HADLEY — At least three full-time firefighters could be laid off from the Hadley Fire Department, as part of the elimination of eight to 10 municipal positions from the town’s $22.76 million fiscal year 2026 operating budget, following this week’s failed $2.25 million Proposition 2½ tax-cap override.
Yet while the Select Board Wednesday voted unanimously to accept a plan for about $400,000 in personnel reductions and other measures to balance the budget and address a sharp rise in health insurance, as prepared by Interim Town Administrator Michael Mason and Finance Director Linda Sanderson, it remains uncertain whether current employees will need to be let go.
With a fire lieutenant position vacant and Deputy Chief Evan Briant recently departing to become Granby’s fire chief, layoffs would be reduced to three from the original forecast of four to five layoffs.
Fire Chief Michael Spanknebel told the Select Board and Finance Committee that he is trying to come up with a plan so that no additional positions end up being lost, possibly through redistribution of salaries from the unfilled positions. Whether that is possible is unknown.
If the full-time firefighter positions are eliminated, though, Spanknebel said the department will be lucky to cover the daytime hours with the remaining four full-time firefighters and the eight call force members.
“If we have to go back to a call force department from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., I can’t guarantee you who’s going to be responding,” Spanknebel said, explaining that he and officials have received communication from fire chiefs in Northampton and Amherst, as well as a Cooley Dickinson Hospital emergency room doctor, warning about the negative impact on regional services.
Select Board Chairman Randy Izer said the assumption has been that four to five firefighters would no longer be working for the town, with the override defeated.
Still, Select Board members asked whether money could be redirected from some positions that are vacant, which includes the Council on Aging director, the town administrator and a payroll position, to prevent layoffs from happening.
Sanderson explained that the money for the unfilled positions is being kept in place in anticipation of eventually making hires.
Select Board member Molly Keegan said redirecting this money might only buy a short amount of time for the firefighter positions, and not get them through the full budget year.
Aside from the firefighter positions, the other town positions that would be lost in the revised budget are all vacant. They are an emergency dispatcher, saving $49,587; the permit coordinator for the inspections department, saving $52,254; a highway department worker, saving $45,777; a buildings maintenance employee, saving $56,988; and a half-time position in human resources, saving $29,251.
All told, the salaries would go down from $5.77 million to $5.54 million.
“This has been careful planning within Town Hall over the past many months where we could be in a position where we could do reductions in staff that would not cost the town extra money,” Sanderson said.
Those had been kept intentionally vacant, she said.
“We’d been planning, over the last several months, to be ready,” Sanderson said. “As long as we can delay absolute layoffs, we will.”
The budget is also being balanced by a $200,000 contribution from the schools for its portion of the $376,000 increase in health insurance. Sanderson explained that the school leaders were “very generous” in providing this.
Other cuts are minor, including $100 from both the moderator and elector under the Oliver Smith Will account lines, and there are other reductions throughout the budget, such as paying Action Ambulance $30,000 less for its service.
Still, attrition will likely be needed before next year’s budget is prepared. As any position comes up through a natural departure, such as retirement or resignation, Sanderson said there will be an opportunity to make changes without layoffs, which is more economical for the town, because of avoided unemployment benefits, and is also better for employees.
“There do need to be additional reductions in staff for ’27; it’s better for the town if we start that process in 26,” Sanderson said.
An early estimate shows a $1 million shortfall in the fiscal year 2027 budget that would be brought to Town Meeting next May.
That shortfall, though, depends on the specific health insurance increases next year, Mason said.
To that end, Human Resources Director Lauren Wilcox is exploring how the town might exit the Hampshire Country Group Insurance Trust.