HAMPDEN – At the most recent Hampden Board of Selectmen meeting, officials reviewed a proposed inter-municipal agreement (IMA) to share health services with the towns of Monson, Wilbraham and Longmeadow, with the last acting as the lead community. In the draft presented on June 1, the sixth to be reviewed by the towns, Longmeadow would share Health Agent Finn McCool with the other three towns. The state would pay for the first year of the regionalized services, with money left over for years two and three. There would be funding for a shared public health nurse as well. Hampden and Wilbraham, which share a health agent, will be without one when Lorri McCool retires in August.

Interim Town Administrator Bob Markel said that the IMA has the advantage of being fully funded as a one-year “experiment” with the option to continue.
The board made suggestions to tighten up the language in references to the different forms of government each town uses. Markel will continue the negotiation of the agreement.

Board of Selectmen member Craig Rivest proposed a rebranding of the YouTube channel on which Markel has been posting Board of Selectmen meetings. He suggested making the channel a location for board and committee meetings and other town-produced information. He also wants to create an official municipal Facebook Page to post open burning notices, DPW alerts and links to the YouTube channel.

Flynn suggested that the town check with the state ethics authority first, but Rivest noted that other towns in the area already have a similar social media presence. He and Markel plan to investigate it further.

A letter was sent to the town from the state Department of Environmental Protection offering free testing of wells for PFAS chemicals. PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a family of man-made chemicals used for industrial applications that have been shown to result in adverse health effects. While no longer produced in the United States, the chemicals have been found left in the environment in other cities and towns, including at Barnes Air Force Base in Westfield. More information on PFAS can be found at https://www.epa.gov/pfas/basic-information-pfas.

The testing is a part of new drinking water regulations, put out in October of 2020, stating that all public water systems are required to sample for PFAS. The Board of Health has been invited to meet with the DEP in the second week of June.

Before entering executive session, Rivest turned to the lawsuit between Hampden and the Hampden Wilbraham Regional School District. Upon reviewing the contract between the district and the towns, Rivest said, he found nothing stipulating that Thornton W. Burgess Middle School must remain in use as a middle school. Instead, he said, the document states that children from member towns must be educated in their own communities, with options of cross-town school enrollment. Because Green Meadows School fulfills that requirement, Rivest said the town doesn’t have a case.

“From a philosophical, educational standpoint,” Chair Donald Davenport asked if it was wise to have young students in the same building with older kids. Rivest said that his second-grader had benefitted from a program in which the middle schoolers read to the elementary school students.

Resident Mary Ellen Glover, a key proponent of the lawsuit, cited language in the contract that stated children will be educated in “facilities” within their towns, and contended that the wording meant multiple schools, rather than solely Green Meadows.

Rivest countered, “I think you’re reading between the lines.”