HADLEY – During the Feb. 2 Hadley Select Board meeting Town Administrator Carolyn Brennan gave a few updates on events in town. Brennan opened her comments saying on Feb. 16 she would be presenting their budget on capital requests to the Tri-Board as the budgeting process continues.

She continued by sharing that she and acting Department of Public Works Director Scott McCarthey would be attending a Zoom pre-construction meeting and presentation regarding the Route 9 widening project on Feb. 17.

“I am hoping to get a timeline that I can share with the public, the businesses, the restaurants and local officials so I will keep you updated,” Brennan said.

Brennan then recognized Deputy Fire Chief Evan Briant for receiving the Chief Fire Officer Certification from the Massachusetts Fire Fighters Academy. According to Brennen, Briant has traveled every Thursday for 14 weeks for training in order to receive this certificate.

The Select Board then read confirmations of notice for the Gralinski and Handrick agricultural preservation restrictions (APR) and consent to reduce of notice periods from 120 to 60 days.

The APR program is a voluntary program which is intended to offer a non-development alternative to farmers and other owners of “prime” and “state important” agricultural land who are faced with a decision regarding future use of their farms.

Select Board chair David Fill read the confirmations of the notices before the board voted to approve the notices and reduce the notice period to 60 days. This was the final step of this process as these were both voted on in Town Meeting in May of 2021.

During public comments, Planning Board Clerk Bill Dwyer brought to the Select Board’s attention that the town is lacking representation on the Joint Transportation Committee, a committee run through the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission who creates the transportation improvement plan to help federal transportation dollars get allocated around the region.

“The technique would be the Select Board makes the primary and alternate appointment,” Dwyer said. “It’s not a grant program, it’s the method by which federal funds are allocated. We have to get in line and work through the process and right now we have no one managing the process at the town level.”

The Select Board will discuss this again at their next meeting on Feb. 16.

The Select Board also approved Scott McCarthy as tree superintendent during the meeting.