Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 9/6/2023
WILBRAHAM — The Wilbraham Select Board hosted a conference with leadership from Hampden, East Longmeadow, Monson, Longmeadow and Ludlow to discuss shared challenges and goals on Aug. 29.
The officials discussed several topics, including regionalized emergency dispatch, crime levels, school enrollment and difficulty attracting people to volunteer for committees.
One major area of overlap between the communities was municipal broadband internet. Wilbraham Select Board member Susan Bunnell explained that Wilbraham had been pursuing a town-owned broadband system for the past 10 years. One major benefit of the open-access system would be that residents would have the flexibility to change their internet service providers easily.
Longmeadow Select Board member Mark Gold asked about the commitment of capital funds. Bunnell said the infrastructure would be rolled out in three phases and users could choose to pay an entry up front or over time as part of a betterment on their property.
Hampden and East Longmeadow are pursuing contracts with Whip City Fiber, a fiber-optic internet company owned by Westfield Gas and Electric. Hampden Town Administrator Bob Markel said Hampden has received a $250,000 grant to begin connecting town buildings. The town will need a “take rate” — the number of residences that commit to the service — of about 50% to break even on the investment.
East Longmeadow Town Council member Connor O’Shea said East Longmeadow was further along in the process because it already had a “robust” fiber optic system for town buildings. East Longmeadow Town Manager Tom Christensen said he expects the infrastructure build-out and services will be provided solely by Whip City Fiber. The fiber-optic systems in both Hampden and East Longmeadow will take at least two years to be built and come online.
Ludlow Town Administrator Marc Strange said Ludlow will be working with a private broadband company, while Longmeadow has just begun exploring the creation of a municipal fiber optic system with a newly created task force. Monson has not yet begun discussing the issue, however Monson Town Administrator Jennifer Wolowicz said, “If everyone is doing this it makes me wonder why we’re not regionalizing something like this. We have to become stronger as a team.” The chairs of each governing board agreed to collaborate on the issue moving forward.
Trash collection
Gold said that trash collection was one area where towns had “regressed in terms of regionalization” and that he had “seen a real change in the efficiency and effectiveness in negotiating contracts” because of it. He also said the quality of their services had decreased compared to when there was a regional contract.
Strange said that Ludlow had been discussing regionalizing waste contracts because costs had “gone through the roof.” Exploring the logistics of such a move, the officials noted that while some towns included the cost of trash services in their tax bills, others sent out separate quarterly bills, or both. Hampden and Wilbraham both use transfer stations and allow residents to contract with private haulers. Bunnell talked about the damage done to roads from multiple trash trucks picking up waste on different days throughout the week.
Monson had the opposite problem. A single private waste company services the town and residents call the Town Hall with complaints daily. Wolowicz said a trash truck was abandoned on a town street because the driver reached the maximum number of hours they could work. “There has to be a better way,” she remarked.
Gold said that with Bondi’s Island incinerator no longer open, the disposal of waste may present an opportunity for negotiating a regional contract. Wilbraham Town Administrator Nick Breault agreed. Longmeadow Select Board Chair Thomas Lachiusa held up a banana peel that he happened to have and asked about organic waste disposal. Longmeadow Town Manager Lyn Simmons said that she had spoken to a start-up about composting, but that there may be difficulty finding a vendor with enough capacity to handle the entirety of Longmeadow, much less multiple towns.
Hampden Board of Selectmen Chair John Flynn said that hazardous waste disposal had also had a regional approach at one time. Breault noted that Wilbraham had run a household hazardous waste day recently which attracted about 230 people. This was another area on which the boards agreed they should work together.
Health services
Simmons said the Eastern Hampden Shared Public Health Services is a “regionalization success story.” Longmeadow is the lead community and employs a public health director, a public health nurse, a coordinator and a health inspector, which are shared with Monson, Hampden, and Wilbraham. While currently a grant is paying the lion’s share of the costs, each town will begin paying an assessment for the shared services in the future.
Hampden Board of Selectmen member Donald Davenport said Hampden is pleased with the services it receives and would not be able to manage the fees attached without the partnership. Wolowicz agreed and shared that Monson previously had a part-time employee juggling multiple health department roles. “Financially, we could not afford all those employees,” she said.
Simmons said, “We’ve seen what can happen when we come together.”
Ludlow has a similar agreement with the towns of Ware, Warren and West Brookfield. East Longmeadow employs its own Health Department; Christensen said they have “quite a great staff” and are satisfied with its services.
Simmons asked the other towns how they can do more with funding from settlements between Massachusetts and opioid manufacturers and distributors. Between 2021 and 2022, four legal cases in which Massachusetts was involved were resolved, resulting in a total of $921 million for the state and its municipalities.
Simmons said Longmeadow has invested in disposal stations for sharps, such as needles. Wilbraham may earmark the funding for prevention through the Hampden-Wilbraham Partners for Youth Coalition, Bunnell said. Meanwhile, Strange shared, “We’re really excited about having a social worker on staff” in Ludlow.
Lachiusa agreed that prevention is the least expensive method of addressing opioids. He said the funding is “sacred. It’s only there because of deaths.” He emphasized that it should be put to good use.
Chapter 90
The town officials turned their attention to funding road work and the stagnant amount of state aid devoted to it.
Flynn said that as the costs go up, the DPW is able to “fix fewer miles of road” each year. Wolowicz said that two years ago, Monson was $18 million behind in road work, an amount that has only grown since then. In Ludlow, Strange said a needed overhaul of two short streets, including the utility work beneath them, is estimated to cost more than the town’s entire state aid allotment for road work.
“Everyone in this room should be on the state about increasing Chapter 90,” Monson Select Board member John Morrell said, referring to the state funding. “They’re sitting on barrels of money up there.” Morrell encouraged the other officials to “put them on the spot,” and band together with other areas of the state to “fight Boston.”
Strange said, “We need to aggregate our voices in a specific and intentional way,” and “tell our stories” to legislators.
“We had state reps. and senators invited to this meeting.” Lachiusa commented, referring to state Reps. Brian Ashe (D-Longmeadow) and Angelo Puppolo (D-Springfield) and state Sens. Jacob Oliviera (D-Ludlow) and Ryan Fattman (R-Sutton), none of whom attended the meeting. Puppolo had sent two members of his staff in his place. “Any reason they should show up to the next one?”
Wolowicz agreed with Strange and said if every one of them contacted the legislators they would have to respond.