Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 5/18/2021
WESTHAMPTON – During the Annual Town Meeting on May 8, residents of Westhampton voted to adopt a resolution declaring Westhampton to be a “pollinator-friendly community.”
The resolution, which was submitted by the town’s Pollination Committee Advisory Group, plans to increase pollinator education, and take further action to support the health of pollinators.
The group is also asking that the town follow pollinator-friendly best practices as outlined in the Massachusetts Pollinator Protection Plan, and expand pollinator habitat on town properties. The Massachusetts Pollinator Protection Plan was submitted in 2017, and highlights best management practices and actions to benefit pollinators.
Chris Wayne, a member of the Pollination Committee Advisory Group, told the residents in attendance at the meeting that the Highway Department, local landscapers, experts in honey bees, and farmers are all on the committee to help make the town more pollinator-friendly.
“At the federal level, it has been recognized that pollinators are important and crucial to everyone,” said Wayne. “Because of this, they asked all states to get involved and have their own pollinator plans.”
According to Wayne, the committee wanted to create a resolution that would be simple to pass. “We wanted to make sure that everyone in town would support this,” said Wayne. “If we want to support the potential for growing, then we have to educate the youth. We want to make that commitment.”
Wayne added that expanding pollinator habitat on town properties may not cost money, as Westhampton could look into specific grants to take action that would benefit the town, like planting trees.
Bill Jablonksi, the superintendent of the Highway Department, said that his only concern with the resolution was the possibility that the town would tell the Highway Department that they cannot mow the side of the road. “The Highway Department really takes pride in keeping the sides of the road as neat as we can,” said Jablonski.
In response to this, Laurie Sanders, another member of the committee, said the mowing concern should not be an issue at all.
“I don’t think that approving this should have any impact on the mowing for safety and visibility for our town,” she said. “I think there are many other areas where we can learn more about the life history of pollinators.”
Part of the resolution requests that the town clerk sends copies to Gov. Charlie Baker and Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources Commissioner John Lebeaux.
The town also passed an article that allows $9,000 from free cash to be used for painting interior walls and refinishing floors of great hall at the Town Hall. According to Phil Dowling, the chair of the Selectboard, $1,000 will go toward the paint. Dowling said that he will be doing the lead paint prep, and then a volunteer crew will be organized to do the actual painting. The other $8,000 will be used for refining the floors.
Residents at the meeting voted to discuss the appropriation of $24,000 for the design and construction of a break room in the Highway Department garage during a Special Town Meeting at the reconvene of the Annual Town Meeting. Dowling said that the money would not finish the project, but it will help them install stairs, a deck, and the walls that will enclose the space. The desired money is leftover cash from the $90,000 Town Hall roof project that the town conducted last year.
When the highway garage was built 16 years ago, there was not a plan to construct a break room and storage area above the superintendent’s office due to financial reasons at the time. Currently, the Highway Department is storing their materials on the floor of the garage, which, according to Dowling, is “inappropriate.”
“For the last 15 or 16 years, they’ve been taking their breaks among the trucks,” added Dowling. “This [resolution] would get that process started.”
As of right now, the town is having an engineer inspect the section of the Highway Department garage. Dowling hopes that details about the full price of the project will come out of the inspection.
According to Dowling, a Special Town Meeting will hopefully provide the public with more information about what the $24,000 will specifically be used for, as well as provide a full sum of what the project will cost altogether.
The town decided to discuss the appropriation of debt items involving the public safety design and engineering and highway pickup, as well as the public safety complex construction, for the reconvene of the Annual Town Meeting. They did approve all Police and Fire Department appropriations, as well as all funding for the Hampshire Regional School District assessment for fiscal year 2022. The town also voted to appropriate funding for Westhampton Elementary School, vocational school tuition, and vocational school transportation. The town’s schools and libraries were allocated a total budget of $3.9 million.
The Annual Town Election will occur at the Town Hall on June 5 from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m.