The city also expects to launch construction of a new Senior Center later this year.
Mayor Daniel M. Knapik is sworn in to office by City Clerk Karen M. Fanion, right, as the mayor's wife, Tricia Knapik, left, looks on during a ceremony Tuesday morning in the Westfield Vocational Technical High School auditorium.WESTFIELD – The city’s agenda for the next two years is to address long-standing repair issues at schools and municipal buildings, creation of two new industrial parks, continued revitalization in the downtown and technology advances in the elementary school system.
That agenda was spelled out Tuesday in an inaugural address by Mayor Daniel M. Knapik following the swearing in of veteran and newly elected city officials at Westfield Vocational-Technical High School.
“As we begin 2012, we will enter a phase of unprecedented repair work on our city and school buildings,” Knapik said, addressing more than 100 city employees, residents and others gathered at the inauguration ceremony.
The vocational school alone is targeted for some $8 million for windows, a new roof and boiler and other equipment upgrades. Sixty-two percent of that cost will be covered in state reimbursement.
Municipal buildings, from City Hall to police and fire headquarters and substations, represent more than $11 million in repairs detailed in a recent survey of building needs.
Knapik said a city technology investment at the elementary school level will be “robust.”
View full sizeNewly elected Westfield City Council, School Committee and Municipal Light Board members, as well as Mayor Daniel M. Knapik and Westfield Athenaeum Trustee Alberta M. Humason, were sworn in to office during a ceremony Tuesday morning in the Westfield Vocational Technical High School auditorium.Schools scheduled for repairs, which include roofs, windows and boilers, are Munger Hill and Paper Mill elementary schools and Westfield High School.
“The good news for Westfield,” Knapik said, “is we have a plan for the future. The bad news is every building is in need of repairs and most need new roofs immediately.”
Knapik said he plans to initiate a “Restore” program in the downtown to assist merchants and building owners to upgrade their facilities. He said he plans to ask the City Council for funding, later in the year, to finance design work for two new industrial parks, one at Turnpike Way and the other at Barnes Regional Airport.
The mayor also plans to begin construction this year on the city’s Columbia Greenway rail trail. “we will look to secure additional funding so that project can be completed by 2015,” he said.
Knapik told the audience that “cooperation” among municipal agencies and departments “accomplished much in the past two years. Continued cooperation involving city departments, the City Council and School Committee will accomplish even more in the next two years.”
The mayor, members of the City Council, School Committee, Municipal Light Board and Athenaeum trustee Alberta Humason were sworn in for new terms of office by City Clerk Karen M. Fanion Tuesday morning.