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Date: 4/25/2023
WESTFIELD — The Finance Committee recommended approval by the City Council on April 20 of three items at Westfield-Barnes Regional Airport, including a feasibility study, new security cameras, and a city Fire Department emergency unit stationed outside of the fence during the Westfield International Air Show on May 13-14. All three items passed unanimously.
Councilor Bridget Matthews-Kane, Finance Committee chair, asked the council to approve a grant of $50,000 from the MassDOT Aeronautics Division to the airport to partially fund a feasibility study for the Taxiway B project.
Matthews-Kane said the feasibility study will look at the Taxiway B north intersection with Runway 15-33, which she said is a location with history or a potential risk of collision or runway incursion. She said the runway was rebuilt in 2002, but in the past 20 years, FAA standards have changed.
She said the study will analyze options, and come up with a preferred alternative. She said the construction is still five to seven years out, and there will be no local match. The other half of the funding is expected to come from the governor’s military task force. She said the airport manager would not sign any contracts until the military contract is secure, with no cost to the city.
Matthews-Kane said the Finance Committee also supported a transfer of $30,000 within the Airport Department from the full-time hourly wage account for upgrades to the airport-wide security camera system.
Matthews-Kane said the request is a response to a server problem the airport had with its camera system. She said the city technology manager came to the rescue, migrated the license to the city, and used city servers to keep the security system up and running. Going forward, the tech center will maintain the airport system.
Quotes from four vendors came in at about $30,000. The money was transferred from two vacant positions for motor equipment operators.
Finance Committee member Rick Sullivan spoke to the third item, a transfer of $15,000 from the public communications full-time salary account to the Fire Department overtime account, to fund staffing at the air show.
Sullivan said the city has been working with all of the emergency management services, including fire, police and dispatch, in conjunction with the Air National Guard for “quite some time.”
“There hasn’t been an air show since 2017, and they are expecting significant crowds,” he said.
Sullivan said the Air National Guard will pay for everything inside the fence, but for city emergency management teams to be able to provide the same level of service to the city, they need to build a command center to deploy another ambulance during the air show. He said that ambulance will be stationed at Micro Abrasives Corp. parking area on Southampton Road, which the company is letting the city use for no cost.
Sullivan said the state is paying for the command unit, rehab unit, two gators, polaris, and a fire truck, and the city ambulance will be there.
“This will be a new substantiation. There will still be ambulances on the inside of the fence. Their fear is with all that traffic, they won’t be able to get across town quickly enough,” Sullivan said. He said the city will be staffing the fire truck and ambulances outside of the fence. He said the 911 Dispatch Center has been part of this and is using the money in its salary line item, which is available to transfer, to pay to staff the trucks.
“Ultimately, at the end of the day, it’s a public safety issue,” Sullivan said. He said the state will pay to have a bomb squad, dogs and a hazardous materials team on site. “It will be done in a very quality way,” he added.
Councilor Ralph Figy asked if the Fire Department had the money in its budget.
“The chief said he does not,” Sullivan said. He said the Air National Guard is paying for a lot of the Police Department overtime, and did not have the money to set up this command center.
Bean said with the additional 40,000 visitors expected to come to Westfield that day, the fire chief said coverage in the rest of the city is not going to suffer at all.