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 Although the Board of Aldermen temporarily put a stop to Mayor Michael Bissonnette's pans to move forward on a new senior center and the acquisition of the former Rock-Tenn building for a new department of Public Works Center, the mayor told Reminder Publications those projects are not dead. On May 13, the Board of Aldermen voted to return to the mayor his bond requests for a new senior center at the Szetela School and for the purchase of the Rock-Tenn building. "There's no such thing as returning an order to the mayor," Bissonnette said. "They killed that order." He called the board's action a "shameless, political grandstand." He added that not all of the aldermen participated in the action and said that many of them are "thoughtful." There is a "small faction who wants to politicize every issue," he said. Bissonnette added the usual procedure if the aldermen have questions or concerns about an order the supposed reason these orders were sent back to the mayor is to send it to committee. He said a $4 million bond for flood control passed the board several weeks ago without a single question. Bissonnette said he was trying to have all of the city's borrowing decision completed by the end of the fiscal year. Bissonnette and several department heads conducted a public meeting for the School Committee and the Board of Aldermen last month on several development proposals. The reason behind the meeting, he explained, was to solicit any questions about the projects and begin any necessary dialogue. During the three-week period since that meeting, Bissonnette said he hadn't received a single question from any member of the board. The city's seniors have long called for a new center and plans for use of the property at the Szetela School are three years old, Bissonnette said. He is moving forward with the project by meeting with the proposed center's architect this week. Although the Rock-Tenn property may now be under a buy and sell agreement with a party other than the city, Bissonnette said he has learned that the potential buyer is interested in leasing the former factory building, so in the long run the city still might consolidate the DPW. That consolidation would allow the city to sell off a number of pieces of property currently owned by the department. "The problem is the board behaves likes students who don't do the homework, aren't ready for the test and then blame the teacher," he said. |