AGAWAM – The Agawam City Council voted to push the state to expand approved Community Preservation Act (CPA) funding usages to support seniors and low-income residents with housing maintenance.

Council President Christopher Johnson explained this is “a resolution petitioning our state legislators to sponsor legislation that permits Community Preservation Act funds to be used by seniors on a fixed income and low income residents for home maintenance and repairs.”

This resolution was sponsored by Councilors George Bitzas, Anthony Suffriti and Dino Mercadante. This resolution was tabled during their June 21 meeting. Councilor George Bitzas made a motion to take this item off the table, which was seconded by all members.

After some discussion, Johnson suggested having the resolution say, “To be appropriated for no interest loans and/or forgivable loans to low income senior citizens and low income residents in need of capital improvements to their homes.”

Johnson said with this amendment, he believes they are in a better position to try and get legislation to use affordable housing funds from the CPA. Councilor Bitzas seconded the amendment.

Councilors Rosemary Sandlin and Robert Rossi expressed their disagreement with the amendment, stating they believed it has nothing to do with the CPA.

Mercadante asked his fellow councilors, “What do you have to lose?” Bitzas reiterated this point and said, “We have the money – let’s help the people.”

Sandlin said, “I want to file legislation that has an ability to pass … there are ways to take care of moderate and low income people but I don’t believe we should be doing it for private individuals for private gain.”

Councilor Mario Tedeschi asked, “If something like this were to pass – can the towns/cities be in control of the amount annually?”

Johnson replied,  “Yes” and said that some towns have already been doing this.

When it came time to vote in favor of the amendment, the council voted six yes, four no, one absent. Regarding the main motion as amended, the council again voted six yes, four no, one absent and the resolution was approved as amended.

The majority of councilors also supported “A resolution to petition our state legislators to oppose any amendments of special Covid-19 legislation that make universal mail-in voting a permanent process.” This topic had been tabled during their July 12 meeting.

Mercadante said, “It’s an unfunded mandate and I’m not for putting one more dollar on the taxpayers than we have to put on. So, with that being said, we have not had a problem in Agawam … the old phrase – “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it,” well, actually, let’s go back – if we really want to wipe this virus out and start to normalize; let’s go back to the old ways.”’

Rossi told the council that he is not against mail-in ballots. For some people who aren’t able to physically go in to vote, he believes they should still have this option.  

Council Vice President Cecilia Calabrese said, “We have had de facto mail-in ballots for years and years before this, in the form of an absentee ballot.”

She continued, “I’m not looking to restrict anyone’s process to vote – I have driven people myself to the polls that didn’t have rides and I know many people here have done the same.”

Calabrese explained that she isn’t looking to get rid of absentee ballots because there are people who genuinely can’t get to the polls. However, she believes that they should go back to the way voting was before.

Councilor Gerald Smith said, “I’m in favor of anything that will get people to vote. Whether it’s mail-in or absentee ballots … I really want to see as many people voting as possible.”

Johnson said, the law that was recently passed will extend to Dec. 15. This law will not have universal mail-in ballots as part of it. If someone wishes to request a ballot, they can do so similarly to how an absentee ballot was requested prior to the pandemic.

He added that Town Clerk Vincent Gioscia said mail-in ballots were “very challenging” for them to have to deal with. Gioscia still has these ballots piled high in his office because they are unsure on how long to keep them for. This was only from one election.

Rossi said he doesn’t believe the City Council should be voting on this resolution in the first place. “I don’t think it’s appropriate for this body.”

After some additional conversation and debate, the council voted six yes, four no, one absent.