Update on Senior Center

It has been some time since I posted an update on the Senior Center project. Not a lot of work is being done over the winter but some things are getting done. The new sprinkler system is 97% complete. Once the water is brought into the building it can finished. The interior carpentry work has begun. We are getting the designs for the kitchen and main entry finalized. Once the kitchen design is finished we can put the plumbing work out to bid. TL&W has the transformer but it is not yet installed.

While the building units were apart and stored over two winters a portion of one unit got wet and some mold developed. Once the units were put back together on the foundation a mold remediation specialist was hired to evaluate and remove the mold. He did an extremely thorough and meticulous job in determining the extent of the mold damage and removing it.

 After this work was completed in October, we started the other interior work.

During the mold removal it was brought to our attention that one of the windows was leaking and had been for some time. The carpenter looked at the window and determined that it was incorrectly installed by the previous owner. After the winter this window will be removed, any damage caused by the leak will be removed and replaced, and the window properly reinstalled.

If anyone is interested in seeing the building I would be happy to it to you on a Saturday or Sunday, please feel free to email me at dem270@comcast.net.

Doug Morrison

Chairman – Senior Center Oversight Committee

Interesting Legal Situation

This is the e-mail thread exchange while the motions for the STM meeting were under review by our town counsel, attorney Paul DeRensis. I am very impressed with our town counsel; he really cares about good town governance. His expertise has prevented the town from exacerbating more than few problems. Last night’s STM meeting was Attorney DeRensis’ 1,156^th town meeting.

Templeton government is a work in progress. Our new town counsel is part of a team helping Templeton to recover from years of mismanagement. Our new management team includes: Fred Aponte, accountant; Dan Keeney, treasurer; Jeff Ritter, coordinator. Working together with established department heads, the town is making progress to address the fiscal mess left behind. Hopefully, last night’s STM will clean up the remainders of that mess and the town can set the tax rate.

With new people in management come new ideas. One of those ideas:

“On Mar 5, 2013, at 8:44 AM, PDeRensis@aol.com wrote: Jeff:

Yes its "legal". In a democracy, the citizens of the town have a right to decide issues.

As you can see from this e-mail, it appears that by his own admission, General Manager John Driscoll has involved himself in town politics when his real job is managing Templeton Light & Water. Under MGL chapter 164, section 56 "the manager shall at anytime when required, make a statement of his doings, business, receipts, disbursements, balances and indebtedness of the town in his department." that is a partial entry of the above referenced MGL. The advisory Board according to state law and Templeton by-law is suppose to have access to all things financial of any entity in town. Selectmen Virginia Wilder certainly should be aware of this as she served on advisory for a number of years alongside Dan Keeney. It is strange how Ms. Wilder would characterize a citizens petition "absurd" considering these two emails and the fact that so many citizens have spoken of the lack of information coming from or being provided from the light & water commissioners. Perhaps too much time spent on Baldwinville Road and not enough time spent in the selectman's office. Taxpayers need to have access to all financial information from ALL Templeton departments in order to make informed decisions at town meeting but how can they do this if some of their elected officials fail to provide this information. Hopefully that petition got every ones attention and we will all get on the page of being open and honest with the taxpayers, they do pay the bills!

Jeffrey Bennett

---

From: "J Driscoll" <jdriscoll@templetonlight.com>
To: "MA Advisory Board Templeton" <templetonadvisoryboard@gmail.com>
Cc: "Town Coordinator" <towncoordinator@templeton1.org>, "Chris Stewart" , "j farrell" farrell
@hotmail.com>, gwvwtemple@aol.com, "patrick mullins 2012" <patrick.mullins.2012@gmail.com>, jpb01468@comcast.net, "Kate Myers" <kmyers@templeton1.org>, snowfighter4@verizon.net, "Joel Thompson" <royalcadet@comcast.net>, "Mary Lang" <mlang@net1plus.com>, "Darren Elwell" <darren.charles.elwell@gmail.com>, "Joseph Boyd"
Sent: Monday, March 4, 2013 6:35:58 AM
Subject: RE: Templeton Water budget for FY14

Will,

I apologize for not meeting the anticipated deadline. If you have been reading the newspaper at all, I think you can appreciate that I have had to focus my efforts in other areas as of late. There are a lot of things moving at light speed and I am attempting to get caught up.

You'll notice by the PDF form that the Water Plant's anticipated (not yet voted on) water budget for FY14 is already broken down into several different categories; it would be helpful to me if you could tell me which particular budget items that you would like me to expand on. Unlike in past years, I cannot locate a Microsfot Excel Template file which all of this information would fit into nicely. If someone has that available, please forward it to me.

And this is not as simple as just e-mailing you an attachment. It is important that I get the bottom-line budget figure of $1.407M to agree on the PDF Document and then on the Excel one, beacuse that is what my proposed dollar amount for the FY14 water budget is. All of the data (for whatever reason) has been historically organized differently on the Water Commission copy than on the Town copy whcih goes to Town Meeting. Maybe that is something that should change. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time that Templeton Water has been asked directly by Advisory for a budget breakdown that is more detailed than the one that I am to present at my own Water Commission.

What is the date of the next Advisory meeting?

John