Hubbardston Board of Health Cancels April 14 Meeting, Tables FY27 Budget

HUBBARDSTON -- March 24, 2026, Hubbardston Board of Health cancels its April 14 meeting and eyes a $10,000 landfill monitoring budget for FY27. The board voted unanimously Tuesday to drop the April 14 session after two members disclosed conflicts, consolidating April business into a single April 28 meeting. Members set a preliminary $10,000 budget target for landfill monitoring services under contractor Mark Popham, whose testing costs alone have risen to $7,120, with mowing and potential well-cleaning expenses pushing the projected total higher; the board tabled a full FY27 budget discussion pending complete financial records from the town accountant. Guest Tamara Bedard, the Central Massachusetts Public Health Nurse Consultant with the state Office of Local and Regional Health and UMass Amherst, introduced herself to the board and warned that alpha-gal syndrome, a tick-borne allergic condition linked to the Lone Star tick, becomes a Maven-reportable disease in Massachusetts on April 1, with a DPH webinar on the condition scheduled for April 14. Bedard also confirmed that state regulation requires a registered nurse to manage active tuberculosis cases, underscoring the board's ongoing push to add a paid public health nurse to Hubbardston's staff.