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Belchertown Select Board discusses goals and objectives for town

Date: 6/21/2023

BELCHERTOWN — As June marks the halfway point of 2023, the Select Board and Town Administrator Steve Williams decided it was a good time to discuss some goals and objectives for Belchertown at its June 12 meeting.

“The board has a history of getting together to talk about what direction we want to see the town go and by process, delegate those goals and objectives to the town administrator,” Select Board Chair Ed Boscher said. Select Board member Lesa Lessard Pearson said she would like to see the senior citizen population and Council on Aging be able to have a better way to express their opinions and needs.

“I would like to see an assessment for the seniors in Belchertown to see if the services that they want and need are being addressed and if we are providing good service,” she said.

The board compared the proposed satisfaction assessment to a survey when you leave an appointment asking how your visit was, what did you do, how did we do, etc.

The Select Board liked the idea and thought if it was possible, they would like to expand it to the whole community and hear from people utilizing the services Belchertown provides.

“We are a customer driven town. Whatever services and goods we are offering we want to understand if it is what people want, what they expect and if things are done correctly and what was the outcome,” Pearson added.

Williams was named the town administrator only a few weeks ago but said there are a handful of items he is currently working on and other goals he would like to work towards.

One point he emphasized was he would like to see improved communication and a better social media presence.

“I think we need to have a townwide social media presence. Whether it be Facebook, Instagram or whatever else is out there for that so that we can disseminate information better. I think that is the goal with social media polices, not necessarily so we can have town way communications through Facebook, I think it is more of a tool and direction on where people should go if they have a conversation,” Williams said.

He added that he is already in the process of working with the Police Department to place an electronic sign on State St. by their station that will be able to put out townwide notification and news.

Williams said the sign can be used for emergencies but also to announce Town Meeting, High School graduation, town elections and more.

Select Board member Peg Louraine said she likes the idea but would like to see two signs get added based on the layout of the community.

Williams said other locations and additional signs were discussed but the town must look at the budget because the signs cost $30,000 to $40,000 for one sign.

The board did not rule out a second electronic sign but agree that at least one should be purchased.
Select Board member Jen Turner agreed that there should be an improvement in town communication by potentially hiring a new position.

She added, “I still think some of the gaps we have in government would be things like a grant manager and a communications person whether that is a public relations person and a lot of the conversation communication is focused on conversation out but what are we doing with internal communication.”

The town recently hired a new creative economy coordinator who the board said they would like to meet with maybe once a month to help with the continued goal of improving economic development.
The town is also in the process of looking for a new DPW director since Williams left that position to become the new town administrator.

Williams said he has already received a few applications for the vacant position.

The board also discussed the ongoing attempt to upgrade the town administrator position to a town manager.

Boscher said the board has been trying to empower the town administrator position with more day-to-day responsibilities.

The article to move to a town manager with added responsibilities was approved at Town Meeting.
Boscher added, “We are getting closer to a very long road. This has been in discussion for years and we are getting closer to the end of this topic.”

Louraine and Pearson both said they would like to see more efforts to clean up the town and take care of the trash at the Belchertown Common after events are hosted there.

Pearson said, “We have a beautiful town, and I went to the Earth Day event in Wilbraham and got a lot of good ideas of what we could do around programming that would be fun for people and at the same time clean up the town.”

Select Board member Ron Aponte said one thing he would like to see addressed is an IT security audit to further upgrade their security and help with the on-call positions in the Fire Department.

He said, “The on-call positions, I mean we are really starting to see folks time to age out of our on-call and I think we all realize the importance of on-call and how it helps the existing firefighters and paramedics. So, if Chief Ingram can come up with a plan in which to help retention as well as recruiting.”

The Select Board said they have complied a list from past years and will add all the discussed goals and objectives to the list for Williams to work on.

Williams said a lot of the things discussed were things he was already aware of.

Williams added that he would like to see the job descriptions of each position in town evaluated and updated, the budget process to start earlier, working on the structural deficit the town is facing and working with each department closely on concerns or projects they might need.