Mayor considers new uses for old library


The former library in downtown Chicopee will be the subject of a special marketing effort to bring in another restaurant into the area. Reminder Publications file photo

By G. Michael Dobbs

Managing Editor

CHICOPEE With the collapse of the plans for a museum housing a collection of President Franklin D. Roosevelt artifacts, Mayor Michael Bissonnette said there would be a renewed effort to seek a buyer for the former downtown library building.

In the past, two efforts to seek a buyer for the property have failed to bring in bids, but Bissonnette said the city will try a new approach and conduct an open house for restaurant owners.

The open house, presented in conjunction with the Chicopee Chamber of Commerce and the Munich House, would seek to sell the building to either an established restaurateur or to a new owner looking for a location. Bissonnette said the city is not looking for a chain restaurant to go into the building, but a locally-owned business.

No date has yet been set for the open house.

With the success of the Munich House and the move of the Maximum Capacity sports pub to the downtown, Bissonnette has been working on establishing a greater entertainment presence in the downtown. He believes that with the expansion of Baystate Medical Center on Center Street, the proposed condos at Cabotvillle and the Elms College student body, downtown could support an entertainment district.

The mayor said he would like to get the building onto the tax rolls, however, as there is also another potential use that would keep the building in the city's hands. Bissonnette said the central office of the School Department needs a new home due to serious structural problems with its current building on Broadway.

He said there have been preliminary discussions about connecting the former library building to City Hall and moving the School Department into the space.

The current Belcher School is coming close to the time it must be replaced, Bissonnette said. There have been discussions of once the School Department moves, the former headquarters would be demolished and the property combined with that of Lincoln Park and the branch library's location as a parcel for the site of a new school.