“We can’t say yes to everything but we can’t say no to everything,” Bissonnette said.
Michael D. BissonnetteCHICOPEE – Repairing or replacing the police station, finding a use for the former library building, replacing dozens of vehicles for firefighters, police and the Department of Public Works and continuing to improve the sewer and water system are all on the top of the list for upcoming improvement projects for the city.
That list is added to the construction of the senior center, which is to cost between $6 and $8 million and expected to start in late summer or fall, and the renovation of the former Chicopee High School, which is being designed.
“Where we are right now is we can’t say yes to everything but we can’t say no to everything,” Mayor Michael D. Bissonnette said.
The City Council recently asked Bissonnette to meet with them to discuss different capital improvement projects to help with financial planning as they start developing the budget for the upcoming year.
With the senior center and renovations of Chicopee High School under way, Bissonnette said he now wants to focus on replacing or renovating the troubled police station building and finding a new use for the former library.
In this fiscal year, the city paid $4.87 million in principal and interest on bonds borrowed for projects such as building two new high schools and a library. In the upcoming fiscal year, that will drop to $4.84 million in principal and interest, City Councilor James K. Tillotson said.
“Where do you feel comfortable with the whole bonding and indebtedness?” City Councilor Jean J. Croteau Jr. asked.
Bissonnette said the city can legally pay one-sixth of its $158 million budget on principal and interest which is about $26 million, but that is far more than he would support.
“Where we are is a self-imposed cap of $6 million and we aren’t anywhere close,” he said.
But Tillotson said the $6 million worries him.
“I would be comfortable with $6 million if our local aid (from the state) was going up but it isn’t,” he said.
The city’s state assistance has dropped annually. It is expected to be $9 million in the upcoming fiscal year, which is the same as last year but $4 million less than the city received four years ago.
One of the projects Bissonnette said he would like to examine is re-using the former library. The City Council has put off allocating the $160,000 he requested to remove asbestos and gut the building so a structural engineer can examine it to see if it can support a second floor.
Bissonnette has proposed renovating it, connecting it to City Hall and eventually moving the School Department from the Helen O’Connell Building, which has structural problems.
“It will give us a road map for this building. Do we save it, board it up for future generations or knock it down?” he said.