HAMPDEN – Dispatch regionalization was again on the agenda at the Hampden Select Board’s Feb. 8 meeting.

A letter was signed by the Select Board to be sent to the Massachusetts State 911 office formally requesting the recognition of the new joint dispatch of Wilbraham and Hampden as a single public safety answering point (PSAP). This is an important step in becoming eligible for the state regionalization grants that will fund Hampden’s portion of dispatch costs for the next three years, with diminishing returns thereafter.

The controversy over the inter-municipal agreement (IMA) with Wilbraham continued as Select Board member John Flynn voiced displeasure that fellow board member Mary Ellen Glover had written “no” on the contract, rather than sign the document or leave the location for her signature blank.

For her part, Glover said that she did not want her lack of a signature to be taken as an oversight. She stated that she was uncomfortable signing and that it was important to document dissent on board decisions.

Flynn noted it was an issue of “decorum,” not of squelching dissent. “We don’t need to be three to nothing on everything,” he said, praising the board’s “vibrant discussions.”

Pushing against the IMA as unlawful, resident Jim Smith had requested, through the board, a written opinion from Town Counsel Rose Crowley on the legality of the IMA without a budget line item associated with it. Interim Town Administrator Bob Markel explained via email that he saw “no point in pursuing a written opinion” because the budget submitted by the police department contained a line item with $457,000 for dispatch services. During the meeting, Markel said the point was “moot.”

He added that if the state comes through with the regionalization grant funding, the money will be removed from the budget at the special town meeting in the fall before it impacts the tax rate.

Smith insisted that the town is “incurring a long-term liability” without appropriating the money for it, which he said is a violation of MGL Chapter 44, Section 31. “It’s obligating the town long-term without going through the town meeting.”

Davenport responded that he’s “not into hypotheticals” and disputed Smith’s assertion that the town didn’t know how much money it would have to pay in the future. Davenport has laid out the funding schedule of the IMA before, including at a public dispatch forum on Dec. 8, 2020. The regionalized dispatch services would be of no cost to the town for three years, after which Hampden would pay $62,500 in the fourth year and $93,750 in the fifth year. After that, the town would pay the full cost of $125,000 per year. The cost of Hampden-based dispatch is roughly $450,000 per year.

Markel told Smith that, if the voters chose to, they could vote to withdraw the town from the agreement in year four when a new line item would become necessary. Smith argued that doing so would incur costs in the form of new equipment and hiring dispatchers.

Ultimately, Davenport said, the town can’t appropriate money for use in three years in the future. Moving on to the topic of potable water for all town residents, it was announced that water testing is underway at the well at Green Meadows School. It is one of two possible sources of water the town is considering as an alternative to the sodium-contaminated well near the Highway Department. The other option is to drill a new well at Memorial Park.

“If we’re confident enough in that well to provide water to our children, we should be confident enough to provide water to a few extra houses,” Flynn said about the Green Meadows well. Another factor in which source the town will use is the water flow capacity.

An article will appear on the warrant at the special town meeting to approve the funding for whichever water source that the town decides to pursue.

The Somers Road crosswalk proposed for installation at the Village Mart, which will be funded by a Gaming Commission grant, was approved by that entity. The $100,000 grant is designed to mitigate traffic hazards from travel to the MGM Casino in Springfield. The crosswalk will cost $31,000, and Markel suggested to the board that the remainder of the funding be coupled with an available transportation construction grant to address the four-way intersection of Somers Road, Allen Street, Wilbraham Road and East Longmeadow Road.

In discussing ways to lessen the danger at the intersection, Flynn said he is not in favor of stop signs, as he believed people will forget to stop out of habit. He also discounted the possibility of a rotary because the town would need to seize private land. Instead, Flynn said a stoplight would be the best solution.

Markel suggested bringing in one or more engineering firms for an assessment, to be paid for by the grant funding. The board approved the plan.

The board took up preliminary discussions on whether to continue to use a public health nurse after the federal coronavirus relief grant that currently funds the position runs out in December. Glover said that the salary would cost about $5,500 per year. Glover suggested that the town could free up funding by ending the contract with Cleargov, which provides Hampden with a municipal funding and government transparency website. She made the point that many residents, including herself, view the site once and never use it again.

Davenport raised the proposition of joining with another town to share a public health nurse and perhaps a public health agent, as Lorri McCool will be retiring this year. Glover agreed that sharing a health agent with Wilbraham had worked out well, but was hesitant to make a similar arrangement for a public health nurse, despite Davenport noting that both Monson and Wilbraham had proposed that Hampden take the lead in any IMA and they would pay Hampden. The conversation was tabled.

Flynn reported that the LED street lighting that had been installed at the end of 2019 had reduced December 2020’s kilowatt-hours (kWh) to half of what it had been in 2019. He later explained to Reminder Publishing that the saving from the change to LEDs had meant the town had not had to increase its streetlight budget and could afford to put more streetlights at key locations.