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City News Briefs

by Bill Dusty

DAVILA OPPOSES MEALS TAX
SPRINGFIELD – Springfield City Council candidate Victor Davila, who is running for the Ward 6 seat, says he is against raising the meals tax as a means for government to make ends meet.

Instead of expecting still more sacrifice from the citizens, wrote Davila in a short press release, local government should be looking for ways to trim its own spending habits. “I get irritated when government turns to the citizens to squeeze them for their money,” wrote Davila.

Davila is also concerned that any meals tax increase now will only slow down restaurant business at a time when the economy is already suffering, which in turn may lead to yet more jobs being lost.

Davila, who earlier in the year planned on running at-large, is currently one of four certified candidates for the Ward 6 seat on the City Council. Ward Representation in Springfield will officially begin with the swearing-in of victorious candidates from Wards 1 through 8, plus five at-large candidates, next January.

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FRANCONIA GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP
SPRINGFIELD – Franconia Golf Course recently held its home course championship over two days, with players vying for the top spot in three categories. The winners this year are: Donald Smith, 2009 Net Champion (136); Bob Loguidice, Jr., 2009 Gross Champion (136); and Bryon Mead, 2009 Senior Champion (149). Mead posted a 75 and 74 to capture the Senior title.

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KEEP SPRINGFIELD BEAUTIFUL DONATES FUNDING
SPRINGFIELD – Last month the local non-profit Keep Springfield Beautiful handed the city’s Parks Department a check for over $16,000 for ornamental trash cans to be distributed amongst the city’s parks. The City of Springfield will purchase an additional 10 cans. KSB had earlier received a matching donation from MassMutual for the cans, and the decision was made afterward to donate them to the Department of Parks and Recreation. Funding will also be available for installation of the cans, which must be secured at each site.

The donation was made “to help out the financially-strapped city in these hard economic times,” said KSB President Melvin Edwards.

The Springfield Parks Department’s Deryk Roach accepts a donation over $16,000 for ornamental cans for the city’s parks from Keep Springfield Beautiful President Melvin Edwards. (July, 2009)

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PARK OPTION, INDEED
SPRINGFIELD – For months, now, The Intruder has been asking city officials for information on the status of the newly-built, but still closed, Treetop Park in the city’s East Forest Park neighborhood. It’s been widely circulated that the city rejected the field, as built, and ordered it fixed before it could be transferred to the Parks Department. The detail that always remained missing from the information was exactly why the city rejected the field. Repeated inquiries resulted in shrugs or answers such as “I don’t know” or “We’ll get back to you.”

Even after the park was finally transfered to the Parks Department this past July 15, neither Parks nor the city’s Capital Asset Construction office (which administered the land prior to the transfer) had any information to offer. And when the owner of Zielinski Brothers Inc., the company hired by the city to build the park, was asked about the delay, he said simply, “It was a park option.” Asked specifically what “park option” meant, he repeated, “Just park option.” When asked a third time for the specific reason, the annoyed owner replied tersley, “It was just delayed!”

It seemed nobody wanted to talk about the year-long delay in opening up Treetop Park. (As of last week, the park still remained closed to vehicle traffic.) That less-than transparent policy helps explain why late last year the neighborhood rumor mill went into high gear with claims of contaminated soil being the cause of the mysterious delay.

All of this silence eventually led The Intruder to submit a formal Request for Records from the city regarding the Treetop Park construction and reason for delay. That request was made on July 20, 2009. By July 30, there had still been no response to the request. A second request was then sent via email, with copies being sent to city councilors, the Parks Department, and Capital Asset Construction. Finally, an email response from the Director of Capital Asset, Rita Coppola-Wallace, was recieved on the evening of the July 30th. In the email, Coppola-Wallace explained that the city rejected the original construction due to the large amount of “sizeable rocks” that littered the surface of the field. From the email:

In the case of Treetop Park, the soccer field was not accepted due to the large amount of sizeable rocks that had made their way to the surface of the field. On behalf of the City and the children who would ultimately occupy this space and play on this field, it was my decision, supported by the Project Engineer, to reject the deliverable and direct the contractor to correct the situation.

Included as part of these corrective measures, the field was to be “dragged” and all large rocks were to be removed. The field was to be reseeded and because of the amount of time it takes for grass to establish itself and the root system to strengthen, it was decided that the field should sit dormant over the past winter and the contractor was to over seed the field this past spring and mow it three times before the City would discuss the possible acceptance of this field. This was all completed by the contractor to my, and the Project Engineer’s, satisfaction and the park was accepted by the City.

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Why didn’t somebody at City Hall just say so in the first place?

The Intruder has yet to receive any records.

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Posted by Bill Dusty on Aug 3rd, 2009 and filed under Cities & Towns, City Hall, Latest Posts, Society, Springfield. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.