Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 4/20/2022
WEST SPRINGFIELD — Both the Police Department and Department of Public Works (DPW) need new homes, town officials said last week, but a roomful of neighbors said they’re worried about the effect relocating the DPW will have on their own homes.
Mayor William Reichelt hosted a public forum on April 11 to discuss his $70 million proposal to consolidate DPW operations on an 8-acre site at 45 Piper Cross Rd., currently the Western Growers Inc. agricultural business, and to build a new police station at 430 Westfield St., the site of the current DPW yard. The plan would move the police out of their current home on the first floor of Town Hall, and would also close the DPW’s Water Division yard at 135 Piper Rd.
Sue Walsh, who resides in the Wind Path condominium complex off Piper Road not far from Piper Cross, questioned both the affordability of the project and the addition of more truck traffic in what is currently a residential area.
“With the cost that you’re mentioning, and our property values are going to decrease as a result of the DPW going right around the corner, I would assume our taxes are going to go down,” she said. “I would like to know how we are going to pay for this?”
Reichelt said the town would take on new debt as the bonds from previous building projects still being paid are retired.
Walsh and others, many of whom live in the same condo complex, said they worry about pedestrian safety for children and elderly residents of the neighborhood if a new DPW yard adds traffic. Drivers already exceed the 35 mph speed limit on Piper Road, they said. Those who live next to Western Growers asked about light and noise spilling over from the DPW to disturb abutting homes.
Several Piper Road area neighbors noted other areas or properties in town, in industrial or commercial zones, that they thought would be more appropriate for a DPW yard. Town officials said they chose the Piper Cross Road property because it is relatively centrally located, affordable and does not require an eminent domain taking.
Reichelt said acquiring the Western Growers property, which includes frontage on Morgan Road, would cost the town $1.4 million. If it is not purchased by the town, it could be developed as housing. The current owners are marketing it for sale, and in 2019 had it re-zoned for multi-family residential.
Reichelt and Police Chief Paul Connor laid out the need for a new police station, saying West Springfield is one of the few communities of its size that still houses police in its town hall. The current facility, a repurposed office building that the town took over in the 1950s, has no women’s locker room or even bathroom in the police office suite; holding cells that don’t meet modern standards; and no dedicated space for an evidence room, after flooding in the 1990s ended use of the basement for storage.
“That’s all mildew down there, now,” Connor said.
The mayor said the town will need a site of about 5 acres to build a new police station, which he estimated to cost about $30 million. The current DPW yard has enough space, and also has the advantage of being within the downtown area and not far from Town Hall.
Trevor Wood, the DPW’s deputy director of operations, said “our property’s literally falling apart” and is too small for today’s needs. The building was originally a trolley barn before the DPW took it over in 1939. The size of the repair shop doors limits the types of trucks that the town can purchase, and the limited amount of floor space indoors forces the DPW to park most of its equipment outdoors, where exposure to the elements reduces the lifespan of town vehicles. The salt shed is not large enough for the town’s needs, and West Springfield loses “thousands of dollars of salt a year going down the drain” in runoff from outdoor road salt piles when their tarp covers rip.
The DPW side of the project would cost about $40 million, the mayor said. He said he hopes to build a facility like the new public works yard in Longmeadow.
Wood noted that the current DPW yard on Westfield Street also abuts homes. He said the new yard would have a fence around it and truck traffic would be directed to the Morgan Road entrance.
“The hope is that we design the building so that nobody can hear us or see us. We don’t have many complaints where we are right now,” said Wood.
Reichelt said the new DPW yard would also replace the Water Division yard at the corner of Piper Road and Smyrna Street. He said he doesn’t have a firm plan yet for reusing that site, but said it could be combined with the adjacent Memorial Pool property as a Park and Recreation Department resource.
He emphasized that the project is currently a proposal in its early stages. No designer has been hired, said Reichelt, and it won’t reach the Town Council until June.
“The whole idea of this past meeting is for the residents to understand the reasoning for this forum,” Reichelt said. “It is so they know what is going on and why we are doing this, and that I hear the people and their concerns, as well.”
He said he plans to host another meeting about the project in May.