Councilor Magrath-Smith

08/26/2026

Community meetings concerning the current sewer separation project are this Thursday. 5:30 EN White community and 6:30 ENW impacted neighborhood. This is concerning Hampden Knolls being closed to school traffic and the final steps to completing the project. Please come, and spread the word!

08/19/2026

The planned work on Hampden Knolls has been pushed back so that it does not coincide with the beginning of the school year. See the important announcement below. This came after days of intense conversations internally. I want to express my gratitude to our engineers, especially Victoria Houle, for her advocacy during this process. We are pushing Ludlow and the construction management team to make major shifts to how they are doing business throughout this project. I also want to thank all of the residents who met with or sent information to Victoria or myself. Your communication spurred real action. I am only sorry that it was necessary in the first place!

Send a message to learn more

07/26/2026

The Cubit is looking for an anchor restaurant tenant for the Armour and Co building. Spread the news and let’s help bring a great restaurant to our city.

07/18/2026

*Sewer Lining Update*
While all residents within the River Terrace Phase A project area should check all doors for specific dates and times which will affect their property, the following is a tentative sequencing for upcoming work. Please keep an eye out for notices which will be posted on your doors informing you of exact day and time your property will be affected.

Tentative Schedule for Week of July 6th - July 10th:
Monday, July 6th - Sections of Hillview Rd and Meadowview Rd
Tuesday, July 7th - Sections of Hillview Rd
Wednesday, July 8th - Woodbine Lane and sections of Meadowview Rd
Thursday, July 9th - Sections of Meadowview Rd

07/18/2026

The city provides compost several times per year. The first delivery is already gone. The second delivery came in today! If you are looking forward to adding compost to your backyard garden or deck planters, come on down to the city yard facility this weekend. A big thank you to Holyoke DPW for prioritizing support for gardeners!

07/06/2026

**Important Shelter Update: July 5, 2026**

Our shelter will remain **closed to the public until further notice**. At this time, all dog and cat adoptions are temporarily suspended due to confirmed cases of feline panleukopenia and canine parvovirus in our building.

Our team is making every effort to reunite owned animals with their families directly from the field whenever possible. We are also working diligently to keep our intake areas disease-free. However, with eight dogs testing positive for parvovirus since mid-April, it is likely we will continue to receive sick animals that require immediate care and isolation.

If your pet is currently in our custody please call 413-781-1484 ext. 2 so we can help reunite you with your pet. We also ask that you do not present owned pets as strays. We understand there are many reasons why people feel this is their only option, and we truly sympathize with those circumstances. However, doing so during this outbreak puts your own pet at increased risk of exposure to serious disease and further strains our resources, making it more difficult for us to help animals that are truly lost, stray, or in immediate need.

If you are considering surrendering a pet we will do everything we can to provide resources and support that may help you keep your pet or explore other alternatives.

The best protection against both feline panleukopenia and canine parvovirus is vaccination. We are currently compiling a list of low-cost and local vaccine clinics and will share that information as soon as it is available.

Thank you for your patience, and understanding during this challenging time. Our team is working tirelessly every day to contain the spread of disease, provide treatment to sick animals, and protect the health of every animal in our care. We appreciate your support as we navigate this situation.

*Pictured- a few of our amazing team members (Animal Control Supervisor Renee Robichaud, Operations Manager Katie Mothersele, Animal Welfare Specialist Cyndi McMahon, Clinic Supervisor Thalia Lazu) who stayed very late in to Thursday evening/Friday morning, disinfecting, medicating, treating, and moving animals to ensure safety for all. Not pictured- Animal Welfare Specialist Hannah Lorion, Shelter Supervisor Shawna Lawson, Animal Control Officer Soto) A big thank you to all of our staff who have been going above and beyond to help animals and their people, despite difficult days and long hours during this time!*

07/01/2026

We are finishing Combined Sewer Separation Phase A this summer and should see all impacted streets milled and paved this fall. We are completing design work for Phase B now. Next summer, that work is expected to launch. https://www.holyoke.org/river-terrace-cso-21-sewer-system-separation/

07/01/2026

Thank you to all of the Councilors, Department Heads, Committee Chairs, and residents who came to Chambers or joined us on Zoom for what was a long but productive meeting. You can watch the video here: https://www.holyoke.org/live-stream-video-archive/

1. 172 Sargeant Street Zone Change Application: we heard from the applicant that the goal is to change the zone to Downtown Residential so two apartments (one 2-bedroom/one 3-bedroom) can be added upstairs. The upper floors have been vacant for 15 years. The abutter has concerns around parking and a property boundary survey is needed. We continued the hearing to Sept. 17.

2. Proposal to Update our Sign Ordinance: we heard from Councilor Panitch that this is about proposing larger sign sizes (up to 400sf) by special permit for businesses of 50,000 square feet or larger. This is to get ahead of the project coming at the KMart Plaza. While the business itself is still unnamed, we recognize it will be a large commercial business. We continued the public hearing to September as we await the Planning Board to take up the sign ordinance proposal.

3. Crosswalks at Hampden Knolls and River Terrace. Engineering promises to conduct the analysis necessary to determine if these crosswalks are allowable and advisable. We will take it up again as soon as that is done, likely in August or September.

4. Data Centers Study Committee. We kept a similar structure to the original order while expanding and specifying the number of community members on the committee from one to seven. We dropped the City Councilor member from the committee, and added a member from the Board of Health or the Health Commission. This conversation included 10 of our City Councilors and represented significant back-and-forth with Joe Manzi from Holyoke Water Works, Rosanna Lopez from the Planning Board, John Goodhue from the Massachusetts Green High-Performance Computing Center, Jeff Horan and Mary Moriarty from the Conservation Commission, and members of the public.

5. Reorganizing the Historical Commission. We heard directly from the Chair, Mr. Gauthier, about the issues with quorum and that both the Local Historic Commission and our Historic Commission voted to combine the two groups. We considered the Springfield and Falmouth models and asked our solicitor for legal language at the next meeting for a combined commission with 5 members and 2 alternates. We proposed maintaining our demolition delay ordinance and making no changes beyond combining the groups.

6. We discussed the issue of illegal dumping in the city and raised a number of questions around a 2016 act to the General Court that was approved that was significantly different from the language in our Ordinances in Municode. The issue of which Departments should be determining compliance and citing offenders was also raised. We tabled for more information from our solicitor and to ask the Mayor for more insight. Thank you to Mr. Garelli, our new Board of Health Director, for staying on past 9pm to speak to this issue with us.

06/28/2026

We have an Ordinance Committee Meeting this Tuesday, June 30th at 6:30. Tune in via Zoom or Channel 15 or attend in person in City Council Chambers in City Hall. https://www.holyoke.org/meetings/ordinance-committee-meeting-june-30-2026/

Zoom info:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88682392822?pwd=xZFvu4afsZ5Wa5chjoAj0SzNlat7yQ.1
Meeting ID: 886 8239 2822 Meeting Passcode: 994415 or by call in at 1 (646) 558-8656 with the same Meeting ID and Passcode.