HADLEY — Two firefighter/EMTs, a full-time police officer and staff support for various municipal committees and town offices are among new positions included in the $20.48 million fiscal 2024 budget proposed by Town Administrator Carolyn Brennan.

The spending plan, presented to the Select Board and Finance Committee at a joint meeting Feb. 22, is $835,078, or 4.2% higher, than this year’s $19.64 million budget.

“My priority for the past 2½ years is identifying the gaps in staffing and services and providing solutions to fill those gaps,” Brennan said.

A new police officer, Brennan said, will improve handling of traffic complaints, investigations and response to motor vehicle crashes, while the two firefighter/EMTs will be hired as a new town ambulance is ready for service, likely by mid-June.

Addressing maintenance of town buildings and ensuring adequate custodial coverage is also in her budget proposal. “We really need to keep maintaining our older buildings, but definitely our newer buildings,” Brennan said.

The town has outsourced to a private contractor some of the cleaning and upkeep of both the library and senior center, buildings that opened in recent years. They are currently getting only six hours per week of custodial work. “We definitely need to step that up a bit,” Brennan said.

In addition, Brennan is proposing a half-time inspector to assist Building Commissioner Tom Quinlan Jr., who she said didn’t see a workload decrease, even in the midst of the pandemic. “I absolutely support that,” Brennan said.

Also, a part-time health inspector is no longer enough to handle work for various permits, from restaurant inspections to septic systems, and that position will be bumped to full time.

The last new proposals are providing full-time administrative support staff for the Planning Board, Zoning Board of Appeals, Community Preservation Act Committee and other panels for the first time, and creating a paid clerical position for various departments to offset some of the workload that has prevented some employees from taking vacations and personal time. “We can’t really depend on volunteers to do that anymore,” Brennan said.

The budget plan also includes $7.75 million for the public schools, an increase of $156,596, or 2.1%, from this year’s $7.59 million funding for Hopkins Academy and the Hadley Elementary School.

Even with the proposal, Brennan is not recommending nearly $1 million from the $21.4 million in requests from department heads.

The Select Board and Finance Committee will begin reviewing Brennan’s plan, which Town Treasurer Linda Sanderson said is balanced, before it is brought to voters for adoption at Town Meeting on May 4.

Sanderson provided figures showing the town is expected to bring in $19.6 million in revenues to support the fiscal 2024 budget, an increase of $834,178 from the $18.8 million in revenues in this year’s budget.

Of the total revenues, various local receipts total $3.82 million, up $387,059 from this year’s $3.44 million. Local options meals and motel and hotel room taxes make up the bulk of that increase, at around $250,000. Sanderson said restaurants and the hospitality industry have bounced back as people return to dining out and traveling.

“We’ve been doing very well in that area over the last few years,” Sanderson said.

Brennan’s $20.48 million budget plan, though, is $878,372 above what can be spent with those revenues. Almost all of the spending beyond projected revenues will be covered by a transfer of $875,000 from the $1.47 million available in free cash.

“We do have a balanced budget,” Sanderson said.

Unlike the past two years, the town will not have any American Rescue Plan Act money to balance the budget, meaning it will use about $400,000 more in free cash than this year, when $474,099 in free cash was combined with $400,000 in ARPA funds to balance the budget.

“We’ve weaned off of ARPA. We’re replacing the funds with our own free cash,” Sanderson said.

She said as the town continues to recover from the impacts of the pandemic, the hope is to use less free cash to support municipal operations in future years.

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.]]>