HADLEY — Neighboring communities could begin seeking reimbursement for emergency responses in Hadley if the depleted Hadley Fire Department is unable to provide mutual aid for firefighting and medical calls.
That’s an assessment offered by Chris Norris, Easthampton’s fire chief and president of the Western Massachusetts Fire Chiefs Association. Norris was among around 20 area fire professionals who came out Wednesday to advise the town’s Select Board and Finance Committee, during a joint meeting at the Hadley Senior Center, of possible ramifications from its move to streamlining fire services.
“Understand mutual aid is designed to be mutual, and by cutting your fire and EMS, you’ve lost that ability,” Norris said.
Elsewhere in the state, Norris said, some mutual aid agreements are being renegotiated so that neighboring communities can solicit assessments when firefighters cross the city or town line.
The Hadley Fire Department last fall saw two of its eight full-time firefighters laid off as part of budget cuts necessitated by a failed $2.25 million Proposition 2½ tax-cap override. A recent resignation by a full-time firefighter, and an off-the-job injury for another full-time firefighter, has left the department with only four-full time firefighters, along with Fire Chief Michael Spanknebel.
Already, the lost positions have compromised the department’s ability to run a back-up EMT-level ambulance to supplement the work of the private Action EMS ambulance.
Bryan Davis, president of Northampton Firefighters Local 108 union, said he found it sad that Hadley made a majority of its cuts to public safety, with an emergency dispatching position also lost.
“Not only does it affect them, it affects other communities around here,” Davis said. “They did 2,200 calls last year. Cutting their staff in half, that falls on Northampton, Easthampton, Amherst (and) Belchertown.”
Hadley is jeopardizing the town’s well-being by cutting firefighters, said Kevin Girard, president of the Belchertown Firefighters Association.
“When you start losing public safety, you’re putting the security of the town at risk,” Girard said.
Both residents and nonresidents who serve on Hadley’s full-time and call force also weighed in.
“Our situation here in Hadley affects the towns around us, pretty significantly,” said John Kinchla, a resident call force member.
Kinchla suggested that Hadley staffing is now “egregiously low” compared to towns with similar populations and commercial development.
“An override is necessary; there’s just no other way around it,” Kinchla said. “Our current situation is unsafe and it’s creating a situation that opens up the town to legal liability.”
Hadley firefighter David Spafford said he is doing 24 to 48 hours of overtime each week because of the cuts.
“I don’t want to be here as much as I am, I wanted to be with my family, but I’m not,” Spafford said. “I do it because I do care about this community, on both the fire and EMS side.”
Belchertown Fire Chief John Ingram also said that Hadley cuts affect his town’s ambulance service, which often heads east toward Ware and Bondsville and west toward Amherst. But he is more concerned for peers in Hadley.
“What they’re going through is just unbelievable,” Ingram said. “I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night with what they have to deal with.”
Ingram said Belchertown has benefited from a regionalized dispatch center, which could also work in Hadley.
Norris added that while it’s up to Hadley officials and residents to set priorities and fire service levels, not moving forward with a transition to a town-run ambulance will affect the town. When a fire-based EMS service is no longer supplementing the private contractor, the town loses part of the negotiating leverage it would have with Action.
Budget situation
Going into fiscal year 2027, Select Board member Molly Keegan said town personnel will be cut again if revenues are not supplemented through an override, though it’s unknown where.
“It is absolutely going to be people, that’s not fear mongering, that’s the reality of the budget,” Keegan said.
Keegan said Hadley needs more development “I don’t see a path forward without additional growth,” Keegan said.
About one-third of the failed override, or more than $700,000, would have covered a health insurance increase, and that payment remained an obligation for the town, said Finance Director Linda Sanderson.
Sanderson said a targeted override just for the fire department would help, though she warned the overall budget will still be problematic.
“It’s going to get worse before it gets better,” Sanderson said.
Several residents also offered insights.
Shardool Parmar, whose family lives in town and runs several hotels, said people’s lives and assets are at stake. He observes that Hadley brings in $6.8 million in revenue from commercial development, more than enough to cover the less than $5.5 million in public safety costs.
Lynne Latham of Highland Circle suggested that Hadley should have taken an approach similar to South Hadley by creating a task force to bring forward recommendations, which in the neighboring community have included an $11 million override, expanding payment in lieu of taxes for tax-exempt properties and creating an economic development plan.
The problem for Paul Benjamin of Newton Lane is that Hadley hasn’t approached the budget challenges with the right mindset. “We should be more forward looking” Benjamin said.
Ronnie Williams of East Commons Drive said many residents seem to be stuck in a nostalgia, not appreciating that an override is needed because everything is getting more expensive. “It just bothers me when people say it should stay the same as it was,” Williams said
Belchertown resident Eric Weiss said his community recently successfully sold an override as an investment in the town’s future. “Invest in Hadley, that’s what you need to do, that’s what the residents need you to do,” Weiss said.
Following the meeting, Evan Jacobs of Cold Spring Lane wrote in an email that what he heard worries him.
“Ultimately, Hadley is facing an existential threat to both human lives, and perhaps the town itself, if we cannot right the ship ASAP,” Jacobs wrote.