New home on Maple Street is welcomed by neighbors

Date: 4/21/2009

By G. Michael Dobbs

Managing Editor



CHICOPEE -- Where there was once a vacant lot at 76 Maple St., used by residents of a nearby apartment building as an unofficial parking lot, is now an Energy Star-rated single-family house with a prospective buyer.

Neighbors who gathered for the ribbon cutting of the new home on Wednesday couldn't be happier.

Maple Street resident Jean Roule said, "I think it's great."

Her neighbor, Norma Topor, said she was "thrilled."

"It's [the neighborhood] coming back again," she said.

The house was the latest project of the Chicopee Neighborhood Development Corporation (CNDC), the city's recognized community development housing organization.

Beverly Barry, the project manager for the CNDC, said construction on the home had started in December 2008. The CNDC had purchased the lot from the Valley Opportunity Council (VOC) last summer for $45,000.

The home has been tested and approved for the Energy Star designation, which Barry explained meant there was extra insulation as well as energy-efficient windows in the home. The house comes with Energy Star appliances as well, she added.

The five-room house has three bedrooms, a large eat-in kitchen and one-and-a-half baths. The builders maintained the mature trees in the large backyard.

The price of the home is $170,000 and there is a prospective buyer who is in the process of being approved, she said.

Mayor Michael Bissonnette said the prospective buyer is a health professional employed at Baystate Medical Center and is exactly whom he wants to see come to the city to make their home.

Topor pointed out the street has seen a number of homes either built or renovated and Steve Huntley, executive director of the VOC, recalled his organization had rehabilitated a number of the homes on the street. He said the lot on which the new home is located had proved to be a problem because of its shape and size.

"It was the missing piece [in the neighborhood]," he said.

He thanked the city's Director of Housing Kathleen Lingenburg for making the project happen.

The CNDC's next house will be located at 9 Blanche St. and Barry said the organization is taking applications from interested buyers. Construction begins on the house this week .

Barry said that home is on a smaller lot and will cost $155,000. It features a first floor master suite.

For more information on buying the home call 592-8800 or apply on-line at www.ChicopeeDevelopment.com.