HADLEY — A new senior center for town elders, the topic of previous successful votes at Town Meeting and elections, will take center stage at annual Town Meeting as petitions aim to either move the project from a proposed site in Hadley center, or to eliminate its $7.1 million in funding entirely.
Town Meeting begins Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Hopkins Academy gymnasium.
The senior center articles, submitted by members of the American Legion, are expected to be decided near the beginning of the 24-article warrant. Moderator Brian West has said they will be secret ballot votes, a decision that he believes will make the votes less contentious and allow people to vote their conscience.
The warrant also includes a municipal and school budget plan for fiscal year 2019, a recommendation from the Select Board to appoint the treasurer and collector for the town, rather than have them elected by residents, and to use ranked-choice, or instant runoff, voting in town elections.
The first petition from the legion calls for moving the senior center from the 2.6-acre Hooker School site on Middle Street to a 9-acre site at the corner of River Drive and Stockbridge Street in North Hadley. That site was purchased last year for a fire substation.
The second petition aims to rescind the senior center spending.
Jane Nevinsmith, chairwoman of the Senior Center Building Committee, said she is encouraging all supporters to attend and vote against both articles, noting that a move to North Hadley has financial costs, including redesigning the building for different land.
“Nor would it be in the center of town where the Hadley master plan wants the cluster of town buildings,” Nevinsmith said.
Donald Pipczynski, a spokesman for the legion, said there is no intent to remove the articles from the warrant because officials have only thrown “crumbs” to address concerns about the new senior center eliminating the legion’s overflow parking, which, while on town land, has been used since the 1950s.
“All we’re trying to do is protect our assets and interests,” Pipczynski said.
The legion has already filed a Land Court lawsuit, but Pipczynski said he feels there is room to strike a deal, noting that it could be as easy as moving the new senior center closer to the site of a proposed new library, to be built on the demolished Hooker School.
“We’re wide open to compromise,” Pipczynski said.
Because the senior center needs to vacate the Hooker School building before the library project can commence, Library Trustees President Jo-ann Konieczny said this controversy is problematic.
“It doesn’t stop it, but it definitely jeopardizes it, and it definitely increases costs,” Konieczny said.
She said she will check with the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners to see if there is any leeway in its schedule.
The budget, which has not yet been finalized, includes maintaining existing services, while continuing to enhance public safety, including police and fire departments, bettering building maintenance and staying the course with sound financial management. The budget will also reflect added costs for moving to a private ambulance service.
The warrant includes $1.14 million in capital projects, including $170,000 for a new heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system at Hadley Elementary School, $855,400 for building the fire substation, which already has $2.9 million appropriated, and $100,000 for a new septage vehicle for the Sewer Department.
Two projects are being funded by Community Preservation Act money. They are $35,000 to renovate the Town Hall’s columns, and $55,765 to fix North Hadley Congregational Church’s weather vane, steeple, bell structure and front facade.
The idea to appoint the treasurer and collector comes from a Department of Revenue recommendation in reports in 2013 and 2017, mainly because of the significant dollars flowing through both offices.
Ranked choice, or instant runoff voting, in which voters would put the candidates in order of preference rather than voting for just one, is being brought forward by petition from Linda Castronovo. She said it is a simple change for voters, but will increase voter turnout and confidence in the result. Amherst recently embedded the concept in its adopted charter.
Demand fees, assessed for late payments, are going up from $15 to $30, and could raise $30,000 for the general fund. This would be the first increase since 2009.
A 3 percent sales tax on any marijuana sales would go to the general fund, increasing an earlier approved 2 percent tax. One marijuana dispensary has been planned on Route 9 at the former Sunoco gas station near the Amherst town line.
Other articles include joining the newly created Pioneer Valley Mosquito Control District, amending the inclusionary zoning bylaw adopted in 2006 and the senior housing bylaw adopted in 2008, adjusting the animal welfare bylaw so that police can better enforce it, and changing the nuisance bylaw to help the building commissioner and inspectors address unsafe and abandoned properties.
