Smackdown Update
A fairly large crowd was in attendance at the Elementary School Building Meeting in the Kiva.
After a quick review of how we got to where we are, some options were presented on how to proceed.
Templeton Town Counsel has been consulted. Attorney Hucksam from Deutsch Williams has rendered an opinion that the project must be approved.
One option is to approach the Planning Board to hold yet another hearing to reconsider their vote on the site plan for the elementary school.
The other option is to go to court and appeal the Planning Board's decision which will take about a year for the court to make a ruling.
To date over 3 million dollars has been spent on this project. The financial impact of waiting a year for the court to rule would cost the project 1.2 million dollars.
The next Planning Board meeting is scheduled for August 23, 2016 at 6:30 pm in the Kiva. A quorum of the Planning Board members would need to be present to take any action.
A question was asked where the money would come from for the court proceedings. Since this case would be the town suing the town, there would be a need for a money to be appropriated at town meeting to pay for this expense.. ( possibly the town meeting on October 20, 2016?)
Some comments form the people present:
Tom J - "Admit it, you guys blew it."
Sharon M. - "Can the footprint of the school be made smaller?" NO!
Ray W. - "How much will the highway work cost?" $350,000
Christy - "How do we move forward?"
Alex M. - "What will happen to his kids education?" According to Supt. Cassavant "The physical layout is better at the middle school than at Templeton Center. ..Looks like kids will be at the middle school longer - four years instead of two years.".
Carrie K - "education will not be compromised."
? MacDonald- "Parents made a decision based on things that are not true. They got screwed."
Joele P. - "Can the road issue be reconsidered?" "Did anyone look at the town?" "There are 11 intersections to get through that area of Templeton Center.
Mary P. - "Parents won't be parking on the road." "Traffic will be better after the school is built."
Alisha O. - More kids will ride the bus because the bus ride won't be as long. Fewer parents will be dropping off kids.
Tom J. - Will it cost more because the town doesn't have a bond rating? Hank M - the town has come a long way.
Is there a backup plan?
DHB - by the end of the year the town will have a bond rating.
Why not immediately attempt to use other property. How is it cheaper to go to court, wait a year than it would be to change locations.
ReplyDeleteI personally think its to costly and that Templeton center is a dumb idea. If we are required to build a school it should at least be in a better location. It should also be closer to the area 1 average cost to, but lets not hope for to much.
Thanks for update, putting new meeting on calendar.......
101% agreed!!! if we gave a 5k prize for someone to plan a worse place to put a school, no one could win!!! good knowledge says no one ever spoke to the owner of the land on the baldwinville rd to ask what he would be willing to sell it for, to the town.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteBrad,
ReplyDeleteThe piece of land rt by rt2 is for sale for something like $135,000. How hard would it be to accommodate that location and save the grief........
First off, town counsel opinion is just that, an opinion, it is NOT a court order, so I do not think anything MUST be approved yet. Second, is it possible to have a citizens petition for the next town meeting to reconsider or adjust the town meeting vote of November 9, 2015. Remember when the school district (Ruth Miller and elementary school building committee) said it MUST be the district borrowing the 500 thousand dollars and then it turned out it had to be the town borrowing the money. There is/was 2 million dollars in contingency money within the so called budget to build the school so why not use some of that money to buy a piece of land off of Baldwinville Road and put the school there? Remember, Town Counsel works for the selectmen so of course they will find an opinion to back up what a majority of the selectmen want. So it should not really take a year to do this one. Citizens could probably take care of this at the next town meeting, special or annual. I do not believe this is shenanigans, I think this is democracy in action. While we are at it, perhaps someone should ask how a $1.74 per thousand is going to cover this bill of 24 million dollars.
ReplyDeletejust take the junk yard by emit domain pay him fair value and there you go right in the center of town and plenty of land !!
ReplyDeleteMike,
ReplyDeleteTaking land by eminent domain is a long process. The town of Templeton doesn't have any extra money hanging around to pay a fair value for anything.
The FY 17 budget is unbalanced which is why there will be a STM in the fall on October 20, 2016. The selectmen seem to unwilling to cut anything to get the budget into balance. They want to retain the raises that were given out without their knowledge. They also need to hire a fire chief and will probably need to give that person more money as well.
Now there is talk of one town department suing another town department, which will cost more money out the FY 17 budget as well.
It is still unknown if the Town of Templeton will have a bond rating in order to fund the elementary school project. To date it has been very difficult for the Advisory Committee to get any response to their numerous requests for the debt schedules for the town.
None of the above issues takes into consideration the 1 million dollar deficit for FY 13.
As for changing the location of the school, I think that would cost the town the financial funding from the MSBA. As Dave points out, that may not be a horrible thing. But the town would still need a bond rating to borrow money.
As for other locations, more than a few have been mentioned. The junkyard land, the land off of Rt 2, Main St. in Otter River, the land taking from American Tissue included parcels that are not contaminated off of Reservoir St., Move the highway barn down to the treatment plant and use that town owned property for the school...the list goes on and on.
The selectmen and school building committee are constrained by the town meeting and ballot vote to force through this project.
No one else is compelled to follow this plan. Jeff's idea to rescind or amend the vote taken at the Special town Meeting on November 9, 2015 may have some merit. The $1.74 per thousand cost given out at that special town meeting is fantasy in my opinion.
Have great day!