The Hampden Selectboard meets for annual state of the union.
Photo credit: Town of Hampden
HAMPDEN — The Hampden Selectboard and Advisory Committee met on Jan. 12 for the annual State of the Union and fiscal year 2027 budget kickoff, where town departments presented their current budget plans.
Advisory Committee Chair Doug Boyd kicked off the discussion and said that people aren’t happy with the increase on their taxes, which was “not a surprise to any of us who have been paying attention,” according to Boyd.
He said that he anticipates the coming year is going to be equally difficult.
Boyd said that he is requesting departments to have level service budgets, which aims to take the same level of service provided now and continue it into the next year. He added that the preliminary budget from the Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District is already quite high, which will make putting the budget together quite challenging.
“We just ask that people restrain, try to restrain your budget requests,” Boyd said. “We anticipate that it is going to be difficult.”
Hampden Police Chief Daniel Bruno, who was appointed in November 2025, continued the conversation and said the budget is on track for this fiscal year. He said he contributes part of that to being short an officer, which makes the department’s salary line on track.
“We’re looking pretty good for this fiscal year, absent any major problems, ” Bruno said. “Hopefully no injuries or anything like that. We never know what could happen. I mean recently, we’ve had some slips and falls on ice in town, just with police officers, so you never know when someone’s going to get injured … we can’t really anticipate that.”
Bruno said he is trying to hire an officer to fill that vacant position, which is a detective position, to fully staff the police department. He also wants to hire a few reserve officers, which he said helps to defray the budget’s bottom line for filling gaps when full-time officers are out.
“That being said, with contractual obligations and everything going into fiscal 27, I’m hopeful we can stay level funded,” Bruno said. “Obviously, we have those contractual needs that we need to meet, and at full staffing, I think it will be a little bit tight.”
Bruno added that the building is in pretty good standing and hopefully there will be no huge costs for maintenance, but they are working on a few heating issues. He also said the department is getting “long in the tooth” on cruisers, in terms of mileage and wear and tear, and will cost more in the long run.
Hampden Fire Department Deputy Chief Patrick Farrow said they are also doing well. He said a new forestry truck is set to arrive in February and new reporting software will go live on Feb. 1. There is also an open position due to one of the firefighters being promoted to lieutenant, which Farrow is looking to fill.
“As far as budgets, we’ve had a few hiccups in maintenance,” Farrow said. “We had to buy some tires for the tanker and we just had the manifold go on our engine too, so that’s out of service for a couple weeks.”
Since the truck is 26 years old, the manifold needs a custom part and the department has partnered with WB Hill in East Longmeadow for repairs. Farrow said it’s a win-win because they don’t have to travel very far with the truck. Selectboard Chair John Flynn responded and said that the Fire Department has always had a reputation of doing the work as they can and asked if the opportunity for self service goes away as things get more complex, and Farrow said they have done small repairs themselves.
Farrow said the department is good as far as capital needs are concerned because they’re focused on the new fire station and getting all the necessary contracts signed.
“We’re good,” Farrow said. “I think the budget this year might be a little tight with those major repairs I brought up, that’s why I brought them up.”
Hampden Senior Center Executive Director Rebecca Moriarty, who Flynn said is “fresh off the enrollment nightmare,” said the Senior Center is doing good and she doesn’t see any issues with the current budget year.
“For next year, you know, the only thing I can see, increase wise, is utilities are going up,” Moriarty said. “The electric, gas expenses for our supplies increase every year, so I always put in a little bit of extra money for those utility and building maintenance line items.”
She said there will potentially be another look at the roof and window project next year, which has been “pushed off for a little bit.”
Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District Superintendent John Provost said a “level service light budget” will be implemented.
Transportation services were reduced, not for budgetary reasons, but because there was a very “unreliable transportation service last year,” Provost said.
“It was designed for a number of buses that exceeded the number of drivers we could hire,” Provost said. “We went to a three-tiered system this year. It has not been perfect, but has to a large extent, resolved the problems with transportation.”
Provost said there were a number of gains this year, and was the first year that students who were not affected by the COVID-19 shutdown entered the “testing window,” where students in third through 10th grade are tested.
“We were hoping to see some nice improvements in their achievements and we did see that,” Provost said. “Groups that came before them definitely were impacted by missing some school during really important years of their education.”
Provost said the middle school has great achievements, particularly in math, which resulted mainly from changing the schedule. This provided 30 more lessons per year and allowed teachers to get more chapters done.
He also said the district has had success in introducing more high school students to high level classes, such as AP courses, and that they will be named in the national AP honor roll. The honor roll is based on hitting certain metrics for the number of students who take AP classes, the number of students who score a three or better on AP exams and students who took five or more AP classes.
There have also been a decrease in suspensions, expulsions and bullying, and increases in student reported levels of culture in their school. Most teams in the athletic department also qualified for post season play. The music program is expanding, mainly because of an increase in class size. Provost said the larger class size in music, the better.
Provost added that as the end of the year approaches, he is concerned about the physical plant needs at the middle school before passing the conversation over to Assistant Superintendent Douglas Slaughter.
Slaughter said budgets are on track for FY26. 75% of the operating budget is driven by personnel cost and contracts will have a large play in budgeting for the coming year. He said how those contracts settle will make a big difference in the kind of pressure the district has.
“At present, we’re trying to build a budget best based on what we know at the moment,” Slaughter said. “We don’t have information yet on health insurance. It’s a pretty significant cost for us, we’re anticipating a pretty high increase.”
Slaughter said there are significant capital costs, which will continue to be refined because the level is “not affordable to the community at this point in time.” He also said the number of students as a percentage in the budget will increase at about 1%, which will cause additional pressure.
