WEST SPRINGFIELD – Counselor Sean Powers proposed a general ordinance to increase outdoor seating downtown at the Sept. 17 West Springfield Town Council meeting.

The ordinance would allow any restaurant abutting a public way that has 5 to 7 feet of public walkway to be able to serve alcoholic beverages and food outdoors. He specifically referenced the Elm Street and Park Street areas.

Powers said this would help local businesses by adding roughly five to 15 seats to their capacity on a seasonal basis. There would be a process of submitting seating charts to the building department and, he said, it would not affect parking spaces.

Town Attorney Kate O’Brien is still reviewing the ordinance, and it will then go through the Ordinance and Policy Subcommittee before being voted on by the council at a later date.

A change was made in the structure of the assessor’s board. An amendment, which had been discussed at the last council meeting, removed the principal assessor from the Board of Assessors and replaced the position with a third part-time assessor. The principal assessor position, which is currently vacant, would remain a full-time paid position with the town.

Under the previous model, the principal assessor would decide on the value of a property and was a part of the board that might later hear an appeal on that same decision.

As discussed previously, the added assessor would cost the town a $600 yearly stipend.

Counselor Griffin asked when the new part-time assessor appointment would be made. O’Brien informed the council that the focus was currently on filling the principal assessor position, but said she was sure it would be “fairly quickly.”

Griffin expressed his approval for “taking the principal assessor out of the equation and putting someone with an independent mind.”

Counselor Bruce Gendron asked if the change was the result of complaints. It was not. Instead, O’Brien said that with the assessor position open, they had reviewed the model for the board and identified this issue.

Gendron called the principal assessor position a “revolving door,” suggesting that the town had a hard time keeping it filled. He asked if the pay was competitive for the area.

O'Brien said it was challenging to compare the position with other towns since some towns elect their assessors, instead of appointing them. West Springfield’s principal assessor is a union position, meaning that the rate of pay is negotiated with the union. When it was last looked at, O’Brien said, the salary was on par the other towns in the region.

"We are certainly keeping an eye on that,” O’Brien added.

Counselor Daniel O’Brien informed the council that the Budget Subcommittee had met earlier in the day and discussed the state requirement for the town to bond $69,036,380 for the Coburn School update, though the entirety of that money would not be used.

He also explained that Fausey and Tatham Elementary Schools had been reclassified as Title 1. The Title 1 designation is for schools with a large population of low-income students and allows those schools to benefit from financial assistance, including offering stipends for teachers to do home visits.