Hatfield Select Board Approves $717,981 Free Cash Plan for Special Town Meeting

HATFIELD — June 4, 2019 — Hatfield Select Board approves $717,981 free cash spending plan ahead of June 25 Special Town Meeting. Meeting jointly with the Finance Committee, the three-member board voted unanimously to direct the town's certified free cash across 17 warrant articles, including $140,000 for school safety apparatus at Smith Academy, $47,000 for a water main extension on Straits Road, $100,000 to stabilization, $50,000 for a sewer inflow and infiltration study, and $31,000 toward a new ambulance. The board also approved a software transition for the collector's office to the Vadar platform at a year-one cost of $22,339, funded by trimming the finance reserve deposit. Transfer station fees were raised for the first time in at least 10 years, with bag prices up 50 cents. The Town Government Committee — which studied a potential expansion of the board from three to five members — was extended through June 30, 2020, on a 2-1 vote, with member Edmund Jaworski dissenting in favor of a non-binding public ballot before further committee work.