Council Panel Presses DPW On Tornado-Area Paving

Select Board · Meeting of June 18, 2026

Springfield's DPW director resisted a councilor's push to fast-track tornado-area street repairs. City Councilor Jerry Martin asked DPW Director Chris Zignoli to prioritize Surrey Road, Kipling Street, Wayside Avenue and Roosevelt Avenue, citing lingering 2011 tornado damage, but Zignoli said the department had already spent roughly $2.5 million in East Forest Park since the storm and declined to move streets up the list outside its condition-based ranking, warning it would turn paving into "basically...politics." This year's paving contract totals $6.5 million, up from a typical $5 million Chapter 90 budget, and starts after July 1. Zignoli also said $300,000 to $500,000 in annual CDBG sidewalk funding does not reach non-eligible areas including parts of East Forest Park, 16 Acres and East Springfield.

Councilor Davila and Councilor LeVar Klick-Bruce separately pressed Zignoli on asphalt sidewalk patches in the Forest Park historic district and resident notification for a Roosevelt Avenue sidewalk project.

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Source: the Select Board meeting of June 18, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.

Checked against the record: before publication this article was automatically compared with the meeting transcript. It was corrected where it differed.