Bitzas seeks support of resolution

Bitzas seeks CPA funds for seniors

By Erin O'Connor

Staff Writer

AGAWAM City Councilor George Bitzas will ask the City Council to approve a resolution at the April meeting that asks the Massachusetts General Court and Governor Deval Patrick to alter current Community Preservation Act (CPA) legislation to allow money to be dispersed towards the construction of the new Agawam Senior Center and repairs on senior housing projects.

"The Agawam Housing Authority is in need of funds to repair, maintain and support its properties but has been unable to receive CPA funds because the projects do not fully meet the definitions and restrictions of the CPA Act," Bitzas said. "It is not clear now what is allowed and what is not allowed."

The Agawam Law Department is currently working on the language of the resolution.

"There is not a great appetite on Beacon Hill to change it that much," Thomas Callahan of Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance (MAHA), a steering committee for the Community Preservation Coalition (CPC) said to Reminder Publications.

According to Bitzas, the resolution proposes to provide money towards the construction of a new senior center, helps to maintain and repair the existing senior center and repair current housing projects.

"The seniors are raising nickels and dimes by collecting cans for the senior center," Bitzas said. "These are taxpayers and someday everyone will be at the Senior Center."

The CPA funds come from a one percent surcharge on Agawam's property tax that was voted for by its citizens. The state matches the funds raised.

"The proceeds have to be used for affordable housing, open space and historic preservation," Callahan said.

Callahan said ten percent of the funds must be spent on each area and the remaining 70 percent must be split between the three areas.

"It is designed to create new opportunities and not just pay for existing ones," Callahan said. The CPA has been in existence since the early 2000's and is considered new legislation.

Callahan said the aspects of Bitzas' resolution are ones that currently are not allowed because affordable housing money is supposed to be used for these units. "On housing and maintenance that would not be allowed," Callahan said. "The goal is to bring new home ownership or housing opportunities online. We recognize that this is a need and the goal is to create additional housing."

"It will benefit our town because our town right now is in the process of building," Bitzas said. "That will be the best thing to help our seniors. I don't want to see the seniors get punished."

"The only way a senior center is allowed use is if it is a historical renovation," Callahan said. "The senior center is a new construction and not an open space."

Other items that the CPA funds have been used for in Agawam include the School Street River Park Project. Currently there is $310,000 in funds for the CPA account. The state must match these funds.

Callahan said that 121 communities in Massachusetts have adopted the CPA.

"The one change people are looking for is the state match," Callahan said. "If local communities adopt it [CPA] then they are eligible for the state match. That pot of money that provides the state match must be split between them. Some folks in legislators are asking, 'Can we insure that the state match stays a state match for the foreseeable future.'"

According to Callahan, legislation for CPA has been a long fight in the legislature that started in 1985. It was fueled by two concerns: 1) not enough open space opportunities, that had communities concerned with rapid development, strip malls and the gobbling up of farm land. They were concerned the state wasn't putting resources into helping cities and towns preserve their open space opportunities.

Callahen said the second reason was for affordable housing and the communities belief that Massachusetts since the 1980's has been a high cost state.

"We don't have very many programs that help build new affordable housing and a way to address these and historic preservation," Callahan said.

"There is little we can do to help them[seniors]," Bitzas said. "They pay taxes. They need services."