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Date: 5/16/2023
SOUTH HADLEY — During its May 2 meeting, the Selectboard opened initial discussions on a potential senior work-off program.
This program offered through the state allows qualified senior homeowners an opportunity to work off up to $1,500 on their property tax bill by volunteering for a city agency. The Selectboard opened discussions on it during its meeting to decide whether or not to continue pursuing the option over the next year and bringing the program to a future Town Meeting vote.
Town Administrator Lisa Wong broke down the program for the board before discussions went further. Wong noted the program has become “pretty widespread” across the state in other communities.
The first step in the process of pursuing the program more seriously is accepting the state statutes on the program, something that would be voted on at a future Town Meeting before moving forward.
“Then we would go through a pretty comprehensive process to then create a program,” Wong noted.
Wong added that while this would feel more like a volunteer program, the process would make the city treat the seniors involved with the program as employees with proper guidelines. Wong referred to the Division of Local Services informational guidelines release on establishing the senior work-off abatement program that explains the standards and procedures that apply.
Wong noted the town has heard from a number of residents and department heads interested in a program such as this.
“I think before we go down the road of doing a lot of research, we wanted to have some discussion at the Selectboard level to say, ‘Yes this concept sounds good,’” Wong said.
Selectboard Chair Andrea Miles said she had a number of concerns in general about the program even though she though it was “great in its intention.”
“I worry about how it’s handled, how our citizens would be treated in terms of their volunteer or employment status. Also I have some philosophical struggles with it that if people are qualifying for this amount, if we have the freedom to abate this money,” Miles said.
Even with Miles’ concerns, she still was in favor with the rest of the board in continuing future discussions on the program’s potential in South Hadley. Board member Jeff Cyr said he shared some of the concerns expressed by Miles but was also in favor of still learning more about the program and continuing future discussions.
“With the fact that we’re fortunate to have most of our aging population still own their own homes, I don’t know what the amount of people that would be wanting to do this,” Cyr said. “I mean, I’m six years away from this, so I would definitely be willing at 60 to try this out but more importantly, I always get concerned on the policing, and how this is going to be policed, and how these people are working the hours required, what they’re actually doing.”
Cyr said he would be curious to learn more about the aftermath of the program in each community, the pros and cons, what works and doesn’t, and if other communities decided to abandon the program, why?
Miles noted based on the DLS guidelines on the program she felt there was a lot of room for communities to develop their own specific rules around it, including potentially limiting the number of people who can be involved in the program.
“I almost feel like that’s too much autonomy for an individual community to have set income requirements,” Miles said when brainstorming how the town would go about specifying their rules around their version of the work-off program.
Board member Carol Constant spoke from prior experience in another community about some of the positives the work-off program brings to a community. Constant said when she was formerly serving as director of the Wistairiahurst Museum in Holyoke the city was implementing a similar program to get seniors some work and save some money.
“I received two gentlemen who were retired, and they went full in on doing maintenance, small repairs on the building, painting, things like that,” Constant said. “They got to be the best friends ever during their time there … I can’t say enough about what it meant for those two gentlemen to have, you know, maybe 10 hours a week they would come down and it was good for them.”
Constant added she thought this was an exciting opportunity for the town based on her experience with a similar program in a different community. The two men working maintenance for Constant were eventually hired as part-time workers for maintenance at the museum following the programs completion. She also added a program such as this fits “right in” with the town’s Master Plan where they focus on finding ways to engage the older adults of the community.
The Selectboard ultimately agreed to continue discussions in the future regarding this program and its potential addition to South Hadley.
“I think the biggest advantage, we have a year,” Cyr said. “That’s a long time where we have this idea and I think as the year goes on, we just keep getting information as Lisa advises or anybody else that actually comes to us with this idea, so I think it’s a good idea as well.”