New council to be saddled with library bond vote

Date: 12/28/2011

Dec. 28, 2011

By Debbie Gardner

Assistant Editor

WEST SPRINGFIELD — There were plenty of pleas pro and con, but after nearly two hours of public testimony during the Dec. 19 Town Council meeting, the fate of the 7.1 million appropriation request for the proposed public library project ultimately passed into the hands of the incoming council.

If approved that evening, the request would have authorized the town to eventually bond for its share of the $13.4 million project. The Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC), which has already approved the initial project proposal this July, agreed to grant the town $6.2 million toward the project, contingent upon the council’s approval to bond for the balance. West Springfield has until Jan. 31, 2012 to submit bond approval to the MBLC or it will lose the grant money for this building cycle.

Outgoing At Large Town Councilor Gerard Matthews made a plea to allow the issue to come to a vote, as the meeting was the last opportunity for the sitting council to render judgment. However, the council couldn’t muster the support to suspend the rules and override the objection of District 1 Councilor Angus Rushlow, who stated there were “too many unanswered questions” about the project for him to make a decision.

The rules suspension vote was deadlocked at 4-4, with councilors Matthews, Michael Finn, Brian Griffin and John Sweeney voting in favor of suspending the rules and moving to a vote and councilors Rushlow, George Kelly, Lida Powell and Robert Mancini opposed. Town Council President Kathleen Bourque had recused herself from the vote because family members still own property near Mittineague School, the proposed site of the library project.

Rushlow’s reservations echoed questions posed that evening by residents opposed to the library project. Wearing stickers with a slashed red circle surrounding the words “New Taxes,” more than one attendee questioned if library proponents had fully considered the price of transforming the Mittineague site into a public library.

“I believe in the library, I’m just not convinced we need a new library under these economic conditions,” resident Roberta Page said. “What’s the total cost of tearing down Mittineague [School], asbestos and all? What’s the total cost of busing students [to Tatham school]? And what’s the total cost of an addition to Tatham?”

Mayor-elect Greg Neffinger said he had spoken with the president of the MBLC about the project because he was concerned by the timetable for obtaining the Mittineague site, which is a crucial piece to the project as proposed..

“The truth is we don’t have a site. The kids in Mittineague are going to be there for three years, five years,” Neffinger said, adding that if the town were to encounter “unforeseen circumstances,” the MBLC might be willing to work with it.

However, Neffinger said he was told “if the site is not available, they will not give us the [grant].”

He added that to move forward on the project without a guaranteed building site might make the town seem deceptive to the MBLC.

“As far as deception goes, there is none. We put into the [library project] application that this site is contingent on [receiving] the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) grant for Tatham School,” Mayor Edward Gibson said.

He added that the MBLC was aware that, even if the town were to receive a MSBA grant for the addition to Tatham School immediately, it would be three to five years before the school would be ready to accept the students from Mittineague.

Urging the council to think “five to 10 years into the future” when considering the value a 21st century library could bring to the community, Gibson implored the sitting council to “leave the door open” for the project and vote that evening.

“This is a rare opportunity,” Gibson said. “We really don’t have that many opportunities to improve our community.”