Uh, welcome to our October 14th select board meeting. I call the meeting to order. And with that, I will read our public participation at Town of Hatfield Select Board meetings. The Hatfield Select Board welcomes everyone to its meetings and all other public meetings
of the town of Hatfield. All regular and special meetings of the boards and committees of the town of Hatfield shall open shall be open to the public and shall confirm to the open meeting law. Executive sessions are closed to the public and will be held only as prescribed by the statues of the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is important to recognize that the open meeting law affords the opportunity to listen to the proceedings but not necessarily participate during meetings of the select board and attempt will be made to find a balance between hearing
from members of the community and conducting the required business of the Hfield select board for the public's information. This meeting is being recorded. Uh with that said, under announcements, uh today, I mean this
week, this Saturday will be homecoming at Smith Academy uh high school. Uh the parade will start from the school at 8:30, I am told. And they will circle going up School Street, down Prospect
Street, down Maple Street, and down Main Street. And uh and usually the uh kids uh each each class is represented usually by a float. So hopefully you guys can come out and and cheer the kids on with their floats. And then after
school each of the classes usually have refreshments and there'll be different sports events. So it's a it's a nice day out. It's it's good food and and good friends. Uh, also TV15
is not fully programming yet, but we're still waiting on a part, but they it is running announcements. So, with that being said, as far as a bonfire, I will turn it over to Captain Luke on bonfire report.
Thank you. Um, the bonfire went very well. Um, we had a lot of great attendance and no problems reported. Um, it was a beautiful night and food vendors did well and the uh the
fundraising efforts for the firefighters association went very good. We're still waiting on final numbers on that to come in, but uh overall a really good night and everything's cleaned up and back to business as usual. So, thank you to everyone who attended and to all the sponsors that um that donated to the
event and make it possible. So, nice. Any announcements? Nope. Okay. Uh with that being said, is there anybody present for public forum? I don't see anybody here for public forum. So we will go to the consent
agenda, which would be uh motion to approve September 30th meeting minutes. Do I have a motion? I'll make a motion to approve the September 30th, 2025 meeting minutes. I will second that. A motion made. Motion seconded. Any
discussion? All in favor? Hi. I motion carries. Okay. Uh posted business. I know you guys are here for posted business. So, why don't you come up and have your seat? Uh we have an appeal of a denial
of a sewer abatement for seven Nolan Circle. So, maybe you want to make some comments first and then Yeah. And Okay. Yeah. So, unfortunately, we're back with another issue with our sprinkler system. I know we've dealt with this before. Um,
but we filed for an abatement. Um, and the DPW director um rejected it um because of um the DPW policy. He said section 8.7 states that the owner is responsible for keeping the pipes um in
good repair and protected from frost. Um but that's the water department policy. when I looked at it and it was seemed like it was talking about the water main. So I don't think that that necessarily covers the sprinkler system. Um
so we're hoping you know we there's you can see in our usage report I think I gave you a graph that there's clearly an issue with our sewer I mean our our sprinkler system when it's not on. You can tell our usage is way low. Um,
so we're just hoping to get some sort of break on the come out and fix that. We did. We had a Yep, we did. We had a company come and fix um we could see a leak on the outside of our house. That was the first time that he came and fixed. And then another time we had all the toilets fixed in the house.
Yeah. Last year. And then the town put a new meter in or, you know, to try and figure out the problem or help us figure out the problem. We paid a plumber to rebuild every toilet in the house thinking there was one running. Um, but even like looking at this usage that
that you guys have, one of the highest days is like 669 I believe it's cubic feet of water, which is over 5,000 gallons. Um, and then our normal day with uh
after the sprinklers were fixed was 300 cubic feet, which is 2,000 gallons about I was looking at I was looking at the information that was submitted and it was excessive. I I do agree with that
and I I noticed that there was probably another sprinkler user that and then an average with no sprinkler system is like 36.4 cubic feet.
Now, how long have you had this sprinkler system? I think three years. 22, I think. Yeah. So, it's been three seasons, I I believe. So the last the last few years is is was that in here as far as water usage the
last few years or uh other the only thing that we have is that you guys might have is the last five years of the bannual bill with just the dollar figure but if the rate changes the usage it'd be hard to
calculate what the usage is. Well, I usually look at the last bills as far as usage, not not the cost. Not the cost. That's a better baseline to give an idea of what's what's happening. And I have those figures if you need it for for the
uh I think five or six most recent bills. But as I think uh folks were saying there there was an issue before as well. So this is hard to get a normal baseline at least for a summer bill because there were these issues with the sprinkler system.
There was an issue last year. What about the year before? There was a year an issue every year. Was it every year? I thought there was a year it was fine. I don't know. I think there was an issue every year like I don't know. Last year was the meter. So 2022 we had
an abatement and 20 24 we had an abate uh 2024 there was no last year we did a something for the last year 2024 there was an abatement 2023 there was not an unrelated issue 2022 right or
it was it still had to do with the sprinkler it was coming out the pipe of the comes out into the side of the house yeah you could actually see a leak Yeah. See, it's not that I disagree with with that there was a problem because
definitely there was a problem and and something happened and there was a lot of water usage and there probably a break or something. It's just trying to figure out where where do we put a you know do we do we say the bill should be equal to somebody
else that has a sprinkler system of the same size or should we say I mean you know what I'm saying. I'm just trying to figure out a fair way to go about this cuz you definitely deserve some kind of rebate and and and hopefully you caught
this. I mean, when somebody loses a liner in a swimming pool and they have to refill it, then there's there kind of bait rebates on the sewer side. Yeah. So, I'm just kind of I don't know, maybe my colleagues have
any comments on Well, I can see like a rebate on the sewer side, but as far as the water goes, I I'm Yeah. Are you seeking a rebate for water and sewer or just sewer? I mean, I'd be happy with just sewer because that's a big expense of that bill. Yeah. Use water.
We did. It's It's a question of did that water go down the sewer system, right? Yeah. That would be my stance on it as well is that the water got used so someone else can't use it. though. Yeah. Right. Right. Right. Um yeah, I'd be okay with saying with the water, but
yeah, the sewer, I guess I I'd be more willing to budge with right now without So, if you're straight in agreement on the sewer, we're just trying to find a fair equable solution here. So, I I prepared um a
basically a comparison of what as close as we could get to an average usage might look like uh for uh for this home uh of water and subtracted that um average usage from the usage that was uh done in this this time period. Um and
then multiplied that by the sewer rate to get a proposed abatement amount of $2,300 to $2,380. Um, so what that would essentially be was the difference in what the uh uh water use was two years ago when there was no issue.
Yeah, that's what that is. All right. So that that's one way you could go about it is you could compare what baseline usage might look like to what was used in this case. So that that 2300 is just the sewer. That would be the the the f the excuse me, the sewer bill uh for this last
billing cycle was $4,965 because of the high amount. The abatement would be for $2,380. So it bring the full bill instead of $7,496 would be 5,160. That's one option for you. So you're you're would abate the way
you've calculated under this uh 23809. Yeah. That you would abate what we could estimate as additional sewer use. This excess sewer use if that makes sense. use above what a typical billing period
would look like with sprinklers. This that's just using this house. I'm comparing it to as close to a baseline as we could find to another house. We do have another house that was very comparable. Um Pine Edge Way, they have the exact same acreage as us. They have
a sprinkler system. Um their usage was 18,700. [Music] Yeah. I don't know if you want. So that would be pretty close. So this this would say we're abating 17,000 and assuming the the usage was 18,640. Mhm. That's that's pretty close.
It's pretty darn close actually. That's pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's a helpful point. Mhm. I mean that's I guess that's one fair way of doing it. What Andrew has pointed out because he's done some comparative already.
I know we should abate something. So maybe this is maybe this is one solution. We are going to get a well. I said I'm not turning that sprinkler system back on next year unless we get a well. Yeah, I was going to suggest that but
purchase the water maybe. Okay. Okay. I I'd be okay with that the way he did it. The way he did this, you're okay with it? Yeah. Okay. Are you okay with it? Yeah, I'm okay with that. Okay. I'll make a motion that we abate
the amount of 23 $80 to the bill. Motion made. So, I'll second that. Yeah. Motion seconded. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Motion carries. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate
it. Okay, moving right along. We do have at 7:00 Senator Joe Cmer coming to uh spend some time with us. So hopefully if we're down early, we will take a break until she's here. If she comes a little bit
earlier, maybe we'll if we get through this agenda. So, uh, topic two is approval of license agreement with Hadley Elmwood LLC for storage of snow on a specified area located at 57 Main
Street. This was uh discussed at the last meeting and at that time there was a concern of actually plowing cuz this would be allowing the town to dump on the land and then the owner wanted us to
make a pathway to the barns like just one pass or something and I know my colleagues were hesitant and concerned that that may cause other issues. So um what do we
have an update on this Andrew or is it the same proposal? Three things going on and one is uh uh like board member uh Long Street will update everyone on his his thinking on this because I know he's been looking at some some alternatives for us too. So we'll get to that in a moment. I'll just
quickly say what I have here for you tonight. So, I have a note from council addressing a question that we had about whether this license would be transferable, whether it would uh move ahead with with anyone should they purchase the land. Um, the attorney says
it would not be transferable. License runs with the owner. Um, section 10 of the license agreement provides the town does not acquire any estate in the land. If we wanted to instead have some kind of easement, that's something we'd need to go to town meeting to do and then you'd want to record it uh with the
land. So that that's a much more uh complicated process, but it's also something we could uh explore, but that's that's that's a different uh process. Um but this license agreement instead, it's it's terminated, could be terminated within 15 days notice. It's
it's much less strict than say some kind of easement. um but it would still give us you know what we were looking for in this case. So that was one question about the transferability that would not be the case here. Number two, there was a question about uh the indemnity release of indemnity um as a part of the
consideration. That's on pages two and three of this agreement. We have uh included an updated version of the agreement with some extra language from the attorney uh that would be a little more strong about um any of that uh release from from harm. should there be
any damage caused to uh the driveway if we wanted to do that plowing to the barns. So the language is a little stronger here if we wanted to move in that path. Um so as far as legal goes, we're in a pretty comfortable place if we wanted to uh proceed with something like this. I think there's some valid
policy questions for this board about if we want to set a precedent like that about um plowing on private property and other questions around that. So I'll leave that to member Long Street. Yeah, I mean the language looks a lot better in this than previous. Um I I'm
still not in favor of of plowing on private property. I think it sets a bad precedent for the for moving forward. Um you know, there's been other towns who have gotten in trouble in the areas for things of that nature. Um so
it would be my opinion to not do that. Um, we're already towards the upper end of the budget that we discussed and it seems like there wasn't a whole lot of negotiation involved. Um, or at least willingness to move. Um, and so to me, we're kind of at the break
point, you know, of4750. I think that we could very feasibly haul snow probably two to three times throughout the season for that number. And with the seasons that the snowstorms that we are currently experiencing, I don't know if that would even be
necessary. Um, I've driven through town or I've driven through the parking lot a couple different times throughout town lately just to try to get a feel of um daytime, evening, overnight parking situations as
well as both weekdays and weekends. And when you first pull in the lot from the uh Chestnut Street side or school street side, um the first like six spots towards the basketball hoop are almost never used.
There might be one car there occasionally. Um but it's a pretty substantial area as well as if you include some of the lawn space that goes up to the fence. Um, so it's definitely an opportunity for us to be able to snow
store our snow on site. Um, we also would have the opportunity, we could potentially take the split rail fence down for the winter time and just install sleeves like pipe sleeves into the ground and then in the springtime the fence goes back up and that would almost quadruple our capacity. Um, you
know, this holds us accountable for this parcel, for any turf damage we have to fix. Any gravel that's mixed in, we have to clean it up. So the same thing could be said for if we kept it on our own lot. If we disturb the grass a little bit, lman seed can be put down in the
springtime and allow us to keep all of our snow on site and not necessarily have to enter an agreement that in my opinion puts us in kind of a weird spot with plowing private property. So, um I mean I would expect
in any negotiation if we take plowing the private road off the table, it's probably going to be a rebuttal and that number is going to go back up even higher. I don't I think that if we're go any higher than where we are. I mean, my own personal feeling is that it makes it not worth it for us.
So, by the tennis court, we could actually dump it there, right? I mean, yeah, I think it would just involve you'd end up plowing the lot backwards than typically you would be used to than the way it's typically plowed. Usually the guys come in from school street,
push down straight towards the this parcel towards this area and then come in and then wad it that way. you would essentially plow it in reverse and you'd have a I think I mean I did some comps on some lots that we do for my business
in the private sector and um you know based off of lot footage square footage and and usage I think the snow could very easily fit over there especially if we took the fence down so it wasn't damaged. Okay. So that's um I'm I'm glad you put all I'm appreciate all the time and
effort you put into this researching this and and also I know Marlo probably was helping along too. So there might be a couple things like you know like I said if we want to sleeve where the posts are so that way it's easier installation in the spring would be something that might be beneficial. And
then also, we might just want to have a line painting company come out and paint the lines of where the snow is going to be in like a light blue. And that way we can identify to residents like during snow events. I mean, the whole lot you're not supposed to park in 7 a.m. to
7:00 p.m., but during the daytime hours as well, you could say there's no parking in the light blue spots, what have you. Um, so we'd post some kind of a sign. Yeah, a simple sign and a little bit of line painting is going to be far far cheaper than
um where we're at with this agreement. So, yeah, I'm totally against us plowing private land and you know, if even if it costs overtime for these guys to haul it, I'd rather give it to our employees and somebody else. Yeah, I did a rough m
like rough breakdown too of um you know on overtime what the valuation of you know an operator with our loader and the dump truck and a plow truck there and then a second application of salt in and
realistically to haul the pile of snow for the course of 5 hours is only going to be about $2,100. So at 5,ou let's for round numbers at $5,000 you could haul the snow two and a half times over the course of a season
just to break even on this agreement. But if you dump it by the basketball court then you might not have to haul it at all. No that so or if we run out of storage there you might only have to haul it once and so we're going to be in far better shape financially than
Yeah. And it might not have to be done on overtime even. Correct. Correct. I mean, if there's enough room and we're willing to sacrifice, you know, five or six parking spots and let the snow encroach into those parking spots a little bit that are largely unused anyway, it could be
done days, even the following week after. Um, so I I think it's a good I think we have a solution to be able to keep our snow on site. It's very much a convenience to push it there. I'm sure it makes plowing the lot a little easier, but
we deny it tonight and we'll have tomorrow proceed with either the what you say the uh inserts or signs or something. Yeah, I talked in the week. I did take a look at it. I didn't get back to you. I apologize early last week,
but we can probably make that work and I was going to make the same suggestion. Smaller storms, we could come back if the guy's been up 24 hours, come back on straight time, right? And remove that. We have a different machinery. We don't need the massive loader in here or whatever, right?
And also too, if there's no forecasted major forecasted snow events in the future, or if there's a couple one to three inches or a salt event, we might not even have to haul snow. I mean, so often now we see these sporadic storms that accumulation really isn't the problem. It's the duration of it. And
it's more salt events than it is or a quick scrape than it is getting buried by a foot and a half of snow. Is there adequate drainage over there for when it does melt? I mean the the the parking lot drainage, but the drainage in that parking lot's all towards the center anyway. So,
um some of it would also be too how far back you want to push the snow. So, if they actually pick the snow up over the curb line and go across the turf area and push it, you know, to the to the basketball hoop area or even onto the basketball hoop area, Yeah. that'll put the you know, it'll
naturally drain out over the that area rather than coming back into the parking lot. So, yeah. And this seems more like a permanent solution where that's just yearbyear who owns it or whether or not they want to agree with us or Correct. allow us allow us to rent or whatever. Right. Right.
Yes. That's a that's a very good point. It's a permanent solution instead of each year trying to renegotiate Yeah. a contract too. Right. Uh I do thank you guys for working on that. So I think we have a solution. I guess this kind
is there a number that is you feel comfortable going back to the the land owner with say hey we think we have another way to do this but if you want to meet this number we'll just do the license because it sounds like it could be easier I mean the only way I would be comfortable would be at an original
numbers that we discussed $3500 and not plowing the private road that's that that was my top dollar to to begin with and that's where I'm sticking well I can make that offer So, but that's just that's just my opinion, you know. Well, I think that's where the consensus
was. Yes. I think that's unreasonable. Yeah. I think I think the consensus is to uh work with our permanent solution, but we can go back with that figure if he wants, but it won't be plowing the driveway, right? Because that that's causes other issues.
Yeah. I'd honestly, now I'm thinking about it. I'd rather not even do this, not even do the agreement and save the town some money. I think it's a show we've entered into a in a a bargaining Yeah. already. I think it's a show of good faith to come back with what our final
offer would be. Okay. If it's chosen to be accepted, then we did we can make a decision at that point. But okay, you know, we entered into the conversation. We should see it through. But I do like the permanent solution idea as well, Greg. So yeah,
I don't think we need any kind of approvals on that. We we have a solution. Okay. So um I'll move to topic number three. We have a let's see topic three resignation of
Hwan Hogwan from open space committee and I'll entertain a motion on that. All right. I'll make a motion to accept the resignation of Holland Hogland from the open space committee. Motion made. Second. Motion seconded. Any discussion? Yes. I just will send her a letter of thank you
for her her time on I think I think we just appointed them. They I'm not even sure they ever would have went to a meeting. So, okay. So, I think I'm not sure. Wasn't that a recent appointment? That's fine. All right. Well, anyway,
yeah, it's still still nice to thank for volunteering. So, all in favor? I I motion carries. All right. Topic four is for Rally House Center License under Mass General C1 138
section 21C for event on November 2nd, 2025. And I will for those that are not aware, the Rally House is the uh new pickle ball facility over there on five and 10. It's a large facility and I believe
they're hoping to open November 1st and and since they have an event and they want to sell alcohol under the Mass General laws, they have to get okay through our board in order to sell alcohol. Now, the event uh has been moved. The
the date is expected to be December 14th, not uh November 2nd. They had some conflicts. So So it's been changed. The date will be December 14th instead. Yep. September It's a 21C. So, they'll do it through the rally house through a caterer caterer's license. December 14th.
December 14th. 121. So, there'll be an updated uh with a date change on it, right? I think do we need a date change, Karen?
I don't think we do. Yeah. So the this um expires on December 31st. So their their caterers license, they just get broad approval. This has been Yes, they're approved as long as as long as locally we approve it. They have the
the caterer's license, the 12 day license, correct? So it's it's not a one day. It's done through the the the use of the the caterer that they're using has an alcohol license. So, if they use the the caterer's license, they can um have the
event locally. They just need to um have it approved by us and they also have to have uh the local police come and be aware, right? There's a version of that. Yeah. Good. Okay. So, it's it's the 12c path rather than
one day license. Any comments from my colleagues on this? No. Oh, I wish them luck. Do we have to do a motion or anything with that? No, I'll entertain a motion then. Right. We have to have a motion on this then.
They don't have to approve it. Nice. Great. So, you're just notified. I don't have to approve. I'll consider myself notified. There. So topic number five, discussion on quiet zones for railroad
crossings in Hatfield. Um did where did this come about? Wonderful question actually from the select board member to your left. That's me. I I've been talking to some people and been listening to the trains lately and they've been loud and there's more often they've been coming through a lot more often and just talking around
town about it. I mean, I just want to permission to look into making this a a quieter zone up there. Well, I I did read this and I have a couple concerns. What I read was the cost could be
between $30,000 and a million dollars. Also, I read that there's no money available to do this and if the town took it on and something should occur with an accident, then the town could possibly be liable for anything that
occurs. One of those if you touch it, you own a type of things. So, uh I see there's a lot of issues from what I read. I mean, it makes it it's a good point. It makes good sense, but uh are
we in a position where we can actually get into having issues by doing something? I don't know. I mean, that that's a possibility, but I want I just wanted to see if I could get permission from the board and get an okay to like just look into it. not not
going to do it. Just to look into what it would take for us to to make this possible and what the liabilities are be so we could have it all out there. And I want to get the board's approval so that I could get Andrew to help me. Also, I don't have a problem. Maybe you can
answer some of those questions I presented. I I don't have an issue with it. And I would I mean I'm not going to be doing it behind anybody's back obviously and it would just and it would have to come back to the town's people if if they want to do that or not. That's fine. I don't know. Do you have any
Yeah, I feel like I I don't have a problem with you looking into it. I'll just start with that. But um I remember this had come up at least in conversation at one point before and I think ultimately where it landed at was that since we're considered highspeed rail it can't you have to
there's certain guidelines that they have to set because it's not just a freight track anymore. Yeah, I'd heard that. And our frequency of crossing. So like we it like on the north end of town you hear the crossing at Egypt Road, Depot
Road, North Hatfield Road, CNS. So you have four crossings that are all within a half a mile of each other. So and they h they're required to sound a certain amount of times. So I mean by all means I'm totally fine with you looking into it. Um I would just be
don't be surprised if you Oh no. run into a wall pretty quickly here. Well, I I just know there's, you know, I know Deerfield did it a couple years ago and I know they had to have that island on Elm Street put in there to to make it so that so that they could have a quiet zone up
there and just just uh to consider it. Yeah. Yeah. So, it looks like the first step is we need to fill out this tool that they have online. Um, find out if it it meets certain uh qualifications to be eligible. Um and then once you go
through that you have to start looking at what the supplemental safety measures or alternative safety measures that you would install would be and that's where the cost uh jarki kind of comes from is if you are re-engineering uh the traffic pattern there uh or
anything else to to add these extra measures I think you can end up with with some issues but that's um it's probably worth looking into to at least do the tool we'll find out what the path would be and then um if we need to get funding to do, you
know, feasibility study, then we can uh revisit that and see if we want to bring that to the town. You might need an appropriation even to start the process. Yeah. Find that out. Sounds good. More to come. Anything else you want to say? Oh, no, no. I just Yeah. I I don't I
don't know what the outcome of it is going to be. I just thought it'd be worth looking into. I'll be happy to work with you on that. Thanks. Okay. Topic six, proposal for architectural services, Hatfield Farm Museum.
Yes. So, uh, we had a recommendation um to reach out to Mark Sternick, local architect, who actually did the work here for the Smith Academy Pavilion. Uh, he, uh, would be happy to work with us on this project. This is a CPA funded project. I wanted to bring the proposal
to you just to have a look at it. Um this is to replace the roof but also to do some really creative thinking around securing the building. Um its sides are quite impenetrable to or penetrable to varmits as it was put to me other
creatures. So it was a good idea to try to to look at um what we could do to preserve the you know historical integrity of the barn. It's a it's under a preservation restriction. uh we will be going for um some some grants uh for the roof and for the siding project uh
from the state. So having a thorough design is is really mandatory in order to to do that. Um and I think uh we've got a good proposal here to to go about that. So I think I I can sign it, but I want to bring it to you for for approval just to make sure you're comfortable
with this approach. Um, we have an appropriation already from CPA funding and then we'll be um we'll be applying for more more grants to meet the CPA funding for the actual construction. Yeah, because this was approved through CPA and in town meetings. That's correct.
Uh it's nice to see the grant continue, I guess. Yeah. and CPA what what they wanted to see us do was rather than um go right ahead and um you know start working on the construction they really did want us
to apply for the state's historic preservation grants in order to do that you do need some some more uh robust design so that that was the plan any other questions no I think it looks good and the numbers that are associated with uh the
different um you know areas of the plan and seem reasonable. So, okay, if you're all set with that, I'll entertain a motion. Um, I'll make a motion to approve the
proposal for architectural services at the Hatfield Farm Museum. I'll second. Motion made. Motion seconded. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Motion carries. Topic seven, approve revised job description for assistant treasurer
collector. So, our uh assistant treasur collector uh Patty Cotton will be uh retiring on December 1st, the last date for her service. Um be good to get a letter to her as well. She's served the town very well in a number of positions. Um so, we're excited to be posting a
position uh for a new treasure, assistant treasurer, collector. Uh Tammy has been holding down the fort really well, but she's very excited to have some more help. So, uh, this is roughly the, uh, job description that she was
hired under when she was hired as assistant treasure collector before Patty moved to the position. And, uh, a couple changes are in here. You'll see they're pretty straightforward. Um, either for form or just um, really updating for things that this position
doesn't do. Says negotiates all borrowing. That's really through the the treasurer. um in a couple places just uh uh affirms that they're assisting the treasurer rather than doing the work themselves. So I I think it's a fair job description, but if you have any questions on it, happy
to to get those and then we'll um once we approve it, we'll get this posted this week. My only question is some of the things that a red line like performs the entry interviews and the exits and then ordering machine maintenance and repair. Who's that going to fall under? No, that would be the uh the town treasurer
and then the uh town administrator would be doing entry and exit interviews and also when they so for entry exit interviews they're also looking at you know the the payroll pieces everything else that's really been falling to to Brenda who's working on payroll mostly in our office.
So um doesn't necessarily need to be this this person. It would probably fall to another staff member in the office. Any other concerns on this? No. Yeah. As long as it's all okay with
you and Tammy told me. If there's no other more concerns, I'll take a motion. I'll make a motion to approve revised job description for the assistant treasurer collector. Second. Motion made. Motion seconded. Any
discussion? All in favor? I. Motion carries. Okay. Topic eight. Discussion on joining states group insurance commission for employee health insurance. I know Andrew's been involved with Cammy on
this. Yes. Um I would like to put out there, would you like to um hold on this for now? Maybe get to the items that pertain to Marlo. Um, so he can go through his DPW updates. Um, and we can come back to that. He doesn't necessarily have to
stay through the whole meeting. Sounds good. We'll move to topic nine. DPW updates with Marlo. Thank you. So, I don't have a complete update for you this evening. Um, but I wanted to,
as promised last meeting, I wanted to get the uh driveway curb cut uh policy together along with the permit. Um, so I've given you a draft. Uh, I did reach out to the building commissioner and uh
Bella and planning. Um, I brought in a revised draft this evening to you that I just finished up before I came over. Uh, comments from Bella in the red. Uh you'll see that I in the handout which makes a lot of sense the way she worded
it uh changed my wording a little bit. Um so the I mean at the beginning of uh in your packet the beginning of the uh policy if you will um I I think it's important to have a driveway curb cut
permit whatever we want to call it. um and because it helps protect the town and the the the potential homeowner, business owner, so on and so forth. Um so I I laid out a bunch of parameters on
a normal driveway. Uh but for the most part, when we get into common drives, multiple homes or whatever on a drive, um it's pretty much covered in the uh zoning bylaws. Um I didn't want to put all the zoning bylaws into this template. um you'd have about 10 pages
in front of you before you could get to the actual permit page. This So this is sort of typical to other communities. Uh yeah, most all communities. Um yeah. Um
and again, as far as the fee, I put a $100 fee on on the permit application. Um we reached out to four well checked on four or five communities. They averaged anywhere from $50 to $250. Um I was trying to account from my time
uh as far as inspections before and after uh or if I delegate to the highway superintendent. That's why I wrote or designate in there if I'm away or so on and so forth. Uh Dwayne can process these. Um, so if there's any comments,
anything you want to add or subtract, I'd be more than happy to to bring it back to you or make the changes. Um, we were discussing previous um on number six, the second half of it says,
"No portion of an entrance or exit driveway shall be closer than 50 ft to any portion of an existing driveway on the same or adjacent lot." Um my suggestion would be to add in the language without prior approval
of planning and building department. And for the reason being that um we have a lot of lots in town that are narrow but deep that with our new um planning bylaws of allowing ADUs and
in-law apartments and stuff like that, there might be the need for some of these driveways to be able to access it. So, we want to make sure that this permit is able to encompass that. Um, it would still have to meet all the other requirements um of footages and minimum
distance from fire hydrants and things of that nature, but there's definitely a couple lots in town. Just brainstorming off the top of my head that that would be necessary for. And the only other thing that I see is that um there's no
provision in here for like an illegally constructed driveway. Like if someone just puts one in um what what are there going to be a fine assessed per week until it's removed and or something of that nature? Um,
well, if we put this at the level of a bylaw, which probably makes sense, I guess it already is a bylaw, um, because it's in the the describing the zoning bylaws, then um, you know, they'd be doing this without a permit, breaking
the bylaw, which can be punished by $300 a day for the violation, I think. I think so. We can check on that. Yeah. And I think I put in here um it's got to be approved or signed off by myself or designate before they get a co. Right. Right.
So it kind of covers us there. Okay. A little bit. We can uh we can make sure it has the force of by everything else looks really good on it. Um all the footage is required and seem to match other towns in the area as well
as fire codes. So, um I like the fact that there's a provision for sight lines and stuff of obstructions. That's nice to see in there. So, it's good on my end with just that
little change on line six. Was that u with prior approval of building commissioner and planning board or planning department? Um I I didn't I guess I didn't realize there was a difference between the board and the department planning department. Yeah. I mean we kind of
own planner. You could say planning board or designate. So planner essentially I think that would be fair. Yeah. Because then Bella could approve if if necessary if the planning board wants but I think it should go through both planning and building because it gives you a set of checks and balances.
Yeah. Perfect. And my only concern it was just where the $100 is going. Do we have to specify that somehow? Um, retire to the general fund, wouldn't it? It would just go to the general fund. Yes,
it would, but I just Would you want to specify that? Well, being helping out with the bylaws being written down, there's a lot of there's some things in there that are empty. You know, doesn't say where things are going. I mean, it's assumed and the things are going to the right place, but
assumed isn't good. I think I think that can be clarified. Yeah. Anything else on this? Overall, looks it's well written. I like it. I guess those revisions and then
uh yeah, I'll make a motion to approve the driveway curb cut policy and application with revisions noted. I'll second that. Motion made, motion seconded. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Motion carries. Thank you.
Okay. Okay, the next part of the uh DPW agenda is a sewer abatement for four North Hatfield Road in the amount of $8322 for a new pool installed. Yeah, this is the one that came to you
last month. There was no backup as far as like when we see a pool liner, we get the gallons and and all that. There was no backup size of pool or or whatnot. I did reach out to the owner. Uh he was supposed to get me the
backup. I have not seen it as of today. So So this is not yet ready. Okay. Not yet. So we do nothing. That's fine. Nothing yet. Great. All right. If we want to go to number 10 of my
report, there is a piece in here that I do want Marlo to update you on. Um if that's all right with you. Very good. Sounds great. So we received a grant recently from Maya. This is uh Massachusetts Interlocal Insurance Association. They provide our property
insurance. Um they have a safety grant program to try to bring down number of workers comp claims and everything else. Uh and we applied for that this year. They give $10,000 for a pretty prescribed list of of items. Uh I went
to DPW to say, you know, is there anything that that would be helpful for you? and Marlo and the team identified a new shoring box is something that' be very useful. So, I don't know if you want to speak to that at all, Marlo. Just kind of give a quick update on what that is and um then we can discuss that quickly.
Yeah, our current we do have a a shoring box currently, but it only sits 4 feet high, six feet long, uh which doesn't to meet the shoring trenching law doesn't get you very deep in the ground for somebody to be in that safely. Um, so I've I've well as of today, this
afternoon, uh, I set up our account. Uh, it's a 6 by8. I also ordered paraffin boards for the end to protect the ends when somebody's in that trench box. Um, so this thing, like I said, is 6 feet high, 8 ft long. You can slope the top
of a trench if you're seven, seven and 1/2 ft in the ground and be safe. Um so it was a matter of safety um more than anything that we need to invest in this especially with our our water most of our water this box will be the perfect box for it.
Maya does require that in order to receive this grant you have to have a policy for the use of of uh the box or for for trenching in place. So we didn't really have an updated policy. So Marlo put some time into updating that as well. So that's that's now a department
uh policy that exists. Um and you know we have a basically a safety protocol for for using this. So that that was provided to you as well so you could see it. I think um Marlo will probably be modest about it but he turned this around really quickly and I think it's going to be a great thing for the department just to have some better
safety protocols here. So I I really appreciate him getting that done so quickly and and thoroughly. I mean safety is very important because you want people to come to work and go home safely. You don't want anybody to get hurt. So yeah, stren boxes are and as we all know we we fall under OSHA
along with DLS now. So you know in the municipal sector um so you have to have that policy. In fact I'm I have to update it as soon as I get the new trenching box because you have to list all your equipment in there who your competent persons are on the job site.
There's forms to be fill out filled out soil analysis pretty in-depth. Um, but I'll be more than happy to send that policy along to you that I developed for for Hatfield just so you can take a look and have an idea of what I'm talking about. Luke, I'm sure you're pretty familiar with it.
So, I I know what it is, but I'm not sure everybody watching would know what a trench box is. I mean, it's just it's just a structure that you put inside a hole to keep the walls from caving in. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And and this you can disassemble
and assemble this one pretty good. It's um rated for pretty high pressures and it's aluminum. So um we can keep it assembled and keep it on a trailer ready to go in an emergency also. So I mean after somebody feed it's required
right to have some type type of a trench box. Okay. So and it depends on the soils and a water man break. I don't think I want to be in a hole at 4 and 1/2 ft either would unstable soils. So that's all part of that
evaluation form in the policy that I wrote. Okay, it's great. Nice. Oh, thanks for doing that. Yeah, great job securing the funding, too. Yeah, fantastic. Great. Uh, since we're talking grants,
I'll tell you about the other one um that uh we're making some progress on. So, this is the one that I mentioned earlier, the municipal vulnerability plan uh grant uh that we received. This is $179,000 for a combined project with Town of Hadley. Town of Hadley had previously
been doing some work on mapping agricultural ditches. They're working with uh CI specifically with uh Nick Christoph Fury uh who you know specialized in this work. He's he's done this in a number of places and it's a good engineer to work with. Um been
happy with uh with our work with him so far. Um and um basically we want to catch up to Hadley with our mapping. we don't really have any GIS or any other uh mapping of the the basic ditch system. And then once that's done
basically on the computer, you ground truth that you get out there and you visit. There's a lot of agg uh lot of uh on-site visiting that will occur that'll happen with us and with Hadley and then we'll work both of us in um the CI work
with both of us on um on uh permitting and with identifying of some nature-based solutions and this was a priority that came from our um Hfield 2040 plan uh and it's something that will help help both with our our farmers support our farmers but also better
understand and manage our storm water infrastructure. So, it's a great project. Um, CI is uh a company that I haven't gotten to work with too much except for on project we'll talk about later. Uh, but I've been impressed with their engineering team on on this. Uh, I
think it's a good fit for for their uh their their skills and I think it's going to be a good project. So, I have a proposal with them. This is entirely grant funded. There is no local match required. Uh, it all comes through the the state. So, um, that proposal is before you.
So, is this a twofold approval? We would approve it and then Hadley also has to approve it to use CI. Um, no, because the contract is all going through us. Um, we are the fiscal agent for this project. Okay. So, um, yeah, it's it's we're we're we
will approve of the the contract and we approve of the receiving the grant funding, too. And since do we have to receive three different bids for this or is it are we if we're comfortable this is engineering work which would be exempt from
30p. Now, do you need um I mean under topic 10, there was uh two motions for one was for the municipal vulnerability plan grant and which was discussed and also the MIA safety grant.
So, I would like a motion to accept the Maya grant just because I don't think we've done that yet. I think we did accept the the um the municipal vulnerability plan grant, but if we haven't, we should make sure we do that. And then I'm just looking for approval to sign this
contract as well. CI we did make a we have made the motion and approved the MVP grant accepting it. Perfect. Good. Um thank you. As far as I can So then it would just be for the contract. It would just be the contract. I think we talked about that that grant separately.
All right. So then we just need a one motion then for this one. Well, we just got to go back and make the motion for the other one for the uh my open. Yeah. So I'll make a motion to approve the MVP uh grant and contract with CI.
Second. Motion made. Motion seconded. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Motion carries. Uh, I will also make a motion to accept the grant of $9,985 from Massachusetts Interlocal Insurance
Association for a new shoring box. Second. Motion made. Motion seconded. Any discussion? Motion. All in favor? Motion carries. Okay. Nice. So I have a full report for you as well,
but I'm happy to um begin our conversation with Senator Cford since she's arrived. Like yeah, I would say we move to Senator Curd, then we'll make sure we hit nine and 10. We we are graced with the presence of Senator Cford this evening. And for a
lot of you that may not be aware of uh she has been a hard worker for this area in Boston. She's helped us with getting grants and getting money and and I can't thank her enough. I I'm glad I can personally thank you in person for all
your help that you provided for us. So So uh I'll now leave it open to you to uh make any comments before we ask you some questions. Wonderful. Wonderful. Um, so first it's really great to be with you. Thank you for allowing me a little time to say hi.
Um, and I just want to start by saying I know and you you I know have heard me say this before. Um, I know that municipal governance is the hardest job of all. Um, you've got federal pressures, state pressures, and then you're trying to see Hatfield through
beautiful Hatfield through a lot of turbulence. And so I just thank you for your service. Um, I really also want to commend your town administrator who uh hit the ground with my team running and has been a joy to work with um in Hatfield. So, um I do have a list of
questions if it's okay with the chair and the select board. I will just get right to it and then I prepared some things for you this evening and then you can ask me anything. Um that'll be the fun thing. Um so first there was a question about the Hampshire County Group Insurance Trust which I
know has been a topic of some conversation not only in Hatfield but um many places. So um the delegation and we've sent we've tried to send uh updates um the delegation and that's repadosa me and then several other reps
and senators have been engaging. Um the select board probably knows that Hampshire County Group Insurance Trust is not a regulated entity. There's no framework for oversight. It's not a state entity at all. In fact, we had no idea of the fiscal troubles until the
end of July, which was a tough time because, as you know, the governor had already signed the budget. Um, but we have worked in very good faith with the Healey Driscoll administration um trying to find a way forward. We've also briefed I've briefed my leadership in the Senate. Um, and I will say that
hopefully very soon we're going to be sending out um an email to towns about what the state believes it can do to support member units in this um significant moment. Right? We're worried
about a leadership change now at HCGIT and we're also worried that the reserves are pretty dangerously low. Um that's not that's not only the worry because I know that communities are absorbing pretty significant rate increases. Um so
uh let's call this a a structured safety net hoped for by the state um in the form of a loan uh that could be amortized back over some time. Um, this has not been released yet, but since I was coming, I I just want you to know
that I've talked to Andrew about this um just very high level and hopefully we'll be able to talk with the HCGIT executive committee um this week and um and then hopefully bring it to the town for your
consideration. I know that's like a long process to if we decide to get into that. I don't know if that process could be shortened at all. You're saying for joining join the group insurance. Yeah. So that's the other piece of this
is that the hoped for support would also come with it some technical assistance um for the town of Hatfield because it is complex and you know I know that you all are doing many other things um in addition to dealing with insurance right
and so we can and should uh hopefully be able to provide some both legal and technical expertise to willing communities as you know this is not my decision to make as your state senator, but I felt that it was my job to surface
an option um because of the turbulence. And of course, HCGIT is not the only trust that's having difficulty and certainly not the only insurance broker um where rates are going high. Um this is just true about this time.
What would be the longevity of this this loan that would be offered? Um, and you know, is this something that we're going to have to revisit again in two years? Hopefully we'd be able to push it out five years. It's not unlike snow and ice, you know, when we hit snow and ice
costs and we can spread those out over some years. Um, it's it's that kind of idea. So to cushion the spike, cushion the blow. What about if we have member towns decide to leave the trust?
this would be a way to exit the trust, right? Um, you know, I can't speak for HCGIT. Um, when we've asked this before, um, we've been told that it's impossible to know, right? Because if member units
where there are very high costs associated with those member units go, then it's really good for the trust. Um, you know, let's just be frank, if member units where there's a lot of healthy people go, less good. Um, so we've asked the executive director that in different ways, you know, now for
weeks and months, uh, trying to get a sense of the impact of these actions, but I think the truth is that he's correct. We we don't know for sure. This is why trusts or insurance agencies carry big big reserves and Hampshire
County Group Insurance Reserve is quite small right now and uh they do it because there's so much risk to balance for and the it's the long game that actually is what sees you out and and HDGIT sees a long game for itself. Um
and you know uh again that's not for me to judge. I don't have that expertise. Is there anything that Hatfield can do specifically to improve our position here? It's a good question. Um, I mean, I think your town administrator is asking all the right questions. Um, engaged in
all the right conversations. There's another IA meeting on Thursday, I'm told. I'm sure you'll be there. um uh perhaps uh and so you know I think I think getting a sense of the select
board and the and the community would be the best thing you can do to make your own decisions. And Senator, we do have that on our agenda tonight. I prepared a proposal to look at uh at least beginning the process to move to the GIC which would allow us to start bargaining with our uh
public employee committee. Uh so there's a proposal that shows that we would save around $180,000 for next year if we were to move from the trust uh to group insurance commission. So we'll be discussing that later this evening. The biggest risk with doing so is uh what
sorts of of uh claims could come back in that period once we've already left the trust, but those claims uh are still out there, right? Uh so what the senator is describing is there might be some assistance from the state in helping us with with uh paying for those over time
uh if we should be hit with a large number of claims uh that wouldn't hit the GIC but wouldn't still be covered by the trust. That's right. Say I have an appendix you know out and it's 60 day the bill takes 60 days to come but in that time my insurance has changed the member unit
you know bears that cost and that is a risk. Um, that's part of what we hope that we hear in terms of the structure that the state can support. If you if your reserves are not enough to to make that leap, that's another way we could cushion.
Um, makes sense. Okay, I'll move on. But please, any any question, any comment. Um, uh, I'll maybe skip route five until the end if that's okay. Sure. Um so the state's uh fiscal
outlook um and I appreciate this this question. So in the fiscal year 26 budget where we are right now um from the time the governor filed the budget until it was sent to her for her signature it was reduced by the
legislature by $1 billion. And that was very much about us looking ahead to what was happening in Washington and recognizing that everything from Medicaid or Mass Health, our hospitals, food costs, um you know, for our
pantries and meal sites, all of those things that rely so heavily on federal assistance were in jeopardy um quite frankly uh because of what was happening in Washington. There was nothing happy about that decision. I just want you to
know at the same time u we did that you probably are aware that you know we have the governor has frozen all earmarks they're still frozen so not only did we cut a billion dollars but all the earmark spending uh and some of the grant line items have been frozen um as
we await the revenue indications because of the what happen happened in Washington we've learned recently that about $650 million is at risk if we don't decouple from the federal government in this tax provision. But
that's not all, right? We have we're seeing higher unemployment. We're seeing businesses seize up a little. I was just listening to an NPR report about what's happening in the private sector, which then will ultimately trickle down to the revenues of the state.
Uh so it is pretty darn sobering um right now. The truth is is that we will not see the majority of the impact of the federal actions until after November 26.
So in truth, fiscal year 27 and then the outy years um are are more significant than 26. Um the the state in our budget is this year is about $61 billion which
is a reduction as you know um about 16 billion of that is projected to come from federal spending. That's the direct federal money into the state budget. But that's only a part of really the whole story. our our farmers, for example, get
grants, large large grants actually for things like climate resilience or local uh farmtoschool programs. Those have been cut. Um our nonprofits get also direct federal spending. Sometimes municipalities get direct federal spending in form of
grants, right? Uh or other programs. And so when you think about that, the real the money that's at stake is about something. There's no real number because it fluctuates every year except for that 16 billion which has been pretty steady or growing. Um it's about
23 24 billion dollars of federal money in our economy not and 16 billion really in the budget and that and most of that is ma Medicaid or mass health but some of it's you know climate some of it's housing roads you name it right the
federal government is is working um so uh you know when we start to look at that number um you know the concern grows uh right now best estimate the I looked just this afternoon getting ready
to talk to you about $3.7 billion is out of the state. That's not just the budget. Um that's the state, right? That's the grants that we've lost. Um it's expected to grow considerably um
over time as the programs or the cuts um roll in. Um, so we have some work to do, you know, in the legislature and that looks like, um, thinking about revenue and how to raise it fairly. Um, there
are some ways that are on the table. There's some offshore corporate tax. Um, it's not going to get us a whole lot of money, uh, but 40 million or something like that. Uh, and then there's this decoupling for the wealthiest. um you
know allowing us to take that which was uh prevented at the federal budget. That's another 650 million. Um so there are um there are ways and we can and should look at those. And then meanwhile this is pretty grim. Meanwhile, as our
budget looks sobering, the fair share revenue um that's dedicated to education and transportation that looks better. Um and so that's a that's heartening especially for communities uh because you know your roads and bridges, culverts and schools are big ticket
items. Um so the hope here is that we would be able to keep that going. Um so what happens now is uh the governor's building her budget right now. There'll be a consensus revenue hearing in December. That's where everybody gets together and they say, "Okay, how much
are we going to make in fiscal year 27?" And then that there'll be a number agreed to and she'll build her number to that budget. Um and then um the house will go in April. Oh, then there'll be ways and means hearings in March. Um
there'll be eight of them all over. I've hosted them for the last several years and that's been great out here in uh at GCC and at UMass. Um but there'll be eight ways and means hearings on a number of topics. I've always done the education and local aid because they're so important for us out here. Um and
then the House will go in April, the Senate will go in May, conference in June, signature in July. Um so that's that's what we expect. I'm happy to take any question. No, I think it's pretty scary what's
happening right now with all the cuts from Washington and stuff. It's it's just going to be a triple effect, trickle down, and it's going to hurt everybody, right? It's both the direct cuts and then it's the seizing of the economy, right?
Um, so it's the revenue. So it's both sides of the whole. Um, and it's when I I meant it when I said right, cities and towns are on the receiving end of everything. Um, and that makes your job three times
as hard actually. Yeah. because small towns if we lose federal funding it hurts, right? So whatever federal funding we get is always very helpful to operating our schools and getting other other projects
going. But and that's not all going to go away, right? We're not projecting that everything's going away by any extent. The the biggest hits will come in in in um at least right now that's what the shutdown's around, right? around health,
right? Um restricting access to Mass Health, restricting access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, they will affect all kinds of things from health care, which will then affect our hospitals, to the money, the federal money in schools for food, you
know, and so it's the whole those are the ones that are right now um most being talked about. So, um, it's good to hear that through fair share and through other sources
that chapter 90 and education funding that might stay relatively consistent. But I'd be more concerned about unrestricted governmental aid from the state potentially being a smaller figure moving forward. Is that something we should potentially budget to or is it too early to say? I think it's too early to say. We have
to look at the consensus revenue. But I will I will say that both the House and the Senate um have been consistent on UGGA because it's important. Now that said, I think we have to reopen the formula for UGGA
because I'm not really sure why Andover or Welsley or Winchester needs UGGA. Um, for your listeners, I don't mean to diss my friends out east, but in fact, I do think there's an equity um, an equity
conversation to be had. Yeah. Okay. Um, moving on. Um, you asked about quiet rail zones for railroad crossings. Um, and, uh, so we did a little research because I just had to confirm this
because another town did this. So, you have to make a formal request to the FRA um and you would um assess the conditions or FRA would assess the conditions and determine if it qualifies. It's possible. And so, I have the name and the phone number which I will text to you.
Excellent. Um yeah, uh her name is Judy Barazzo and that's the person that you will do that you'll make that request and then certainly loop us in and Masdot is apprised um that this may be something you want to explore. Um, and that's
great. And then I'll just be with you in that conversation. We can pull in uh, Congressman McGovern's team, you know, as you get going and explore the process, right? Um, but I I'll text you Judy's number. Um, and then there's a question about can
can the down do anything to position yourselves for state grants. I will say um, you know, I I think Hatfield punch has always punched above your weight. Um, you're ambitious. um you put together really good proposals um and
you are on the map in the Hilly Driscoll administration and and again that's because of you. Um so uh you know I would say that um there have been some good signs uh in the Healey Driscoll administration, you know, I heard you
accepting the um MVP grant. There is now a dedicated amount of funding for rural. That's not by accident. Um that's because of advocacy, right? We said, "Hey, this is not scoring well for us. We need a dedicated way to approach MVP." So, I'm really grateful to the
Hilly Driscoll administration for doing that. Um, there's a new ECO one-stop grant. I I'm I'm sure Andrew has gone to probably too many webinars on it. Um, but the cool thing here is we like the onetop for economic development very much, right? They're really useful for
small communities. We put in one proposal. if it's not quite right, they go, "Oh, how where could we what could we do for Adfield here and things move around internally?" Um, this ego onetop is the same idea. The cool thing here is
that there will be no rural match. So, communities applying through here won't have to come up with local money. And that's pretty great, right? Because we often struggle to make the match. Um I will say also you know depending on what
Hatfield wants to do there is now a stated commitment um we were able to work um on a da a housing production dashboard um so HLC really has to build and spend equitably and so you know if
there's interest here um we are able to see the money going out we are able to support rural our communities much more uh because I can judge how we're doing with regard to housing and livable security grants um versus
other bigger wealthier probably eastern towns. Um so that's a good advance I think. Um and honestly I mean I I could go on but I know you have a long agenda. There are numbers of other program advances that I
think are favorable. And so in terms of um positioning yourself, I will say that um you know the Hilly Driscoll administration wants to get out on the road. They want to. And you are the best people to open up not only their minds
but their hearts, right? I mean, who couldn't come to this town, this main street, and not just go, "Oh my god, this is like a perfect town." Um so I think you know I think through you know however you want to reach us I think we should begin
uh exploring what you want to do next right we had to really focus on route five and I do think um the administration came through on that money right three different tanches got it done hard project um but and God
bless the neighbors and all of you for your grit and it's done right now we can do other things. Um, it's not done. We'll give you an update. Not done. Not done. Not done. Not done. Not done.
Oh dear. Yeah. We'll give you the update. All right. We need the update. We need Yeah, I need to hear from you. That's That's bad advance work on my side. Okay. Apologize. No, stop it. Stop it. Um, so forgive me for not knowing. Um, so uh so we'll um
we'll work on that project with you. Um but you can explore what other projects you may want to do and if it's not done it doesn't matter we'll I mean matters for you but we can go back we'll figure out a way to go back and get Hatfield support they are committed the ECD folks
right secretary um how who's now no longer there but you know secretary Stoba um under secretary uh um my god his name left my head anyway um they care deeply about this town and they are
happy to see it through. I'm sure of it. Um, okay. We're going to have to have a meeting on that. Andrew, I'm so sorry. No, no, not a problem. Um, and then, uh, you asked about, uh,
let's see. Let's see. Are there any other updates on rural agricultural communities we should be aware of? Um, and this is your last question. Uh uh so we're focused, you know, I think well in the Senate on how
we keep our farmers farming. Um there's a numbers of very important bills uh which I hope we take up which like last session we were able to make things slightly easier for farmers to do things like micro businesses. So you could grow
a strawberry, produce a strawberry, sell a strawberry all on the same land. We made it much harder to do that. for example, uh before we did smaller bites at that. Um I hope we do a much bigger package to help with farmers bottom
lines. Um it is one of the areas I focus most on actually is uh farm resilience. Um and I will say you know I learned a lot from of what I know from Hatfield farmers. Um, honestly, um, you know,
Bernie, uh, Smarowski was the person who called me first when the floods hit in July 2023. Um, he picked up the phone, called my office, and then, you know, the next morning I was on his farm, and, um, that was it. Uh, and I've learned from him and a lot of his colleagues
since then. Um, so we have numbers of farm bills. We have a disaster relief program now. Um, I filed and passed with Natalie Blair Reple the first ever state disaster relief which names farmers in it. Um, and we're fighting for some
money to be able to give out if should uh events transpire that need that because the 20 million that we were able to get for farmers back in 23, you know, should not be determined by whether or not the House and the Senate are in session or whether there's some extra
money. should we should have a program and a protocol and an analysis of how this money goes out. So, I'm pretty dedicated to that. Um, and you know, that's a lot having to do with farmers, but not only. But then there's again this slew of bills. Um, and I will say
just last, you know, we're I'm chairing this thing called 21st century agriculture. It's a commission that's looking at the future of farms in the 21st century. everything from, you know, climate resilience to green energy, frankly, and how we make it work on farms, how farmers make money as a
result of it, and is there a way that the two can come together. So, we've been doing a lot of learning, again, led by farmers um in Western Mass, you know, saying, "Hey, look, this is how I have some micro businesses lined up. This is how I figure out how I can, you know, um
generate the power for my farm and my neighbors, whatever it is." Um, so I'm hopeful that that report's coming out pretty soon and will be a roadmap for better improvements. Uh, in terms of rural, you know, we have now the first ever director of rural affairs. That's
wonderful. Um, could we do more? You betcha. Um, we need, uh, you know, we need a whole rural recovery plan in, um, Massachusetts, right? We have 181 cities and towns that are rural. Um, and they, you know, we keep going grant by grant
by grant like we went to MVP and then we, you know, advocated for the ego onetop and, you know, we're ticking down some things, but we, we did chapter 90 by road miles, not by people and road miles. You know, we're going to keep pushing on all of these things. Um, but
we need a big frame conversation, which is part of what the delegation's working on. What else? I don't have any more questions. I've talked you I've talked you into oblivion. I I mean I do appreciate you being here
because not only for information for us, but now the town's people also get more information and and find out what's going on. And that's the best way to reach everybody is through our TV. So,
it's it's nice to have you come and I'll come anytime you ask and it's great. So, I do appreciate it. I don't know if my colleagues have any other I appreciate you helping out our town a lot. I really do. And and the farmers especially, they are they are some of my favorite
people. I think you guys have a tougher time now with what you're facing more so than in the last few years. But I know it'll all work out eventually. It always does somehow.
It's going to be tough. I'm not going to I can't I can't come, you know, I've I've worked for Hatfield for seven years, you know, so I can't come to this beautiful select board and tell you anything different, then it's going to be tough. Um things were already not enough money
for you. Um, so my job is to take what money we have and structure it in ways that are fairer, right? Thinking about things like chapter 90, how does it go out? Can it go out that benefit in ways that benefit Hatfield? You know, chapter 70, you know, I want to reopen that
formula so that we can look at more equitable funding for rural and low and declining enrollment schools. So, you know, that's that's my job is to get in there, roll up my sleeves, and try to make the formulas and the processes work better for Western Mass. And I will say
the Hilly Driscoll administration is a great partner. They really are. So, I was going to give a Route 5 update anyway. Do you want to hear it just where we're at? So, um, I'll give a little bit of background that that this board has heard and then I'll tell you what where we're at just today. Um,
because there were there was movement today. So, um, we had some camering done of the new pipes just as part of another project we were doing some asset management work and Marlo Warner here, our new DPW director very well and say Marlo is like a catch.
We are very happy to have him here especially because uh landing this project will be uh high in its responsibilities here. Um so we reviewed the footage and found a number of of concerns. Um one rolled gaskets in the pip in the pipelines and then the other
large concern was there were many pipes. It was hard just to see through because of the amount of debris and water coming through these pipes which just shouldn't be happening in a new system. So, um, we had a meeting with the engineers, uh, CI, they came in and basically said,
"The first thing we need to do is to, uh, clear out these lines, just have it entirely flush so we can do cameraing again and get a better look at what's going on in here." Um, and then figure out what mitigation might look like. And they also wanted to address the role gaskets. So, um, Gilahhurst contractor
was on site today. uh CI was there supervising them and they um did flush out the pipes and uh I believe they did the cambering work today Marla is that right or is that going to be later? They were cambering as they went but I don't think they finished. Okay.
And then were they working on addressing the roll gaskets too or is that they were supposed to be cutting them out as they went also. Okay. So we'll get the full report of how the work today went and what comes next. They had a you know details and everyone else there. uh making that work
happen. But um we may have a little more work to do on this. CI is um optimistic that all of it can be completed within the existing budget. Um but it will require, you know, a willing contractor to fix some some issues here. So that's
where we're at. And we have we have some concerns right now. So if if we have further concerns, we're hoping that we can probably contact you and maybe working together get these issues resolved somehow.
Absolutely. But it's it's more heartening than I thought. Maybe it it was the sort of your faces, but I mean if hopefully uh the contractor will be right and that whatever existing work it is, you know, to remediate
um feels odd that there would be debris in those pipes just right after the system. I mean, you know, there's groundwater intrusion into the system. There's sags in the pipe that need to be addressed. All the cross trenches on the northbound side of Route Five have all
sank. So if you go north on Route Five, every time that there's a trench, there's 16 different spots where you're dunk cross them all. Um southbound's starting to settle in sync now. So it's not only just a Hatfield problem, it's a mass dot problem, too, especially being
a state highway. So um we've been working with some of the engineers at Mass DOT as well, um expressing our concerns. So that's great. It Are you working with Matt Mahan? Uh, I was dealing just I was talking directly with Gary.
Um, settle. Okay. Well, you could bring me into those conversations, right? You know, so that I could hear what you're experiencing, what Masadot is saying. Um, Patty Levvenworth who's the director there.
Matt Matt is the sort of person I go to. So, they have legislative liaison. They're just good responsive people in D2. I think we're super lucky um to have D2 around here. So, I'm I'm happy to join whatever conversation. Yeah, they responded pretty quickly.
They were supposed to come back out and say, "All right, here's our plan of what we're going to do with with this, and we haven't yet heard what they were thinking." And I think some of it is reliant on what exactly after this camaring and flushing that the contractor is doing now will give us a
better idea of does the road need to be opened back up to fix the sagging pipes which would seemingly seem so. Um and then also what is the level of repair or style of repair that is needed
to fix the black top? Is it something that can be done topically or does it need full excavation again to just take the black top up and repair the settling and the whatnot that's happening underneath the black top surface? So, I think those were a couple questions that they were kind of waiting to make
decisions on based off of what is found after this flushing and and uh debris cleanout. So, um yeah, we're kind of waiting on that. But I would expect that to probably take throughout the rest of the week for them to finish that entirety of that line. So,
oh, I am really sorry that this is still something on your minds. I'm glad to know about it. Uh, and I certainly want to get in there with you. Um, I don't think the state will be thrilled to hear that, you know, this gorgeous project that they were so psyched about, you
know, is still ongoing for you. So, um, let's let's work together on it. Yeah, I'll keep you posted on everything that happens uh this week and beyond. Absolutely. For sure. Thank you. I mean, that's what we are looking for the state to maybe help us
uh get this resolved somehow. I I would hope so. I mean, we they did it twice, right? Um after the initial grant and um and they did it willingly. So, plus the state put up a lot of money, too.
I know they got to be concerned also that it's not completed the way it's supposed to be cuz we haven't turned it on yet. I mean, we're not we're we're we want to get this thing fixed before. So, it's a little disappointing, but
yeah, having some extra, you know, we're doing all following all the proper channels and crossing our tees and dotting our eyes, but having a little extra horsepower to get this across the finish line would seemingly be helpful. A lot of residents have had to uh make repairs to their failing systems and
have to had their pumps or their tanks pumped a couple times now since we're so far past the original deadline. So, some of those costs have been incurred by by the residents out there that shouldn't have had to. So, um you know, it's very hard and there's an a pretty extreme lack of
um correspondence back from the contractor. So, you know, working I'm hoping with your office as well as MASDOT to be able to get this thing across the finish line would be really, really good. Sure.
Especially if we continue, you know, making plans to extend the line further north as well. So, right, which I think ultimately is the the long the plan for the town. Um, right. Yeah, good idea. Getting this getting this wrapped up would be great.
Well, um, you know, feel free to reach out and certainly I'm happy to come to any conversation. You know, we could go to D2, uh, to the office, we could come here, whatever you want, right? Um, and to understand what's happening. And if I could be, you know, helpful
sometimes, you know, um, sometimes I, you know, I can reinforce a town with a p, you know, a town's interest with a private entity. Clearly, I can't compel anybody. Lord, I Lord knows I wish I could. Um, but you know, things like that, please just count me in, you know, and I'm happy to work in
partnership with Represa. Um, however it goes. Thank you. Thanks. I appreciate that. It's nothing. It's really nothing. I actually work for you. That's how this goes. And we work for the town. Exactly. Right. So, we And I work for
the town, right? So, it's the same. We're We're in shared shared uh interest here. I I don't have any more. I'm good. Thank you. I appreciate it. Appreciate all. No, the last thing I'll just say is that there, you know, as you know, I just
mentioned chapter 70, right? That we want to open the formula. It's not working for us and it hasn't been opened uh for a decade. So, let's open it, right? We said we would. Um a formula that hasn't been opened in 18 years is the municipal contribution formula. So,
there's two sides, as you know. There's chapter 70, what what Hatfield gets, and there's the municipal contribution formula, what Desi says to Hatfield, this is what you can and should pay. Um, and there's a whole lot of assumptions in that formula. Um, like the split
between the state and, um, municipalities. And so, um, we were able to put language into the budget, the fiscal year 266 budget to reopen that. And there will be a hearing in Greenfield in November.
I've sent some emails about it. We're going to have a little teachin um so that we can all understand the amazing um benefits potential in opening up the municipal contribution formula. It's like 50% of the problem. It's not so
it's not 100% but it's 50% and there's a lot of money in there for communities. Um but if Hatfield were to feel like you wanted to comment, I believe that it would be useful to talk about the burden. Not that you've never not wanted to pay school funding, but if you could
talk about the need to reopen these formulas in a in a comment to Desessie, that would be wonderful. Um, so there's information out by email, I will resend it and I'll let you know about the teaching. Um, and you know, I think this
is just our job is to raise our voices loud enough that Boston hears us. Okay. So, all right. Thank you so much. Thank you again. Thank you. Okay, we're back. We can go back to uh back to Andrew. Right.
I'll finish the um report real quick and then we'll get right back into um what we've already previewed the group insurance commission. So, uh report I had health insurance on here. I'm going to skip that paragraph. We
basically already discussed it. um evaluation form we discussed last time. Um I don't know if you had any edits on that evaluation form. I think we're we're probably good uh with how that stands. And then what I'll do is I'll email it to all of you again. Um and
start your evaluations of the police chief. We'll have that finished by our next meeting. We shouldn't have to discuss it together. You should just be able to send those to me. I'll compile it and then it's up to you if you want the the chair to to meet uh or actually we can just send send the compiled
evaluation uh to the chief be the plan. That sounds good. And then we'll do the same thing for the fire chief next month. Then you'll do the same for me in early December. Thank you, Marlo. So that's evaluations. If while you're reading through you have any questions
about the form, you want to make some changes, let me know. Sure. We can figure that out. Um, I gave you the update on five and 10. Um, the contractor was out there today. So, as soon as we have an update, I'll share that with you. Um, we had a great walkthrough with our boiler designer um,
uh, last week and then or two weeks ago and then the uh, the week after last week we had a good walkthrough with SOAK who will be our um, designer on the roof project. Uh, we have quotes for both those projects for for the uh, design side that are both very fair. uh
considering what else other projects uh have come in at. Uh so we'll be moving forward with those. We have aggressive timelines for both to try to get them done as fast as possible. So that all looks very positive. I'm getting the uh bid documents shortly for the Day Pond
project. All permitting is complete. Uh we still plan to to get that bid out as fast as possible in early mid November and get work started uh most likely in January. So more to come on day pawn. Um, and I we already talked MVP and we
talked safety grant. So, I think we're good for my report unless you have any questions. Great. With your permission, chair, we can head to number eight on uh health insurance.
Yes. So I sent around today uh as I discussed with uh Senator Cmerford a proposal that we can use as a basic framework for moving to the GIC. This would not compel us to to move to GIC. It just gives us options and in order to
meet GIC's deadline of December 1st in order to join for next July one uh I would recommend a vote tonight to begin negotiations with our uh collective bargaining units which is done through a PEC the public employee committee. That
committee would have uh representation from each of our uh collective bargaining units. Uh and it would also have representation from a retiree representative. Uh the retiree representative uh has not been chosen yet. that is appointed by the Massachusetts Association of of Retired
uh municipal employees. Uh so they are aware and they are appointing somebody. Uh otherwise we have representation set uh for those other committees. We have a representative from the teachers uh teachers union both from the collective from from the uh teachers collective
bargaining unit and from the um the uh pair of professionals. So they they have somebody as well. And then we have a representative from the um BPW union as well. Um so that group would meet um with me and and any others who would be
involved in kind of the financial parts uh and we would discuss what the basics of a plan would look like um and negotiate about if it's something that we'd like to move forward with. under uh chapter 30 under um chapter 32B section 21-23
there is a requirement to have mitigation essentially uh for employees because of disruption that occurs to them. basically that the whole state uh process is set up so that towns need to evaluate if it this is the best move for
them and then to um then move forward with it they need the approval from these collective bargaining units and they'd also need to uh have some kind of mitigation for the disruption that's caused. I think a healthy source of mitigation will also be from employees
who need to pay less for their health insurance which I think will be a huge benefit for them um for quality care at at lower prices uh in premiums but at the same time we want to make sure that there's other mitigation too. So, um, the most common form of mitigation is
typically either some kind of premium holiday, so less of a premium paid for one month or something like that, or um, uh, FSAs, um, uh, flexible spending accounts set up for employees with the town paying for the administrative costs
and making some kind of dis uh, some kind of contribution to those plans. So the requirement from the state is that you assess how much you think the savings would be in the first year and if there would be substantial savings you can move forward with this plan to move to the GIC. Um so let me walk you
through the proposal um to calculate if we thought there would be savings. What I did uh and this is something that other towns are doing as well in a similar way was calculate um what the um
what we could expect employees to move to. Uh so if you look at um the first page after the text of the memo, there's a chart here that shows our current um health insurance through Network Blue
New England HMO and Blueare PO. And then below is what's called the group insurance commission alternative. It shows the majority of employees moving to the Health New England uh HMO plan. Health New England's a network that um
through GIC it's it's listed as one of their regional networks. Works really well for us in our region because of the care they provide in Hampshire County uh through the Bay State network and beyond. So most of our employees would not need to change their their health uh
care providers um in in most cases uh because their doctors would be insured through this network as well. Uh another option is moving to the wellpoint plus po type plan which is similar but but adds a little more flexibility and harbor pilgrim explorer is then a more
uh broad close to national network for folks who might need broader networks of care. that's a little more a little bit more expensive than our current uh network glue plan um but less uh expensive than the PO. So what I did was
calculate just as a an assumption who might move to which plans and how much that would cost us. And that was based on numbers that we have from uh Northampton, Springfield, and Mson. There are three communities that have moved from uh their own plans to the
GIC. And in most of those uh 85% plus of of uh of their employees are covered by Health New England. Northampton is 87.47%. MSON is 85%. So Health New England looks like it would be a good option for most of our employees. And then uh Harvard
Pilgrim uh Wellpoint uh Master Brigham those are other a mix of other plans that folks could use as well. So, in doing that analysis, you end up at uh about $181,000 in savings in one year alone. And you
know, a important question is, is that a big number or a small number? Based on our um our budget for health insurance of around a million dollars, you know, that would be close to a 18 to 20% of savings. So, so that is worth considering in my mind for the town just
looking at budget alone. I think it's also worth considering based on what we've heard about the trust the position they're in and with one of the biggest concerns we have being what happens to any existing claims out there if that can be somewhat mitigated by the state and any the uh assistance they're willing to give
I think that helps as well. So I think it's at least worth having the conversation with employees about moving to GIC. Um certainly there's some unknowns um and I have shared this with department heads today. I'll share it with the rest of staff as well. They do need to look through and see if they
would be comfortable moving to these plants or GIC. It might not be the right fit for everybody and we have to weigh those balances. What's what's our downside on this? There's there's two significant downsides as I see it for potentially moving to GIC. One is just do we feel
like the standard of care is as high? Do we think the plans are as good as what we're getting from uh the Hampshire County Group Insurance Trust's plans right now through Blue Cross Blue Cross Blue Shield? Those are generous plans. They have provided very good care. Um
we've gotten a lot from them. But the question is, is it the right value? Are we paying too much for for these plans at this point? Um so would would GIC meet the same level of care people have have grown accustomed to? And the second question is what happens during this
this period of transition? Um would we have enough claims that are out there that come back that it wipes out any savings that we see for a significant amount of time? Um, that's a concern. Those are the ones that I'm concerned about. But if the second part of it can be mitigated by the state, then it makes it a lot easier to know.
Makes the decision a lot easier. That's I mean, so realistically, the 18 to 20% savings is essentially the increase that we've seen over the last year. So, we're kind of back to where we were two years ago in terms of monies. And then we need to look at what happens coming next. you know, would the would
the trust continue to have these high increases or have they ridden the wave and then can come back down? Whereas the GIC, they had high increases last year around 10% they could have those 10% increases again. The trust has warned us to look out for double digit increases again this year,
right? So anticipate at least 10%. I think it would probably be around the same increases for the trust and GIC. Seems like the trust is in a little bit more trouble than what they're leading on to. Well, the GIC, you know, they they have the state to essentially bail them out should should happen. So, it's
a wider network. It's all their state employees on it. It's a number of a lot of municipalities on it. There's some extra cushion there. Yeah. That the trust just unfortunately doesn't have right now. They've done a good job over over a long period of time. Yeah. And I mean some of write it out some of the providers that are listed
here on just a quick spreadsheet and even back in like the color sheets and stuff. I mean they're well-known names that are across both public and private sector. So it's not like you know it's a backdoor insurance policy or something like that. You know it's it's it's still good insurance.
It's just Yeah. We had GIC through the state through the state for a long time. Yeah. I mean, there's always they offer more plans and you pick which one you want basically and I we've had good care through right
they go out to bid every 5 years so they're you know they're fresh they're getting and I mean ultimately if the if the trust continues to raise their prices by you know 10 15 20% every year for the next three years they're going to price themselves out of the market I think they're already
they probably are right and it would never allow us to ever consider being able to increase the town match from where we're at now. However, if we're able to find some level of savings, it's a conversation that could come up in the future and you know that allows to, you
know, attract more attractive employees and there's a lot of other benefits to that as well. So, I think if we can look at a way to be able to save 18 to 20%, I think it's something that we should definitely continue to investigate further. Right. Well, that's that's why this next
step would be meeting with everybody, but yeah, and I think we're all in favor of moving forward to get more information and allow Andrew to continue meeting with department heads. So, with that said, I'll accept the motion. I'll make a motion to begin negotiations
with PC to consider employee health insurance through the group insurance commission under master law chapter 32B section 21 and through 23. Second. Motion made. Motion seconded. Any discussion? All in favor? I I motion carries. Is there a select board member that
would like to be a part of this process as well or would you like me to just continue to inform you the way I'm doing it now? Any of you guys care to be a part of that? I'm all set. No, I I I think the employees the employees are Yeah, I'll keep you updated. The best advocates.
Yeah, but thank you for your consideration of this. Uh we'll keep the process moving. Thank you for the work that you're putting in on it. I think it's it's very important. So yes, thank you on top of this. That's that's important. It's important
to employees and also we can get a big savings for them and get the same kind of care. That that's that's big. The other downside is that you know a plan design question. The GIC includes deductibles. So our current plan does not have deductibles in it. So that's
going to be a tough change for folks. Yeah, that's why the mitigation through FSAs and maybe health from the state could could potentially limit that as well. It's you still come out ahead because of the premium decrease, right? If the premium is decreasing by $800 and you're paying $120 in
deductible fees, then yeah, it outweighs itself pretty quickly. It can. Yeah, it can. It can. So, that's okay. Next meeting is the 28th. Is that correct? So, we have a special meeting on the 21st at noon, a week from today. Um, right now the plan is just to sign off
on that's at noon on the 21st. Right now the plan is to sign off on uh some bond uh um ban documents that we'll be receiving. Um I also had a request to consider a couple uh change orders for the wastewater treatment plant project. I think they're pretty straightforward,
but as long as I can get those, you know, tomorrow and have them to you to review, hopefully we can sign off on those on the 21st as well. That sounds good. our regular our next regular meeting the 28th 28th right correct
uh any other old business I will entertain a motion to adjurnn item make a motion to adjurnn second motion made motion seconded all in favor I I uh motion carries we are adjourned thank
you John and have a good