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The Westfield News Serving Westfield, Southwick, and the surrounding Hilltowns
www.thewestfieldnews.com WESTFIELD CITY HALL
Open House showcases energy-efficiency
New energy efficient lighting has been installed both inside and outside Westfield City Hall. (File photo by Frederick Gore) for it’s roof, brickwork, and windows.” Tefft added that City Hall also was in dire need of truss repair, an additional project that affected every aspect of the renovations. Butzke said that implementing the additional trusses wasn’t a surprise. “You always find things,” he said of fixing the building’s supports. “When we started, we didn’t know (about the trusses). But it affects any and every aspect of the project. We have pipe that’s being run, and now we can’t run it because there’s now a truss there that we didn’t know was going to be there.” Westfield VocationalTechnical High School, the City’s HeadStart Education Center, the Westfield Athenaeum, three city Fire stations, the Department of Public Works,
Rehab the Right Way
and the City’s Police Department, as well as Highland, Southampton Road, Paper Mill, and Franklin elementary schools all received improvements in the first phase of project, which began in June
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Zoning issues under review
Westfield Mayor Daniel Knapik, right, and Westfield city hall maintenance employee Tom Curran discuss the new energy-efficient natural gas boilers that heat Westfield City Hall. The new HydroTherm units are manufactured by a division of Mestek Corp. in Westfield and are designed to produce 1,000,000 Btuh each when operating independently. An open house will be held today at 4 p.m. (File photo by Frederick Gore)
By Peter Francis Staff Writer WESTFIELD – As the rain poured down on the rooftop of Westfield City Hall Tuesday morning, Roland Butzke, energy solutions senior account executive for Siemens; Dan Pallotta, project manager for P3 Inc.; Ronald Rix, director of business and technology services for Westfield Public Schools; and Tammy Tefft, Westfield’s director of purchasing; sat in a conference room on the second floor, reminiscing about meetings over the past few years in that very same room, which was routinely too hot or too cold. Now, thanks to improvements made in two phases to over a dozen city buildings over the past year, the City of Westfield is more energy efficient than ever before. After spending several million dollars to replace the steam boilers in many of the city’s municipal and educational buildings with more efficient hot water boilers from Mestek, in addition to other renovations, Tefft, Rix, and the reps from Siemens and P3 Inc., two of the corporations charged with the implementation and design of the system overhauls, were satisfied with project and it’s merits. “Last year’s project, when the Vocational School and the other schools had boilers put in, was unique in and that it married Chapter 149 with funding from the Massachusetts School Building Association,” said Tefft. “The uniqueness of the City Hall project was that it was the marrying of energy management with renovations. One of the challenges was making them coexist together.” Tefft said that the phase two construction for City Hall had as many as four general contractors on site handling such tasks as asbestos abatement, renovations, and Westfield’s Elm Electric handling the building’s electrical needs. “Voc and City Hall were both alike in that they had three general contractors, which is really unheard of,” she said. “Voke had the boiler project, energy management and envelope repairs
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THURSDAY, JANUARY 16, 2014
VOL. 83 NO. 13
“Goodwill is
2013 and concluded construction in November, costing in the ballpark of $14 million, along with an MSBA Bond of around $10.7 million, $6.5 million of which was reimbursed from the MSBA. Phase 2, which began in May and is finishing renovations now, included City Hall, along with North and South middle schools, which ended up costing roughly $9.4 million, while renovations and other associated projects ended up costing roughly $4 million. “With replacing the boilers, we found it was going to be a ‘like for like’ scenario,” said Tefft. “We were going to be putting a new boiler system in with an old distribution system. The insulation was wood in the Vocational school.” Butzke said that, by switching the boiler system from steam to hot water, the temperature in the buildings would be more manageable and efficient. “Steam is produced at 212 degrees, and it is pushed out into the system, and heat rises, so steam doesn’t get pumped, it moves by heat through the system and then rises,” he said. “If it’s a day like today, that starts out at 40, that’s too much temperature, and people overheat.” Butzke stated that the upper school at Voc-Tech had only one thermostat for the entire building, a three-story structure of 100,00 square feet which was facing air quality issues to boot, See Open House, Page 3
By Dan Moriarty Staff Writer WESTFIELD – The Zoning, Planning & Development Committee discussed pending zoning ordinance last night with city officials as the committee prepares for the 2014 City Council session. The committee members, veteran Councilor David A. Flaherty, who serves as chairman, as well as new Councilor Dan Allie and Cindy Harris, voted to remove motions and pending ordinances which are no longer “relevant or that do not have an advocating councilor available.” The committee discussed the Elm and Arnold streets intermodal project with City Advancement Officer Jeff Daley who said the item is now redundant because the City Council approved the Elm Street Urban Renewal Plan which also addresses development of a transportation facility. The members will request the full City Council tonight to remove that item from their committee. The board will also recommend removing two other agenda items, a zone change for a variety store on Little River Road and a site plan and stormwater management plan for a lodging house at 431 Russell Road. Community Development Director Peter J. Miller Jr., said the items were approved by the City Council last summer as part of the council’s License Committee review of the project and could be removed from committee without further action. Principal Planner Jay Vinskey said the zone change, initiated by former Ward 5 Councilor Richard E. Onofrey Jr., last year, is not needed and does not help the property owner, Onofrey appeared before the Planning Board last July at a public hearing on the zone change for the convenience store located at 397 Little River Road and formerly known as Carmel Farms. The current owner requested Onofrey to sponsor the request of the change because the property is currently a split zone parcel. The front is zoned Residence A and the See Zoning Issues, Page 3
Southwick to gamble on Gaming Commission By Hope E. Tremblay Staff Writer SOUTHWICK – The Board of Selectmen missed MGM Springfield’s deadline to apply for funds to help mitigate casino impact but could still have time to petition the state. Selectman Chairman Russell Fox said last night that after watching what has happened with other communities in recent weeks, he believes Southwick should have acted sooner and wants to explore seeking funds from the Massachusetts Gaming Commission. “I’d like to send a letter to the state and cc: MGM about our concerns and whether or not we could enter into an agreement,” Fox said. Resident Jack Sinico brought up the topic during public comment at last night’s meeting and expressed similar concerns about traffic coming through Southwick from Connecticut.
New energy-efficient windows have been installed throughout Westfield City Hall. (File photo by Frederick Gore)
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