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Date: 1/25/2023
CHESTER — Chester Town Administrator Donald Humason recently returned from the first in-person Massachusetts Municipal Association (MMA) annual meeting since 2020, at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston on Jan. 20 and 21, where he met up with Blandford Town Administrator Christopher Dunne and Blandford Selectboard Chair Cara Letendre. For both town managers, it was their first MMA meeting.
Humason said in the huge crowd he also saw administrators from Southwick and Holyoke, although he said he may have missed others from Western Massachusetts.
Gov. Maura Healey and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll both spoke to the more than 1,200 municipal officials attending the conference. Among the initiatives Healey outlined for cities and towns is a two-year, $400 million Chapter 90 bond bill to fund improvements to roads and bridges across the state, according to a release from the MMA.
While a multiyear bill has long been a priority for the MMA to help communities plan effectively, the bill does not increase the longstanding funding level of $200 annually, which has been another priority for local governments.
Healey also announced she will seek $987 million in bonds to preempt interruptions to core state capital programs supporting housing and economic development and to improve the state’s competitive position for federal grants. Humason said she pledged to work with cities and towns across the state.
Humason said he got more out of the workshops at the meeting, such as sessions on regionalization, and one on how town administrators may effectively support their select boards. He said he tried to pick seminars relating to issues in Chester.
“We talked about the number of towns that need administrators and town managers. I also learned in talking to my colleagues — I’m really lucky. My Board of Selectmen are really good to work with — I think my board is great,” he said.
One area where Humason was hoping to gain insight, which he had discussed with his board, was assistance in human resources, how to find staffing for key positions in the towns. Chester is currently seeking a highway superintendent.
“There weren’t as many answers to our problems as I hoped we would find. Recruitment of a highway supervisor — there weren’t answers to those problems. We’re not alone, including some of the bigger cities, which are also having problems,” Humason said.
“The workforce is getting older and retiring, and a lot of people don’t want to get into the business. People across the state were having the same issues, which means we’re not that unusual. It also means there might not be a simple answer, as to how to get good people to enter municipal government. It is a problem, when the best and brightest don’t want to do municipal government,” he added. Humason said there was a huge trade show at the conference of groups and businesses that work with towns, but most of the vendors were focused on the Boston area where a lot of the attendees were from, even though there were other town administrators, select board members and mayors from all over the state.
“It is what it is — it is our capital city. The MMA wants to give people access to leaders,” Humason said.
At the vendor fair, Humason said he spoke with people from the state Department of Revenue, Division of Local Services, the Board of Library Commissioners, and the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), collecting the names of people to call when Chester needs state assistance.
He said he asked the DEP representative how Chester is doing with recycling.
“Chester is doing great,” he said. “The Board of Health is working really hard. For a small town, we’re right where we’re supposed to be.”
Humason said one of the biggest takeaways from the MMA meeting for Chester is that many of the town’s challenges are not unique: “If anything, it gave us a chance to commiserate with selectmen and city councilors from across the state.”
Humason’s focus for Chester will now be on his first budget cycle in advance of the Annual Town Meeting on June 12.
“My biggest focus — this will be my first budget. Just last week, they put out all of the budget spreadsheets to the departments. The Finance Committee will start meeting with department heads and me, so I can learn. That’s where we are next, the Annual Town Meeting and the budget,” Humason said.