Elementary School update
With some new numbers being put out, perhaps Ms. Miller should reconsider giving Templeton some money back thereby reducing the town's expense of the schools. At the last Templeton Elementary School building committee, a Mr. Joel Seeley put forth some cost estimates for a new school. One option (A) pre-K - grade 5 with 580 students at a cost of between 47.3 and 49.2 million dollars. Option (B) pre-K - grade 4 with 480 students at a cost of between 43.2 and 45.6 million dollars. I believe the original cost estimate was around 32 million when the discussion first started a few years back. MSBA would cover just under 60% of all eligible costs. Just a few more reasons to attend these meetings. These meetings would also be a good place to ask questions of the school superintendent, if the chairman allows that. So Ms. Miller, why did you not think it a good idea to help reduce Templeton's school expense again?
Jeffrey Bennett
Oh my, those numbers are enough to make people sit up and take notice !! It would seem that Ms. Miller would go our of her way to mend some of the bridges she has burned with the public, by taking all of the money she could have passed over when the town was in dire straights, but she took it anyway. Between the schools and the Light and Water Departments, these two departments have no problems giving out raises, living high on the hog, while the rest of the town departments starve !! When is the public going to ask questions?? Where did you hide the money John ?? Let him push up the rates, or charge the public more fees. Maybe that will get the attention of the public, and you will understand what I say when I tell you "This is not your Fathers Light Company !!" Bev.
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DeleteBoth of these plans leave out the six graders ? What are the plans for them ? Lets see how the cashed strapped people of this town react to this news. I thought the population of Templeton was going to go down, looking ahead. It sure will, if no one can afford to live here. This is a sad state of affairs for our little town. Bev.
ReplyDeleteBev - The Donahue Institute (UMASS) did a population projection for each city or town in the state. Templeton is prjected to grow to 10,000 residents by 2030 in that projection. The projected increase was among older residents. The school-age population is projected to decrease. The numbers have been posted on this blog.
Delete"puffy" that was smart@nii.net to register! The question is can you overcome your fear and do it now?Your posted comments won't be removed but your past will catch up with you.
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DeleteMark, I thought I saw where the school population was supposed to go down, so you are right about that. I can't see why the population of older residents would go up, unless they open a new nursing home here. It is almost impossible to live here if you do not have a car because you have to go too far for anything you need when you are older. Medication and groceries mean a trip to Gardner, which is not a big deal if you can drive but can be a big deal if you don't. It will be interesting to watch what the future holds for our little town, but whatever happens the government as we know it has to improve in a big way. Our town has lost out because of poor management, and departments have to contribute to make up for all we have lost. Until this town is financially solid we cannot let any departments sit on a bankroll just because they can. Ken talking about using free cash to bail out the Senior Center is going back to the quick fix that has cost us in the past. What happened to keeping enough free cash to use in a real emergency ?? It is amazing how short peoples memories are. Bev.
DeleteAt the light and water meeting i was told they were billed on 7-22-2014 for the cost of health costs. The bill was for the 2nd 1/2 of last fiscal 2013 year. So the town borrowed millions to pay the bills for the enterprise departments and did not bill them till it was to late to show on the 2013 books. My question is when it was talked about and we were assured it would be done in time to show on the 2013 books why not? Do we have a govenment now we can trust. The fact that our town administrator has not met with Light dept. John Driscoll tells me i should start to wonder about what we get told at slectmens meetings. No discussion about Dispatch,Pilot payment or any other issues like the Retirement bills,health premiums,and other issues. Are the reasons the town had a layoff due to the fact we did not bill out for this large sum of money in time or were they thinking blaming the tax rate thing would keep people from asking about the funds. The tank on ladder hill is due for a restoration and paint job and at 580,000.00 it will be time to raise the tax rates again as they borrow for the money needed to do this work. They think it can be put off till the towns bond rate get better for the loan. A usda loan would be the option they talked about last night. how much is your water bill going to go up?
ReplyDeleteThe wind turbine land lease agreement has expired between the NRSD and the wind co-op.
ReplyDeleteThe old amount of 5,000. should be higher due to the fact no pilot payment is recieved by the town for this large investment.
The last wind turbine agreement was signed by the school and then light dept. general manager Sean Hamilton on behalf of the town. I thought the light & water dept. were separate from the town? At least that is what the commissioners keep saying! The law says that any contract between a school district and the town that is for 5 yrs or more has to be discussed in front of the selectmen and you can check that law online!
ReplyDeleteThe last fiscal year of the town was FY2014 which ended on June 30, 2014. The last half of FY 2013 ended June 30, 2013 One year ago and I already wonder what we get told at Light & Water meetings. A question to ask selectmen is how did the highway dept. get a new loader? I have been told the selectmen okayed highway to use chapter 90 funds to buy the new loader, Chapter 90 money is taxpayer dollars returned to cities & towns each year from the state to be used in helping repair the roads. It is allowed by law to use chapter 90 funds to buy certain equipment but I feel it is a slap in the face of the taxpayers to have junk roads and use the funds to by new equipment. And they (selectmen) propose another override to fund more positions. We like to say the schools should take care of the buildings they have, and they should (see all the wood trim on Templeton Center school in need of paint) so the town should take care of what they have, such as highway equipment and one thing to do is to not use a loader as a high speed wheel barrow in sweeping the streets. Speaking of which, in a year such as this with money tight, why did we spend time and money as in fuel to sweep the roads? I fully support the senior center but I do not think we should use any free cash to finish that project. It is an election year so we should be calling on our state reps & senators for assistance in obtaining funding for this most important project. There is money out there and if they want our votes, then help us out!
ReplyDeleteThanks for pointing that out about the years you are correct were in 2015 now i meant to write 2014 not 2013.
ReplyDeleteThe 375.00 per hour lawyer from mmwec will get the job done for the light Co-Op. Not sure if the money will be spent for a good lawyer for the town or school district to be signing the best deal for the system. The School committee chairwoman didn't know about the lease problem. Now she does. So does the town. I've been told there is no pilot payment on the turbine assets because we put it on school property not town property. Shady at best.
The loader was purchased with chapter 90 funds legal to do and done by many towns.Our equipment cost more to run every year and with what were spending on repairs is not cost effective in the long run. If we operate like the enterprise deptartments do and turn over fleet 7-10 years max we would have good equipment and save on the repairs. I've been told it's the law to have to do street sweepings yearly. Our ex fire truck/catch basin cleaner truck isn't getting any younger either.The floor was welded in by me when i started working for Templeton highway almost 4 years ago. I would guess the floor is about ready to go again as the body is older year after year.