BERNARDSTON — As Bernardston and Leyden face challenges of attracting skilled municipal employees and developing balanced budgets amid rising costs, the communities came together Thursday to discuss potential solutions through regionalization.
Hosted by the Efficiency & Regionalization Advisory Committee, the community forum at The Barn at The Farm Table on South Street discussed the progress of the feasibility study of shared services being conducted by the Edward J. Collins Jr. Center for Public Management at the University of Massachusetts Boston. The towns were able to hire the Collins Center thanks to a $75,000 Regionalization and Efficiency grant.
Leyden Selectboard Chair Erica Jensen explained the study comes as the small towns have been hitting a “tipping point” when it comes to hiring skilled municipal employees and facing increasingly higher budgets.
“The goal of the study is to identify a clear path forward in helping our towns be able to stay fiscally viable in the coming years,” she said.
Collins Center Public Services Manager Anthony Wilson discussed the options for shared services between Bernardston and Leyden, which will ultimately be decided by town officials or with Town Meeting votes. Options for shared roles and services include the treasurer, the conservation commissions, the public libraries, the councils on aging, the fire departments, the highway departments, the assessor’s offices, accounting staff, the town clerks and the town administrator/coordinator. These options largely seek to increase salaries and competitiveness when hiring, reduce long-term costs through shared budgets, and increase services and government efficiency.
Under the existing municipal structure, Bernardston is operating with a higher population and budget, along with more commercial properties. This difference raised some concern for residents like Melissa Murphy, who was curious about the financial impact on Bernardston if services are to be shared.
“How do we know if this is a good fiscal plan for Bernardston if that part of the data isn’t there yet?” she asked Wilson, who said the financial analysis will come following the final interviews with department heads.
“I would say with confidence that under the current structure, what is going to be required to keep the level of services that you’re already getting in Bernardston is going to increase over time,” Wilson noted.
Per the Collins Center’s recommendations, there could be a shared conservation commission, with members required to understand and make decisions following each town’s bylaws. A shared library is also possible, with a shared board of trustees. Each idea sparked discussion with mixed feelings.
“I think we need to be clear that not all of these are shared services. We’re actually talking about shared governance,” Leyden Conservation Commission member Don Sadowsky said. “Whether that’s a good or bad thing needs to be explored.”
“There’s already a lot of consolidation and efficiencies going on [in libraries]. One thing that’s difficult to consolidate is proximity,” Robertson Memorial Library Board of Trustees Chair Tom Raffensperger said about the potential to share a library, quoting a Boston Globe editorial about the Leyden library to close his remarks: “Every town needs a library, no matter how small the town is.”
Though concerns over regionalization were shared, some attendees voiced their appreciation for the effort and encouraged each other to look at the work as strengthening both towns and preparing for the future.
“The spirit of us being here together is to share something, and the assumption is that we will be stronger together, and we will agree to do things that benefit all of us,” said Leyden resident Sara Seinberg. “If we can continue this conversation in good faith, because we have been good neighbors to each other and we already have shared services that are working well, I think we can do well together in this room, if we continue the conversation in that spirit.”
At the end of the evening, Efficiency & Regionalization Advisory Committee member Liz Kidder explained that the committee will continue working with the Collins Center and more public feedback opportunities on the study will be offered in the future.
