Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 9/28/2023
AGAWAM — The City Council cut Agawam’s Council on Aging almost in half, but it isn’t losing any active members.
In a unanimous vote on Sept. 18, city councilors reduced the size of the Council on Aging from 13 members to seven members — eliminating several vacant seats and matching the number of current appointees.
Council on Aging Chair Laurie Cecchi said the last time the council had a full complement of 13 members was 2019. Participation has dropped off since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, she said. Having so many vacant seats has made it difficult to get business done, she said.
Cecchi said in recent years, the Council on Aging has had to cancel several meetings because it couldn’t make a quorum. Under state law, a public board cannot take votes without the support of more than half of its members. With only seven active members on a 13-seat council, the absence of any one member — because of illness, a planned vacation, or any other reason — would mean postponing the agenda. The council meets once a month.
Now, with only seven seats, each of the current members will be able to stay, but the council will be able to vote even if three of them are absent that day. This will let the council “focus on bringing the Senior Center back to its pre-pandemic era,” Cecchi said.
Cecchi said the town’s Senior Center is an “invaluable facility,” and deserves an active Council on Aging and executive director to return it to its pre-pandemic level of activity.
Among the Council on Aging’s upcoming tasks is helping to hire a new senior center director, as current director Mike Squindo will depart in October to take a similar job in Westfield.
Crosswalk talk
City councilors Rosemary Sandlin and Paul Cavallo said they had asked the Department of Public Works about plans for better crosswalk signals at the corner of Silver and Suffield streets — something Cavallo, a neighbor in that area, has been pushing for years. They informed their colleagues they were told town workers are only waiting for the end of the Big E to start installing the new infrastructure, and hope to have the safety improvement done in October.
The next crosswalk safety priority should be on Mill Street between Agawam Methodist Church and the high school campus, said Councilor George Bitzas. He said many people park at the church when attending football and soccer games at the Agawam High School stadium. He said he’d like to see a crosswalk sign there with solar-powered flashing lights, similar to signs in other towns.