HADLEY — Elimination of several municipal positions and laying off two firefighters will be formalized by voters at a special Town Meeting Thursday.
While the Select Board has already approved the staffing adjusments necessary to meet a $22.76 million fiscal year 2026 budget, after voters defeated a $2.25 million Proposition 2 1/2 tax cap override in September, the final step in enacting the spending plan comes at the session, starting at 7 p.m. at Hopkins Academy.
The omnibus budget, previously approved at annual Town Meeting in May, but which had been contingent on the override, is one of 10 articles on the warrant, with other spending including $1.42 million in capital projects and $17,700 from the Community Preservation Act account.
The revised town budget will be in place until next June 30.
“This is only FY26,” Interim Town Administrator Michael Mason said at an Oct. 15 forum in advance of Town Meeing. “Without additional revenue, additional cuts or a combinaiton thereof, we’ll have a lot more work to do for FY27.”
Finance Director Linda Sanderson said the main theme of the budget is adopting $400,000 in personnel reductions and other measures to balance the budget, and addressing a $376,000 increase in health insurance.
Aside from the two firefighter positions, the other town positions that would be lost in the revised budget are all vacant. They are an emergency dispatcher, saving $49,587; the permit coordinator for the inspections department, saving $52,254; a highway department worker, saving $45,777; a buildings maintenance employee, saving $56,988; and a half-time position in human resources, saving $29,251.
The $1.42 million in capital spending will mostly be done through borrowing and pay back from the sewer, water and Hadley Media enterprise funds, borrowing within the levy limit and a small amount of free cash.
The biggest spending is $600,000 for sewer and water asset management. Department of Public Works Director Scott McCarthy said this will allow the town to start looking at defects and deferred maintenance in the wastewater treatment and water distribution systems, with the scope of work based on findings in consultant surveys that have shown aspects of the systems are failing.
“It’s substantial,” McCarthy said, explaining the work that needs to be done will be expensive. “It varies from safety items to pumps and motors that are getting up there in age.”
Other capital spending is supplementing the state’s chapter 90 with $100,000 more to road projects, $75,000 to demolish a home the town acquired at 234 Middle St. in 2024 and which would allow for expansion of the DPW headquarters, $50,000 for engineering work for the Hartsbrook Bridge and $30,000 for ballistic vests for police officers. Another big expense is $350,000 for security upgrades at the schools.
McCarthy is also requesting $38,995 from the sewer impact fund to match a state grant to study the idea of allowing some of Hadley’s sewage, from the Mill Valley pump station, to go to the Amherst wastewater treatment plant. The design work needs to continue to get to a shovel-ready project, McCarthy said, which would take pressure off the town’s sewer plant.
This could also mean more development along Route 9, whether commercial restaurants and hotels, or new housing that would depend on possible zoning changes, scuh as a Chapter 40R smart growth district or a rezoning of the Hampshire Mall.
The CPA articles are $16,000 so the Hadley Historical Society can hire a part-time curator and archivist and $1,700 to preserve a 19th century engraving of the Declaration of Independence and display the 1599 Goffe Bible.
Other articles to be voted on include transferring $415,505 from water reserves to buy an emergency backup generator for the water treatment plant at 129 Bay Road; accepting a state law that would allow businesses with wine and malt license to request these be converted to all-alcohol licenses; appropriating $30,000 from free cash into a compensated time fund; and accepting Indian Pipe Road as a town way.