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VOL. 84 NO. 044
The Westfield News Serving Westfield, Southwick, and the surrounding Hilltowns
“There
are two kinds of man: the ones who make history and the ones who endure it.” - CAMILO JOSE CELA
www.thewestfieldnews.com
75 cents
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015
Realtors say market ready for new homes By PETER FRANCIS Staff Writer WESTFIELD – West Springfield developer Joseph Kelley is advancing his plan to build an 11-lot subdivision off Northwest Road to the city Planning Board. These lots measure out at about 40,000 square feet, or one acre, each, at a cost estimated at $125,000 per lot. Ted Cassell, owner of Park Square Realty, said that the building market for new homes is improving and that the proposed location for these lots is great. “That’s a nice part of the city for lots,” he said. “Whether or not they’ll get that price, the market will dictate.” Cassell said that Park Square handled a subdivision last year where lots in a 13-acre subdivision were selling for $130,000 apiece. “That was obviously a larger piece of land,” he said. “But there was another sale on Sackett Road, a 3-acre lot, that sold for $125,000, along with a recent sale of a 0.7-acre lot in an established neighborhood for $90,000. It was like an extra lot that no one had ever really built on.” Cassell said the 0.7 lot was initially listed at $125,000, confirming his point that the market will dictate what these lots will sell for, as well as whether the lots have access to public water and sewer. The Northwest Road lots will only have public water. “That will make them more expensive, having to put in a septic system,” said Cassell, who estimates such a system would cost in the range of $15,000-$20,000. He also said that Park Square Realty is anticipating a great 2015 in regards to new lots. “When you’re thinking about building and buying a lot, the homes are probably going to be in the $350,000 and up range, so people have to feel good and confident about their employment situation,” said Cassell. “More than likely, people are going to have to sell their other home and the market is improving for that, too.” Kathleen Witalisz, owner of Witalisz & Associates, Inc. in Westfield, also believes that the city’s market for building is See New Homes, Page 3
An illustrated drawing of the redesigned intersection at North Elm and Notre Dame streets.(Photo by Frederick Gore)
Water quality issues complicate road project By DAN MORIARTY Staff Writer WESTFIELD – The Conservation Commission voted last week to continue its review of improvements at the North Elm/Notre Dame intersection because of concern about the quality of stormwater being collected and channeled into the Westfield River. The commission requested the city, through its engineering consultant, Vanasse Hangen Brustlin (VHB) of Watertown, to provide details of facilities being incorporated into the project to improve the stormwater prior to its discharge into the Westfield River. The intersection improvements include widening the pavement to create dedicated left turn
lanes on North Elm Street in both directions, and widening of the throat of the upper section of Notre Dame Street at the intersection. The project also includes creation of a parking area to replace existing parking at Mestek Inc., which is being taken to widen the road for the new turning lanes. The project will increase the area of pavement by more than 23,000 square-feet, roughly half an acre and that additional area of impervious surface will result in greater runoff of storm water. Gene Crouch of VHB said the existing storm drains along North Elm Street south of the intersection and upper Notre Dame Street west of the intersection will be replaced with deep-sump basins which are designed to capture sediment
contained in storm water. Crouch and Amanda Bazinet of VHB, said that the topography and the need to flow water toward the Westfield River limit stormwater collection and treatment, but that stormwater collected from the new parking area will be filtered through a vegetated rain garden to remove sediment. Drainage is a major element of the intersection improvement project because that area is subject to frequent flooding. VHB has proposed to plug a storm pipe between Powder Mill Brook and the intersection because when the level of the brook rises during storm events, water flows from the brook into the intersection, causing flooding as it See Road Project, Page 3
City’s post-BID transition ongoing By PETER FRANCIS Staff Writer WESTFIELD – Following last year’s 9-2 city council vote to dissolve the city’s Business Improvement District (BID), the city’s post-BID transition is still ongoing. “The city is continuing to figure out what we’re capable of picking up of those services and what we’re not and there’s certainly more services that we’re not capable of picking up,” said Peter Miller, Westfield’s community development director. Miller said that the city has forged a coalition of sorts with Westfield on Weekends (WOW) to continue divying up the duties formerly held by the BID, including marketing for businesses, business development programs and downtown maintenance services. The city has two initiatives it is currently working on, according to Miller. “We have a proposal being sent out for beautification and maintenance services in the downPETER J. MILLER town, basically flower planting and pot maintenance along with some other things,” he said. “That proposal will be advertised for bid later this month and when we receive the proposals back, we’ll have to make a determination about whether we can afford that or not.” Miller also added that the city’s Community Development Department
Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Funding will help Mass. families pay for heat BOSTON – Governor Baker and Department of Housing and Community Development Undersecretary Chrystal Kornegay today announced the release of over $13 million in federal funding to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), bringing the total fuel assistance funding awarded to Massachusetts in FY15 up to $144 million. The funding will be distributed to 22 local administering agencies that will allocate benefits to approximately 180,000 eligible families in need of assistance.
TED CASSELL See Post BID, Page 3
See Fuel Assistance, Page 3