HADLEY — Establishing a COVID-19 relief fund for renters and adopting a mandated energy code for new construction were not considered by voters at Saturday’s special Town Meeting due to an abrupt end to the session.
While an article to keep residential and commercial property taxes from increasing through a series of budget transfers and adjustments was approved, and several one-time expenditures were made, a handful of items on the 12-article warrant couldn’t be decided.
Just over an hour into the meeting held inside and outside the Fire Department bays at the public safety complex, a quorum call was made to Moderator Randy Izer, forcing him to check whether the 130 voters the meeting had started with had dipped to fewer than 100, the required amount to conduct town business.
Once it was determined just 90 voters remained, the remaining business was called off.
Select Board Chairman David J Fill II said officials voted against reconvening the session through an effort to get residents back to the meeting and are now aiming to move the remaining items to the annual Town Meeting next spring.
“It’s unfortunate, but setting up costs the town thousands of dollars in overtime and other costs, plus we have the added COVID risk now,” Fill said on Monday.
Fill said the town’s Unified Command, involving town and public safety officials, had hoped to hold the meeting in a socially distanced way in the Hopkins Academy gymnasium but held it partly outdoors on a cool, blustery day based on the recommendation from the Board of Health.
The means that $100,000 sought from the Community Preservation Act account for emergency rental assistance, an initiative from the Housing and Economic Development Committee, is not happening, even though qualified residents might not be able to pay rent and may face eviction as the state’s moratorium ends.
Molly Keegan, a member of that committee, said the only avenue for funding was CPA dollars.
“There was a definite sense of urgency for this Town Meeting,” Keegan said.
Keeghan added that the committee was planning to partner with Community Action Pioneer Valley an organization that has said the situation faced by renters could turn dire.
There also was a $155,000 request from CPA for gravestone repairs and stone wall work at three cemeteries.
Alan Weinberg, a member of the cemetery committee, said next spring’s Town Meeting should be early enough to get the money in hand for doing this work in 2021.
Not adopting the stretch energy code could delay Hadley’s efforts to get into the green community program and be eligible for grants.
The Planning Board, still trying to create an affordable housing trust, saw the second component of that process not taken up, following initial action at the annual Town Meeting in June.
In other business, voters turned down a motion to keep an additional $155,000 in the town’s stabilization account, rather than using it to cover expenses in the municipal budget.
With this money, along with the early pay down of $100,000 in principal on debt and the transfer of another $375,000 from the stabilization account that will be replenished by spending trimmed from the school budget, the tax rate will drop from $12.78 per $1,000 valuation to $12 per $1,000 valuation, and the average tax bill will stay at $4,202.
About 1,000 residential taxpayers would see a decrease in taxes under this scenario, and about 600 would see an increase, based on estimates from Assessor Dan Zdonek.
One-time spending items approved included using $25,000 from water reserves, $25,000 for reconditioning the Callahan wells and borrowing, within the levy limit, $63,000 for a police cruiser, and $64,575 for an administrative vehicle in the Fire Department.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
