Town of Hawley

IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE PROVISIONS of the new Massachusetts “Act to Improve Public Records,” Town Clerk Pamela Shrimpton has been appointed Records Access Officer (RAO) for the Town of Hawley. In her new role, Pamela will oversee the process by which public records are stored and made available for the Town, as well as aiding people who request information. Pamela’s hours of availability and contact information are the same as for the Town Clerk, and can be found HERE.

WHILE ITS IMPACT ON SMALL TOWNS LIKE HAWLEY may be minimal at first, a new Massachusetts State Law will go into effect on January 1 that will affect the way public information is handled, stored and made available by municipalities throughout the Commonwealth. Called “An Act to Improve Public Records,” Chapter 121 of the Acts of 2016 provides for:

♦ The Establishment of a Records Access Officer (RAO) position for each Town, charged with providing help to residents who are seeking information, as well as oversight of how public records are processed, stored and accessed; Continue reading →

MBI’s R-F-P FOR LARGE INTERNET PROVIDERS IS NOW OUT, and is available HERE for download.  While not enough time has passed to understand it fully, three things seem clear:

1.) Very little time has been allowed for large corporations to respond.  The timeframe from RFP posting (November 18) to when the Proposals are due at MBI on January 11 is less than 60 days.  That span does not make for thorough due diligence, and can cause major missteps and reversals, as was demonstrated quite clearly by the recent about-face by Axia.  Continue reading →

“BEST” COMMITTEE TO PRESENT RECOMMENDATIONS — Monday, December 12 is the date for the first public presentation of sustainability recommendations for the Mohawk Trail  Regional School District (MTRSD) by the District’s “BEST” committee.  “BEST” stands for Building, Education, Sustainability and Trust, and is a committee of 14 members, all of whom have direct involvement in the dealings of the MTRSD. 

The meeting, which will convene at Mohawk Auditorium at 7:00 pm, will focus on recommendations developed over the course of the past 10 months as BEST and its various subcommittees have met to grapple with the issue of how to keep the schools alive, efficient, successful and thriving in the face of economic and population issues.

 Please Note

Recommendations that will be aired at this meeting will include Continue reading →

THE MASSACHUSETTS EMERGENCY Management Agency (MEMA) has issued a bulletin regarding drought conditions throughout the Commonwealth.  Included in the bulletin are internet links to several references where more detailed information can be found  as well as explanations of various status levels and required water conservation actions for each.

Hawley’s current status is indicated at the “Warning” level, like most of the rest of the Commonwealth to the East of the Town. Towns just to the West of Harley are indicated at the “Watch” level.

The “Warning” level carries with it a very strong request to “eliminate outside water use.”  For more information on the drought situation and what to do about it, click HERE.

IT WAS ANNOUNCED WEDNESDAY EVENING THAT AXIA had withdrawn its proposal to build a regional Broadband network to help complete MBI’s “last mile” project, and that the meetings that had been scheduled at Berkshire East and the Town of Becket for the next day — Thursday, October 13 — had been cancelled. 

Axia is the Canadian-based company that built MBI’s “middle mile” network — the one that allowed the Hawley Town Office (among many others) to access high-speed Internet. According to Jordan Allred, Axia’s Director of Business Development for Enterprise & Continue reading →

◊ Highway Department Bid Notices – FY 2018
◊ Watch Out!  It’s Tick Season. 
◊ 2018 Dump Stickers, Kitchen Compost Pails and
◊ Yard Composters are all now available at the
◊ Town Office.

THE HAWLEY SELECTBOARD HAS APPOINTED Jared Bellows, who also serves as Charlemont’s Chief, to be the Town’s temporary Police Chief.  Jared will be holding office hours at the Hawley Town Office on the second Wednesday of each month from 5-7 pm.

Jared’s first session will be on Wednesday, October 12.   Come in and say ‘Hello” to Jared, apply for or renew your Firearms license, etc.  The Town will be setting up an online FID licensing facility within the Town Office in the near future.  Call Jared at (413) 339-5518 (leave a message) or go HERE for his Charlemont contact information.

{ Click HERE for an important clarification. }

IN A PROCESS THAT TOOK 2+ MONTHS TO BE COMPLETED, the Town of Hawley has withdrawn its membership from the WiredWest Cooperative (WW).  The letter from the Hawley Selectboard to WW which takes that action that can be downloaded HERE.

Ostensibly, the withdrawal came in response to WW’s request. In recent months, that organization has had trouble meeting quorum requirements because a number of Western Massachusetts towns have developed direct relationships with MBI and thus have seemed less interested than previously in attending WW functions. 

[What do you do to get your $49.00 deposit back?
Click HERE to download the attached document
then go to the second page.]
Continue reading →

THE VOCATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE (VEAC) has penned a detailed and definitive letter to the Charlemont Selectboard explaining the purposes and priorities of the organization in monitoring an educational enterprise that costs the four towns which comprise it “. . . almost $700,000 per year.”  The four affected towns are Hawley, Charlemont, Ashfield and Plainfield, and the expenditures are for vocational school “. . . tuition and transportation services.”

The letter is signed by Hawley’s John Sears, VEAC Chair, and Ashfield’s David Newell, VEAC Clerk.  Download a .pdf copy of it HERE.