SOUTH HADLEY — The $61.4 million fiscal year 2027 budget headed to Town Meeting next week saves the schools, but leaves the town’s other center of learning without the same lifeline.
In a 3-2 vote, the Select Board approved using $1.5 million in free cash for the school budget, but not $75,000 for library state certification. This ensures sports, extracurricular activities, advanced placement classes and current staff levels are preserved another year. However, the library will lose its state certification.
The debate over the library, which lasted more than an hour, weighed the risk of losing free services versus maintaining town cash reserves during difficult financial times. Select Board members Renee Sweeney and Carol Constant voted in favor of funding the library, while members Jeff Cyr, Priscilla Marion and Kevin Hennessey voted against it.
The Select Board also decided to wait until Sept. 1 to propose another Proposition 2½ override to voters. The town will use the summer to implement budget task force recommendations, analyze budgets and progress toward stability, the board reasoned.
Town Administrator Lisa Wong advised the board not to set a number until closer to the date, but early discussions pegged the amount at $3.5 million.
“I think that’s really all the town has been asking for right along,” Marion said.
“For me, at least, the library is the number two priority. It’s like the school then whole rest of the town.”
Renee Sweeney, Select Board Member
Budget imbalance
Most of Tuesday’s debate centered around the library’s budget. Since the Select Board’s last meeting, the town accepted a recommendation from the Capital Planning Committee to fund the Ledges Golf Course debt payment using course revenues rather than the town’s remaining free cash. Wong said that shift freed up $75,000 that had not been allocated elsewhere.
This funding is just about the amount required to maintain state certification at the library and retain hours for 10 employees. The other option involved putting the $75,000 into the general stabilization fund for future use.
Cyr said he was frustrated to learn about the budget imbalance after recent meetings of the quad-board and Appropriations Committee. He raised concern about $75,000 suddenly appearing for the library while other departments are seeing cuts. The Department of Public Works and Police Department are each losing two staff positions next year.
“We’re putting a significant amount of capital investment in new trucks to plow roads, and we may not have a driver to operate those trucks,” Cyr said.
Wong responded: “Had you had this information to you sooner, you might be more likely to support it? Because I would take complete ownership of that.”
Marion asked if the money could go to the DPW or Police Department. Wong discouraged this because these positions will be lost through attrition, and hiring someone may mean firing them if an override does not pass. Not funding the library positions would also incur more unemployment costs, Wong said.
Library loss
The cuts to the library’s budget go deeper than the municipal budget. Library Director Joe Rodio explained that state aid accompanying certification would nearly double the system’s losses.
The libraries received $65,000 from state aid last year, which funded staff for both the main library and the Gaylord Memorial Library branch. Not only would the funds be lost, but South Hadley residents could no longer access resources at other libraries, statewide research databases and the Library of the Commonwealth.
“The schools are our number one priority,” Sweeney said. “For me, at least, the library is the number two priority. It’s like the school then whole rest of the town.”
A handful of meeting attendees repeatedly spoke in favor of the library and the services it provides. Nate Therien, chair of the Master Plan Implementation Committee, noted the main library was built to help revive South Hadley Falls, and stifling programming will further hurt redevelopment efforts.
Few other departments in town offer cross-generational programs, Katie Debeer said. Rebecca Chaveri spoke on all the ways the library saved her money while raising her daughter.
“If we are wholeheartedly with multi-board approval, going to go out and ask the residents to pay more taxes, I think it is imperative that we also do all we can to keep open a service that requires that people pay $0 to participate in,” resident Andrea Miles said.
However, other residents raised concerns about further spending during a budget crisis. Joel Prough noted the town could still apply for a waiver to keep certification. If the town lost certification, the minimum contribution would reset, Marion noted.
“It comes across to me as as ‘Oh, we found $75,000 more than what we had, let’s go spend it,'” Prough said. “(More than) 60% of the voters were concerned about that.”
Open Meeting Law
Toward the end of the meeting, Hennessey apologized for violating Open Meeting Law. He sent an email addressed to Wong, Cyr and Constant regarding free cash infusions for the school budget, which technically constitutes a quorum and must therefore be announced in advance.
In the email, Hennessey questioned the decision to only level-service fund the schools while other departments reduced their spending and suggested the schools trim their budget as a show of good faith. He also recommended against another override vote in June.
The budget will be voted on at annual Town Meeting next Wednesday, May 13, at the South Hadley High School auditorium.
