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City Council tables zoning decision until next meeting

Date: 4/10/2015

CHICOPEE – Chicopee Girls Scouts who attended the City Council meeting on April 7 certainly had the opportunity to experience government in motion.

The scouts from three troops sat next to the councilors as tempers flared during a discussion of a proposed zone change that would allow an expansion of Westover Building Supply onto three lots at 92, 93 and 94 Telegraph Ave.

During the speak-out portion, abutters and neighbors asked the councilors not to approve the zone change. A petition opposing the change had been delivered to the City Clerk’s Office earlier that afternoon. The councilors heard that if the petition revealed that 20 percent of the abutters were against the proposal, then the vote to approve the change would have to 10 members in favor instead of nine.

Councilor John Vieau proposed tabling the vote until the petition could be verified.  He believed a vote that night would be inappropriate. Councilor Frank Laflamme suggested the issue return to the council’s Zoning Committee for an additional hearing as he said he had received telephone calls from several people who said they signed the petition against the change but are now in favor of it.

Councilor James Tillotson disagreed. He said he saw the neighbors against the change as “the best organized opposition movement that I’ve seen.”

Stressing that he believes the neighbors deserved a vote that night he charged “somebody dropped the ball in my opinion that from 1:30 to 5 p.m. we couldn’t count [the signatures.]”

Raising his voice, Tillotson called for a stop to “playing games.”

Vieau said he took offense at Tillotson’s comments. “No one here is playing games,” he said.

City Clerk Keith Rattell explained the process to certify the signatures involves having the Registrar of Voters confirm the names and then check if the names are on the deed of the abutting properties.

“It’s a lengthy process,” Rattell said.

The motion to table the vote until the council’s next meeting was approved with Tillotson and Councilor Adam Lamontagne voting against it.

The council voted to approve $600,000 to help pay for the reclamation of Bonneville Avenue that will include new pavement surface, relocated utilities, new sidewalks, reuse granite curb, tree plantings and driveway aprons. Along with that appropriation, the council voted $225,000 in new sewer pipes to be installed there.

Councilor William Zaskey supported the motion saying the project has been “in the works for the last 20 years.”

Work on restoring the city’s public swimming pool wills begin with the approve appropriation of $173,656 to pay for an evaluation of the pools and a suggested plan about how to repair them.

Vieau said the pools are more than 60 years old and have been “draining water endlessly.”

The councilors approve $22,995.01 to establish a fund to pay city interns this summer and reappointed Kimberly Babin as the director of Veteran’s Services.  

The council also approved a special permit for an ice cream shop at 456-458 Front St. and a new bar at 1747 Westover Road at the location of the former Say When.