HUDSON – The Select Board voted to approve the building, Council on Aging, Board of Health and veterans budgets during its Jan. 8 meeting.
All three budgets were part of the 2025 fiscal year’s operating budget.
Building
Building Commissioner Jeffrey Wood said the building inspections budget came in at $331,021. He expressed thanks to the Select Board for getting a full-time deputy building inspector in Kyle Tucker, an action that was possible with the budget approved last year.
He called Tucker “a great asset to our department.”
“Things are running much smoother and much nicer,” said Wood.
Increases in its budget were mostly due to achieving full-time staffing compared to previous years, according to Wood. He said last year was busy for his staff. With 11 proposed projects, restaurants, condominiums and townhouses on the horizon, there could be even more growth for the town.
Select Board member Judy Congdon asked about the drop from $6,500 to $3,500 in the supplies line item, to which Executive Assistant Thomas Gregory noted that the current budget cycle is “proving to be a real challenging one, balancing revenue with expenditures.”
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“So across multiple departments, I’ve had to make various cuts trying to be mindful of how they’ll minimally impact operations. This is an example where the request has been reduced slightly,” said Gregory.
Wood said the department has started to download many of its files to the OpenGov system to make room for current physical files. This was in lieu of buying $3,000 of shelving.
Gregory said he would come up with a recommendation for a warrant article from free cash to begin the process to digitize the files as there is “a lot of work ahead of us.”
Council on Aging
Other budgets included the Council on Aging budget totaling $349,926. Senior Center Director Janice Long noted there are five full-time employees and one part-time position included in the budget. All of them are “doing a really good job,” according to Long.
“Consistency is a good thing for us,” she said.
The senior center transportation services are currently serving 151 people, she said, with over 4,700 trips last year. Nearly 1,185 people were aided by the social services staff, and 460 people were assisted during the Medicare open enrollment period from Oct. 15 to Dec. 7.
She said it has been busy, but the staff is doing well.
Board of Health
The Board of Health budget was approved for $245,611. Board member Cassia Monteiro said the budget was up 16%, which she believed was a reflection of the town’s investment in the Board of Health in addition to the increased demands and needs placed on public health resources over the last several years.
“We’re really grateful. For the first time, both myself, the director position and our sanitarian position will be funded at 100% by the town, which is great,” said Monteiro.
She noted that a sanitarian is responsible for the food, housing and septic inspections in town. Monteiro said the office has been “super busy,” so having the commitment from the town was very appreciated.
Veterans
The veterans budget was approved for $145,153. Director of Veterans Services Brian Stearns said they have met their goal of over 100 banners for the Hometown Heroes project so “those will be going into production soon.” He noted that there will be 102 banners.
Also, at the meeting, the board discussed the Jan. 7 snowstorm.
Much like other communities in Massachusetts, Hudson received quite a bit of snow.
Regarding any snow removal that could be done on individual properties, Select Board Chair Scott Duplisea said catch basin maintenance was important, specifically removing snow from a basin before it freezes up.
He added, “This storm was a lot of snow.”
Additional snow removal continued on Jan. 8 from Main Street to South Street and up to Lincoln Street, which meant no parking after 11 p.m., Duplisea noted.
“I’d also like to thank the DPW [Department of Public Works] and all the contractors and all our first responders, too, for the great job they did with that storm. It lasted a little bit longer than they thought,” said Duplisea.
