as the assistant director. The current City Hall HR supervisor, Karin Decker, holds the post as Assistant Personnel
Director. “We’ve explored the idea of a joint HR department, but it became unworkable,” Knapik said. “When you look at the complexity of the School Department certification process, a joint department became unworkable. The skill sets are very different.” Knapik said that the payroll function will eventually become a unified department. “We will have a joint payroll office and will need to add a payroll supervisor to that department, something that may happen in December,” Knapik said. City officials, in particular the City Council, are examining the possibility of a unified building and grounds maintenance department because of the huge investment, about $50 million, to repair buildings and grounds, as well as energy efficiency upgrade to city and school buildings. The City Council is concerned that that investment may not be properly maintained in the future and deferred maintenance, which led to deterioration of the city and school buildings, may be avoided by creation of a dedicated central Maintenance Department. The city has a $386,000 annual contract with Siemens to maintain those new energy systems, Knapik said, a cost that could be reduced through creation of a new department and the additional of a new facilities director post who could also serve as the city’s owner project manager for new construction, further reducing the cost of capital projects.
By Peter Francis Staff Writer WESTFIELD – Westfield Mayor Daniel M. Knapik said earlier this week that he has spoken with the Commonwealth’s Secretary of Housing and Economic Development, Greg Bialecki, to see what the state’s interest is in putting a package together to save the former National Envelope in Westfield. “There was an interest there, so we went back and opened up a line of communication with National (Envelope),” Knapik said of the conversation. City Advancement Officer Joe Mitchell JOE MAYOR confirmed that, in MITCHELL DANIEL M. addition to speaking KNAPIK with Bialecki, city officials have been in contact with Mark Hiltwein, president of Cenveo, the company which bought out National Envelope. “Secretary Bialecki is interested in communicating with Cenveo to see what he can do to help keep the doors open here in Westfield,” said Mitchell. “They want to see what Cenveo’s needs are. The primary issue, as we understand it, has to do with the landlord and what the terms are with the lease.” Mitchell said that topics of discussion between Bialecki and Knapik included possible funding to “bridge rent or to help move equipment to another facility in western Mass.” “Cenveo is looking to lease or purchase 80,000 square feet somewhere in western Massachusetts where they are going to have a smaller manufacturing operation, with a couple of lines and their more modern equipment,” he said. “They want to employ 50 to 75 employees in manu See Plant, Page 3
Commission seeks to acquire land By Dan Moriarty Staff Writer WESTFIELD – The Water Commission voted Tuesday night to initiate an eminent domain acquisition of more than 90 acres of land in Granville to protect the Granville Reservoir watershed. The board voted 3-0 to request that Mayor Daniel M. Knapik initiate the land taking through the City Council. Water Resource Department Engineer Charles Darling said the 91.8 acres of land was formerly an apple orchard and that the city has a state Executive Office of Environmental Affairs grant to purchase the property know as the Olsen orchard. The Olsen property has an assessed value of $500,000 with the EOEA grant funding half of that amount. The property is located along Old Westfield Road. “We have a grant, but it has a very tight timeline,” Darling said. “We have to demolish the buildings and the site cleanup has to be completed by the end of 2015 to qualify for the grant. “The contamination is pesticides used on the old apple orchard,” Darling said. “There is a high urgency to get this cleaned up.” Water Resource Superintendent Dave Billips said the property contains the head watershed of a brook that feeds the reservoir. “It has been identified as contaminated property,” Billips said. “The feeder stream (for Granville Reservoir) begins on this property.” Billips said the cost of the environmental remediation will be deducted from the assessed value of the property. Tighe & Bond performed the environmental assessment and developed the cost estimate for the remediation. Darling said the grant is an annual EOEA program intended to acquire land to further protect drinking water supplies. “We have had discussions with the land owner about this purchase, but then he backed out because he feels he can get more for the land from another party,” Darling said. See Commission, Page 3