ADAMS, Mass. — The Finance Committee and Board of Selectmen reviewed the public services, Hoosac Valley Regional School District and McCann Technical School budgets on Tuesday. 

 

The workshop at the Adams Free Library was the third of four joint sessions to review the proposed $19 million fiscal 2025 budget. The first workshop covered general government, executive, finance and technology budgets; the second public works, community development and the Greylock Glen. 

 

The Council on Aging and library budgets have increases for wages, equipment, postage and software. The Memorial Day budget is level-funded at $1,450 for flags and for additional expenses the American Legion might have; it had been used to hire bagpipers who are no longer available. 

 

The COA's budget is up 6.76 percent at $241,166. This covers three full-time positions including the director and five regular per diem van drivers and three backup drivers. Savoy also contracts with the town at a cost of $10,000 a year based on the number of residents using its services. 

 

Director Sarah Fontaine said the governor's budget has increased the amount of funding through the Executive Office of Elder Affairs from $12 to $14 per resident age 60 or older. 

 

"So for Adams, based on the 2020 Census data, says we have 2,442 people 60 and older in town," she said. "So that translates to $34,188 from the state to help manage Council on Aging programs and services."

 

The COA hired a part-time meal site coordinator using the state funds because it was getting difficult to manage the weekday lunches for several dozen attendees, said Fontaine. "And then as we need program supplies or to pay for certain services, we tap into this grant."

 

Changes in state law now allow the COA to roll that grant over every year, with goal of purchasing a new long-distance medical transport car, she said. In response to questions, she said the COA has two vans and that a new one was supposed to arrive from the Berkshire Regional Transit Authority in 2020 but was backlogged by the pandemic. 

 

It is now expected to arrive this summer and will replace the 2014 van, which will become a loaner van.

 

"Sarah has, again, basically is requesting level funding, which is for the second or third year, and the services that the Council on Aging provides only increases," said COA board Chair Bruce Shepley. "We are getting very short of space in the confines of the building. We are hoping to, with Sarah, to address that in the near future but I think you're getting more than bang for the buck from what Sarah and Barb and Izzy are providing to the community."

 

The future plans are to move the Council on Aging from the Visitors Center into the Memorial Building but the holdup has been renovations to the bathrooms in the former school.

 

Town Administrator Jay Green said the veterans agent has also been moved to the Visitors Center with the COA since it made sense to have both social services in the same place. The COA can also provide some administrative support instead of having to call North Adams. The budget is basically level-funded. 

 

The library budget is down slightly, by a third of a percent, at $359,103. Librarian Holli Jayko said there were some staff changes this year with one part-time library aide leaving for a full-time job and a full-time person "semi" retiring. This allowed for a review of staffing and combination of posts and the creation of a new full-time position. 

 

"Most people who get their foot in the door at the library as part time are anxiously awaiting for that magical full-time position to open up and when it doesn't they move on," said Jayko. "Originally those two part-time positions were a full-time position. So having that back, I think it has been great. It's good for morale."

 

The library has seen its circulation coming back from the pandemic era with more than 2,000 items going out every month and close to 2,000 people a month coming in to use its services that include the streaming platform Kanopy, microfilm and digitally archived material. 

 

Lending materials is up about $8,000. There is an increase in audiovisual offerings, with Jayko explaining that unlike books, the library is limited in how many times each ebook can be lent out. 

 

"We actually buy the rights to lend it for either a certain timeframe over like 12 months, 24 months or a certain number of time — 12 times, 24 times," she said. "Our Mass Board of Library Commissioners has been working with legislation to try to work with the people who are creating them because it's constrained. They sometimes won't even let us purchase the book to loan out ... and they cost an enormous amount of money."

 

Over the past four years, library networks in the state more than doubled spending on digital books to $10.4 million. 

 

To get state aid, Jayko said the library is required to spend at least 19 percent of its overall budget on materials — so as fixed costs go up, so does the corresponding spending on materials. The library has been using the interest on its trust funds to make up the difference but that source is drying up. 

 

"Minus a few things we don't have to include, it's is $61,007.50 and we're asking for $47,001.50," she said. "So we're going to make up the rest with other funds, with gift accounts, with the revolving fund, with the trust funds."

 

Officials also reviewed the school budgets with Hoosac Superintendent Aaron Dean and McCann Superintendent James Brosnan. 

 

Hoosac Valley's budget, approved by the School Committee on March 25, is $22,481,719; Adams' assessment is $6,484,422 for foundation, transportation and capital costs based on an enrollment of 444 students. This is down about a third of a percent, or $21,000, from this year. 

 

The total budget for McCann is up $12,092,886, up $593,820 over this year, as approved by the School Committee on Feb. 21. Adams' assessment is $1,063,774 for 143 students. 

 

The Finance Committee and the Selectmen will meet again on Thursday, April 11, to review public safety, inspection services and facilities.