Bianchi Looking To Borrow For BCC Turf Field, Wahconah Park Lights, PHS Bleachers
 Mayor Daniel Bianchi is preparing to ask the council for the borrowing authority for three more capital projects. |
UPDATED Nov. 10, 2014 at 10:30 a.m.
The order submitted to the City Council also includes $50,000 to remove oil tanks from Taconic High School; $30,000 for door replacement at City Hall; $100,000 for environmental abatement at the schools; and $41,000 for a new crime scene services vehicle.
In total, the mayor is requestion $766,000 in borrowing authority.
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Mayor Daniel Bianchi is preparing to ask the City Council to borrow about $400,000 for more capital improvements.
The city has been operating without a capital budget after the council and the mayor couldn't come to terms on a $10.8 million borrowing order. Instead, the mayor is bringing capital items to the council individually.
Next week, the mayor is look for funding on three projects — the proposed turf field at Berkshire Community College, the lights at Wahconah Park and the bleachers at Pittsfield High School.
"We are in the process of putting the paperwork together now," Bianchi said on Tuesday.
The City Council has already voiced support for the turf field project. Bianchi said the group of volunteers seeing that through has lined up donors and secured some startup funding to move forward next year. The mayor says he wants the city to be in position to contribute to that project.
"I am going to put in a request for the turf field. It sounds like the turf field people have parties lined up and some significant contributions and we want the city to be in line," Bianchi said. "If it doesn't happen — which I don't believe will be the case; I am convinced we are going to have a great facility out there — just like any other appropriation if it should come to pass that it isn't approved, the authorization just goes away."
The facility is going to cost the group nearly $2 million to build. The playing fields will be for local sports groups and new lighting, press box, concessions and seating will be installed. The facility will be operated not only for local sporting events but organizers say it will attract tournaments, too — tournaments the Berkshires have previously been unable to hold because of the inadequacies on some of the playing fields.
The city is prepared to borrow up to $200,000 to help the construction along.
Meanwhile, at Wahconah Park, Bianchi is estimating somewhere between $100,000 and $200,000 will be needed to upgrade the lighting. The lights have been a constant source of trouble for the programs that use it as well as the Futures League baseball team, the Pittsfield Suns.
"They've been in rough shape but we have been able to keep them working. But they are at a point now where we have to bite the bullet," Bianchi said.
The mayor hopes to have them replaced in the spring and before the baseball season starts.
"It is always an adventure when you flick the switch. I want to take the adventure out of lighting. I want just the games to be exciting, not the lighting of the field," he joked.
He added that he will be asking the Berkshire County sheriff's department to borrow temporary lighting if needed.
Finally, Bianchi says another $120,000 or so is expected to be needed to replace the bleachers at Pittsfield High School.
"We are going to line that up so that the authority to borrow is there for the end of the school year," he said.
The City Council's approval would bring the city up to about $5.3 million in total authorizations for capital projects. In September, the City Council approved $4.9 million in capital spending. That approval included $3 million to pave roads in the spring, $500,000 to start implementing a parking program for the downtown and $200,000 to begin working on the final phase of streetscape that the state later awarded the construction funding to complete.
Tags: capital budget, capital projects, sports fields, streetscape, Wahconah Park,
