Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 6/14/2022
SOUTHAMPTON – A budget of $19.1 million was passed for the town of Southampton at this year’s Annual Town Meeting.
The largest chunk of this year’s budget will go to education where the schools will be receiving $12.1 million for their fiscal year 2023 budget. Almost $5 million more will go to public safety ($2.1 million) and employee benefits ($2.5 million).
All of the articles presented at the meeting on June 7 at William E. Norris Elementary School passed.
One article of note was the 33rd and final article of the night, which requested $443,700 from the Community Preservation Act (CPA) Undesignated Account for the purpose of acquiring approximately 76 acres of land on Pomeroy Meadow Road. The article passed unanimously.
The project’s purpose is to acquire and preserve the land, which has been deemed important to the recharge area of the town’s drinking water well. The high conservation value meadow and woodland area has been requested to be preserved by the town water commissioners with the support of the Conservation Commission and Open Space Committee in order to help protect the town’s drinking water system and the conservation of agricultural lands.
The town has also already applied for a $213,000 drinking water protection grant for this purpose.
Water Commissioner Tim Gaudet opened discussion on the article by saying the land is in the immediate recharge area for the Barnes aquifer that provides the drinking water for the town of Southampton and the property is only one mile from the town well and the well that provides water for Easthampton that the two town’s share. Because of this, Gaudet said he was in favor of the article along with the Water Commission.
Bridget Likely, a conservation manager with Kestrel Land Trust spoke in favor of the article. Kestrel Land Trust is a nonprofit organization that works to conserve and care for farms, forests and riverways in the Connecticut River Valley. The property will be owned and managed by the Southampton Water Department while Kestrel Land Trust will hold a conservation restriction, as required by the Community Preservation Act.
“We’re pleased to be able to support the Southampton Water Department and the Water Commission for this proposal to acquire 76 acres,” Likely said. “It will provide protection for ground water for Southampton’s sole existing well head as well as Easthampton’s back up water supply for Southampton. In addition, with protection of this land, it would provide passive recreation and public access would be allowed on the land and it would preserve the scenic and agricultural character of the land.”
Likely added this was an opportunity to provide the community of Southampton with significant open space protection that meets community goals.
Article 32, which requested the use of $125,000 from the Community Preservation Act account to the Housing Authority to acquire 1.32 acres of land and for associated costs of the acquisition to be used for affordable housing, was approved through an unanimous vote.
Resident James Seney, who also serves on the Housing Authority, spoke in favor of the warrant and reminded his fellow residents that the town’s subsidized housing inventory is 2 percent. The state’s general law goal was 10 percent, putting Southampton “well below” the threshold according to Seney.
“We have zero owner-occupied units and the purchase of this buildable property would allow us to work with nonprofit developers or someone like Habitat for Humanity to create an owner-occupied affordable unit in town so its an important deal,” Seney said.
Seney also added a reminder to residents that this purchase would not be paid for with tax dollars, saying this is the type of project CPA funds are meant for.
“If we are successful in this and successfully can create some housing on that property, that unit will be contributing to the tax base,” Seney said.
The Highway Department had a busy night as they had a few different articles where they were requesting funds to improve their services. Article 16 was a request of $47,930 to fund the debt payment – both principal and interest – for the Highway Department purchase of a new dump truck. The truck was approved at the Special Town Meeting in October 2020. Through a unanimous vote, the purchase will be funded, and a new truck will soon be in the possession of the Highway Department.
Another article that greenlit the purchase of new town equipment was Article 19, which passed its two-thirds majority threshold. The Highway Department will use $231,000 to purchase a new wheel loader. Highway Superintendent Randall Kemp said the purchase will replace a 27-year-old John Deere motor and snowplow.
Article 21 was passed unanimously and approved the funding of $56,000 for installation and replacement of the heating system in the highway garage and office on Fomer Road. This project will replace the antiquated steam boiler that heats eight truck bays, the office and the break room with an energy-efficient propane system. This will also replace the shop heaters and install a mini split system for the office and break room.
The town also unanimously passed the transfer of $50,000 from the Public, Educational and Government Access Capital Fund to its designee, Easthampton Media, to fund the replacement, upgrade and installation of new broadcasting, streaming and recording equipment at their facility for the purpose of broadcasting on the local cable channels.
One other article of note that passed was a vote to establish a Municipal Light Plant for the town. The vote was passed unanimously, but before that David Brooks who works for the town spoke about the work he has been doing to look for other options in bringing fiber internet to the town.
Brooks said currently the town is locked in with Spectrum as their only option, but with the changing work climate in some professions and increasing importance of a reliable internet connection, the town was looking to take the necessary steps in identifying the best solution for them. He noted that surrounding communities like Westfield and Holyoke have already done their own version of this with Whip City Fiber in Westfield, and work done by the Holyoke Gas and Electric team.
The passed article will now allow for the town to create and establish a group who is focused on doing the research on the best internet options for Southampton going forward, something Brooks said can take years to deploy. Kim Florek, who works on the Technology Committee, echoed Brooks comments.
“This is a non-binding vote, it just allows further investigation and looking into what services would be,” Florek said.