Time to Start Thinking About Elections!

Election Information

Our interim Town Clerk, Ellie Van Iderstine, will have nomination papers available at the Town Office on Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. through Wednesday, March 19. If you wish to take out papers and cannot come in on a Wednesday during her office hours, contact me, Tinky (work 339-5518; home 339-4747), and I can meet you at another time to give you papers.

Below are the positions that will be on this year’s election (which will take place on Monday, 5). The most important position we know about that has no one running so far is Representative to the K-12 Committee for the Mohawk Trail District, a three-year position. When Scott Purinton retired from this position last year, Peter Beck agreed to serve on the committee until the election in May. We are grateful to Peter, but he doesn’t have the time to continue in this post. And we can’t ask Scott to run again: he has done his share of school-committee work. So please consider running, or ask a neighbor to consider it. Our children are important!

Selectman for 3 Years (currently held by Hussain Hamdan)

Town Clerk for 3 Years

Assessor for 3 Years (currently held by Ed Brady)

Hawlemont Regional School Committee for 3 Years (currently held by Kiley Turner)

Representative to the K-12 Committee for the Mohawk Trail School District
(TWO 3-year terms, one now held by Suzanne Crawford and one held by Peter Beck; the latter will not run again)

Non-Parent Member for the Hawlemont Local Education Council (currently held by Suzanne Crawford)

Moderator for 1 year (currently held by Scott Purinton)

Auditor for 1 year (currently held by Ashley Harrison)

If you have any questions about any of the positions, ask the incumbent, a Selectmen, Ellie, or me. Nomination papers require 20 signatures from voters here in Hawley. I’ll have information about early voting soon.

School Happenings

The Mohawk Trail and Hawlemont Regional School Districts are still seeking feedback on a Sustainability Study to address the trends of declining enrollment, rising operational costs, relatively flat state aid, and increasing needs of students. The 2Districts8Towns review has looked at five options for community consideration. Six community meetings are planned; the first one took place on February 25. The meetings will include a session at Hawlemont Regional School on Wednesday, March 19, at 6:30 p.m. (in person with Zoom option); and at Mohawk Trail Regional School on Thursday, March 20, also at 6:30 p.m. (in person with Zoom option). An all-virtual meeting will be held on Thursday, March 6, at 6:30 p.m. (Zoom link). For more information, including on meetings at Buckland-Shelburne Elementary School, Sanderson Academy and Colrain Central School, see https://www.2districts8towns.org/.

The Hawlemont School budget is coming into shape. A public budget hearing was held on February 25 at Hawlemont.  Sheryl Stanton and Bill Lataille, the Superintendent and Assistant Superintendent, presented and discussed changes after which the school committee voted unanimously to approve the proposed budget.  The presentation can be found here: FY26 HRSD Proposed Budget Public Hearing Presentation and also additional budget information can be found on one of the Districts’ webpage (https://www.mtrsd.org/School-Committees) after clicking on the Hawlemont Budget Info tab located on the right-hand side of the page.

 Looking for Volunteers

As some of you may know, Mohawk Trail Regional School is scheduled to house the mini-Smithsonian exhibit Museum on Main Street: Voices and Votes in April and May of this year. I’ll have lots of information about the exhibit and the related programming the teachers and I are planning in a month or so. Meanwhile, we are asking that people consider volunteering to act as docents for a few hours at the school. We are particularly interested finding docents for school-vacation week (April 19-26) and on Saturdays. See the poster below for details. If you’d like to volunteer, you may sign up here. The link on the poster doesn’t work!

That’s it for now. I hope you’re as snug as you can be right now. The weather is supposed to warm up within a few days.

 

Tinky Weisblat
Gal Friday
Town of Hawley