HATFIELD — A municipal budget that features reductions to most departments, including Hatfield schools, as well as possible structural changes to town government that could address issues with past financial practices, will be brought before voters at annual Town Meeting Tuesday.
The 25-article warrant will be taken up beginning at 7 p.m. at the Smith Academy gymnasium
With health care costs rising, the Select Board and Finance Committee are presenting a balanced town budget that includes a 1 percent reduction for many departments, a 2 percent cut for the Department of Public Works and a smaller decrease for the public schools.
The cuts at the schools, though, means lost services, including eliminating two foreign language instructors and not being able to add a computer teacher, keyboarding programmer and middle school chorus instructor.
At a joint meeting with the Select Board this week, Darryl Williams, chairman of the Finance Committee, said the budget is tight. “I think this is as conservative a budget as I can ever remember being part of,” he said.
The fiscal challenges that have previously existed, including a $315,000 gap in the town’s 2018 and 2017 budgets that was corrected at a special Town Meeting in January, are not reflected in the budget proposal.
Select Board Chairman Brian Moriarty said at the meeting that officials believe they can restore money to level funded budgets, especially for the schools, if free cash is certified before June 30.
The concept of appointing the collector and treasurer, which will require approval at the May 15 town election ballot, as well, comes following continued financial issues and is recommended by the Department of Revenue. This idea has been turned down by voters in the past.
A second structural change to government that would be farther off could enlarge the Select Board. The idea is to appoint a town government study committee to determine if the current three-member board should become a five-member board.
Moriarty explained that he wants this idea before voters because he worries about the Open Meeting law conflicts when he bumps into another board member in town. The larger board would also mean more work could get done.
In addition to the budget, an appropriation of $25,000 is being sought for a fund that will help Hatfield celebrate its 350th anniversary in 2020. The article would also establish a committee to guide the celebrations that year.
Community Preservation Act articles include $96,400 that would go toward creation of an athletic field at Smith Academy, allowing the schools to move field hockey games from the Center School site, $15,000 for restoring and removing invasive species on parcels purchased through CPA funds, and $5,000 to cover costs of creating the new community gardens on Billings Way.
A request to borrow $32,094 would supplement a recreational trails grant that is creating a new hiking trail on town-owned land.
Recreational and medical marijuana is the topic of three articles.
The first makes adjustments to a zoning bylaw that would cap at two the number of establishments that could locate in Hatfield, and allows siting for marijuana independent testing laboratories, marijuana product manufacturers and marijuana retailers not permitting consumption on site.
The second puts marijuana establishments on the use regulations chart, showing where they are allowed and not allowed in town.
The last would create a 3 percent tax on marijuana sales.
A bylaw change aims to give police power to remove political or campaign signs if they are not displayed far enough from the road and impairing driver sight lines at intersections. In addition, this bylaw calls for any signs on Routes 5 and 10 to be outside the state road taking.
The bylaw was brought by Town Clerk Lydia Szych, who said that it follows calls to her office, with people saying that it costs the town money to remove and replace them when mowing, they have a tacky appearance and they pose dangers to drivers.
Szych said it is prudent to let residents decide whether this bylaw is needed.
Town Meeting will be asked to create three new revolving funds, for communities garden, the Department of Public Works motor grader and hazardous materials.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
