Hadley Select Board Closes $2.8 Million Budget Gap With Stabilization Funds, No New Positions

HADLEY -- February 5, 2025, Hadley Select Board wrestles with $2.8 million budget deficit as fiscal year 2026 first draft lands. Finance Committee Chair Linda Sanderson and Town Administrator Mike Mason presented a working budget that started nearly $2.8 million out of balance, a figure Sanderson said she had never seen, driven by an 18 percent group health insurance increase adding roughly $430,000, the first-time inclusion of the ambulance program at a cost of $625,000 funded from stabilization, and across-the-board salary negotiations still in progress. The boards were told stabilization would drop from approximately $1.6 million to about $1.1 million under the current plan, with the ambulance funded only at its existing Basic Life Support level. A full Advanced Life Support build-out with seven additional fire-and-ambulance positions would require $944,355 in additional salary alone, left entirely unfunded. "We either have to lay people off or we have to move the line," Mason said, framing the override question as unavoidable but premature without independently verified revenue projections. The board also voted unanimously to support the Mass Central Rail Trail, approved updated cemetery fees, and authorized use of school land at 131 Russell Street for a combined pickleball, basketball, and winter skating facility proposed by Amy Jennings and Jim Shea.