HADLEY — Select Board members new and old batted around ideas for addressing a $130,000 budget deficit at a joint meeting with the Finance Committee Wednesday evening.
Before plunging into business, newly elected chair Molly A. Keegan opened the meeting by thanking Guilford Mooring for his time on the board. Mooring was unseated by challenger Donald Pipczynski in Tuesday’s election.
“We really have a real tough task in front of us,” Pipczynski said of the budget.
Friendly banter from Planning Board member John Mieczkowski and town electrical inspector Wilfred Danylieko, who sat in the back row, lightened an otherwise sober mood as talk turned to hard questions. At one point, Mieczkowski pinched Danylieko in the ribs, to stifled laughter from the room.
Finance Committee members told the board they would bring the budget as close to balanced as possible during their meeting on Saturday. Town Administrator David G. Nixon said the board is obliged to present a “realistic” budget to voters at Town Meeting on May 5.
Nixon said the town is still waiting for final numbers from the state.
“There are another five steps to the state budget process that could affect (Hadley’s) revenue and costs,” said Nixon.
Still, Keegan said once Town Meeting is done, the board will get to work on specifics about the town’s budget, including whether or not to put a Proposition 2 ½ override before voters in the fall.
Finance Committee Chairman Mark Klepacki spoke about a number of reductions that would reduce the projected deficit for the fiscal year beginning July 1. Among them are delaying raises for town employees.
He also spoke against spending $550,000 for land that would house a new fire substation in North Hadley.
“We just can’t afford it,” Klepacki said.
But Select Board member Joyce A. Chunglo argued that the land would address the Fire Department’s current needs — space to house a new fire truck and access to the northern part of the town.
Fire Chief Michael Spanknebel said the new truck would replace two fire trucks built in 1987.
“Our fleet is definitely aging,” Spanknebel said. “We spent close to six months designing this truck to make sure it’s right, because it’s replacing two trucks.”
Klepacki said that the Finance Committee will recommend that the School Department get $75,000 less than what it had requested from the town.
“We sat in this room in 2014 and we projected this problem almost exactly,” said School Committee Vice Chairwoman Heather Klesch. “And we as a town did nothing to address this. I think we need to think about a 2 ½ override because we can’t afford our services — I feel like I say this every year.”
Keegan said, “I think everyone’s articulating that, yup, we hit the wall that we predicted,” adding that after May 5 the whole town will need to come together for a “painful discussion about services and staffing.”
Klepacki also brought up phasing in the expanded staff Police Chief Michael Mason requested in order to address employees too often working overtime.
“Then the plan I put in place to work on the overtime issue is also going to be phased in,” said Mason.
Klepacki and Nixon acknowledged that these are tough calls.
“We’re looking at things we really didn’t want to go after,” Klepacki conceded.
“We have to as a town grow according to our revenue,” he added.
Amanda Drane can be contacted at adrane@gazettenet.com.