SOUTH HADLEY — Town Meeting members rejected a plastic bag ban but adopted an agreement to integrate the town’s two libraries at the special Town Meeting Wednesday night.
More than 90 people attended the meeting that spanned more than three hours and covered 22 articles. Twelve of the 20 approved articles were adopted unanimously, one article was withdrawn and only the plastic bag ban failed.
Even before the final article proposed the integration of the Gaylord Memorial Library and the South Hadley Public Library had been read, at least six Town Meeting members lined up to speak on the topic with many speaking during the hour-long debate. The article would ultimately pass 47 in favor to 41 against.
The motion spoke specifically to the memorandum of understanding which outlined how the integration would work, but did not address funding. The agreement gives either library the option to end the partnership.
Town Meeting member Jeffrey Cyr, Precinct C, opposed the plan.
“I’d like to begin by saying this proposal is not in the best interest of all the tax payers,” Cyr said. “In reference to a recent support article .. it states that the town support ended in 1990s due to fiscal difficulties. Here we are 27 years later and those difficulties still exist …
“By voting yes on this proposal, regardless of the terms, the town budget will grow to accommodate it and will restrict funding for other purposes …,” Cyr continued.
Precinct C Town Meeting member Liz Austin echoed Cyr’s sentiments against the agreement.
“I am not in favor of this motion even though I think it is a lovely little library, and I think that we should not take it on as a greater responsibility town responsibility than we have had in the past.”
Town Meeting member Robert Berwick, Precinct E, spoke in favor of the agreement.
“Gaylord is a gem in our town. It is a center piece. It is unique. There is nothing else like it,” Berwick said. “I believe that it is a valuable asset and it is important that it be funded.”
“I respect deeply the concerns about finances but what hasn’t been stated is that there is no fait accompli that this money has to go Gaylord, that more money has to go year after year,” Berwick continued.
Possibly the most impassioned speech of the night came from Town Meeting Member and state Rep. John Scibak, D-South Hadley.
“We are not asking people to make a permanent decision tonight, we’re asking them to allow something to continue,” Scibak said. “We shouldn’t repeat our mistakes again and again. This is a gem. I think this is really a small amount of money.”
The only article to fail at the meeting was a motion to ban the use of a certain category of plastic bags — 39 voted in support of the ban while 52 voted against.
A proposed amendment to the article which would require retailers to advise customers to properly store and dispose of the bags and would have had police fine those caught littering them also failed.
Those who supported the article, like Austin, argued for a need to reduce pollutants and waste getting into water systems.
Some Town Meeting members, including Selectman Ira Brezinsky, expressed their desire to see the bag ban go to a townwide vote rather than the representative town meeting.
Those opposed questioned the unintended consequences of banning the bags as well as the effect it would actually have on the environment.
For Town Meeting Member Michael Fisher, precinct D, the ban was “undemocratic.”
Fisher argued that in Amherst and Northampton, where the similar bans have been adopted, a small group of people voted to prevent thousands of their fellow citizens from making a choice about their grocery bags.
“Just because Amherst and Northampton were willing to make an intrusive, undemocratic decision does not mean South Hadley should follow suit,” Fisher said.
Emily Cutts can be reached at ecutts@gazettenet.com.