AGAWAM  –  The Agawam City Council met for their regularly scheduled meeting on Oct. 5 where a number of topics were discussed including support for increased funding for the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home.

Councilor Mario Tedeschi, who served as the sponsor of the resolution, said the resolution was “to show our support for the construction, or major renovation to the existing Soldiers’ Home in Holyoke.”

“I feel it’s a critical and worthy project,” he said. The resolution read in part, “the Agawam City Council hereby resolves to urge Governor Baker and the state legislature to take immediate action to increase funding to ensure sufficient staffing, equipment and supplies to provide a safe care and to expedite the design of the new Soldiers’ Home in Holyoke, which will allow for the construction of a fully compliant rooms for approximately 250 Western Mass. veterans.”

The construction of a new building, or extensive renovation of the current building, Tedeschi said, would allow for the best possible care to be provided for those “who have won the battle and sacrificed their safety and well-being to preserve our nations’ freedoms.”

Councilor Rosemary Sandlin agreed that it was a worthy project and said in the four years she served as the 3rd Hampden District Representative, she found that the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home was consistently underfunded. “In my four years as state representative, every year it seemed that Chelsea would get more money than Holyoke. It always was a second sister or a second brother to the Chelsea facility,” she said. “I’m a living witness that they never funded the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home in the capacity that they should have and equal to Chelsea.”

Councilor George Bitzas also said he was in favor of the resolution and it was “at least something we could do.” He recalled years prior when state officials wanted to close both the Holyoke and Chelsea Soldiers’ Homes and the Agawam City Council stepped up to the plate to help. “That was a big fight, and actually, this council – we passed a similar resolution, which I sponsored, and we sent also two truckloads to Boston and we complained,” he said.

Councilor Paul Cavallo also agreed and said it was a “worthwhile cause.” He said, in addition to Agawam and other surrounding communities telling Baker of their support, they also needed local legislators to “make a move and support something like this.”

“I think now with a number of people who lost family members over the last four months at the nursing home, at the Soldiers’ Home, I think they have a strong group now. And I think hopefully with their spokespeople, who are doing a good job about it and the changes that are happening right now, maybe it will become a regular reality,” he said. “Hopefully, but like Councilor Sandlin said, the eastern part of the state gets everything.”

He then went on to touch on a current issue of two Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court openings. In recent weeks, Western Massassachusetts legislators sent a letter to Baker, urging him to choose a candidate from the region to fill the seat. “One from our end of the state has applied, probably figuring they won’t even get it because the governor has to make the picks. So, let's hope that other communities hear about what we’ve done tonight, thanks to Mario, and they get on the bandwagon and come up with a resolution like this,” Cavallo said. The resolution was passed unanimously with a vote of 11 to 0.

The council then went on to unanimously pass a resolution to accept a grant from the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development for the rehabilitation of properties in town. The grant, worth $152,250, will be used to rehabilitate two to four unit properties, Councilor Dino Mercadante explained. Those eligible to receive money must have an owner occupied building with at least one rental unit and make less than 110 percent of the median income in the Greater Springfield area.

The next order of business for the council was a resolution to accept a grant for $216,750 from the Massachusetts Department of Energy and Environmental Affairs. The grant, which reimbursed the town for the cost of their Stormwater Master Plan, was approved by all members of the council.

The council then went on to approve a $50,000 grant from the Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game Division of Ecological Restoration. Mercadante explained the grant was for data collection for a culvert located on North Street at the pumping station. “We’ve had multiple issues down there over the last couple of years and it’s been quite extensive, the repairs. And this now will map out the engineering and design of the road and the culvert,” he explained.

The City Ccouncil is scheduled to meet next on Oct. 19 at 7 p.m.