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Date: 10/26/2023
BELCHERTOWN — The Select Board met on Oct. 16 to discuss working with the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission as a primary vendor for MVP grant program 2.0 and the continued scope of work for an operational and organizational review of Belchertown’s municipal government.
The Select Board agreed a contract with PVPC as a primary vendor for MVP 2.0 grant program.
In September, Belchertown was awarded $95,000 in grant funding through the MVP grant program, which provides communities with funding and technical assistance to support the climate resilience planning process and implement priority actions to adapt to climate change.
It supports communities in updating their climate change resiliency plans in a way that centers environmental justice and other priority populations most impacted by climate change and putting these plans into action.
Town Planner Doug Albertson said Belchertown does not know its exact plans for use of the grant funding but would first like to hire a consultant to help with outreach.
The agreement with the PVPC will include a study phase for the town where the research will then be used to select a project to pursue for the town.
Town Administrator Steve Williams explained that phase one of the grant program focused on impacts to the town services and how climate change affected Belchertown and use the report to apply for future grants to fix the problems.
He said, “The MVP two portion of this, we are going to focus on vulnerable populations here in Belchertown. Environmental justice population, income, race, language and other populations and how climate change affects them.”
Williams added an example that this grant can potentially help bring a new cooling center to town for those affected by the heat.
The Select Board shifted to talking about its continued partnership with the Edward J. Collins Jr. Center for Public Management who is going to try and help Belchertown improve its efficiency, effectiveness, governance and accountability.
At the last Select Board meeting on Oct. 2, the board heard four grant eligible options along with six non compact eligible options from the Collins Center to review the towns municipal government.
Stephen Cirillo and Becca Meekins from the Collins Center added at the last meeting that the first step they recommended was to pick two options that can be funded through the Community Compact Best Practice grant program.
The two grant eligible projects that the board chose to apply for were to conduct an organizational and operational assessment of the finance offices in Belchertown and a financial forecast and deficit reduction strategy planning exercise.
Williams reported at the Oct. 16 Select Board meeting that both grant applications were denied because the Community Compact program “ran out of money” but the program is administered by the Division of Local Services who agreed to complete both tasks at no cost the town.
According to Williams, the DLS would like to start the project in early to mid-winter and it is expected to take about one to three months.
With the DLS taking over the two tasks, this allowed the Select Board to still work with the Collins Center to complete other options they recommended.
Williams and the board agreed that the Collins Center can now focus on a few of the non-compact eligible projects that included conducting an organizational and operational review of the Belchertown Public Schools, human services departments like the Recreation Department and planning and development-related departments.
“I think if we can run these both together it would make a lot of sense because we would be looking at the town on one side and schools on the other. It would work very well for the budget cycle; it would work well for Town Meeting,” Williams added.
Select Board member Lesa Lessard Pearson and Williams will reach out to the Collins Center to talk about the town’s updated plan and will look to get a detailed scope of work and price for the project.