Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
| By G. Michael Dobbs Managing Editor CHICOPEE If all goes as planned with development plans, two city-owned properties will be back on the tax rolls. Mayor Michael Bissonnette granted preferred development status to Larry Unwin of Belchertown and Stephen Salamon of Chicopee for the "Little Red School House," and Stratford Capital Group of Peabody for the former Chapin School. The developers responded to a second Request for Proposal that had been issued on the properties. The Startford Capital Group wants to renovate the Chapin School into senior housing. It plans to buy the school for $525,000 if it completes, with approval by city officials, detailed plans for the development by Dec. 31. Unwin and Salamon must submit their plans for the redevelopment of the Little Red School by Oct. 5 The developers want to create an upscale single family home in the former historic school building. No sale price was noted in the acceptance letter from the city. Bissonnette told the Chicopee Herald that his plan to sell surplus property in the city and consolidate services into other space. Next on his list is seeking a buyer for the Central Maintenance Garage and for the former Public Library. The Franklin D. Roosevelt American Heritage Center Museum is slated to move into the Public Library, but the city is seeking an owner. Bissonnette wants to move all of the functions of the Department of Public Works into its headquarters building where the second floor has 5,000 square feet of unused space. The mayor also said he would like to see the City Hall Auditorium rehabilitated into a television studio from which public meetings could be broadcast. "It's unlikely that [the auditorium] will be used as a meeting space. We need to rethink what that can be used for," he said. Once Bissonnette hears from state officials whether or not the state would be helping the city fund the construction of a new middle school, the future of the old Chicopee High School will be determined. He said there are over 400 school building requests currently for the state to consider and Bissonnette said the city should hear by December whether or not a new middle school is in the future. If no funding comes, he would like to see the former high school used as the city's senior center. He noted that with a pool and a cafeteria and expanded space that would be a good use for the building. The former classrooms, he noted, could be renovated into senior housing that would transform the school into a "senior village." |