SOUTH HADLEY — For the past two years, Town Meeting in South Hadley has featured some peculiarities due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2020, members held red or green paddles out of their car windows to vote in a drive-in format. In an outdoor 2021 meeting, the sprinkler system went off right next to the table with audio-visual technology on it.
“Moments we’ll never forget, as hard as I try,” Town Meeting Moderator John Hine said to laughter Wednesday evening in the South Hadley High School auditorium, where the town returned to a mostly normal Town Meeting.
The meeting moved fairly quickly, with all 18 articles passing by wide margins. Though some members criticized increases to the town’s police budget, arguing some of that money should be reallocated to education or other town services, the $51.87 million operating budget passed 79 to 12.
The budget included a $1.15 million increase to the school department’s budget — mostly a result of new funding from the Student Opportunity Act. The money will help the district hire a director of health services, provide more funding for vocational students and hire more adjustment counselors during a continuing mental health crisis for young people, Business Administrator Jennifer Voyik told Town Meeting.
Town Meeting members also passed some $2.24 million in capital spending. The spending includes $1.67 million in unreserved free cash to us many projects, including $675,000 for drainage and HVAC work at the high school, $124,000 for police vehicles, $85,000 for a van for the Council on Aging, $65,000 for the removal of the Queensville Dam, $90,000 for repairs to the Police Department roof, another $132,000 for that building’s HVAC system and more.
The town also created its first-ever Human Rights Commission, passed a new master plan praised by some as a metric-driven guide for the town’s future, and fixed stormwater management bylaws to be in compliance with state law.
The meeting briefly crawled to a halt, though, on the last article of the night: a bylaw to allow and regulate mobile food vendors in town, such as food trucks.
“Without a bylaw, we’ve often had to say no and we don’t want to do that,” Town Administrator Lisa Wong said about bringing food trucks to town.
Two Town Meeting members proposed amendments to the bylaw, related to how such mobile operations would be regulated. After some debate, both failed and the bylaw ultimately passed 65 to 22.
Dusty Christensen can be reached at dchristensen@gazettenet.com.