Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 11/16/2017
CHICOPEE – The work to address structural issues at City Hall will continue with the City Council’s approval of $263,500 to pay for the preparation of plans for the City Hall Annex.
According to a letter from Lee Pouliot, director of the Department of Planning & Development, the Annex, which was added to the city’s historic City Hall building in 1929, has a number of issues that must be addressed. Among these are designs of a replacement for an Annex’s low-slop roofing system; rehabilitation of the building’s brick parapets; rehabilitation of the deteriorated floor joist; analysis of the brick façade; masonry testing; environmental testing; and improving rest rooms.
City Hall has been undergoing significant structural improvements including the restoration of its stained glass windows.
Assistant City Planner Jack Benjamin told the council it “makes sense” to make the improvements to the annex building as the other work is being conducted.
Benjamin added that because the Annex is a historical building state historical offices will be informed of the proposed improvements.
The goal, Benjamin said is for the city to award the contract for the annex work in the fall of 2018.
Mayor Richard Kos suggested in his briefing the council may want to discuss the allocation for the annex in committee, but the council approved the sum without that step.
The council also approved the allocation of $69,3000 for changes to the city’s Integrated Management Plan to be submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) concerning the city’s mandated reduction of Combined Sewer Overflows and other issues.
Kos explained the EPA nationally had granted five year extensions to communities trying to make the expensive corrections and said it is a “very cumbersome process and costly.” The current process is designed to hopefully alter the city’s existing Consent Degree that would allow for greater flexibility in the future.
Referencing the expense of the project so far, Councilor James Tillotson asked, “How much do they [the EPA] want? Is this a game they’re playing with us?”
The mayor added what his administration hopes to accomplish is to work out a 40 to 50 year extension with the EPA.
The council also approved the sum of $1,485 for a boundary survey to help clarify property on the east side of Meadow Street at Roy Street. Benjamin told the council the area is “a mess ownership-wise and we want to get them back on the tax rolls.”