Selectboard discusses Lanthrop Village Project, town administrator search

Dec. 9, 2020 | Danielle Eaton
daniellee@thereminder.com

The South Hadley Selectboard discusses the process for hiring a new town administrator when current administrator, Mike Sullivan, retires in 2021.
Photo credit: South Hadley TV

SOUTH HADLEY –  The South Hadley Selectboard met on the evening of Dec. 1, where they discussed a variety of items including the search for a new town administrator and transferring money to the Lathrop Village Project.

The meeting began with a resident expressing his frustration about an ongoing problem of people parking on Lithia Springs Road. Selectboard Vice Chair Sarah Etelman said police were ticketing people, but that hadn’t stopped them from parking under no parking signs that had been installed.

“The majority, vast majority of ticketing happening in town is on Lithia Springs Road. It doesn’t seem to be discouraging people from parking where they’re not supposed to be parking,” she said. Etelman added that she’d talked with the resident about “a couple of things that he could take some steps,” starting with him speaking during the one forum portion of the meeting.

The board then moved to a reprogramming performance hearing for the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) with regards to the Lathrop Village Project. Town Administrator Mike Sullivan explained that the purpose of the meeting was the town wanted to “reprogram $26,000 from the housing rehab money to the Lathrop Village project, which would provide for handicap accessible apartments or apartments to be converted to be handicap accessible in the bathrooms.”

He said it was “a worthwhile project,” particularly because there were “so few of those types of units, affordable housing in South Hadley.” He said he thought it was a “good investment” and the price on the project had “gone up from the earlier estimates.”

Selectboard Chair Jeff Cyr asked where the money would be repurposed from. Sullivan said it would come housing rehab money. This money, Sullivan explained, was typically used each year by the town to give “grants slash loans to people who are income eligible to make improvements to their home.” Sullivan said there was still money in the fund, so they would not be “abandoning that project” and were still able to grant some loans and/or grants.

“We’re just moving a portion of the money to the Lathrop Village Project, just basically to get that done,” he said. Additionally, he said a similar move had been made a few years prior to pay for a ramp that had been built at the Newton Manor Community Center.

Senior planner for the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, John O’Leary, who also serves as the town’s project manager for their FY19 CBDG program gave some updates on how the program had been used throughout the year. He said the town had received $550,000 during the FY19 year from the Department of Housing and Urban Development for two programs. He explained that one of the programs was a housing rehabilitation and assistance program, the program the town had been utilizing.

O’Leary explained the program works by awarding loans of up to $35,000 for home repairs for those who qualify. He said homeowners would continually pay back the loan over the course of 15 years, but if they lived in their house for 15 years then the loan would be forgiven and become a grant. This year, he said, the town had $360,000 allocated toward the program. He said of that budget, the town had agreements with homeowners worth $310,000, leaving a remaining $50,000.

The second project the town had received funds for through the Department of Housing and Urban Development, he explained, was the Lanthrop Village Project. That project, he said, would “replace four existing bathtubs with four walk-in shower units for four handicap apartments located in the Lanthrop Village Apartment Complex.” The initial low bid for the work had been $67,694, leaving an initial gap in funding. With the board’s approval, O’Leary said they were hoping to reallocate $26,000. This would not only cover the final $15,000 gap, but would allow for a 15 percent contingency “in the event that there is an unforeseen additional cost during construction.” The board then made a motion and unanimously approved to transfer the money.

The board then received a COVID-19 updated from the town’s public health director, Sharon Hart. Hart said the town’s numbers had continued to increase, and resulted in another 27 cases the week prior. She said between confirmed cases and potential cases from contacts there were a total of 92 cases of COVID-19. She said most of the contacts and cases that had been contacted “were for Thanksgiving events.”

Cyr questioned how many cases were in long-term care facilities and how many were residents within town. Hart said while there was “a couple long-term care,” the majority of the cases were within the community. She added that the town had experienced two resident deaths as a result of the virus. Sullivan said signs promoting social distancing and mask wearing would soon arrive and be installed around town in addition to electronic signs that had already been put in place. He also thanked the South Hadley community for wearing masks and doing their best to stop the infection from spreading.

Next, the board began the discussion for the search for the next town administrator as Sullivan will be retiring at the end of June in 2021. The search will be led by Community Paradigm Associates, who has helped dozens of communities across the state find candidates for and help with the process of searching for a new town manager.

The board then went on to discuss details of the search such as timeline, a community screening group and how exactly the process would work. When discussing timeline, Cyr said they were hoping to have a candidate hired and start on July 1, but noted that Sullivan had said he would stay on longer if necessary. Over the course of the discussion the group decided they would begin their community group with seven participants that would need to be established by the second week of February.

The board also discussed the makeup of the group including some positions within the community that may be on it and how many people would be on the committee. Ultimately, while the group did not decide on specific members of the community to be a part of the committee, they decided the committee screening group would be made up of seven members and include a representative from Mt. Holyoke College, a member of the business community, a resident, a Selectboard member, a department head, a school committee member and a member of the appropriations committee.

Just before adjourning, Sullivan mentioned that Chris Bouchard, the director of the Department of Public Works (DPW), had made the suggestion that rather than having the DPW host a Christmas tree pickup they schedule drop off appointments at the landfill for the trees. The money saved from not doing a pickup, Sullivan said, would be put towards an additional yard waste pickup in the spring for leaves and debris.

He said while he knows some will be disappointed, those who get a tree to their house will likely have a way to get it to the landfill and there are private ways to dispose of trees. Additionally, he said more people will likely benefit from an additional spring pickup than a tree pickup at the holidays.

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