LEVERETT — A part-time community and events coordinator for the Council on Aging has been a boon to town elders since beginning her tenure last year, according to members of the town panel.
In a discussion with the Select Board Tuesday, Council on Aging members said that the 15 hours per week Johanna Hall regularly works has improved the lives of Leverett’s senior citizens.
But members are concerned that to continue funding the position, the Select Board, Finance Committee and Personnel Board are asking for specific metrics that may be impossible to provide.
Jya Plavin, the Council on Aging’s vice chair, said it’s uncertain whether the details of Hall’s work will be sufficient to guarantee the town keeps supporting this position.
During budget season, the Council on Aging said Hall had reached more than 100 senior citizens, meeting up with them at Town Hall or the library.
Tom Hankinson, who chairs the Personnel Board, said goals of the position should be seen as “aspirational” and that providing regular updates on the work Hall is doing will demonstrate why the position is being funded.
Council on Aging member Tom Wolff said he is seeing positive outcomes in that more people coming to the weekly lunches and more outreach is being done than ever before.
“Community development is what she’s doing,” Wolff said.
Select Board member Jed Proujansky said relaying this information to the public is important. “You need to sell your story to the town every day,” Projuansky said.
Judi Fonsh, who chairs the Council on Aging, said she has been doing this through the Leverett Connects listserv, though worries about inundating that forum.
Fonsh also inquired about when the Boston Post Gold Cane would next be given to the town’s oldest resident. Betty Wilson, the last recipient who was presented the gold cane in October 2024, died last July.
Town Clerk Lisa Stratford explained that she and Hankinson have been trying to identify someone who can be given the honor. Of those next in line, one died and another moved to Cape Cod to be with family, making that person ineligible. And Stratford said some refuse to accept the recognition.
Dudleyville Road work, town center project
In other business, Town Administrator Margie McGinnis said the the first phase of culvert and swales work on a 1.4-mile long stretch of Dudleyville Road is supposed to be complete by May 15.
Funded through a $1 million grant from the MassWorks Infrastructure program, McGinnis said about $140,000 will remain, which could be used to pay Tighe & Bond to design the next phase. The second part of the project, if again funded by the state, would include stabilization of banks along the road.
McGinnis said she is also applying to the state’s Community One Stop for Growth program for the design of a town center project. This would entail getting input from residents to create a plan that might include sidewalks extending along Montague Road to the Leverett Elementary School and Leverett Library, and other forms of complete streets.
Richard Nathhorst, who serves on the Planning Board, said sidewalks are an inquiry he often receives.
The application for this money has not yet been successful, so McGinnis said she might get help with writing it from the Franklin Council of Governments.
The Select Board also appointed Jesse Phillips, a fire and safety officer at the University of Massachusetts, to the town’s Fire Department, and residents Tom Ewing and Tilman Wolf to the Capital Planning Committee.
