HADLEY — Formalizing a process to give landowners the right to have multiple campsites along the Connecticut River, and continuing a study to protect Hadley center from possible floods, will be decided by voters at annual Town Meeting Saturday.
The 28-article warrant, including an $18.06 million omnibus budget, begins Saturday at 1 p.m. in the playing fields next to Hopkins Academy.
The Planning Board-sponsored article related to dealing with the recreational vehicles along the river revises the existing 1987 flood overlay district bylaw, instituting a fee of $100 per camper every three years, allowing multiple RVs on a site, and mandating that each site have at least 2,500 square feet of land and a minimum of 25 feet between campers.
Already some landowners have lodged complaints with the Select Board about the renewed oversight by the Conservation Commission related to these sites, but rejecting the amended bylaw would restore the rarely enforced limit of one camper per site.
To protect town center from 100-year floods of the river, meanwhile, voters will be asked to spend $150,000 to pay for the second phase of an assessment of the existing levee system and determine whether a new 1.4-mile-long levee on Bay Road is needed.
Woodard & Curran engineering consultants of Andover will evaluate options, engage the public and develop a plan and cost estimates for what could be a multimillion-dollar construction project, along with potentially expensive repairs to existing levees that include the dike off West Street and the Norwottuck Rail Trail.
Town Meeting begins with articles remaining from the special Town Meeting in November that ended abruptly when a quorum call revealed too few voters present.
These articles include $25,000 from the Community Preservation Act account to set up an emergency rental assistance program for people affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Hadley Housing and Economic Development Committee proposed the program that Town Administrator Carolyn Brennan said is reduced from the $100,000 sought last fall.
The Hadley Affordable Housing Trust would be revised so that developers doing 55-and-over residential projects in the senior overlay district can make a payment to the trust, rather than provide affordable housing. This completes a process of establishing the trust that began at Town Meeting last June.
Voters are being asked to adopt a stretch energy code, requiring buildings to be constructed in a more energy-efficient manner. The town could then become one of the last in the region to join the state’s Green Communities program.
A total of $155,000 in additional CPA money will be used to preserve and restore historic gravestones at North Hadley and Russellville cemeteries, and replace the stone fence at the Hockanum Cemetery.
The budget supporting town, school and library operations is $386,084, or 2.2% more, than this year’s $17.67 million budget, and preserves level services, while continuing to enhance the human resources department and meet contracted salary adjustments.
Other spending includes $925,000 to replace 100-year-old sewer and water lines below Route 9 from Middle to South Maple streets, a project that would save money by coinciding with the state’s Department of Transportation’s widening of the 2½-mile stretch next year. The town may pursue funding through the MassWorks Infrastructure Program, Brennan said.
Another $160,000 from reserve accounts would complete projects, including tree removal to access the Mount Warner water tank and repairing a culvert headwall on Knightly Road.
For $20,000, the town could buy and equip the city of Northampton’s A2-2009 Chevrolet C4500 PL Custom Ambulance. It would become a Basic Life Support ambulance as Hadley Med 2.
Select Board member Joyce Chunglo said this is about sustaining the fledgling ambulance program. “This is certainly going to be a service that is going to benefit our town,” Chunglo said.
Other CPA spending, which will be supplemented by equal amounts from the Conservation Commission’s transfer of development rights program. will include $5,500 to put the 10.6-acre Gralinski Farm on River Road in the Agricultural Preservation Restriction program and $13,000 to do the same for the 40.5-acre Handrich Trust land off Moody Bridge Road. Another $13,500 in CPA will go to the First Congregational Church’’s repair and restoration of its 1909 Seth Thomas clock.
Changes to town codes include adding a new section to the winter parking ban prohibiting vehicles from impeding snow removal operations from Dec. 1 to April 1, increasing the moderator’s term from one year to three year,s and moving the annual town election from the second Tuesday of April to the third Tuesday in May.
