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Date: 1/25/2021
SOUTH HADLEY – The South Hadley Selectboard met for their regularly scheduled meeting on Jan. 19 where a number of items were discussed, including the town’s COVID-19 vaccination plan.
The meeting began first with the board approving minutes from the Jan. 5 and Jan. 6 Selectboard meetings. Health Director Sharon Hart then gave an update as to where the town stood regarding the number of COVID-19 cases. She said while the number of cases were increasing, they were increasing slower than they had been. However, she said, “still in two weeks we’ve had 165 cases.” In the week leading up to the meeting, she said there were 64 confirmed cases, 21 cases that had been identified through close contact and one probable case identified. The week prior there were 59 confirmed cases, 18 close contact cases and two probable cases.
Chair Jeff Cyr questioned the status of vaccinations within the two congregate care facilities, as he saw Loomis Village had begun vaccinating residents and questioned the status of Vero as well. Hart said after the Selectboard’s last meeting she’d reached out to Vero, and “they did their first clinic on 12/28, so at the end of December, and their last one was yesterday.” Cyr confirmed that residents and staff had been vaccinated during those dates; Hart confirmed that was the case.
Town Administrator Mike Sullivan then clarified for the public that no surrounding communities had started their “vaccine program.” He said, “There hasn’t been any needles put in arms. It’s still at facilities, and we did hear from Loomis today that they partnered with CVS,” he said. He added that once South Hadley was able to “do the community vaccination,” the congregate care facility had mentioned that CVS may be able to help.
Hart then went further into detail regarding Loomis’ vaccination numbers thus far and stated that as of the meeting they had been able to vaccinate 162 residents and employees. “We’re in phase one, there’s three phases,” Hart explained. “COVID-facing healthcare workers were vaccinated at the beginning of the month, their first vaccine.” She said hospital workers and other similar healthcare workers fell into this category.
Following the vaccination of COVID-facing healthcare workers, Hart said employees and residents of congregate care and emergency responders were next in line to get vaccinated. She said at this time in the western part of Hampshire County firefighters, police and EMS workers went to Northampton to receive their vaccines, while those in the eastern part of Hampshire County went to the Amherst Health Department. She said first responders in Hampshire County were now waiting on the second dose of the vaccine, which should take place some time in February. Hart said right now there was a short supply of the vaccine, and there was enough to do a second dose of the vaccine to emergency workers and congregate care facilities.
Sullivan and Hart clarified that at this time, no members of the general public would be receiving the vaccine as that was part of the Phase 3 plan. “I know it’s a little frustrating for people to see in other states that already 65 and older are getting vaccinated. It’s frustrating for us to see we don’t have that available to us,” she said. Hart added that despite being at the mercy of the state, Amherst had offered, once they were at the phase where the general public would be vaccinated, they could host a mobile vaccination clinic for South Hadley, Amherst and Belchertown residents over the age of 65.
Hart then went on to address questions the town had received regarding adding residents’ names to a list of those who would like to be vaccinated should they call and make such a request. However, she said the town was unable to register individuals for the vaccine, so while they could put their name on a list they could not do anything with that list.
Sullivan said while the town was preparing, the town was still a while away from being able to distribute the vaccine to the general public. “We’re getting prepared, but we’re weeks away from getting any vaccines for the larger public in South Hadley. Aside from what you’re hearing that there’s people 75 and 80 in other communities getting needles in the arm, that’s not the case unless they live in a nursing facility or work in a hospital,” he said. “It hasn’t really gone beyond that parameter yet.”
Cyr went on to give a brief update about the new senior center being built in town as he is on the Senior Center Building Committee. He said, unfortunately, due to COVID-19, the project had been shut down for “at least two weeks,” and was scheduled to “tentatively get back in as of next week.” Sullivan said “there should be limited activity” starting on Jan. 20, but hopefully as of the week of Jan. 25 “it’ll get back into more significant work” as long as people remain healthy.
The board then moved on to accept the resignations of both Brian Couture from the Recreation Committee and Nancy Knadler from the Appropriations Committee. A public hearing was then opened for a wine and malt beer application by H&H Retail Inc. to do business as Three Corners Package Store at 60 Amherst Rd. The applicant and owner Hamid said he’d recently purchased the location and was planning to open a package store. “Currently I own a couple more stores where we have the beer and wine license, so I’m pretty experienced on that,” he said, and explained he had stores in Northampton and Ludlow. In addition to beer and wine he said they planned to run the store like a convenience store and sell milk, bread and candy.
When asked when the building would be operational, Hamid said the building was closed during the last week of December and needed some renovations, but he was hoping to be open by March 1. He added that he planned two to five car parking and a “basic convenience store sign.” Vice Chair Sarah Etelman asked if he planned to maintain the property, as in the past they’d received complaints regarding the outside appearance. Hamid said when he first looked at the building he recognized it needed “a pretty good overhaul,” but pointed out that his other stores were kept in good condition and he planned to do the same at the Amherst Street location. If possible, he added that he’d like to keep the same hours as his other stores from 5:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Ultimately, the board approved the license unanimously.
One of the last items of the night included an update regarding the search for a new town administrator. Cyr said they had received members of the public who wanted to be a part of the screening committee, had heard back from Mount Holyoke College about a representative, but had not heard back from the Appropriations Committee. Additionally, the board had received a statement that they had reviewed and submitted comments on.
The board then discussed the matter of the school district’s pool, which is falling apart and unable to be used by the district this year. Sullivan said he felt “it was an issue that had to be addressed as to whether it is truly a school issue, a school community issue, or a community issue.”
“If that part is decided, it might be easier to approach how you make that investment, or you don’t make that investment. That’s a decision the town has to make,” Sullivan said. The board had a significant amount of discussion regarding the prioritization of capital improvements within the town, but ultimately no decisions were made by the time the Selectboard adjourned.