AGAWAM/WEST SPRINGFIELD – On Feb. 28, West of the River Chamber welcomed Agawam Mayor William Sapelli and West Springfield Mayor William Reichelt to the Crestview Country Club for their mayoral breakfast event and question and answer session. Sapelli and Reichelt discussed issues affecting their towns and how they have teamed up to make Agawam and West Springfield a community.

The mayors had the opportunity to address the audience during the event before the question and answer portion began.

Sapelli and Reichelt discussed progress that their towns have made in the school system. Both Agawam and West Springfield have recently increased their focus on showing students their options other than college post-high school graduation.

“One mistake we’ve made over the years is that we try to push all students to go to college. What we’re really finding is all that does for some of them, who really shouldn’t have been on that path, is give them a lot of debt. They never get out from under it. There are many, many individuals who are hands-on type people,” Sapelli said.

“Our education system is amazing. We just built a new high school that is five years old now. Our middle school we built 20 years ago. We’re building a new elementary school in the center of town. It’s going to have about 705 students in it.” Reichelt shared.

Reichelt explained that the Massachusetts Building Authority will be paying West Springfield back $0.75 on the dollar for building the new Coburn School.

“It’s a great opportunity. The school is 100 years old that it’s replacing. It’s a great opportunity to invest in our students. At the same time, it’s a school that has 35 different languages and students from 55 different countries. They are the ones that are definitely going to benefit from that. The whole district will benefit as well,” Reichelt said.

Reichelt also referenced West Springfield High School’s Pathways to Prosperity program, giving students the opportunity to learn about careers. “[Students will] have that opportunity and maybe they won’t go to college. They’ll just come out and work right away, but they’ll at least leave West Side high school ready to do either college or trade school,” Reichelt said.

Sapelli and Reichelt also discussed infrastructure projects including paving, pipe repairs and the Morgan-Sullivan Bridge construction project. The project has reduced traffic over the bridge connecting the two towns to one lane in each direction and is anticipated to take three years to complete.

“If you were driving through Agawam this past year, you probably noticed a lot of the construction on the streets and sidewalks. We’re doing concrete sidewalks, which is nice too. We’re spending a lot of money and putting a lot of focus on that, which is good for the businesses in town as well as the residents themselves,” Sapelli said.

Sapelli explained that the Agawam has spent their fiscal year budget on sidewalk and street repairs. The City Council recently approved a transfer of funds that would allow the town to continue street and sidewalk construction until the next fiscal year. “They transferred $500,000 over to streets and $400,000 to sidewalks, so we’re going to continue getting our town in great shape as far as streets and sidewalks are concerned,” Sapelli said.

Reichelt explained that pipes need to be repaired under streets in West Springfield before paving can be completed. “We have a lot of underground pipes. That’s something that’s not sexy at all to talk about. Everyone wants us to pave. When you’re paving all these roads, you’re paving over pipes that could be up to 100 years old. When they break, you have people yelling and screaming at you ‘Why did you pave that road if you’re just going to dig it up?’ So I go ‘Okay, we’re not going to pave the road until we fix the pipes’ and they freak out and say ‘Why didn’t you pave the road?’ It’s really difficult when spending a lot of money paving isn’t always good if you’re just going to pave over the problem and leave it for a future mayor to deal with, which I would love to do, but we’re not going to do it that way,” Reichelt said.

“Will and I have been closely working together with anybody we can pull into the mix whether it’s our state representatives and senators, the lieutenant governor and governor. We met with the secretary of the Department of Transportation. We’ve met with police and fire. You have concerns and we have concerns whether it’s the length of time this particular project is going to take or whether it’s signage to help mitigate some of the confusion and problems,” Sapelli said.

For residents seeking to avoid traffic over the Morgan-Sullivan Bridge, the Strathmore Bridge is an alternative option. However, CSX freight trains frequently block the path for up to 45 minutes at a time several times per day. Sapelli and Reichelt have been working with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation to obtain signage that would warn of a train at least one half mile away in each direction.

“That CSX train has been blocking that path for years. We met with CSX several times and CSX has an interesting way about them. I’ve never seen a group of individuals who could say no in so many different ways but be very polite and smile at you while doing it. We were very frustrated with that. We went to Senator Markey and also had two or three meeting with Congressman Neal about CSX. Everyone is saying they are tough to deal with. We are hearing that, but we’re not giving up and we’re not going to go away. We’ll see where we can get with that,” Sapelli said.

Reichelt said, “Working with them is very difficult. I’ve met with them every year, and every year they have a new promise. The next year, they have a new way that they’re not going to be able to keep that promise.”

Sapelli explained that the warning signage has not yet been installed due to the weather preventing the concrete from being able to be installed properly and that temporary signs would be provided by April 1. “We had a conference call with the people from the DOT and I asked about those signal signs because they’re not here yet. In this conference call, there was a gentleman we’ve been dealing with who is pretty positive and pretty aggressive and a person I trust because they follow through. He told me by April 1, we are going to at least have temporary signs. He said what’s holding them up is concrete bases in this weather. He said we need the concrete bases to do it right,” Sapelli said.

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation will fund the initial sign installation and the towns will maintain the signs after the completion of the Morgan-Sullivan construction project.

“It’s a good thing. We don’t want them just for the bridge project. This is something that has been an issue. Even if the bridge is working, we all try to use that route. We’ve been working diligently together and it’s been a great effort. We’re both being pests to the DOT and will continue to do so until we get what we need,” Sapelli said.

Reichelt said, “It has gotten better with the state being willing to pay if they actually do come through with the signs. I know it’s unfortunately just a band-aid because CSX won’t give us, or can’t give us allegedly, their train schedules when they come either out of Boston or New York.”

During the question and answer portion of the event, Eastern States Exposition President Gene Cassidy commented on CSX.

“Anytime I hear anybody talk about CSX, I’m disappointed by their response. They’re a publicly held company,” Cassidy said.

Cassidy continued, “I don’t know who’s designing the flow of traffic. I have a lot of criticisms about it. That is complicated by CSX and the way they are not reacting to our respective communities.”

Addressing the mayors, Cassidy shared that he feels Sapelli and Reichelt are doing a “marvelous” job in their positions. “I want to compliment both of the mayors for being here this morning to address this public forum. I want to express some disappointment that other elected officials aren’t here to hear this. I think West Springfield, at this point in time, are served by the two best mayors they could possibly have. I’m in a unique position because I do a lot of work in both Agawam and West Side. I want to thank both of you gentlemen for being really accessible and I think you’re both doing a marvelous job for your respective communities,” Cassidy shared.

Cassidy said he believes the community should reach out to officials to help resolve issues with CSX train crossing.

“My hope is that all of us who are affected by this speak out. Don’t give the mayors a hard time, because I know how hard they’re working at this, but let’s speak out to our elected officials so that Agawam and West Springfield get the attention it deserves from higher officials that can hold CSX and DOT responsible to our region,” Cassidy said.

Sapelli and Reichelt shared that they have worked together as two towns and are optimistic about their relationship. “There’s a lot we’re doing. We’re cooperating a lot with West Springfield. We work together. We’re two very similar communities and two communities that have a lot of similar things going on and we’re sharing our resources. There’s been times I’ve gone over to see Will or see Kate and share ideas with them and they’ve done the same with us. It’s a great relationship that’s going to continue,” Sapelli said.

“I worked in Agawam for two years as their attorney. I got to work with [Sapelli] and learn from him when he was superintendent. It’s a great working relationship and our two communities are very similar, Reichelt closed.