City of Holyoke and the Town of Hadley
Shared Sealers of Weights & Measures - FY13 DLTA

At the beginning of 2013, PVPC was engaged by the Town of Hadley and the City of Holyoke to identify opportunities for increasing the responsiveness and service delivery of the Sealers of Weights & Measures program within its communities.  Using District Local Technical Assistance (DLTA), the PVPC worked with key personnel and conducted a statutory and regulatory review and explored other models of fulfilling the statutory and regulatory requirements of this service.During this study, it was discovered that the City of Northampton employs a part-time Sealer to provide this service for four (4) different municipalities; Northampton, Granby, Southampton, and Amherst. The PVPC worked with Northampton to sustain and expand its current capacity and become the Regional Sealers of Weights & Measures provider for the Hampden and Hampshire counties.  The project resulted in Hadley joining efforts with Northampton and is presently ongoing.  As for Holyoke, the study determined that it was not feasible for the City to join Northampton's regional efforts but instead, it was recommendaed that Holyoke, having one of the lowest fee structures within the Commonwealth, to raise its fee structure charged to local businesses to reduce the deficit Holyoke pays to have this service available.