Wagner hosts second round table

By Paula Canning

Staff Writer

CHICOPEE While State Representative Joseph Wagner's (D-Chicopee) second Neighborhood Round Table last Wednesday touched upon a variety of state and local concerns, the issue of reimbursement for the construction of the new Chicopee Comprehensive High School again took center stage as Wagner stressed to the Ward 7 and 8 residents that the city, "will not receive more than 90 percent of the originally approved $72 million in reimbursement from the state."

In March, the Board of Alderman approved spending an addition $17 million for construction costs to build the new school.

State Treasure Timothy Cahill, who oversees the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA), has said that the state cannot provide any additional reimbursement.

At the meeting, which took place at the Chicopee Senior Center, Wagner said that when he recently spoke to State Treasurer Timothy Cahill, the treaurer told him that he "will oppose any legislation to request additional building costs."

Wagner said that one of his main concerns is that when the additional funding approval was presented to Board, the Board was not equipped with the proper information in making their decision.

While recently investigating where the additional funds came from, Wagner said he discovered that the additional costs could be attributed to site preparation costs totaling $13 million.

He said that this lack of information parallels the circumstances of the Big Dig.

"I've seen the Big Dig up close and I know what happens when the officials charged with overseeing a project are not forthcoming about information," Wagner said. "If the site preparation is going to cost $13 million, than people should know about it."

Looking at it from another perspective, Wagner said that 18 percent of the base bid is going to site preparation.

"I never heard of it costing that much," he said. "As somebody who takes votes to appropriate money, I'm concerned about that investment," he said.

He said that when he relayed the $13 million figure to State Senator Michael Knapik (R- Westfield) during a telephone conversation, "I thought we had been disconnected. He was shocked."

Wagner said that while he "isn't doing to point any fingers" and that "engaging in a public dialogue with local city officials is not his style," he said that, "whether that building should have been built on the lower field is a valid concern of mine."

In addition to discussions about the new Chicopee Comprehensive High School, the meeting also turned towards discussions about the state's budget.

"We have budgeted conservatively this year," Wagner said.

In what marks an "unprecedented" move by the state, he said the Commonwealth has budgeted $300 million under what take it expects to take in for revenue.

He explained that the Massachusetts House of Representatives budget for Fiscal Year 2006 (FY06) totaled $23.7 billion.

He said that with the Legislature's appropriation of nearly $1.2 million of unrestricted aid to Chicopee in September of 2004, the city will likely receive an estimated $4.2 million more in state aid than current budget levels. He said that the Chicopee Council on Aging will likely receive $69,505, which reflects an almost 8 percent increase about this year's funding level of $64,536.

Wagner also noted that the city will receive $748,057 of Chapter 90 state highway aid for fiscal year 2006.

In addition to the discussions about the state budget, residents also voiced some of their concerns, one of which included the lack of employment opportunities in the western Massachusetts area.

Long-time Chicopee resident Richard Bale, who lives in the Willmansett area, said that he has a number of family members from the western Massachusetts area who were not able to find jobs in the area after earning their college degrees.

He explained that they were forced to look towards other areas, such as the eastern part of the state in order to find employment.

Agreeing that this is an enormous problem for the area, Wagner said, "Industry tends to want to start, expand and relocate to the eastern part of the state."

The problem, with the Boston area, is that housing is either unavailable or unaffordable a fact that works in favor of western Massachusetts, which does have affordable housing, according to Wagner.

He explained that this is one of the area's greatest strengths, as many people are choosing to shy away from high paying jobs in the Boston area because of the high cost of housing.

Wagner said that the area can hopefully works towards "putting Springfield on the map" in terms of industry, housing, transportation and the environment.

According to Wagner, Chicopee has "done quite a bit" in terms of development.

He said that a great deal of work has been done in response to the concern by the Western Massachusetts Economic Development Council.

"They're really behind the eight ball," he said.

He added, "The bottom line is we have lots of land and lots of affordable housing. We just need to find ways to shine extra light on that."

Last Wednesday's Round Table was part of a series of Neighborhood Round Tables that Wagner is conducting for the 8th Hampden District. The district is comprised of Wards 1, 2A, 2C, 2D, 3, 6A, 7, 8, and 9.