Holyoke Finance Committee Backs Police Radios, Weighs $900,000 Chamber Renovation

HOLYOKE -- March 25, 2026, Holyoke Finance Committee hears $900,000 chamber renovation estimate and tables a legal claims transfer. The committee received a 50-percent schematic design estimate of $898,445 for a full council chamber renovation, potentially reaching $1.1 million with a 20-percent contingency, but took no appropriation vote, instead declaring the informational order complied with after a lengthy debate over sequencing and funding. Councilor Sullivan called the project "a band-aid where a tourniquet needs to be applied," citing a failing slate roof, crumbling brick mortar, and asbestos risk throughout the building, while Councilor McGrath Smith argued mural restoration could be shifted to the Community Preservation Act, effectively reducing the direct cost to roughly $750,000. The committee unanimously approved two no-match police grants totaling $61,049.95, $47,149.95 for 19 encrypted portable radios through the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security, and $13,900 for joint HPD-State Police anti-trafficking operations, and tabled a $25,911.56 transfer from a vacant associate solicitor account into the city's claims fund after members sought an executive session on an active MCAD discrimination case and cannabis litigation before the account's roughly $8,000 balance runs out before June 30.