Page 10 - BusinessWest October 28, 2024

Ludlow
at a glance
Year Incorporated: 1774 Population: 21,002
Area: 28.2 square miles
County: Hampden
Residential Tax Rate: $18.09 Commercial Tax Rate: $18.09 Median Household Income: $53,244 Median Family Income: $67,797
Type of Government: Board of Selectmen, Representative Town Meeting
Largest Employers: Hampden County House of Correction; Encompass Rehabilitation Hospital; Massachusetts Air National Guard; Kleeberg Sheet Metal Inc.
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COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT >>
What’s Changing in Ludlow ... and What Isn’t
BY JOSEPH BEDNAR
[email protected]
10 OCTOBER 28, 2024
<< COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT >>
BusinessWest
When Marc Strange came to Ludlow as town administrator in the spring of 2022, he saw an opportunity to take a leadership position in a bustling com- munity and use his experience and skills — he was formerly director of Planning and Devel- opment for Agawam and selectman in Long- meadow — to effect change in this community.
One big proposed change is not happening, but there’s still plenty on his plate.
“When I applied for the job, the number- one priority was the change of government,” he said of a push to change the town’s charter and system of government — now a board of selectmen and representative town meeting — to one many felt was more befitting a commu- nity of roughly 21,000 residents, either a town manager and town council, a mayor and city council, or perhaps a hybrid model.
“That’s been a focus of mine, although I wasn’t involved in the creation of the charter,” he told BusinessWest of the effort by a char- ter-review committee that eventually settled on a town council/town manager model, which included the hiring of the Edward J. Collins Center for Public Management to guide the process and a series of public forums. “I took it upon myself to make sure we were pushing
toward on that, putting in the request to fund a consultant and just keep that ball moving.”
But the ball stopped rolling at a town meet- ing earlier this month, when the charter and the government change was voted down, 41-29.
“That just means that we’re going to contin- ue status quo, the way we’ve been operating,” Strange said. “It’s disappointing because the charter committee put together a good charter, but the town just wasn’t ready for the change. The town manager would have replaced the board of selectmen, and then a town council would have replaced town meeting as a legis- lative body. You’re just able to get things done quicker.
“We have about 21,000 people, and a $84 million budget. We’re really a small city. It cer- tainly has a town feel to it, but in terms of the form of the government, the structure of the government, I personally think it would have been more efficient to make the change. But the town meeting didn’t see it that way.”
For many town-meeting participants, Strange said, it came down to a question of representation.
“There are a little more than 100 mem- bers, technically, but there there were 70 at
“We’re really
a small city. It certainly has a town feel to it, but in terms of the form of the government, the structure of the government, I personally think it would have been more efficient to make the change. But the town meeting didn’t see it that way.”