Chicopee City Council approves nine mayor's orders worth more than $220,000

CHICOPEE -- March 18, 2025, Chicopee City Council unanimously approved nine mayor's orders totaling roughly $224,000 at its March 18 meeting, led by a $120,000 emergency appropriation for DPW sanitation vehicle repairs. DPW Superintendent Liz Batista told the council the city ordered three new sanitation trucks but received only one, leaving an aging fleet short of repair funds for the second straight fiscal year; each truck costs approximately $350,000. The council also approved $47,100 for police recruit training at Fort Devens, $46,150.65 for 28 police mobile radios, and $14,300 for bulletproof vests expected to be fully reimbursed through federal and state grants. On the license front, the council denied a home occupation permit for steering-knuckle machining at 41 Cobb Avenue after Councilor Shane Brooks noted the applicant "walked out of the public meeting when the first speaker during public input was barely a minute in." The council referred a special permit application for 600 residential apartments in the former Cabotville mill building at 165 Front Street to the Zoning, Planning, and Mill Conversion Committee, the largest development proposal before the body this year.