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Date: 7/18/2022
BELCHERTOWN – With significant repairs required for Pine Valley Mobile Home Park’s water infrastructure, its board met with the Belchertown Select Board to discuss applying for a loan through the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) during its July 11 meeting.
To begin the discussion, Pine Valley President Dick Kelleher detailed challenges with exceeding water limits every month.
“Our water infrastructure below the surface is deteriorating and in desperate need of replacement. Each month we exceed DEP’s maximum limits for water usage despite strict water restrictions. Since 2016 our residents have been unable to water their lawns or wash their cars and we all strive to conserve water wherever possible, we find water leaks on a regular basis,” he said.
With the constant fixes, Kelleher said Pine Valley took matters into their own hands and did a full overhaul.
“We hired the engineering firm Fuss and O’Neil back in 2020 to design a new system for us, it is nearly ready to move to the bidding phase and we need to secure financing for this huge project,” he said.
Kelleher added that Pine Valley applied for a loan with MassDEP’s drinking water state revolving fund and have been approved for a $4.5 million loan. However, because the project is not tied to a municipality it would change the details of the loan and MassDEP suggested having the town cosign the loan.
“With the cosigning of the town we would qualify for a 1.5 percent interest rate instead of a 2 percent interest rate if we applied on our own. Because Belchertown is considered a Tier II economically disadvantaged community, we would also qualify for a debt forgiveness discount of 13.2 percent and lowering our financed amount to just under $4 million,” he said. “Without town sponsorship, Pine Valley would be required to put up 200 percent of the estimated cost as collateral or just over $9 million.”
By going for a traditional business loan instead of through the DEP, Kelleher said it would cost residents an additional $60 per month instead of $18 if the town cosigned.
Town Administrator Gary Brougham said he was concerned about the town cosigning the loan.
“If the town becomes involved in this loan program it will reflect on our long-term deficit, there are no ifs, ands or buts. We recently authorized the $1 million study for the Jabish Brook Middle School project, it’s entirely possible we will be looking at a significant capital involvement in the not-too-distant future once the scope of work has been determined,” he said. “I fully understand the need and what’s going on, but I’m concerned about what the impact on our long-term debt schedule and bond rating might be.”
Another hurdle if the town was involved is that it would require a Town Meeting vote to authorize the borrowing, and the next Town Meeting is set for May 2023, while the loan has an October deadline to apply.
“Town Meeting would be a non-trivial task considering we have elections in September, October and November,” board Vice Chair Jim Barry said.
Board member Ron Aponte agreed that the biggest risk was the impact on the town’s bond rating and suggested reaching out to bond counsel to determine the potential impact.
Ultimately, the board suggested that Pine Valley should reach out to state Rep. Jacob Oliveira and state Sen. Eric Lesser about potential sources of funding for the project. The board also agreed to remain in touch with Pine Valley as they move forward.
Election Changes
During the meeting the board also met with Town Clerk Terry Camerlin to discuss changes to voting for state elections with new requirements for early voting by mail and in-person early voting times. With the changes to state requirements, Camerlin added that the town could choose to opt out for municipal elections.
“This could lead to confusion with voters as far as which elections they are allowed to vote by mail. If we say the September primary and November [election] everybody can vote by mail and for municipal elections we say we can’t, I’m concerned there might be some confusion,” she said.
Another wrinkle with early voting is that during the three elections this fall, construction will still be ongoing at the Town Hall parking lot and with the water tower. As a result, Camerlin suggested using the Recreation Department building as a second location.
Along with the voting changes, Camerlin said that she will have to hire more staff.
“We are going to have to hire election workers and staff, being in a remote location I can’t be two places at once so we will have to hire more staff,” she said.
Camerlin added that her recommendation was to offer both forms of early voting for all elections.
“My opinion is to offer it for all elections, again to avoid the confusion part on the voters and it allows as many people to vote as possible,” she said.
With elections set for three months in a row, Camerlin said there will be some carryover between the September primary and Oct. 3 special election depending on the length of the early voting period for the special election.
“The only other concern I have is having three elections back-to-back, we’ll have a lot of double duty going on because we have the Sept. 6 election, and trying to close that out takes a good two weeks, and one month before the Oct. 3 election is when we start prepping. So as you can see, we already overlap. If we add a long period of early voting into September, that is going to really bog down our process,” she said.
Barry said he was in favor of running a one-week trial run for in-person voting ahead of the Oct. 3 election because of the time constraint. In the future he suggested offering a two-week in-person early voting period for municipal elections.
Along with opting into the municipal early voting for elections, the board also set early voting dates for the special election to fill the vacant Select Board seat for the week of Sept. 26 with times set for 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. On Sept. 26, 27, 28 and 30 as well as from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sept. 29. Going forward, the town is required to manually opt in for early voting for each municipal election.
The Belchertown Select Board next met on July 18 and coverage of that meeting will appear in the July 28 edition of The Reminder.