Town administrator outlines ‘Hub Connect’ digital platform; board asks about backups and access for residents

Town Administrator Nate presented the Town of Hubbardston’s new Hub Connect digital platform and redesigned town website at the June 16 Select Board meeting, saying the system will centralize permitting, inspections, accounts-payable workflows and constituent service requests and is scheduled to launch publicly July 1 with staff training beginning July 7.

Nate described Hub Connect as a package of modules built using CivicPlus, Microsoft 365 (Power Automate and SharePoint), and Laserfiche for records. “It is a comprehensive, modern, set of municipal operations tools,” he said, adding the project was funded entirely with grant money and contract restructuring and that the town did not increase its out-of-pocket spending to build the system.

Nate said modules already live or in pilot include online building/electrical/plumbing permits, a dog-licensing portal, HubInspect for inspections, HubFix for infrastructure/facilities requests (initially staff-only), and an accounts-payable automation that creates department folders, HTML cover sheets and routes invoices for approval. He estimated the system could save roughly 880 staff hours and $32,500–$42,500 in staff time annually if fully implemented and used.

Select Board members asked several operational questions. One board member asked what would occur if systems went offline during a major event — a prolonged power outage or similar emergency. Nate responded that the system is hosted on CivicPlus with encrypted backups and that mandated state records would continue to be maintained in paper form; he and staff said servers and backups are in place and that staff would operate manually if all electronic systems were unavailable. The board pressed for clarity about off-site backups and business-continuity procedures; Nate said the town’s systems are backed up and that standard operating procedures and training materials would be produced and stored in the staff intranet.

Members also raised equity and access points: the town will provide staff assistance for residents who cannot use online tools and said staff will bring tablets to outreach events so constituents can complete forms in person. Nate said the dog-license pilot showed the system was fast and popular, and that a staged rollout with board and staff testing would occur before the public launch.

Nate outlined a training program funded through a grant with the Collins Center: small-group departmental training, office hours, sandbox testing, and optional Microsoft-certified training for staff. He said the first public-facing features (site redesign, news/events) would appear June 18 with the full platform rollout on July 1 and that the town will provide quarterly progress reports to the board.

Board members requested follow-up materials including backup/continuity documentation and a schedule for department-level training. Nate said he would provide those and begin the training cycle in July.

Provenance: presentation and Q&A were part of the TA report beginning late in the meeting and concluded with board questions and staff commitments to training and backups.