Westfield City Council votes to appropriate $275,000 for Park River Drive and Park Circle roads.
Photo credit: Westfield Community TV
WESTFIELD — Residents applauded the City Council for its vote at the Feb. 5 meeting to appropriate $270,000 from free cash for the milling and overlay of Park River Drive and Park Circle, which was taken out of order due to the large contingent in the gallery.
Ward 4 Councilor Michael Burns welcomed his constituents to the meeting. He said the situation was unique because for 10 years the council had tried to accept Park River Drive and Park Circle as public ways, but had not yet been able to accomplish the street acceptance.
“When I first came on the job, I knocked on a door and met Scott Thomas,” Burns said, referring to the president of the homeowner’s association, who was trying to address problems they were having.
He said every member of Park River Drive and Park Circle had “ponied up money” and had a sewer system put in by themselves. He said they used to be connected to the condos next door, but that wasn’t working because every time the power went down in the city, which he said happened a lot in Ward 4, it would back up into the condos.
Burns said the residents pooled their money and paid between $100,000 and $150,000 to put in two pumps and a pump station, which they own and are responsible for. He said the city didn’t want to take on the responsibility. “They were told, if they did that, the street would be accepted (as a public way),” he said.
Burns said during that time, the city had three different mayors, different city engineers and two DPW directors. He said when a new engineer came on board, the street was not accepted.
Burns said with the help of Councilors Karen Fanion and William Onyski, they decided to go a different route. The city has an ordinance that allows temporary repair of private ways, which they changed from 50 years to 30 years. “That’s where we stand with this,” he said.
Burns said he knows the cost is high at $270,000, but there are 29 homes impacted. “This is the first one under this ordinance, and as far as I’m concerned, it’s the best one. Thank you for your patience,” he said.
City Councilor James Adams said it wasn’t the fault of the neighborhood that the road has been falling apart. He said the street wasn’t intended to be built as a public way, and said there are now safeguards in place to make sure that doesn’t happen again.
Adams said he never heard of residents on a street doing what they did, putting in a sewer line. “You’re still going to be taking care of your pumps and all that stuff. I wish we could take that street. This is the only way we can pave your street, with free cash,” he said, adding, “People say it’s a lot of money, but it isn’t their fault. Hopefully, we can move forward on that and someday, your street will be accepted.”
Burns said the street will be paved with cold in-place recycling. “What they do is reclaim the materials and put them right back down. This particular way, it has 15 to 18 years on top of the regular 10 years for pavement.”
City Councilor Kristen Mello asked if the money is spent working on the road, will the road be more acceptable as a street?
“As it stands now, they’re going to maintain the pumps and the generators down there. Someday, hopefully, we can accept it,” Burns said, adding that the sewer infrastructure was put in last year in response to a question from City Councilor Dan Allie.
The vote to appropriate the funds was unanimous and was met by applause from the residents.
“I feel good for them down there; they’ve jumped through hoops. I’m just happy for them,” Burn said after the meeting.
“When they were walking out of there, there were people in tears.” He said the residents are plowed out by the city, their children are on the school buses, and they pay for sewer, water and fiber. “They are totally a regular street except the fact that they didn’t call it a street. It probably never was going to be accepted,” Burns said.
He said the City Council came up with a way around it, with an ordinance for temporary fixes of private ways. “This is going to be a permanent fix, believe me,” Burns said.
