City Councilors could not have been more aghast at how the city Police Department headquarters became a pig pen that has lasted decades, forcing police officers and staff to endure a neglected workplace.

“I feel bad saying all this and I think the committee will agree with me. Apparently, the police department building has not had a good cleaning in a long time. So the Chief (Brian Keenan) was able to get Sheriff (Nick) Cocchi’s team in, and they were able to paint a lot of the rooms” said City Councilor Patti Devince, chair of the Finance Committee, to the full council this Tuesday.

Police Chief Brian Keenan came into the job in January and has been busy updating a range of things. But when he had appeared before the Finance Committee meeting recently to request funds for items such as bullet-proof vests, ammunition, vehicles, and more, he also shouted out Hampden County Sherrif Nick Cocchi for coming in with his officers to help physically clean decades of grime at the headquarters.

Councilors were taken aback that the headquarters was allowed to become so filthy for so long.

The discussion on the changes taking place at the HPD begins here.

“You know, at some point when does a conversation happen so that we have to come in with power washers to do what we’re paying people to do? And it basically feeds into any of the narratives that many members of the public have about government generally. And [to] no one it [had] occurred to somebody that we had to get a new chief in order to try to change a light bulb or to wash the floors? It’s really a disheartening conversation, and, that our new chief has to kind of come into that. And it makes you wonder what else is there? The cameras that are around the building — we actually had vandals come in, spray paint the building, spray paint police cars, and then you hear, oh, well, the cameras haven’t worked for 10 years. Okay. You know, you’re the chief, you’re a captain, you’re a lieutenant. Why aren’t these things working? I mean, when has this council ever said no to any of these appropriations?” City Councilor Kevin Jourdain

“I also want to thank the chief because, like, he literally came in to clean house. That’s basically what I’m seeing here. Because when you clean up a place like the Holyoke Police Department and really brings up morale and it builds character, I’m kind of just curious as to why this was left unattended.” City Councilor Juan Anderson-Burgos

“I would be happy to work with somebody to come up with the language for an order, where we ask (Personnel Director) Kelly (Curran) to weigh in from the HR (human resources) side around. If there is a description, if there should be. But I’m sure the chief would like to weigh in on or even present a draft for. And also, I think we should think about if we think that person should have should fall underneath the police department or should be falling underneath DPW supervision.” City Councilor Meg MaGrath-Smith

City Councilor Meg MaGrath-Smith

At the April 28, 2025, Finance Committee meeting, Chief Keenan requested, and the committee unanimously approved, money for the HPD. At that meeting, he also thanked Sheriff Cocchi for coming in and cleaning decades of grime and sprucing the headquarters with new coats of paint.

The City Council also approved the recommendations from its Development and Government Relations Committee for how to allocate federal taxpayer money to projects throughout the city.

Alicia Zoeller, director of the city’s Office for Community Development, appeared before the committee on Monday to present a plan on how the city may fund projects. The DGR joined the approved citizen advisory committee, her office and the mayor’s office.

The conversation with the full City Council starts here.

She said that the $38 million in ARPA money (American Rescue Plan Act of 2021) sent to Holyoke was deposited into a city bank account that earned $1.5 million in interest.

Of that amount, $1.3 million will go to the city’s Department of Public Works, which is in dire need of updating the sewer and wastewater system. The balance of $200,000 will go to tree pruning and cutting.

Holyoke is under a federal order to fix the problem of contamination of the Connecticut River by letting raw sewage flow into the water.

City Councilor Micheal Sullivan, who has been working closely with DPW on reviewing proposals from three companies to manage the waste water system, said in both the Development and Government Relations Committee and the City Council that the city should keep sending as much money as possible to fix the problem and comply with the federal mandate.

“On behalf of the voters and taxpayers of our city, we urge the mayor to use the remaining $1.5 million of ARPA funds for use by the DPW sewer system projects,” said Sullivan. “So, this is right in line with the unanimous recommendation that we sent to the mayor two months ago.”

City Councilor Kocayne Givner

City Councilor Kocayne Givner, chair of the DGR committee said, “I personally, you know, in my gut, feel like I would like to just build more housing units everywhere. But if we have no sewage, it won’t matter. So that was our recommendation.”

The agenda and documents for this meeting can be found here.

The video of the full meeting can be found here.

The agenda and documents for the City Council meeting are here.

Next week, the scheduled meetings are:

Click on the meeting title to see the agenda

• Council on Aging Board of Directors Meeting May 9, 2025
• Holyoke School Committee Meeting, May 12, 2025
• Finance Committee Meeting May 12, 2025
• Planning Board Meeting May 13, 2025
• Holyoke Gas & Electric Department Commission Meeting – May 13, 2025
• Soldier’s Memorial Commission Meeting, May 13th, 2025
• Holyoke Water Works Commission Meeting May 13, 2025
• Holyoke City Council Special Meeting May 13, 2025
• Soldier’s Memorial Commission Meeting, May 13th, 2025