Mayor Christopher Johnson provides major project updates to the City Council during its Aug. 4 regular meeting.
Photo credit: Agawam Media
AGAWAM — Mayor Christopher Johnson provided a bevy of updates to the Agawam City Council during its Aug. 4 regular meeting, including where the town stands on major undertakings.
Among the projects presented by Johnson were updates regarding the new police station, high school, Veteran’s Memorial Plaza and various paving activities.
Below are some of the major ones that were discussed.
Police station
As of press time, Johnson said the project’s contractor is finishing “punch list items” in a final push to finish the new 18,756-square-foot station, which is located at 1070 Suffield St. He added that irrigation and installation of sprinklers is almost finished, and a fiber optic network was installed a couple weeks ago.
Johnson shared that work is also being done to balance the air conditioning and heating in the building. Meanwhile, dispatches, patrol, records and evidence will have to be moved into the new station over the coming weeks.
“We expect to have the building by the end of this month,” Johnson said. “And at that point, it’s going to take probably a good month or longer to effectuate the move.”
Veteran’s Memorial Plaza project
According to Johnson, the town is relocating the Veteran’s Green at Benjamin Phelps Elementary School to School Street Park. Aside from moving all the monuments over, the project will also consist of a new bell tower and plaza area inside School Street Park.
Later in the meeting, the council approved $213,760 in Community Preservation Act funds to pay for the project. According to Johnson, the town can now award a contract, with hopes of completing everything by November.
City Councilor Anthony Russo, who has followed the development of this project, said people will be able to honor the memory of veterans by dedicating a paver in their name, which will then be installed in the new plaza.
“[The project] is beautiful, it really is,” Russo said. “It’s going to really make the ceremonies nicer, [it will create] a more comfortable area, and it’s going to be a real staple point of School Street Park.”
High school project
Johnson told the council that the new $230 million high school project is still “on time and on budget.” As of press time, geothermal wells are being drilled in the far back of the property, and Johnson said utilities have been moved out of the way to allow for construction of the community wing portion of the project.
Final design of the project to the Massachusetts School Building Authority and approximately $85 million has been awarded for the project, according to Johnson.
“They expect to start pouring foundations probably in late this month or early next month, and then they’ll begin the erection of the steel frame,” Johnson said.
When finished, the high school will be the town’s first newly constructed school in 50 years. The current high school is 70 years old.
“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 at the mayoral breakfast earlier this year.
May Hollow culvert replacement
The North Westfield Street project is expected to be finished and completed by the first day of school on Sept. 5, according to Johnson, who said the process over the last few months to get to this point has been “elaborate.”
“If not for this project, it wouldn’t have been a long distance of a time before that 24-inch water main…would have let go,” Johnson said.
Construction on the project began in early spring.
Other paving projects
Several paving projects are expected in the coming months, according to Johnson, including major ones in September and October on Poplar Street, Garden Street, South Street and Route 57 off the ramp.
Johnson said that between the reclamations, preventative maintenance and major paving, Agawam has spent $3 million over the last two years on paving — the most in that span in Agawam’s history.
Right now, the town is working on crack sealing, delta misting or fog sealing on 30 streets throughout town. They are also working on depth reclamation projects on Anthony Street, Valentine Terrace, Arrowood Drive and Cottonwood Lane.
Other updates
Johnson also told the council that the town’s Field Task Force is refurbishing the Shea Field area to make it more playable, and they plan on improving the biggest softball field at Borgatti Park.
The task force was formed this spring to inventory the town’s fields, determine what needs to be done on each field to improve it, develop a priority for utilization of the fields and come up with a plan on how to improve them.
Johnson said the town is looking to put irrigation on the fields at the Roberta Doering Middle School. He shared that he hopes to have Community Preservation Act money for that project in front of the council by next month.
Readers can watch Johnson’s full updates, including what specific stretches of streets will be paved, by visiting the Agawam Media website: tinyurl.com/3yrs5tz6.
