City Council votes to restrict Vanguard Consignments

Date: 12/19/2014

CHICOPEE – The City Council took action to effectively close Vanguard Consignment at its Dec. 16 meeting.

Ward 9 Councilor Gerry Roy said the council’s License Committee had recommended to prohibit any new consignments of furniture effective immediately and all of the items must either paid or returned by July 1, 2015. The vote was unanimous in favor of the recommendation.   

Roy said the License Committee had two meetings with the owner and gave him “ample time for response.”

Roy explained the move allows time for people to receive the payments they are owed.

Councilor Shane Brooks said he was in favor of immediate revocation of the license that allows the consignment store to do business in the city. He said the people who had consigned items for the store to sell “didn’t see a dime,” with their only relief being small claims court.

“This is the next best remedy,” Brooks said. He added there have been nearly 40 complaints about the business. 

Councilor James Tillotson said, “The License Committee went out of their way to accommodate this guy.”

In other action, the council received a letter from developer Sergey Savonin withdrawing his application for a special permit he needed to construct a two-family house at 0 Montgomery Street. The action would allow him the option to reapply in the future.

The Council also debated an allocation of $9,164 that would for pay for consulting services to assist the new Emergency Management Director Glenn Joslyn. Councilor Adam Lamontagne said he wanted to delay the vote so he could ask questions to Jeffrey Trask, the Emergency Management Project Administrator? at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, about the nature of his consulting.

Trask had served as the Director of Emergency Management in Chicopee from November 2003 to November 2005.

Lamontagne said he wasn’t “comfortable” voting to approve the money that night.

Tillotson said, “I think the question is not the $9,000. Is the gentlemen [Trask] worth the $9,000 to get the guy [Joslyn] up to speed?”

Mayor Richard Kos had made the position part-time.

Councilor Robert Zygarowski, said, “The mayor gave the impression that Mr. Joslyn could run the department. Something like this comes in after the thought. If his qualifications weren’t right he shouldn’t have been hired.”

Joslyn was defended by several councilors and Councilor Frank Laflamme noted that Trask has experience as a successful grant writer, a skill that complements those of Joslyn’s.

he council approved the allocation. Council president George Moreau said he would invite Trask to a meeting to speak to the councilors.