Council discusses city hall renovations, town recycling

March 20, 2020 | Danielle Eaton
daniellee@thereminder.com

AGAWAM – The Agawam City Council met on March 10 for a workshop meeting that addressed several important issues in town including recycling, a proposed accessory apartment bylaw and a study on the future of Town Hall to bring it up to current Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements.

Only three members of the council were absent for the workshop meeting – Councilors Paul Cavallo, Gina Letellier and Gerald Smith. In attendance was President Christopher Johnson, Vice President Cecilia Calabrese, Councilors George Bitzas, Dino Mercadante, Mario Tedeschi, Robert Rossi, Rosemary Sandlin and Anthony Suffriti.

The first item of the night was a study of town hall given by architect Steve McCallister of Clarke and Green Architects based in Great Barrington. McCallister presented five options for building renovations. The first two options presented to the council included simply adding an elevator and shaft to the existing building on 36 Main St. The third option would involve building an elevator pulled out of the building, in a wing of its own.

The last two options would involve significant renovations, starting with taking off the entire back of the building and constructing an addition. Both options are similar, but the fifth option would give the building slightly more square footage than the fourth option. McCallister said while the fifth option is “the best value” it was “not the cheapest scheme” at an estimated $9 million.

Sandlin questioned how much, if any, parking would be taken over by the addition, but McCallister assured the council the construction “wouldn’t reduce the parking by a significant amount.” Johnson, however, said he’d rather see the money go toward a new city hall building and called the current building “not efficient” and “not laid out well.” Ideally, he said, “you would design [the] new town hall around workflow.” Johnson also pointed out how disruptive the construction would be as offices would need to be relocated until the work was finished.

Bitzas said he’d like to either leave the building as is or have it torn down, but felt that “city hall should be built on that land in that area.” The idea of turning the building into affordable housing was then brought up, which Sandlin said had been done before, citing the Danahy School House. Suffrit questioned the cost of the cheapest option, as even if the building was converted to affordable housing it would still need to meet ADA requirements. McCallister said the cheapest route would be option two and would cost $5.9 million. Tedeshi asked how long the construction would take for something more extreme like the fourth and fifth options, McCallister answered that something to that scale would “probably be about 18-months, maybe even a little less.”

The next presentation given to the council was by Agawam Director of Planning and Community Development Marc Strange and a consultant from the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission (PVPC) Becky Basch. Strange and Basch went through a bylaw they’d been working on with the planning board that would allow for accessory apartments in town to accommodate the aging population.

Before Strange and Basch could get very far into the reading of the bylaw, councilors voiced their concern that people may use accessory apartments as an additional source of income. While Strange explained that those using the bylaw may be “a homeowner in her 80’s on a fixed income,” Rossi, Mercadante, Bitzas and Johnson all expressed concerns around residents using accessory apartments as a means of supplemental income. 

Rossi said, “this type of accessory use can be very dangerous,” and cited several potential issues that could arise such as risk for violence and risk for financial loss for an elderly landlord. Mercandante added it “defies logic” to think those who could afford to build an addition for in-law apartment use “would need the supplemental income from renting.”

Johnson said he was “under the impression that the accessory would deal with the in-law apartment.” He then went on to propose requiring those who apply to use in-law apartments submit an annual application to make sure the intended purpose of the bylaw was maintained. Tedeschi pointed out that if they don’t put contingencies on the dwellings that anyone would be able to build a unit, making it difficult to track.

Johnson added he did not want the bylaw to allow for the construction or use of detached second units as accessory apartments. Strange said he would take out the provisions that would allow people to use accessory apartments as an additional source of income and that allowed for detached units. Additionally, council members voiced the want to limit accessory apartment inhabitants to only family members of the homeowner, which Strange agreed to.

Following the update on the accessory apartment bylaw, Agawam’s Solid Waste and Stormwater Coordinator Tracey DeMaio gave an update regarding the future of the town’s recycling. DeMaio said three-years-ago the town was “recycling everything,” however that “increased contaminants in recycling.”

DeMaio explained things with recycling changed when “China started enforcing a less than one percent contamination rate” and “began banning mixed papers and mixed plastics.” 

DMaio said the town had to “simplify our message,” and let people know “if it’s dirty, throw it away.” She said, “It’s not about quantity, it’s quality.”

DeMaio said the town’s contract with the Waste Management, who owns the Material Recycling Facility (MRF) where Agawam’s material goes, expires in June. “We technically have until June 30, but we don’t want to wait that long,” she explained. She then outlined the MRF contract for the city council and what it would mean for Agawam, had they chosen to accept it. 

Had the town accepted the three-year contract with MRF, they would have needed to dispose of a minimum of 15,000 tons. DeMaio said currently, Agawam disposes of 2,300 tons of waste and if they wanted to sign with MRF “every single, single-stream community in Western Massachusetts would have to sign an agreement with Waste Management.” In order to meet the tonnage, Springfield, Chicopee, Westfield, Agawam and West Springfield would have had to sign the agreement by Jan. 31. However, DeMaio said Springfield thought the price was too high and put their recycling contract out to bid. 

This decision meant that Agawam would not meet the tonnage and needed to explore further options. In addition to “considering how we’re going to reduce our trash,” DeMaio said if Springfield chose a vendor that brought their waste to a particular facility Agawam would have no problem meeting their tonnage. However, if Springfield went with a vendor who took their waste elsewhere they would need “backup plans.”

DeMaio presented the council with three alternative vendors that she had explored. All but one, Republic Services, would require the town to sign a three-year contract. Republic Services would only require a one-year contract. Ultimately, DeMaio said they were waiting for Springfield to announce who they were awarding the contract to before they made their decision, but anticipated they would have a decision soon.

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