Hatfield Budget Session Leaves Town $124,000 Short, Triggers Department Cut Directives

HATFIELD — March 28, 2023 — Hatfield's Select Board and Finance Committee trimmed a projected $577,000 budget gap to roughly $124,000 at their March 28 joint session, but left department heads with a directive to find an additional two percent in cuts before Town Meeting. Working line by line through the fiscal year 2024 operating budget, the boards stripped non-contractual cost-of-living increases and discretionary salary bumps across most departments, leaving the school budget at $5,241,091 — still $247,000 below contractual obligations — and preserving ambulance funding at roughly $101,922 drawn entirely from ambulance revenues. Fire Chief Bob Flaherty warned that reverting to a fiscal year 2022 ambulance budget "will not be able to function" and would reduce guaranteed coverage to eight hours a day, Monday through Friday. The board reached tentative consensus to present two separate budget articles at Town Meeting — one balanced, one contingent on a Proposition 2½ override ballot question — with a cable franchise agreement vote set for April 18. New full-time firefighter-EMTs Michael Missoulas and Nicole Thornton were introduced at the meeting's outset, with both enrolled in paramedic training programs.