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Date: 11/4/2020
WILBRAHAM – Wilbraham Public Health Nurse Jill Consolino reported a sharp increase in the number of COVID-19 cases to the Board of Selectmen at its meeting on Nov. 2. The town had 26 positive cases reported over the previous two-week period and 20 of those cases were active as of Consolino’s report. Unlike the trends during the early months of the pandemic, none of the cases are from the two long-term care facilities in town, while five cases were reported from the schools.
At a coronavirus briefing conducted earlier in the day, Gov. Charlie Baker said the state had seen a 300 percent increase in positive cases since Labor Day. which he attributed to “letting our guard down.” To combat this increase, Baker announced new guidelines and regulations. Masks wearing will be mandatory for anyone over the age of 5, regardless of social distancing, with a $500 penalty per infraction. Consolino clarified, “Anytime you’re off your property is when you’re supposed to wear masks.”
Baker also issued a stay-at-home advisory for the hours between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., with many businesses forced to close at 9:30 p.m. Finally, capacity limits for gatherings have been lowered to 10 people indoors or 25 people outdoors at a residence and 25 people indoors or 100 people outdoors at a public business or venue. All of these new regulations go into effect on Nov. 6.
“We’re overstepping our bounds by restricting the public to do anything like the Governor’s trying to pull off,” Selectman Robert Boilard said, though he added he understood the reason why the regulations were put in place.
Boilard went on to confirm with Consolino that most of the cases she is currently seeing are mild in severity. Consolino told him that she is seeing more cases in younger people than she did in the spring.
Selectman Carolyn Brennan asked if the uptick was correlated to increased testing. While Brennan had no data on that correlation, she did say, anecdotally, that there were between 200 and 300 cars lined up at the Eastfield Mall for testing on Saturday morning.
Resident Matt Villamaino asked about enforcement of Baker’s orders. Consolino told him that the Health Department is the body in charge, but they can call on the Police Department for help with enforcement. At Police Chief Robert Zollo’s request, Board of Health Agent Lori McCool said that she would check to see if the police must be made agents of the Health Department before they can intervene.
McCool noted that she must witness infractions before she can write a warning. She said “99 percent” of people listen and fix their behavior accordingly. She noted that it is difficult to enforce at a private residence with indoor gatherings and that she would need to knock on doors and ask to do a headcount.
The Board of Selectmen was presented with three tax classification options by the board of assessors. The first option used a “minimum residential factor” that would shift the tax burden from the residential property owners to commercial property owners. It was explained that under this classification, the owner of a residential property valued at $299,700 would owe $455.54 less than in fiscal year 2020 (FY20), while the owner of a commercial property of the same value would pay $3,440.56, more in FY21.
Another option presented was a 10 percent reduction for eligible commercial properties, but the assessors said the downside to this classification is Wilbraham does not have enough commercial taxpayers to make this option successful.
Finally, the board was presented with a residential exemption of up to 20 percent. This raises the residential tax rate and shifts the residential tax burden from moderately valued homes to higher-valued homes. The assessors said this classification makes less sense for Wilbraham than it would for a municipality with expensive summer homes.
In the end, the select board chose to keep a single tax rate for the town. The tax rate for FY21 will be $22.96 per $1,000 of value, up from $22.38 per $1,000 in FY20.
Town Administrator Nick Breault brought the Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District (HWRSD) before the board to request that a portion of the $1.3 million of federal coronavirus relief funding received by Wilbraham be shared with the school district. Breault explained that the funding is in the form of reimbursement grants that can only be used on COVID-19-related items and services purchased before Dec. 30. He said that the town will not be able to use the entirety of the funding in that timeframe.
Were the board to approve it, the HWRSD would be able to request items or services, which the town would procure on the school district’s behalf. The district was requesting $180,000 of COVID-19 expenses.
Breault explained that he had just been made aware that the reimbursement, of which a quarter is funded by the state and three-quarters is funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, may only apply to expenses related to a COVID-19 “incident,” rather than general preventative COVID-19 expenses.
Brennan said it was worth having the school submit the request. “If we can support the schools, we absolutely should,” she said. The other board members agreed, however, it was noted that if the item is not eligible for reimbursement, the financial responsibility will be on the town.
It was decided that Breault will request clarification, before moving forward with the purchases and funding requests.
A joint reserve transfer request of $30,000 was approved for the department of public works and the tree warden. The money was needed to pay for the removal of trees that fell in recent storms.