SOUTHAMPTON — The Select Board on Tuesday is expected to finalize the warrant for a special Town Meeting scheduled for Sept. 30, where residents will decided whether to spend $11.97 million toward design and construction of a new senior center.
The board, which unveiled a draft of the 11-article warrant to the public last week, will discuss and finalize the agenda at a joint meeting with the Finance Committee on Tuesday at 6 p.m. Most of the discussion at the Sept. 2 board meeting involved Articles 1 and 2, which deal with the senior center project and how to cover an unexpected midyear increase in employee health insurance.
The senior center is the only article that if approved, will be put on a ballot for a special town election planned for Nov. 6.
Article 1 as voters to appropriate spending nearly $12 million to design, build and furnish the center. The total cost of the project is estimated to be about $14 million, with the additional funding coming from the estate of David “Red” Parsons, a Southampton resident who died in May 2021, leaving the town nearly $2.5 million written in his will to fulfill a feasibility study for a new senior center.
That study was finished in 2023 and in 2024 the town held a successful debt exclusion vote to purchase land at 117-125 College Highway, as the future home of the senior center along with a new public safety building.
Town Administrator Scott Szczebak said at the Sept. 2 meeting that it could take one to two years after the senior center is constructed for property owners to experience an increase in their property taxes. If approved at special Town Meeting, he recommended the Select Board appoint a senior center committee to oversee and manage the project.
Select Board member Jon Lumbra noted that the draft needs to include more information about the project on the final warrant, so residents will understand every detail.
“You don’t borrow the $11.9 million on day one, it’s going to be borrowed over probably a two-year period so it’ll be phased in …,” he said at the meeting. “If this has any hope at passing, it needs to be crystal clear.”
Chair Christine Fowles agreed, adding the town has not seen a major municipal project like this since the library was built almost 30 years ago. The article will need to be clear about what the borrowing for large-scale projects looks like.
“We all agree we’ve got to be very clear and provide as much explanation, whatever we need to make that all very clear to the voters,” she said at the meeting.
Employee health insurance
Article 2 asks the town to transfer $318,922 to help cover the costs of employee health insurance due to a steep increase from the town’s insurance provider. The money will come from multiple areas, including stabilization funds, public safety items and the William E. Norris Elementary School.
The transfer is necessary after the 73 members of the Hampshire County Group Insurance Trust voted last month to increase insurance rates by an additional 20% effective Oct. 1. The total amount of the increase was approximately $500,000 for Southampton, which was the only member to vote against the insurance increase.
The trust provides insurance for more than 12,000 active and retired public employees for many Hampshire and Franklin county cities and towns, water and fire districts, regional schools and other government entities. Members of the trust have shown strong concern about how they will deal with increase.
Lumbra pointed out that $318,922 will only cover the town’s portion, but this is only the first part. The town also covers Hampshire Regional School District’s portion of the total increase, which will cost an additional $250,000.
“We are looking at pretty much anywhere that has available money that we can take from, without affecting personel,” Szczebak said at the meeting.
The town has already voiced their frustration and questioned why the trust did not inform members sooner about the increase.
At a Insurance Advisory Committee in May, Szczebak said he is “shocked” that the copays and premium levels through the trust appear to be similar to what would have been offered 25 years ago, and that the Insurance Advisory Committee has not dealt with the realities and reduced the benefits.
Here is a summary of some of the remaining nine articles:
- Article 5: Transfer of $6,691 to the Conservation Agent.
- Article 6: Transfer $5,907 to the Health Director/Agent.
- Article 7: Appointment of Finance Committee.
- Article 8: Appropriate $50,000 to get match funding from Kestrel Land Trust.
- Article 9: Appropriation of $426,900 to obtain a Local Acquisition for Natural Diversity Grant for 27 acres of land.
Here is the warrant draft: