'City Council duped by new parking ordinance' Rheault

By Katelyn Gendron-List

Reminder Assistant Editor

AGAWAM While Richard Cohen, mayor of Agawam is proposing amendments to the new transient parking ordinance to address certain complications that have arisen since it's passage by the City Council in July, some City Council members are considering rescinding the new ordinance altogether.

President of the Agawam City Council, Donald Rheault, told Reminder Publications,"The City Council was duped to believe that the new parking ordinance was regarding public safety and it is almost designed so that nobody can park in Six Flags area and the rest of the town."

"If he [Cohen] really wants to address issues of safety he needs to look at the high school," Rheault added in reference to parking and safety issues during after school activities.

Rheault stated that he wanted to rescind the current transient parking ordinance and create a new ordinance that would address problems that have occurred since the ordinance was passed by the City Council on June 18.

However, Cohen stated in a press conference at Town Hall last week that Rheault wanted to repeal the current zoning ordinance through an emergency preamble. According to a memo released by Cohen, from the Agawam Law Department to Rheault, it stated that the new ordinance could not be repealed through an emergenct preamble as specified by Massachusetts General Law Chapter 40A.

When asked to respond to Rheault's comments, Cohen said, "I didn't draft it on my own and they voted 10 to one, so they had plenty of time and shame on them for ducking their heads in the sand and making this about a political event. It has always been about public safety. Shame on him for helping write it and for voting for it. It is unconscionable. Shame on him."

Cohen was referring to a meeting that took place in his office at Town Hall on June 4, which he said included Rheault, Agawam City Councilor and chairperson of the Ordinance Committee Gina Letellier, the Agawam Law Department and the Building Inspector, in order to go over each line of the proposed zoning ordinance before being presented to the City Council.

At the press conference last week, Cohen also announced his planed amendments to the current zoning ordinance which clearly defines transient (temporary) parking, specifies fines for violators and allows for transient parking to occur in lots where the owners have received a special permit from the Zoning Board of Appeals.

Cohen's proposed amendments deal with the issues that have come about as a by-product of passage of the new ordinance such as the waiving of transient parking application fees for "tax-exempt and non-profit entities," and also that "this provision shall not ally to municipal properties."

"In any law there are things that don't work but we don't throw out the law," he said. "We live and we learn and we make it better. This has always been and will continue to be about public safety."

Cohen added that requiring transient parking permit application fees for non-profits like churches was an oversight in the ordinance. He added that he has been working with organizations like the Sacred Heart Church to help clear up any misconceptions about the definition of transient parking and to help them obtain the special permit necessary.

Jill Simpson, Agawam City Councilor, who did not vote in favor of the new ordinance said that she had initially brought up the issue of church parking when the issue of transient parking was initially brought to the forefront, as high school students were paying a $100 donation to the United Methodist Church in order to park in the lot during school.

However, Simpson said that even though amendments need to be made to the ordinance there is no need to repeal it altogether.

Dennis Perry, Agawam City councilor, said that initially the new zoning ordinance was presented to the council as an issue public safety because of the large number of people parking their cars across from Six Flags and walking across Massachusetts State Highway to get to the park.

"That was one of the biggest selling points was the safety issue and the residents that lived there [on Main Street]," he said.

However after talking with another city councilor after the City Council meeting on Aug. 27, he believes the ordinance should be repealed, citing that the qualifications for issuing transient parking permits do not allow many people to qualify.

"I believe that the ordinance is causing more harm than good," Perry said.

But for residents like Lueen Jodoin who lives on Main Street across from Six Flags, the new zoning ordinance has eliminated her previous problems of transient parkers in the lot next to her house.

"It has been two months of bliss," she said. "There's no trash in my yard or sexual harassment as I'm standing on my deck. I now have tranquility."

Jodoin added that she agrees with the mayor's proposed amendments but not with the repeal of the ordinance.

For all those who were profiting from charging people $5 to $10 to park on their properties across from Six Flags-it costs $15 to park in the Six Flags lot-Cohen stated that this ordinance is "in essence of public safety and not the financial status of one individual."

Cohen also stated that businesses like Rocky's that have applied for transient parking permits for The Big E will have them in time for the fair later this month.

Rheault reinforced his argument to repeal the current zoning ordinance when he stated, "that by the time we address those amendments Six Flags will be closed and so will Eastern States."