Agawam Mayor Christopher Johnson (left) and West Springfield Mayor William Reichelt (right) provided updates to important projects happening in their respective communities, during the West of the River Chamber of Commerce’s annual mayoral breakfast.
Reminder Publishing photo by Ryan Feyre
AGAWAM — With essentially no free money coming from the federal government anymore, West Springfield Mayor William Reichelt said a significant increase to the town’s fiscal year 2026 budget is unlikely to happen.
During the annual West of the River Chamber of Commerce mayoral breakfast at Partner’s Restaurant and Catering in Agawam, Reichelt said he plans to spend this budget season working to create a more efficient Town Hall while continuing to make sure residents’ tax bills stay as low as possible.
Part of that process will likely involve cutting positions that Reichelt said are not needed anymore.
“We know we can’t go up; we don’t really need to,” Reichelt said of this year’s budget. “So, we’re actually looking at making some cuts across town, positions that may no longer be needed.”
Preliminary budget updates were just one topic of conversation at the yearly breakfast. Reichelt and Agawam Mayor Christopher Johnson briefed the business community on key projects happening around their towns, including updates on their future new police stations.
In Agawam, Johnson said the town will hopefully cut the ribbon for its new 18,756-square-foot police station at 1070 Suffield St. this summer. He said supply chain issues have delayed the delivery of switch panels and a generator until mid-May.
As for West Springfield, Reichelt said the town recently bought the Walgreens behind Town Hall at 99 Westfield St. for its new police station, which means he will now look to hire a designer to study the feasibility of the existing building on the parcel and what a new building would look like.
The Town Council approved a supplemental appropriation of $2 million during its Feb. 18 meeting to help execute the purchase of the store’s building,
During the breakfast, Reichelt said he is excited to have Town Hall, library, the Senior Center, one of its schools and the future Police Department coupled together in the downtown area.
“It’s good that we have our staff there to support local businesses, and [it’s] also good to have everyone all in one place,” Reichelt said.
Both mayors gave updates on large school projects, as well, including Agawam’s future new high school. According to Johnson, the town is finishing the construction drawing phase of the project, and the “lay-down” for the first phase is expected to happen over April vacation.
Johnson said that construction of the project is expected to begin “in earnest” by fall with hopes of finishing Phase 1 by 2026 and Phase 2 by 2028.
When finished, the new high school will be the town’s first newly constructed school in 50 years.
“Our high school that we’re replacing turned 70 years old this year,” Johnson said. “We’re excited about the project.”
Because of the cost of the new school, which is projected to be in the $230 million range, Johnson said taxes will increase in Agawam. Residents, however, are aware of this after they overwhelmingly approved a debt exclusion override for the project last year.
“We’re trying to build a state-of-the-art, modern, fully geothermal-served building that will have heating and air conditioning year-round,” Johnson said.
In West Springfield, Reichelt said the town is making progress on its new school that will combine John Ashley School with John R. Fausey Elementary School. The Massachusetts School Building Authority notified the town in late 2024 that the project will move into the next phase of the application process.
During the breakfast, Reichelt said the school and police projects are likely to break ground within the next three to five years.
“As all that bonding begins to roll off, we’ll be able to put money aside, so as the new bonding rolls on, we won’t see a spike in the tax bills, which is really important as we move forward,” Reichelt said, when speaking on the two projects.
The two mayors also highlighted major street improvements happening in their communities. For Agawam, Johnson said the May Hollow culvert replacement project on North Westfield Street is projected to start on April 1, which means portions of North Westfield Street will be closed for 90 to 120 days.
Johnson said detours will be in place once the project kicks off.
“We’re hoping that this project will be done within that time window, unlike the North Street project from a couple of years ago that dragged on for about nine or 10 months,” Johnson said.
As for West Springfield, Reichelt said residents will start to see improvements to Memorial Avenue within the next couple years. He apologized to the community for the road’s elongated construction period and said that final paving should be done next year.
He noted that delays to the road’s improvements are attributed to the underground construction work that needed to happen.
“We’ll see a lot of construction this year, but it will be above-ground construction,” Reichelt said. “It’s going down from four to three lanes in the section in front of the Big E. There’s going to be some turning, sidewalks, all the good stuff.”
Reichelt’s remarks at the breakfast also included updates on the recently installed municipal fiber network, operated by Whip City Fiber from Westfield Gas & Electric. According to the mayor, over 200 people in the town are currently connected, and he said the community should expect a build-out schedule soon.
He added that the network, which officially connected the first customer in November, is “slowly but surely” rolling out.
