Two officials from the Town of Hubbardston explain Hub Connect and the Sandpit Overlay District Project. Town of Hubbardston website, CLICK HERE.
The Hubbardston Interview – with Nathan Boudreau and Leeanne Moses
Gardner Magazine spoke with Hubbardston Town Administrator Nathan Boudreau and Administrative Coordinator Leeanne Moses on July 23, 2025 about HubConnect and the Sandpit Overlay District Project. Complete Interview text on pdf, CLICK HERE. Interview page with text of interview, CLICK HERE. Listen to the entire interview on any device. CLICK PLAY.
Nathan Boudreau explained HubConnect: “It is our currently-in-creation, ever-evolving digital government platform, built using CIVIC-optimized Microsoft 365, Power Automate, and SharePoint to modernize how we serve residents and support staff. It connects services, automates tasks, and centralizes records. It’s not off-the-shelf, and that’s what I like about it. It’s not finished, and that’s what I like about it. It’s actively rolling out, improving week by week. We’re building while using it, and that’s the point. Real work, real feedback, real results. And I couldn’t speak higher on the potential of this project to really allow us to utilize the existence of modern technology to enhance our ability to serve the public. A good example of some of the things we’re going to be doing with this is HubFix, a automated routing system for constituent reporting. We do job licenses. We’re doing HR. I have automated our accounts payable system. We’re going to be using it in almost any way over the next year that used to be a paper form.”
Boudreau explained the Sandpit Overlay District Project: “So the Sandpit Overlay District is a project that we’ve been working on for about six months now. We’re working with an engineering firm called Niche Engineering, and it is to take the very large sandpits owned by approximately six to eight individuals on the Hubbardston-Gardner border and figure out what would be appropriate there. We’re looking to maintain the rural charm of the Town of Hubbardston while also understanding that these sandpits have been dangerous. Every couple of years there’s a death there. We get calls about ATV accidents and trespassing all the time. So we were able to receive a rural community funding grant through the Community One Stop, which is a grant portal, in 2024. And after putting out the request for proposal and receiving the award to Niche Engineering, we are finally at a point where we’re going to be able to seek public input.”
Leanne Moses provided additional details on the project. “So it’s very important to the Town of Hubbardston that we hear what the people are interested in seeing in this potential development. We want to make sure that it’s something that the community is involved in, has a say in, and is listened to about because we’re aware of the history of this location. So on August 4th, we’ll be launching a survey to the residents of Hubbardston to complete and give us their input on what they would like to see there, what they wouldn’t like to see there, what they would like it to look like, what they wouldn’t like it to look like, how big or how small they would like it to be. And then, additionally, on August 26th, it’s a very important date. We are going to be having a community discussion in the Senior Center, and it’s going to be a public forum to review the initial concepts that Niche has presented to us and gather in-person feedback.”
The lengthy text of the entire interview including everything happening in Hubbardston, MA is on this special Hubbardston Interview page, CLICK HERE.