BLANDFORD- Representatives of town governments from Blandford, Russell, Montgomery, Huntington, Chester and Middlefield met with Lt. Governor Karyn Polito in the Blandford Town Hall on Tuesday to sign Commonwealth Community Compacts. Also in attendance were Sean Cronin, the administration’s senior deputy commissioner for local services, Rep. William “Smitty” Pignatelli (D-Lenox), and Nico Helms, representing Sen. Don Humason (R-Westfield), who was working on the budget in the Ways and Means Executive Session in Boston.
Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito looks on as Adam Dolby, chair of the Blandford Selectmen signs the Community Compact for his town. Waiting for their turn to sign are (left to right) Jane Thielen, administrative assistant and tax collector for Montgomery, Allan Vint, chair of the Middlefield Select Board, John McVeigh, selectman from Huntington, and Don Ellershaw, chair of the Chester Select Board. (Photo by Amy Porter)
The Community Compact is a voluntary, mutual agreement entered into between the Baker-Polito Administration and individual cities and towns of the Commonwealth. By entering a Community Compact, a community agrees to implement self-selected best practices. As part of this partnership, the Commonwealth agrees to fulfill a set of commitments and works to provide assistance for a community based on their chosen best practice.
Adam Dolby, chair of the Blandford Selectmen, welcomed everybody to the town. He said signing the Community Compacts is the next step in making sure that the hilltowns remain viable, despite declining tax revenues and shrinking populations.
“For us, certainly, the town of Blandford has seen a need (for collaboration) for quite some time,” Dolby said. He said two of the challenges that he is hoping will be addressed are attracting talented professionals for shared positions within the towns, which can individually only offer part-time work, and in upgrading technology, which he said is essential to attract new residents.
“We all know being from small communities that if we work together as neighbors we can bring more services to our region. Being a school district, we all work together anyway,” said Donald Ellershaw, chair of the Chester Select Board. He said Chester already shares a tax collector with Middlefield, and different towns have shared police officers.
“I’m glad the Lt. Governor and the Govenor have brought this to light, to help communities work together,” Said Selectman John McVeigh of Huntington.
While each town’s representative signed a Community Compact, the six were identical, pledging to work together to create conditions for a strong economy in the face of increasing pressures on municipal and school budgets. In return, the Baker-Polito Administration pledged to be a reliable partner in local aid, to make technical assistance opportunities available, and to not propose any new unfunded state mandates.
Polito said the six Compacts were numbers 188 to 194 since she took office. She said that beyond sharing resources, the administration wanted a program that would empower local governments, and help to strengthen their infrastructures.
“The Compact program does that. What I love about it is you decide what you want to focus on. How you can better serve the 7,000 to 8,000 residents in your six communities by regionalizing is profound,” Polito said.
“This is going to happen. We have a meeting next week in Huntington to see what we want to focus on,” said Cronin, who will be offering technical assistance to the towns as they move forward. “I’m very much looking forward to this,” he added.
The signing of the Community Compact represents several years of meetings and planning by the Gateway Towns Advisory Committee (GTAC) and the Gateway Sustainability Task Force, which formed in November of last year.
“I think it’s nice in our six towns that we have a group of volunteers and town officials that have worked hard, resulting in this Community Compact and helping our towns move forward,” said Huntington Finance Committee chair Darlene McVeigh, who has moderated both the GTAC and Task Force committees. “Without all of us, it’s not possible.”
