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Date: 1/10/2023
HADLEY – The Hadley Select Board met on Jan. 4 to discuss and approve various measures, including the establishment of the Hadley Business Council. The meeting was hosted at the Hadley Senior Center. Some board members were physically present, while others joined remotely.
Select Board Liaison Molly Keegan said that the impetus of the council stemmed from Hadley business owners who are members of the Amherst Area Chamber of Commerce wanting to create a similar platform in Hadley.
“The idea behind the formation of a Hadley Business Council is that it would be an independent group made up of business owners. The genesis of this was some conversations for several of us who happen to be members of the Amherst Area Chamber [of Commerce], although that’s not a requirement, but wanting to have a voice and also act as a sounding board,” Keegan said.
The council will serve as a news delivery system for updates from the Select Board to quickly reach business owners, and as a way to gather feedback from business owners on prospective policies to be reported to the Select Board.
“When there are various initiatives or changes that the town might be contemplating in terms of policies that would have an impact on the business community, we would know that this group existed as eyes and ears that we could tap into. The primary goal is to improve communication with the business community ... a mechanism to get the word out on different things,” Keegan said.
Recycling Coordinator Kathy Nelson provided an update on this year’s grant received by the town through the Recycling Dividends Program, and briefly explained the process by which funding and recipients are decided.
“So far we’ve received $2,100 from [the Recycling Dividends Program]. The way it works is it’s through the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection and basically it’s a program to encourage municipalities to do all sorts of recycling-related things. The way that the money you receive is determined is based on the different criteria, you accumulate points for different items and the number of people served by the municipal Solid Waste program, which for us is our transfer station,” Nelson said.
Roughly three-quarters of the grant has been spent on compost equipment, sold at a discount to Hadley residents.
“$1,540 of that has been used to purchase Earth Machine backyard compost bins. We’re buying them from Northampton DPW 10 at a time for $54.60 apiece, which is a really good price, they’re well over $100 retail … We are selling them Hadley residents for $25 apiece. So far we’ve purchased 25 bins and sold 20 of them,” Nelson said.
The Select Board will meet again on Jan. 18.