December 1st Meeting Notes

At the City Council's Meeting of December 1st, the following noteworthy happenings occurred:

$50,000 to fund the Charter Commission

The Council approved $50,000 appropriation to fund the newly approved Charter Commission. The vote was 12-2 with Councilors Leahy and Brunelle voting no. Councilor Whelihan abstained from voting because he is a member of the Charter Commission. I voted for the Charter Commission money because the voters approved its creation. Charter Commission proponent Councilor Jay O'Neill stated that the Commission could cost as much as $200,000. $200,000 is alot of money and I will be watching to make sure that this number does not happen. I think this is on the very high end and I have complete confidence in Commission Chairman Carl Eger's commitment to control costs.

Council approves new convenience store to be located at 582 South St.

On a 10-5 vote, the City Council lead by the Ward 3 Councilor Tony Keane approved another convenience store on South St. The Council ignored the wishes of the Elmwood neighbors and the fact that would-be convenience store is poorly located with poor egress and parking on site. The store will be allowed to operate from 5am until 11pm. Numerous prior applicants have over promised in the past to clean up the location and make it a go but have never followed through. It is not surprising because the location is suited to be a gas station and repair shop and not a high traffic convenience store.

The owners in the past had the opportunity to expand the property to make it suitable for a convenience store when the house burned down behind the facility and the property came for sale. However, the other lot was not purchased and instead Peoples Bank purchased it and made a parking lot.
The 5 Councilors who voted against this bad idea were Kevin Jourdain, John Whelihan, Patti Devine, Jim Leahy and Donald Welch.

Request of Police Department

Councilor Todd McGee filed an order requesting that the Chief of Police return $132,000 of the $150,000 he received for overtime now that his department has been awarded a $132,000 grant. The Council adopted the order and referred to the Mayor and Chief Scott.

Other actions

Permits:

Approved a new telecommunication tower for Pocket Communications to be located on top of 48 Holy Family Rd
Renewed a Special Permit for a home office for Jorge Burgos located at 44 Gilman Street.

Budgetary:

Approved $10,000 for boarding up dangerous buildings

Approved $5,403 to repair City Hall Telephone System damaged in a lightening strike

Approved $52,000 for City Property & liability Insurance

Approved acceptance of $227000 federal grant for Holyoke Fire Department to be used for overtime needs.

Denied use of $200,000 of city funds for fire department overtime

Approved $1,150,000 to balance FY 2010 budget from certified free cash

Sent to Committee:

Request from Law Department for another $110,000 to pay for outside legal counsel; including, $41,000 for Sullivan, Hayes and Quinn and $27,000 for Lisa Brodeur-McGan. The request was placed in one order instead of broken down into separate orders for each firm. Lisa Brodeur-McGan's firm is under additional scrutiny from the City Council in light of the sanction she has been handed by Judge Constance Sweeney. (see prior post on this)

Request of Councilor Devine to start City Council Meetings at 7pm instead of 7:30pm. (please vote in Holyoke First poll)