AGAWAM – Last week, Reminder Publishing ran a story covering the first half of Agawam Mayor William Sapelli’s state of the city address. This week, Part 2 of the series will cover 2019 plans and the current state for the Town of Agawam in the areas of infrastructure, recreation, education, budget, buildings and government.

At the beginning of Sapelli’s state of the city address at the Agawam city council meeting on Feb. 4, the mayor addressed subjects such as planning and economic development, zoning, public safety and public health. For the length of his speech, Sapelli maintained a positive outlook for the next year for the town of Agawam.

Infrastructure

Sapelli discussed improvements that have already been made to the town’s infrastructure as well as works in progress. “Everywhere you turn around you hear, whether it’s the federal government, state government or local government is talking about their infrastructure needs. Everybody has them. Not everyone’s addressing them, I don’t think, like Agawam is.” Sapelli said.

Sapelli credited Head Engineer Michelle Chase with the development of a pavement management plan that has been utilized over the last couple of years. As Sapelli explained, “There’s two pieces to a pavement management plan. There’s preventative maintenance and there’s direct replacement.”

Utilizing this plan, Sapelli explained that the town has ensured cracks are sealed to prevent water from getting into the cracks and freezing, causing extensive and costly damage.

Sapelli also discussed improvements to streets that were made in the last year and upcoming plans for road improvements.

Haskell Street, Emerson Road and Wright Street, in proximity with the Agawam Senior Center, were redone in 2018. Walnut Street, River Street, Robin Ridge Drive, Beech Hill Road, Ralph Street and Park Street were also redone in 2018 along with improvements to the sidewalks.

Sapelli shared, “We’ve spent to date, I would say on streets and sidewalks, probably about $1.7 million. The fiscal year, as we all know, runs until June 30. We’ve spent our local allotment as well as our Chapter 90 money. We’re looking to transfer some money from free cash, another $500,000 for streets, another $400,000 for sidewalks, so that we can continue in April, May and June, the rest of the fiscal year, to do more streets and sidewalks that there’s desperate need for.”

Plans are also in place to improve several intersections including the Feeding Hills intersection.

“That’s a major, major change that we’re going to have up there, mostly for safety and signals,” Sapelli said. An extra lane will be added as well as widened roads and sidewalks. “That’s a large travel area for the junior high and Granger school for our walkers. We’re going to make some appropriate bike paths in there for them as well to keep them safe,” Sapelli said.

Improvements will also be made to the Pine Street intersection and O’Brien’s Corner including regrading, signaling changes and sidewalk installation.

Sapelli also discussed the town’s need to address storm water infrastructure.

“We do have several areas of town that need addressing because of flooding problems. Agawam has 5,000 catch bases. It has 120 miles of pipe under the road for drainage and 500 outfalls. That’s a lot of work and a lot to do,” Sapelli said.

Sapelli explained that, under the Federal Clean Air Act put into effect in July, new regulations are in place that require street sweeping on a regular basis as well as frequent cleaning of catch bases. The act is an unfunded mandate, requiring that the town pay for the necessary equipment and staffing.

“These things are important to keep our streets in town running the way they should be running. So we’re going to be, this year, looking at ways of funding that. We don’t know how that’s going to turn out at this point. There’s a couple of different options we have. The city council is going to weigh in on that as well as the community and we’re going to come up with a solution to the problem. We do need to fix it, we need to address that,” Sapelli said.

Sapelli discussed the Morgan-Sullivan Bridge project that began in November, 2018, to reconstruct the bridge connecting the towns of Agawam and West Springfield. The project has reduced the bridge to two lanes, one in each direction, of travel and has caused traffic delays in the area.

“We all know about the bridge problem. It needs replacing. The good news and bad news is DOT is giving us the money and funding the whole deal. That’s the good news. The bad news is now we’re going to have to wait until it’s done and be inconvenienced during that period of time.

“That’s going to be very inconvenient, it’s going to be a real stress on the businesses in that area. We’re very concerned,” Sapelli said.

Alternatively, residents have the option of utilizing the Strathmore Bridge, a controversial travel area due to its being a CSX train route. CSX trains often block the flow of traffic for up to 45 minutes at a time. Sapelli said he has been working closely with Gov. Charlie Baker, Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito, West Springfield Mayor William Reichelt, Sen. Ed Markey and Congressman Richard Neal to discuss the issue of CSX train crossing.

“Of course, I’m working very closely with Mayor Reichelt and as a team we’re trying to get some things done with regard to making sure that’s as smooth as possible. The big problem we are having as we all know with CSX is that the train stops and it stops at the worst times of the day for long periods of time.” Sapelli said.

Sapelli said that electronic signals will be installed a half mile away from the CSX train crossing in each town warning of stopped trains.

Sapelli concluded, “As soon as that project’s done, we will all be happy and say it looks great.”

Recreation

In regard to recreation, Sapelli shared that the town is currently looking into location options for recreation in Feeding Hills including hiking and biking trails. Sapelli also explained that Agawam is looking into leasing property to farmers for the purpose of growing corn.

Sapelli said that Agawam Senior Center participation increased by 3 percent in 2018. The center welcomed 605 new members, the highest increase in members since 2010. Meals on Wheels participation also increased by 2.5 percent. This year marks the 10 year anniversary of the opening of the Agawam Senior Center.

Education

Sapelli commended the town of Agawam’s school committee and Superintendent Steven Lemanski for their focus on education. “We are very fortunate to have a very active school committee and a superintendent that’s very concerned about students and a staff that’s equally as concerned. We have a drop out rate that’s decreasing every year and a graduation rate that’s increasing.” Sapelli said.

Sapelli addressed the focus Agawam Public Schools has placed on teaching students trades. “Presently, through the efforts of the superintendent and the school committee, we have a focus on these non-college students, the ones that are more career-bound.” Sapelli said.

Sapelli continued, “It’s been interesting that in the last 25-30 years, there was a huge push to strive to have every student go to college. Well, I think what we’re finding is some of these students probably should’ve never taken that route because one size doesn’t fit all.”

Agawam High School has recently focused on the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) program. The STEM program introduces students to skills such carpentry and mechanics.

“What Mr. Lemanski did through a lot of work from our building maintenance department and our director, Doug White, they wired that area for some of these big machines and they brought that back. We’re looking forward to that program and we’re off and running.” Sapelli said.

Agawam Public Schools has focused on the safety of students in schools. Through a grant, the town had developed three safety teams to focus on ways to increase safety. Agawam has already implemented cameras, locking devices, ALICE active shooter training and dog searches.

“We’re working toward the role of keeping our schools as safe as possible.” Sapelli said.

Budget

Sapelli said he feels that the budget has been well-planned and transparent to the town. “It’s one of my biggest jobs and right now we’re in the middle of our budget. With the assistance of many, specifically the city council and school committee, my department heads do a fantastic job of organizing and getting backup information.” Sapelli said.

Sapelli continued, “The comments I’m hearing from the work that they do is that our budget is transparent. There’s collaboration with and amongst department heads, the city council and the mayor’s office and school committee. Everybody seems to be pulling together to do what’s best for the city but also to make sure that we’re watching the budget and to keep in mind the taxpayers.”

Sapelli said he is hopeful that the budgeting process will go smoothly this year. “I think the budget this past year was a very thoughtful and well-executed budget. I think the budget hearings we had were very pointed, some excellent questions and some compromise, and I think at the end of the day we ended up with a very sound budget and we’re hoping that will happen again this year with all the cooperation of all the individuals.” Sapelli said.

Buildings

Sapelli discussed updates that will be made to boilers located at the Benjamin J. Phelps School, Agawam Junior High School and Robinson Park Elementary School.

LED light upgrades will also be made to the Roberta G. Doering School and James Clark Elementary school. Sapelli said, “That will do wonders for our lighting budget.”

Government

Sapelli concluded the state of the city address by discussing his first year in office as mayor of Agawam.

“As the expression goes, time flies. I can’t believe it’s already been a year that I’ve been in this position as mayor and I have to say it’s been an absolute pleasure working with the city council and the school committee. We don’t always agree, and that’s a healthy thing. But we’re respectful to each other.” Sapelli said.

Sapelli continued, “It’s how you disagree that’s important, and we’ve been doing it with such class and at the end of the day, you vote your conscious, you do what you have to do, and nobody takes it personally. I think that’s the key. The civility that we see in politics here is an example I think for every level. It’s really been a pleasure working with a group of professionals to get things done.”

To watch the full address, please visit www.vimeo.com/agawam.