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Managing Editor CHICOPEE What is now a small unused parking lot could become a dangerous addition to the Willamansett neighborhood on Meadow Street opposite the Calloway Golf factory, according to residents who attended a meeting hosted by Alderman George Moreau last week. The management of Calloway Golf has posed giving Lorraine's Soup Kitchen the parcel on which a new headquarters for the meal program and food pantry could relocate. The non-profit organization will lose its long-time Center Street facility on Aug. 1. Residents believe the relocation of the food program would lower their property values and create unsafe conditions on the narrow streets. The aldermanic chambers were filled Wednesday night with both supporters of the food pantry and residents opposing the move. Jerry Roy, president of the Lorraine's Soup Kitchen, said the donation of the property was not at that date certain. Chuck Demaris, who is also a board member, added, "All of us on the board of directors have a genuine concern for the city. We want what is best for you and the city." Demaris said the group has been looking for a new home for the past two to three years without success. He said new ownership of their present location has asked them to leave allegedly because customers of other businesses in the building were offended at remarks made by soup kitchen clients and because of litter. Demaris praised the various owners of the Center Street building for subsidizing the food pantry with low rents. Demaris said that at one point the food program was going to share the former Mount Carmel School with the Valley Opportunity Center (VOC), which bought and renovated the property. The VOC needed all of the space for its own programs. When the possibility of the donated property came about, he said the board looked at it as "a miracle." Pauline Gagne, whose property abuts the parking lot, said that she and other neighbors had nothing against the food pantry, but that the roads there are too narrow to accommodate any over-flow parking from the food pantry. A letter sent by Fire Chief Stephen Burkott read into the record at the meeting indicated the roads are barely wide enough for fire vehicles without cars parking on the street. Resident Michael Parent questioned why the food pantry had not come to the neighbors with the possibility of relocating to the parking lot property. He believes the food pantry would lower property values. "Who is going to compensate us for decreased market value?" Parent asked. "Is the city reducing property taxes because of the soup kitchen?" Parent submitted a petition signed by 113 people which read in part they didn't want food pantry clients described as "drug addicts" and "alcoholics" in their neighborhood. "You're worried about property values?" Demaris countered. "What about human values?" Frank Lapointe, the special projects manager for Mayor Michael Bissonnette, said that a former market building on Center Street was once considered as a new location but renovations were estimated at $600,000. Lapointe said Bissonnette would like to use the former Perkins School in Willamansett as a location for the soup kitchen and is working with the VOC, which owns the property, to explore that possibility. Bissonnette could not attend the meeting Lapointe said because it was at the same time as a School Committee meeting. Eighth graders Lisa Mindell and Danielle Dobosz, both members of the Bellamy Middle School REACH Problem Solving Team, spoke in favor of the soup kitchen's programs. The REACH team has been working to raise food and awareness for the soup kitchen this school year, and they said the stereotypes are not true. A large number of the clients are elderly who are on fixed incomes, they said. Paul Shea, who is the former president of the soup kitchen's board, said he understood the concerns of the neighbors. "No one wants it in their backyard," Shea said. He added, though, "Someone in this city has to step up and get these people a home." Kate Brown, of the city's Planning Department, explained that if the soup kitchen decides to build on the property there is little the city could do to stop them. A new building would not require a special permit or a public hearing. Resident Loretta Robbins asked if residents have any role in the decision. Moreau replied he believes the Building Department and the Fire Department will have input into the decision if the site is used. He expressed his opposition to the project, but said he would speak with Community Development Department on alternative sites. "We have to help them," he said. | ||||||
