AGAWAM – Appropriating funds for an affordable housing project was a significant topic of discussion at the Feb. 18 Agawam City Council meeting, where Mayor William Sapelli also gave his State of the City Address.

The topic of appropriating funds from the Community Preservation Act (CPA) to give Wayfinders $564,000 for an affordable housing complex to be built at 586 Mill St. was discussed. Resident, Corinne Wingard, was the first to speak on the topic during citizen speak time. She used her time to urge the council to allocate the money as “we need this subsidized housing for people living in Agawam right now.” She said if the money was not given, it could impact the town in a variety of ways, including losing their 70 percent local preference. “I expect the development will take longer and not be as good, because Wayfinders will take things away to make up the difference in the money,” she said.

Resident Susan Grossberg also spoke in favor of allocating money for the project during her time. She emphasized that the project would move forward with or without the town’s funds, but it “will just be a better development with a nice playground, a bigger community building, and more parking spaces if you vote to grant the CPA money.”

Resident, Rob Donaldson also spoke in support of the housing project. He said, “What I gather is we have about 800 households in this town who are at risk of homelessness because they’re spending 50 percent or more of their income on their housing costs, which puts them in a very awkward position, probably month by month.” Donaldson added, “I would urge you to approve the funding, to take advantage of the opportunity that we have here and to make it the best possible thing that we can offer to people right here in Agawam.”

Next, Sapelli, who was sworn in for his second two-year term in January, gave his State of the City Address and discussed initiatives and projects that had taken place, as well as projects that are in progress and are scheduled to take place in the upcoming year. He first pointed out that the town took on the large expenditure of purchasing streetlights and retrofitting them with LED lights. This, Sapelli pointed out, “will be a savings of approximately $200,000 a year when they’re installed.”

Next, he pointed out that through the Green Communities Grant the town would be upgrading “energy management systems” that would yield a “class savings of approximately $70,000 and up.” Also in green efforts, the town installed three electric vehicle-charging stations in various locations.

The mayor then went on to touch on several ongoing and new businesses that are in town. While he mentioned several new businesses, he said one recently acquired that he was “very pleased” about was TW Metals, which had moved into the building formerly occupied by Serta Simmons Bedding. “Those of you that know that building know that’s a very, very large facility. I was very concerned that it would be very difficult to fill that building because it was so large, but we were lucky to do that,” he said.

In regard to public safety, Sapelli said another ambulance was purchased by the town this year and they were “anticipating centralized emergency dispatch that’s going to combine fire and police.” This, he said, was expected to enhance the town’s response to fires. Training will take place in March, Sapelli said, and centralized dispatch is expected to be in place in April.

He then touched on public health in town, starting with how the number of blighted properties has decreased. “In Agawam, two years ago we had 48 blighted properties on the list, and Kathleen Auer informed me that all these properties have either been demolished or come into compliance,” he said. He emphasized that while that doesn’t mean there are no blighted properties left, the town has and will continue to work on the issue.

He added that he was “very, very proud” that the town was “way out in front of this tobacco enforcement issue.”

Sapelli noted that if residents recalled, two years ago the town put in place regulations on vaping before the state and federal levels did. “We’re very pleased to say we were proactive and now everyone else is kind of catching up and we’re seeing some of the fall off from this vaping, and it’s a real issue we’re pleased to say we were out in front of because of the hard work of our board of health and our public health department.”

One issue the town will need to address this year will be how they dispose of their recyclables. “We all know the situation with China, that they used to take plastics, now they’re not. We used to get money back for recyclables, now we have to pay,” he said. Sapelli added that the town is working with a few different companies, and “we’re ready to sign a couple of contracts.” He said while the cost of recycling would be an increased cost to the town, they were “going to be addressing [that].”

Sapelli also announced he had received a letter of resignation from Agawam Superintendent of Schools, Steven Lemanski. “The school committee has the task of doing a superintendent search, which we will be meeting this week to address those procedures,” he explained. Sapelli offered no further details as to when Lemanski would retire, but wished him “best of luck in retirement” and thanked him “for his years of service to our community, our residents [and] our parents.”

After Sapelli’s State of the City Address, the subject of affordable housing came up once again when the resolution, TR-2020-17, came before the council. Councilor George Bitzas, chair of the Community Relations Committee, gave a report regarding their recommendation for the item after it was referred to them. Bitzas said the committee met on Feb. 11 where the entire council and a representative from Wayfinders was present. Ultimately, Bitzas said they could not recommend the council give the money to Wayfinders. “I, spoke strongly along with councilor Bob Rossi, Councilor Smith, Councilor Suffriti in opposition of the CPA committee request to give Wayfinders $564,000 CPA/taxpayers money to the housing project at 586 Mill St.,” he said.

Each councilor, except Councillor Mario Tedeschi and Vice Chair Cecilia Calabrese, then went on to comment on the item. Councilor Dino Mercadante said he’d be “willing to table the discussion until more information on state contribution” was available, while Councilor Rosemary Sandlin expressed her support of the resolution. “Way back when I first came to get married to try to stay in Agawam, I originally had to move out of Agawam because the rents were quite high,” she said. “And after a year and a half of waiting I was eligible through my husband’s veteran status for Brady Village, not the greatest place to live, but a place to start my family and I really think we need to look at how families can stay in Agawam.”

Councilor Gerald Smith said when he asked the Wayfinders representative how many apartments would be designated for seniors he was told none of them would be. He then expressed how he felt the money would be better appropriated to deal with senior housing as the aging population in town continues to grow.

Council President Christopher Johnson stepped from his chair and said, “This is the first affordable housing project that is being proposed in Agawam in over 40 years, so it’s sad that we have councilors up here saying that we should take this money and use it to do other things when we’ve had the CPA for almost 20 years.” He continued, “At this point, it’s difficult to say you’re in favor of affordable housing in Agawam if you don’t want to give Wayfinders, which frankly is a quality operator who builds quality projects as a nonprofit entity, the funding and while I don’t support their entire ask, I support giving them some Community Preservation Funds to build this project.”

Both Councilors Anthony Suffriti and Gina Letellier, said while they were in support of giving Wayfinders some money, they didn’t believe the town needed to award them the full amount. Letellier then went on to suggest an amendment to lower the amount of money that would be awarded to Wayfinders to $329,000.

Bitzas said he was “totally against” the amendment and he felt as though it was a “slap in the face to taxpayers” as he didn’t feel Wayfinders should get any money at all.

When the vote for the amendment was taken Rossi, Smith, Bitzas and Cavallo all voted against awarding the money. Calabrese and Tedeschi abstained from voting, causing the amendment to fail.

In an attempt to come to a resolution of sorts, Cavallo made a motion to approve $200,000 to allocate from CPA funds for Wayfinders. However, after the motion was seconded, Letellier objected. Johnson explained this would take the item “to the next agenda where a roll call will be taken with no discussion.”

The council then quickly moved through the rest of the agenda and adjourned. Their next meeting, when they will take a vote on the appropriation of $564,000 from CPA funds to Wayfinders for the affordable housing complex on Mill Street, will take place on March 2.