Hatfield Select Board Votes to Put $480,200 Fire Override on Ballot

HATFIELD — April 8, 2025 — Hatfield Select Board unanimously places two Proposition 2½ questions on the annual town election ballot, including a $480,200 fire and ambulance staffing override. The override, approved at the April 8 meeting alongside a joint budget session with the Finance Committee, would fund 24-hour, seven-day fire and ambulance coverage beginning July 1, 2025, with $376,000 allocated to personnel salaries, roughly $75,200 in estimated benefits, and $15,000 for temporary overnight staff housing. A companion debt exclusion question asks voters to authorize borrowing for roughly $3.3 million in school capital work — replacing boilers and the roof at Hatfield Elementary School and repaving Billings Way and school parking lots — projects officials say have been deferred for more than five years at accelerating cost. Fire Chief Robert Flity told the board the department missed 127 of 487 calls in the prior calendar year, with 28 missed medical calls already logged in 2025. Both questions must reach the ballot printer by April 15, and the town meeting warrant must be signed at the board's next meeting on April 29.