January 30, 2012 From the couch of Jeffrey Bennett

The Gardner News, Thursday, January 26, 2012, Mark Haranas writes with a new town hall at 252 Baldwinville road, the cost for maintaining and operating the new building will be $36,000.00 less than what the town currently spends. So lets do some math shall we?

The committee put out in flyers that the town currently spends around $224,000.00 on rent and maintenance and operating costs. Well if you look at the FY 2012 budget, the amount of money set aside to pay the rent and operate and maintain the town’s buildings is only $153,076.00 dollars. Remember what is set aside is not the actual amount spent but rather an estimate of what it will cost based on past records. Well if it currently costs $224,000.00 to operate town buildings, how come we only set aside $153,076.00? Perhaps we should check with the town accountant and former town coordinator Carol Skelton as they are the primary people involved in the budget process at that time. Now we will look at the budget of FY 2011. Budgeted for operating and maintenance of town buildings including rent was $163,095.00 and we actually spent $126,581.14 on rent, maintenance and operation cost. 2010 we actually spent $161,580.63. Since 2006 thru 2011, the town of Templeton has averaged $145,759.99 on rent, maintenance and operations. The building committee says in their flyer that it will cost $92,000.00 to operate and maintain buildings and $96,000.00 for loan payment bringing total cost to $188,000.00 for new town hall. How is this saving taxpayers money? Where is the $36,000.00 savings? The residents of Templeton clearly have not been given accurate information on how much has been spent or will be spent. The Gardner News seems to be a victim of bad information as well. Perhaps this is what happens when only one source is used. Perhaps it is time for a no vote on the override question and have a thorough examination of the facts, figures and options for the people of Templeton. If a new town hall with one stop shopping is what we want, fine. I just prefer that the people have correct information before going to vote. If it is going to cost us at a minimum of $42,240.01 for the convenience of one stop shopping, so be it, but I think we should have this knowledge prior to a vote. ($96,000.00 + $92,000.00 = $188,000.00 minus $145,759.99 = $42,240.00). Another concern I have is if these numbers are wrong, what else could be wrong with the report from the bldg committee, engineer, architect, environmental and budget?

 Concerns from Jeffrey Bennett