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Date: 8/28/2015
WEST SPRINGFIELD – In a visit from Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito, West Springfield joined other Western Massachusetts towns in signing a Community Compact agreement with the Commonwealth on Aug. 19.
Community Compacts present an opportunity for cities and towns to form a partnership with the state to reach specific goals. Those municipalities that choose to apply for the Community Compact must choose their best practices, and Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration will assist the towns and cities in reaching them. This includes being a partner in local aid, potential funding and grant opportunities and technical assistance, according to www.Mass.Gov.
West Springfield Mayor Ed Sullivan said the selected best practices would help the city become more efficient and responsible.
The focuses for the Community Compact are maximizing energy efficiency and renewable opportunities, “complete streets” and citizen engagement.
The city continues to work towards its Green Community designation, and Sullivan said it would be achieved by the end of October. The city has recently realigned its zoning to include solar, so the final step is the approval of a stretch code ordinance by City Council, which matches West Springfield’s building code to that of the Commonwealth’s.
“We’re happy to do that and work on some of things that will put us over the threshold to acquire that designation, which will again make available to us over $220,000 in grant money once we achieve that,” Sullivan said. “That is great for us because then we can use it to do other energy friendly things to our facilities and grounds.”
The complete streets goal ensures that West Springfield’s roadways are not only vehicle friendly, but welcome cyclists and pedestrians safely, as well. This particularly relates to the redesign of Memorial Avenue, which Sullivan said is “quite extensive.”
The $900,000 design not only includes a bike lane and repaving, Sullivan said. The city will be working on the Union Street and Memorial Avenue intersection, creating a bike lane and looking at the underground infrastructure, including waterlines and sewer lines.
“We want to make sure those are in good shape when we’re doing the work,” Sullivan said. “It’s a pretty extensive project. We did a temporary patch on part of it last month to resurface it, which was really necessary. That’s just a band aid until we actually bring this project to fruition.”
Sullivan said citizen engagement would be achieved through technology improvements, namely a kiosk to streamline permitting and other tasks for businesses and residents.
The Community Compact Agreement brought on by the Baker-Polito Administration opens up the cities and towns to more opportunities, which Sullivan said will help West Springfield move forward with these and other initiatives.
“It makes us more competitive and it avails us to other grant money. The state will help us and also provide money towards some of these initiatives,” Sullivan said. “What it also does is it moves us up the list on some of these competitive grants, like the MassWorks grant, which would be critically important to the work we want to do along Memorial Avenue and that area. This puts us in a more competitive situation when it comes to some of these other state grants by being involved in this program.”
Outside of the Community Compact, Sullivan said he has been pleased with the governor’s presence in the western part of the Commonwealth.
“I’m thrilled to be working with the state,” Sullivan said. “The governor and his office and the lieutenant governor have been wonderful to work with and actually have spent a lot of time in Western Massachusetts, which of course myself and all the other mayors are thrilled to see.”