Residents in several Western Massachusetts cities and towns will be taking key votes during primaries and special town meetings Tuesday, Sept. 9.
In Longmeadow, town officials are expecting as many as 3,000 residents for Tuesday’s special town meeting. The only item on the warrant is a spending authorization for the town’s middle school project.
It’s the town’s latest step toward merging its two aging middle school buildings into a new facility on the Williams Middle School campus – an effort that’s been the subject of informational sessions and tours highlighting the state of the buildings.
The plan has been in development for some time, and not without opposition, including residents concerned about a potential rise in traffic by the new school.
Given the costs of renovating both the Williams and Glenbrook middle schools, town officials like Select Board Member Andrew Lam say even with the downsides, replacing the outdated structures that go back to the 1960s is a net positive.
“It's going to be very expensive, and all of us will make sacrifices for that,” he said during a Sept. 2 select board meeting. “I think that… no matter what anybody says, there are downsides: there's going to be traffic along Williams that's greater than it is now. But on balance, when you look at the whole picture and what this can do for our town and our kids, it's not that hard of a decision.”
Officials have estimated the project will cost at least $151 million. A $53.7 million state grant to assist with construction was approved earlier this year.
As it stands, Tuesday’s vote at the high school will be followed by a special election on Sept. 30: a debt-exclusion vote for funding the school. The former calls for a 2/3rds majority for approval, while the latter is a simple majority vote, says Select Board Vice Chair Vineeth Hemavathi.
Prop 2 ½ override vote at the center of Hadley Special Town Meeting
Longmeadow is not the only western Massachusetts community holding a special town meeting Tuesday. In Hadley, residents will gather for a proposition 2 ½ override vote, potentially raising their own property taxes to meet town budget needs.
During May’s regular town meeting, voters passed a $22.7 million operating budget, but some officials considered it a “Band-Aid.”
At the May 1 meeting, Select Board Member Molly Keegan said past budgets featured restraint, but that a wall was bound to be hit with revenues unable to keep pace with rising costs.
“We survived the pandemic with no layoffs and the help of ARPA funding from the federal government and through prudent fiscal management, we even raised our bond rating to AAA in 2019,” Keegan recounted to over 160 registered voters at Hopkins Academy. “We managed to bring forward a balanced-budget annually, largely by containing pay raises, shorting line items like building maintenance and saying ‘No’ to department requests…”
“But we knew, at some point, we were going to hit a wall,” she continued. “Tonight, we want you to know that we think the wall may be here.”
Already looming ahead of the town meeting, the need for an override became more apparent as time went on, The Daily Hampshire Gazette reports.
During informational forums broadcast by Hadley Media, Interim Town Administrator Mike Mason explained how multiple factors led to a $2 million gap in need of filling.
If unaddressed, Mason said, Hadley could see significant cuts to town personnel and services. Among the factors causing the gap: unprecedented increases in insurance costs.
“After the budget cycle began, and right around the time we were discussing with the department heads how much they would need to get into the next fiscal year, we were notified of an additional, mid-year health insurance increase, which is essentially unheard of,” he told residents at an Aug. 24 forum. “[An increase] of $486,000 that is due… Oct. 1, I believe. That, we did not have the money for…”
Like Longmeadow, it’s also a two-part process - the matter will be the subject of a special election Sept. 29th.
Both special town meetings in Longmeadow and Hadley start at 7 p.m.
Preliminary elections in Springfield, Greenfield
Also on Tuesday: preliminary elections in Springfield.
In the City of Homes, Ward 4 City Councilor Malo Brown is being challenged by Beverley Savage, Kenneth Barnett Jr., and Will Naylor. In Ward 6, Councilor Victora Davilla is up against Charles Battle and Mary Johnson.
There’s also a school committee seat on the ballot – District 3, which covers Wards 6 & 7. In that contest, School Committee Member Chris Collins faces Steven Carosello and Rosa Valentin. All three preliminaries will narrow down the fields to two candidates ahead of the Nov. 4 municipal election.
Up north, Greenfield is also hosting a preliminary election. Seven candidates are on the ballot, all vying for 4-year terms on the school committee.
The Greenfield Recorder recently conducted a series of Q&A’s featuring the candidates, which can be found here and here.
