Mayor Richard J. Kos is being challenged by former Mayor Michael D. Bissonnette on the November ballot.
CHICOPEE - During the election season, the Republican and Masslive are asking the two mayoral candidates, incumbent Richard J. Kosand challenger Michael D. Bissonnette a weekly question about an issue in the campaign.
This question was the suggestion of a Chicopee resident and reader.
"What are your expectations for road work in the next two years. While a lot of major work is underway now, notably near the Deady Bridge, there are similarly significant projects needed for the future.
Also, there has been some talk of a review of one of the city's most clogged and congested intersections, at Montgomery Street and Granby Road. Is a review, which might cost as much as $19,000, worthwhile or necessary? Can anything be done to ease the congestion? Or is this just a necessary inconvenience, due to all the activity from all directions that crosses through there?"
Last week mayors discussed their greatest accomplishments made while leading the city. Peviously they talked about balancing budgets while keeping taxes low.
The candidates submitted their answers in writing and are unedited below.
RICHARD J. KOS
Mayor Richard J. KosMICHAEL S. GORDON/ REPUBLICAN FILE
One of the most important tasks as Mayor is to plan and oversee public works projects. Arterial roads and local streets, water and sewer lines, storm drainage, sidewalks, traffic intersection and signalization improvements, sidewalk repair and replacement, street trees, cross walk striping, trash removal and pothole repair are of the utmost importance to the quality of life in our community. Residents expect that the streets are well maintained and businesses depend on good public infrastructure to grow and prosper.
The City's Department of Public Works primary responsibility is to design and implement projects that improve our roadways and underground utilities that support a well-functioning municipality. Chicopee utilizes between $1.2 and $1.8 million in State Chapter 90 monies to finance the bulk of our public works agenda and much thanks needs to go to Representative (Joseph F.) Wagner and our entire State delegation. Today, the city has close to $10,000,000 committed to active and multi-phase projects. We place an emphasis on sidewalk repair and replacement, a well-received program I started back in 1999, and capable of installing 1000 linear feet of concrete sidewalk annually.
We have $3.5 million committed to projects on Bonneville Avenue, Chicopee and Meadow streets, Dale Street, and Academy and Woodlawn streets. Engineering work is ongoing for Center Street, Brittany Street, Fuller Road, Montgomery and McKinstry avenues and the Deady Bridge approaches. We have also purchased equipment to aid in these endeavors including dump trucks and excavation equipment, road sweepers and pothole repair machines.
Future projects will include Montcalm Street and New Ludlow and Fuller roads at an estimated cost of $6 million and some $1 million for new activity to be determined by the City Council.
The City will also continue work on the multi-year Combined Sewer Overflow project mandated by the Federal Environmental Protection Agency with the focus of Phase 5 being Chicopee Center for the next three years.
As to the traffic situations at the Montgomery, McKinstry, Grattan, Granby and Mass Turnpike Exit 5 intersections, we are analyzing and designing improvements in anticipation of state funding. These intersections have been historic bottlenecks, prone to congestion, as well as vehicular accidents and endangerments to pedestrians. Solutions have not come easily. Studies were done in 1999 and 2005, as well as when BJ's opened its warehouse store.
Our thoughts now focus on concerns for vehicular and pedestrian traffic with new sidewalks and crosswalks, with high tech interactive traffic signals that are timed and controlled to ease the congestion and backups that interfere with access and exits from businesses and residential property. Properly placed traffic islands will facilitate pedestrian movements as well as vehicles through these intersections.
In sum, the City has a robust public infrastructure improvement program that receives significant state and local investments. I will continue to seek federal and state monies with our legislative partners to meet these unmet needs as well as to support our workforce in the DPW as they attempt to keep ahead of challenging conditions.
We will all work together for a better Chicopee.
MICHAEL D. BISSONNETTE
Coordinating major road construction projects was a major focus of my administration. To avoid traffic nightmares in our neighborhoods, we need to return to better planning and implementation as we move our road, water and sewer improvement programs forward over the next few years.
Michael D. BissonnetteSubmitted photo
Working with our federal and state legislators, we were able to bring in millions in grants for many of these projects. My research and involvement with the agencies that decide these expenditures show the results of our hard work. We also were able to control the timing of several projects to avoid multiple construction jobs running into each other. In addition, we added road improvements as a major part of the ongoing sewer program to get the biggest bang for our buck.
Prior to the next construction season, we will again produce a coordinated plan for all road projects over the next decade as we did when I first became mayor ten years ago. More roads were paved and improved during our administration than at any time in our history without the kind of issues we are seeing today. The cooperation of Mass Highway and the regional planning organization was essential in developing coordinated project implementation as well as facilitating the prompt completion of the Davitt Bridge. Working together on planning made these road improvements happen with minimal inconvenience to motorists, pedestrians, businesses and neighborhoods.
One of our biggest accomplishments was implementing the concept of only tearing up a road once to deal with multiple problems of old pipes, poor drainage and paving deterioration or other bad surface conditions. Changing the mindset to get everyone on the same page was part of our challenge. We needed to have all the city departments working together to address and include their individual problems for each project we undertake. Nothing bothers me more than seeing a recently paved road torn up again. I was also dismayed to discover that hundreds of city roads had never been officially accepted. We began the process to include those as part of our annual state road grant (as 60 percent of the grant is for accepted road miles) which will bring increased funding.
In addition, our work included negotiating a settlement with the EPA to avoid $6 million in fines accumulated by the first Kos Administration for failing to comply with federal law regarding sewer separation. The federal lawsuit against the city was resolved with the fines dismissed. As a result of our efforts, over 80 percent of the required work is nearly complete. I will continue to seek additional time from EPA to allow our ratepayers a break from the huge costs. Remaining work can be done over a longer period utilizing improved surface drainage methods that will save money.
As for the intersection at Montgomery Street and Granby Road, there is a $25,000 payment received from Walgreens in order to allow a curb cut for their driveway. It should be used for this study rather than spending taxpayer money. The payment was to facilitate an engineering study of the intersection for suggestions on how to improve traffic flow. Due to traffic entering from McKinstry Avenue, it seems there is no easy or inexpensive solution to reduce the delays at the lights. I would support taking part of the 7-11 parking area to create a lane to turn onto Montgomery which should improve some traffic flow.
Fortunately when first taking office, I was able to obtain funding for a traffic signal on Montgomery Street for Chicopee Comprehensive High School, which had been left out of the plans for the school campus. While enhancing safety, this also allows better vehicle flow at peak hours. Any engineering review of the nearby intersection should also now include the Comp High traffic patterns.
Going forward, the entire length of Fuller Road needs to be addressed as the next major repaving project with a federal/state grant pursued as the funding source. There are also a number of older intersections that need safety improvements and signal enhancements.
In addition, many of our older residential subdivisions need attention. As I move through the city, I find many areas with deteriorating surfaces to be added to our Pavement Improvement Plan. This means we can extend the life of the existing road surface before needing much more expensive full depth reconstruction. With over 1,000 streets in Chicopee, the task of road management will always be a challenge. With hard work and an eye to funding projects with federal and state resources, we can improve our roads at a reasonable cost to the taxpayers.
