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Date: 11/4/2020
SOUTHWICK – During its Oct. 27 meeting, the Southwick Select Board agreed to reallocate leftover funds from Department of Public Works (DPW) to other projects and approved the elimination of library fees.
One of the meeting’s first orders of business was a request from the library to eliminate overdue fees and Southwick Public Library Director Lynn Blair said from her experience it should not make a big difference.
“As far as things not being brought back in a timely manner, it’s not a major concern. I’ve worked in places that both do and don’t charge fines, at least in my experience it doesn’t make a whole lot of difference,” she said.
Blair said that removing the fines with the exemption of damage fees, can only benefit the library.
“I think the benefits of the good customer service and the good relationships it creates far outweighs anything that is late. Obviously, we’ll charge for anything that is lost, damaged, or missing parts. I think it’s a good move in a positive direction for us,” she said.
The board unanimously approved to eliminate library fines.
One of the meeting’s other action items was to reallocate funds from the DPW with money left over from current projects and DPW Director Randy Brown joined the call to discuss the left over money.
“The list in front of you are all the projects that were allocated by the $2 million from the 2019 town meeting. Those projects are just about wrapping up and the projects that are completed also came in under budget. What I’m looking to do is take some of those dollars and dedicate them to cracked ceiling projects,” he said.
After a unanimous approval from the Select Board to approve the reallocation, Brown gave an update on road projects that were close to completion.
“The last two projects are Tammy Lane and Jeffrey Circle, and also Cedar Street. The first project on Tammy and Jeffrey Circle, they should be paving that road at the end of this week or early next week and that will wrap that up for the most part. Then I expect Cedar Street to wrap up in the next two or three weeks as well,” he said.
Brown added that there would likely be a remaining balance for both projects that would also have to be reallocated down the line once they wrap up.
During the meeting, the board also gave an update on the voting numbers, with almost 3,000 residents having voted a week ahead of the Nov. 3 election.
“Usually we get over 4,000 people coming through the building in one day, so this is going to greatly reduce the number of people that will come through on the election day,” Town Chief Administrative Officer Karl Stinehart said.
As part of the meeting’s regular business, the board approved to name Donald Day, Paul LaFlamme, and state Rep. Nicholas Boldyga to the auxiliary police force.
The Southwick Select Board next meets on Nov. 9.