Three CPC articles considered for May s Annual Town Meeting

Date: 3/9/2009

By Courtney Llewellyn

Reminder Assistant Editor



EAST LONGMEADOW -- Community Preservation Act (CPA) funds can be used in four specific areas: community housing, historic preservation, open space and recreation.

The three proposals brought forward by the Community Preservation Committee (CPC) for this spring's Annual Town Meeting include projects for community housing and historic preservation.

Peter Punderson, chair of the CPC, recently presented the three articles to the Board of Selectmen, who will ultimately decide if they move forward to the town meeting.

Two of the proposals ask for repairs to the affordable housing units in town, Inward Commons and the Village Green.

"The combination [ceiling] units that provide heat, light and ventilation in the bathrooms at Inward Commons need to be replaced," Lynn Booth, executive director of the town's Housing Authority, said. "Some work, some don't. They're at least 30 years old."

The proposal she gave to the CPC would replace the worn out units with similar ones in 52 apartment bathrooms and two near the community room. The estimated cost for this project is $11,000.

Village Green's project would involve the replacement of 206 windows at a cost of $95,000.

"The Village was built in 1962, and those are all original windows," Booth explained. "They're old, single-pane, aluminum-framed windows. Some of the seals are broken. They're just not energy efficient."

The replacement windows would be double-paned.

Booth said that if the two projects are approved at the Annual Town Meeting, work could be finished by the end of the year.

The historic preservation proposal would replace the chain link fence surrounding Green Lawn Cemetery at the corners of Pleasant and Callendar streets with one made of vinyl, styled after a picket fence.

"The [current] fence is definitely in need of repair or replacement," Punderson said.

The Green Lawn Cemetery Association submitted the proposal, which includes the removal of the old fence and the installation of the new one. The proposal requested $33,500 for the project, and the CPC has approved $24,000 for it.

The CPA allows cities and towns in the Commonwealth to adopt a property tax surcharge of up to three percent, the revenues from which are matched by state funds, to pay for projects like these.

"These were just brought to us [the CPC] as projects that needed to be done," Punderson told Reminder Publications. "They're all a very good use of CPA funds."

If approved by the Board of Selectmen, residents can vote on these projects at the Annual Town Meeting, scheduled for May 18.