LEVERETT — Mike Visniewski has been sworn in as the new fire chief, replacing Brian Cook, who left the position last June.
Last week’s Selectboard meeting began with Visniewski’s swearing-in ceremony. About 30 people attended, including his wife Ashley, who placed a ceremonial pin on his jacket.
“I’m looking forward to serving the people of the town of Leverett,” said Visniewski, who has been deputy chief of Amherst Fire Department’s call force and a Leverett fire lieutenant.
Budget discussions
The meeting also had the initial budget hearings for fiscal year 2027, with departments being asked to present both level-services plans and budgets with 2.5% increases.
Library Director Hannah Paessel said she and trustees are requesting budgets that maintain the Friday hours, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Trustees used state aid to add those hours this fiscal year in response to patron surveys.
The library is now open 25 hours per week Tuesdays through Saturdays, and has seen a 23% year-over-year increase in users, with 770 extra visits. The library also intends to use state aid to have a bike repair station.
The Council on Aging is asking to maintain a 15-hour-per-week community and events coordinator and possibly add hours. Johanna Hall started in the role five months ago, and is paid 10 hours a week through the town budget and five hours from a state grant. She has reached more than 100 senior citizens, meeting up with them at Town Hall or the library, since there is no senior center.
“I think it’s been quite successful,” said Selectboard member Tom Hankinson.
Town Administrator Marjorie McGinnis mentioned that she will again be seeking a grant to pay for culvert work on Shutesbury Road.
A check-in with Comerford
In an overview of her legislative work on behalf of Leverett and other communities in her district, state Sen. Jo Comerford, D-Northampton, told the Selectboard that she has emphasized getting representation for western Massachusetts on state boards, and identifying the ways in which direct appropriations, grant programs and services are not benefiting the region.
She describes her seven years on the job as building the social and political muscle that can reach Boston. “We are gaining traction in ways we weren’t in 2019,” Comerford said.
Comerford also praises Gov. Maura Healey for understanding that sparking economic growth and taking seriously the population decline in area communities is needed so Leverett and other small towns are not at even more of a disadvantage.
Comerford encouraged the Selectboard to get behind her appeals for a Chapter 70 foundation review budget commission to address declining enrollment in schools. Already, she said, students in this part of the state aren’t getting a fair shake with their education compared to peers in well-to-do communities closer to Boston, with the formulas for how state money supports education penalizing districts with fewer students.
“I’m mad about that; I know you’re mad about that,” Comerford said.
Rising health insurance costs are also a problem. Comerford continues to support single-payer health care, though that won’t impact the challenges associated with the Hampshire County Group Insurance Trust.
But with federal changes destabilizing the state, and money being stripped away, more problems are looming.
“We cannot withstand all of the federal cuts,” Comerford said, but she has promised that the fallout of this can’t mean less municipal aid for cities and towns.