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Date: 1/25/2022
EASTHAMPTON – The City Council approved a Community Preservation Act (CPA) grant of $42,000 for a new skate park that would be located at 32-50 Payson Ave. The funding is for the design and construction cost estimates.
Councilor Dan Rist, chair of the Finance Committee, presented during the council’s Jan. 19 meeting where the skatepark would be located and said there were some concerns on the CPA and Finance Committees about the location taking away from parking availability and added that it is going to be looked into.
He noted that one of the designs would tentatively have the skatepark connected to the Rail Trail, making it possible for skateboarders to not have to travel down Payson Avenue to enter the park.
“The plan for the skate park came out of the Open Space and Recreation Plan,” stated City Planner Jeff Bagg. He said this project “rose to the top ” out of the sense of desire to diversify some of Easthampton’s recreational opportunities.
He said committed members of the Easthampton skatepark group are forming a 501C3 prepared to do future park maintenance. First, he said they will have at least two community meetings to discuss the design and input. Then in July, they will be finished with a preferred design plan that would provide a launching point to seek future grants.
Councilor Owen Zaret said he is in favor of the park and said he had been working with the Easthampton skatepark group and remarked, “I just want to commend them for their drive as well as their organization around this. They’re a great group of people, and I appreciate the potential here, as the planner said to diversify the Parks and Rec. facilities.” He also noted that the group already “raised a few thousand dollars” in the donation account.
He also added that fortunately, skate parks are relatively low maintenance and state Sen. John Velis earmarked $15,000 for the project as well. Councilor Dan Rist to appropriate $42,500 from the CPA undesignated fund to the skate park design account for the purpose of creating conceptual designs, construction cost estimates and for five community meetings at various stages of the process.
All were in favor of passing the motion.
The City Council also discussed the $144,327.29 to supplement grant funding for public safety IT computer upgrades. Rist said the CS pro suite software upgrade is attempting to adopt one of the recommendations that came out of the public safety review of the Mayor’s Pledge.
Easthampton’s’ IT Director Dr. Karin Moyano Camihort explained, “We have a system that has reached the end of life, and we are not putting a bandaid. We are going for the Cadillac. We’re going to the top, top, top, product. Why? Because in order to replace what we have, we had one requirement. We needed a system as the current system able to talk to other stations across Massachusetts, all police officers across the state. You see the system that we’re currently using the majority share information, so that was our requirement.”
She said they selected the company Central Square because they bought the IMC Company that the administration used and put more resources into it, and now offer a “top of the line system.” She also added that since they already know Easthampton’s data, they can transfer it more easily. Furthermore, she said the company would provide the training as well as a project manager to help them move forward.
Lastly, she pointed out that aside from the “technology piece’ part of the system is a portal with public access, which provides the city with information and public transparency.
The council agreed on a motion for the supplementary appropriation from the cannabis stabilization fund for $144,327 for the fiscal year 2022 Community Contact IT grant.
The bulk item of the meeting was the restructuring of the Union Street rehabilitation project, and the council said to accomplish this, some easements needed to be granted and taken.
Councilor Owen Zaret noted that to do this, the mayor would have to have the ability to go forward with the order taking the basic property needed for easements. There are both temporary five-year easements as well as permanent easements. He said, “We need to approve that appropriation of exactly $89,590 to compensate for fair market value for landowners who are getting paid.” He said some landowners are willing to donate the land as well as the city will be donating land.
Bagg said they hope to get the project out to bid in March. He said, “If we stay the course, construction could begin late spring, early summer, but you know things like the pandemic have affected a lot of things.” However, despite this, he said they’ve been trying hard to keep this project on track.
With that said, the City Council made the first motion that they appropriate up to $89,500 from the Union Street Corridor Capital Project Fund to pay for the cost acquisition by conveyance exchange or eminent domain.
The next vote they took was related to the city’s donation of land for the expansion construction of Union Street. A motion was moved that the City Council donate certain easements over property owned by the city shown on the plan for the purpose of reconstructing and expanding Union Street.
Finally, the City Council approved a motion to adopt the order of taking.