HAMPDEN – In a meeting that lasted just over an hour, residents who came out to vote at Hampden’s Special Town Meeting on Oct. 18 approved all 15 articles on the warrant with limited discussion.

The most debated topic at the meeting was Article 9 – an article that asked residents to vote to appropriate or reserve from the Community Preservation annual revenues in the amount of $9,300 for the Hampden Historical Commission to hire a consultant to prepare and submit an application for a Historic Register listing.

Historical Commission member Christina Rivest spoke to the article sharing that there are 110 properties that would be considered for the proposed Historic Register listing. She noted that the Historical Commission sent out a mailing to each property owner which provided details with a map and what the designation means. Later, Historical Commission Chair Connie Witt explained that the mailing had a self-addressed and stamped post card within it asking the property owners if they would be in favor, unsure or opposed regarding the listing. She noted that 76 percent of respondents said they were in favor.

Rivest stated that this is “very different” from a historic district. The Historic Register listing does not restrict what people can do on their properties, according to Rivest. Witt shared that “it’s recognition for something that we have that we’ve been able to keep for well over 100 to 150 years.” She explained that there are over 900 historic districts in the national register in Massachusetts alone – there are roughly 2.5 national register districts for every town in Massachusetts, and Hampden only has one.

“This is not a local historic district, it’s a national register historic district. It has absolutely no authority to tell you anything that you may do with your home,” Witt said. She also shared that following the mailing that was sent to property owners, the commission hosted a forum where those who chose to attend could have their questions answered.

A few residents questioned why properties had to be automatically put into the historic register, noting that perhaps property owners should be given the choice to opt into the register.

An attempt was made to make a new motion that would remove the phrase “and submit,” from the article – meaning the article would approve the $9,300 to hire the consultant to prepare an application for the historic register listing, however not to submit the listing. Witt discouraged this amendment to the article, questioning, “Why spend $9,300 … when you’re not going to do anything with it?” She noted that if this adjusted motion passed, the work that the consultant gathered would sit in a file cabinet without use.

Ultimately, the adjusted motion failed. Residents then voted on the original motion to approve $9,300 to hire the consultant and prepare the application for submission to the historic register listing, which passed. T

he following articles also passed at Special Town Meeting:

•Article 1: Purchase of a police cruiser with $53,000 from unappropriated available funds.

•Article 2: Municipal Light Plan. Board of Selectmen member Craig Rivest explained that this article would be the first step in looking into the town having their own broadband service. Rivest noted this would “give the leg up” to the town to go to the state and look at the feasibility of creating a service such as this. He noted that this article would have to go through Town Meeting twice. This was done in a secret ballot, each resident in attendance was given a paper to cast their vote with. This article required a two-thirds vote, which passed 59-3.

•Article 3: Police Budget Adjustments. This article explained a net reduction in the Police Departments budgets of $174,313.

•Article 4: Match for Small Bridge Program. This involved the transfer of $30,000 from unappropriated available funds to match the state’s $34,000 to repair the bridge and culvert on East Main Street near the Audubon society.

•Article 5 & 6: Conservation restriction for solar project at landfill and Deed Transfer for the Ameresco Project. Board of Selectmen member John Flynn explained that the town has been exploring solar to be located at the town landfill. He noted that during the process of exploring the solar, there was an offset requirement because of endangered species at the location. By voting in favor of Article 5, this would allow the Board of Selectmen members the option to find someone to oversee the offset land that is being used for the solar field that will be set aside, guaranteed to not be disturbed for the endangered species. Subsequently, Article 6 is a deed transfer to authorize the Board of Selectmen to transfer a total of 18.78 acres of town-owned land to the custody and control of the Conservation Commission for rare species mitigation.

•Article 7: Assessors Department Classification Change which transferred $2,364 from unappropriated available funds.

•Article 8: Building Department Classification Change which transferred $3,889 from unappropriated available funds.

•Article 10: Library Classification transferred $3,520 from unappropriated available funds.

•Article 11: Highway Department Truck Purchase transferred $43,000 from unappropriated available funds for a pickup truck.

•Article 12: Reduction of HWRSD Assessment for Fiscal 2022 had a $86,143 reduction in assessment to the Town of Hampden.

•Article 13: Short Term Debt transferred $375,443 from unappropriated funds to reduce outstanding debt.

•Article 14: Transfer to General Stabilization Account $223,877 from unappropriated funds to reduce the tax rate.

•Article 15: Reducing the Tax Rate transferred $378,840 from unappropriated available funds into the general stabilization account.