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Date: 11/3/2021
BELCHERTOWN- During the Belchertown Select Board’s Oct. 25 meeting, the board agreed to raise the town’s licensing fees back to pre-pandemic levels and received an update on the potential renovation of the Jabish Brook Middle School.
Board member Ronald Aponte started the conversation and said lowering the fees during COVID-19 was a way to help ailing businesses.
“I was not on the board last year, but I agree it was the appropriate thing to do considering most of the businesses had been closed for part of the year or their sales were ratcheted down by 50 percent or even more. This was a way to help them out during their time in need,” he said.
He added he was in favor of restoring the fees to pre-pandemic levels.
“I think if you look over 2021 and into 2022, I do not think we are going to see the same type of business environment, we all may be wearing masks a year from now, but I do not think we are going to have a general lockdown as we had seen in 2020. As a result, I think we should be able to restore the fees back to the level they were at prior to the COVID [-19] shutdown,” Aponte said.
Board member Nicholas Pucel said he was worried about creating an additional burden for businesses by raising the fees.
“My only concern would be the rising costs of goods plaguing some restaurants because of inflation costs on restaurants causing a burden now, not just a lack of clientele or having shut down,” he said.
While COVID-19 was not something a business could have prepared for, Aponte said inflation was a part of owning a business.
“Inflationary factors are part of doing business, I do not think we saw COVID [-19]in anyone’s business plan versus inflationary costs and inflationary labor costs. I think that is more of a business management issue and how they deal with that. The fact that we are not increasing the pricing during the inflationary period could almost be considered a bit of a break,” he said.
The board unanimously agreed to approve a return to fees for restaurants back to the pre-COVID-19 number.
To start his report, Town Administrator Gary Brougham said he spoke with Superintendent Brian Cameron about the next steps in the renovation process for the Jabish Brook Middle School through the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA).
“Last week I met with Superintendent Cameron, and we had a call regarding the notice of intent to participate in the MSBA program for the renovation or reconstruction of Jabish Brook Middle School. Once the letter of intent is accepted into the program, we have a limited number of days to host a Town Meeting and appropriate funding for the feasibility study and the deadline for that vote is March 28, 2022,” he said.
Brougham said the town would be receiving a higher than expected reimbursement rate for the project.
“Belchertown’s reimbursement rate on the project would be 59.12 percent, which is less than we received for the high school but generously more than I anticipated, I thought we would be on the south side of 50,” he said.
While the deadline to host a Special Town Meeting is March 28, 2022, Brougham said it would be better to take the vote earlier.
“We are going to continue to move this forward, but we need to be thinking about when we want to schedule a Special Town Meeting, and MSBA in particular, suggested we not wait until the last day in case there are complications. We would like to have the vote and report back to them two weeks before the deadline,” he said.
The Belchertown Select Board next met on Nov. 1 and coverage of that meeting will appear in the Nov. 11 edition of The Reminder.