Southwick Select Board Votes to Exit Hampshire County Health Insurance Trust

SOUTHWICK -- March 30, 2026, Southwick Select Board exits county health trust and clears a dozen action items in under an hour. The board voted Monday to issue a non-renewal notice to the Hampshire County Group Insurance Trust for municipal group health insurance, effective July 1, 2026, with one member recusing and one abstaining; no replacement plan was named publicly. Separately, the board unanimously awarded a three-year invasive plant and algae management contract to Solitude Lake Management at an estimated $30,000 per calendar year, funded partly through a state Department of Conservation and Recreation hydrilla grant shared with Suffield and the nonprofit Citizens Restoring Congamond. A formal Inter-Municipal Agreement for Veterans Services covering Southwick, Granville, Tolland, Russell, and Agawam, which administers the program, was also adopted unanimously after circulating to each town's legal counsel without objection. In public comment, Keith Dale, vice chair of Friends of Southwick Dog Park, told the board the group's proposed 32-acre Tilcon parcel donation has always included an unencumbered corridor for a future Hudson Drive road extension, calling the project "not simply a partial land, but a complete project."