WESTFIELD — By the slimmest of margins, the City Council voted 7-6 on Dec. 19 to approve the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the city of Northampton and the city of Westfield to become part of the ValleyBike integrated bike share system.
In introducing the motion, Ward 6 Councilor William Onyski, chair of Legislative & Ordinance, said his committee, Michael Burns and himself, voted 2-0 against the MOU. He said last year, they recommended ValleyBike for Westfield, but the company operating the system went bankrupt. Under the new ownership of DropMobility, Northampton will be the lead community, and the agreement will be made with them.
Onyski said the agreement will put electric-assist rental bikes at two docking stations in Westfield; one station at Westfield State University; and one at the PVTA bus station. Bikes may be rented through an app, and returned to any station in any of the 10 or so communities that are participating.
Onyski said the costs for Westfield will be $4,550 to Northampton to manage the project and $18,000 to DropMobility for the equipment and maintenance, which he said could rise up to as much as $27,000 in the following year, adding that the company is also looking for grant funding. He said the contract is good until Dec. 1, 2026.
Onyski said he voted no because Westfield will have no contract with the bike vendor, but with Northampton. He also said that there is currently a bus that runs between WSU and the PVTA station, which he understands is rarely used by students.
“I don’t think the ridership of the bikes is going to justify the cost to taxpayers. If there is a benefit to [the university], they should be paying the bill for this. If we do see a benefit in the near future, we can join it,” Onyski said.
At-large Councilor Cindy Harris said the Law Department is not in favor of the MOU because the agreement is with Northampton and not with the vendor.
“I’m a strong proponent of this,” said Ward 3 Councilor Bridget Matthews-Kane. She said there are many benefits of having the bike system, and people need alternative ways of getting around. She said when DropMobility took over, the mayor of Chicopee thanked them for reinvesting in ValleyBike.
At-large Kristen Mello said she was concerned that the main argument against it was money, when there were items on the agenda costing so much more. “This is not exactly a walkable city. At some point, we’re going to need to get people from here to there.” She said when she goes out early in the morning, she sees a lot of people riding the bikes.
“This is not a lot of money to make things easier to live here,” Mello said.
At-large Councilor James Adams said he agreed, but worried about the safety of riding bikes downtown. “I don’t think it’s quite safe yet,” he said.
Mello said, “The PVTA downtown is literally one city block from the bike path entrance. You would only have to ride one block to get to the bike path.”
“I’m inclined to give it a try,” said at-large Councilor Brent Bean. He asked what happens when someone ends up throwing a bike in the river. Onyski said it would be up to DropMobility to recover it.
At-large Councilor Richard Sullivan said he would support the MOU. “As someone who started day one on the purchase of a rail for the rail trail, I went to a lot of meetings where people were against it, [citing] safety issues and calling it a waste of money. If you asked the Law Department, we would never do anything, because there is liability attached to absolutely everything. We’re part of a lot of intermunicipal agreements. Communities are not here to take advantage of each other,” he said.
