In my
opinion Mark Barrieau is right when he asked about the highway department
saving money for the town, was that savings reverted back to the town? Good
question Mark. Did the light and water department give the highway department
anything on the water breaks? What junk’s did they use on that job? If the
highway department did not use "our junks" on non-highway issues, it
would not wear out our-junks so fast. Other words like Frank Moschetti says
about hiring people out of Leominster to do work per hour instead of local
contractors that pay taxes in Templeton.
How much do they charge Templeton per
hour? Again someone is not thinking clearly, and just because their vehicle is
in town and does not mean we have to give them the extra work. I agree with
Jeff Bennett 90%, but in this world you have to keep an eye on that other 10%
like they say in the military right Jeff? And I will say it, again, and again,
and again, slow all these trucks down on our rough, pothole ridden, roads and
they will definitely last a lot longer. And if the town is on piecework plowing, sanding and salting, I want to get on
the job. My old Mack will go 60 to 70 mph
all day long, but I must stop every couple of hours to tighten up and replace
missing nuts and bolts and make our chiropractors appointment (back problems) Speeding
with a truck loaded with sand and salt does not rot a vehicle, it's not power
washing them that causes all the rotting frames and other problems like brake lines and backing plates
and I'm not talking through my-Hat, I have been through it all being in the
trucking business for 50 years or more. Rust never sleeps, but a good power
wash keeps rust on the alert-other words put the rust to sleep after every salt
sanding operation. Good idea? Well enough beating on the highway department or
is it? What say Mark Barrieau? Why is the Templeton light and water department
so rich and the rest of the town so Poor? What say Dana? Hee hee hee! I see you
work with old, old, old trucks and I never see them on the back of CO&S
Garage’s wrecker. What's the secret? I don't believe Mark Barrieau is knocking
the senior center, he's just asking a lot of questions that should be answered
now. And not at a selectmen's meeting. A stupid taxpayers are getting smarter
and someone does not like it, I wonder who? If I PHC keep the pressure on, what
will happen? Is Jeff Bennett's question of why so many people delinquent on
their real estate taxes? Is someone else slacking on the job? What say Carol
Eaton? I got some names myself and a lot of the people that owe back taxes are
not "poor" or even close to being poor, why would anyone not pay
their taxes and pay a 16% penalty? And then it is right-again if these people
pay their taxes even a little late, the town would not be in this mess to start
with, or would they? I'm going to find out who is delinquent and for how long!
Go ahead say it-how about PHC Sr? My taxes are up to date because I don't want
to pay a 16% interest charge. I can borrow from the bank for 7% or less. What
happened to the bidding process for obsolete equipment and material like the
old fire truck at the highway department? I would bid $1000 for that fire truck
just for the-junk, before any more parts are stripped off it. How about the
land parcels that should be auctioned off to bring them back on the tax rolls.
When is the-interest payment of $25,000 due on the 252 Baldwinville Rd.? Every day that someone drags their feet
is costing taxpayers big bucks, is the elementary school building committee
more important? No it isn't because we are going to go broke just talking about
a new elementary school let alone being able to order it. Now I should get a
lot of flack about that statement, hee hee,hee . Let's face it, a new
elementary school is going to cost well over 40 million, the state pays 80%,-we
wish, now 20% of 40 million for Templeton is out of the question right now. Do
the math. 20% of 40 million-big hopes-. This is a bottom of the barrel figure,
so let's get back to reality and concentrate on getting money back into town
instead of sending it out of town. Where is the feasibility study money coming
from, I thought we did this study a couple of times already. I PHC Senior keep
all comments from my blogs for future reference so come on people spell it out.
What's your ideas about priorities, is it going to be sink or swim? State your
priorities on paper and maybe someone will listen, have I said enough for one blog?
Thanks for reading my opinions.
well where i work at A.JANDRIS we have two sanders over 30 years old steel sanders which have sanded for the state the past 30 years the past two years they have not because of the bull sh** of the state and Jeff will agree on that ..but after every storm we washed them out and did maintenance on them ...those are still in good shape today the truck under them might not be but the sanding body still in good shape ..i just rember one July touring the high way barn and there was a sander still loaded full of sand and salt ..that is just wrong and being lazy!!!!
ReplyDeleteYes I will and yes on salt trucks, washing and grease will go a long way to keeping equipment in shape. My theory is eliminate sand, use staight salt and liquid and save a ton of money, no sweeping sand up every spring, man hours, fuel, wear n tear on trucks, you don't did sand out of basins every year, trade the sweeper in for a truck and contract out the trash sweeping that is needed from time to time. But that is food for down the road.
Deletei do agree with you on straight salt and liquid calcium that you save tons of money but saving money at what cost to the environment ..look at the road sides on rt 2 all the trees are dyeing im sure it is from all the salt .and do you really want to put all that salt on roads where people have there own wells and stand a chance of the town contaminateing them there will be no money saved then !!
DeleteI don`t believe it is the salt that is making the trees turn brown and die. It is the ethenol in the gas we put in our cars and trucks. If you will notice the trees on one side of the road is brown and not the other side because that is the side the wind blows toward most of the time. The down wind side. Check it out the next time down rt. 2 toward Leominster.
DeleteJust something I read once before.
If you don't put down all the ton n tons of salt that the state does trying to "burn" the snow off rather than plow it, after you have snow accumulation that is at 2 inches or more, plow plow plow. pretreat at the beginning and then plow and then salt to help fight refreeze. Besides, the state politicians have to keep all them contractors busy on the state teat, because after you get thru winter with the necessary task of plowing, the amount of trade that is lost if the roads are not cleared is in the billions, after winter, the pavers, tree companys and the like need work, they are union and this is a democratic state and who supports the democrats because who do the democrats support, a never ending story, but back to Templeton, an educated and smart snow / deice plan would save tax dollars, salt is more expensive than sand but you use less, you put down less, fewer trips less fuel, you save on that month of sweeping up the sand, you don't buy sand, you don't screen sand, you don't haul sand and you don't dig the sand out of the drain basins, and it is the over salting and over use of liquid that kills them trees, that is why in some areas they have reduced salt areas, where you don't put down 100 tons of salt when 20 would work.
DeleteThis may not be popular here but I think the Highway Dept does a great job removing snow in the winter--regardless of how they do it. There's a huge difference when leaving the town line into a surrounding town. Winchendon does a horrible, horrible job plowing. I'm sure the Highway Dept will be so thankful for all the cost saving ideas shared here because I"m sure they haven't thought any of these through amongst themselves (sarcasm intended). Of course there are always ways to improve and save money. But, lets not overlook the fact that they get the job done and should acknowledge that from time to time instead of constant finger pointing. Don't get distracted from the primary issue at hand: seeking justice for the illegal and unethical wrongdoings of several Templeton officials. What do you do when the corruption goes all the way to the top? Just say oh well, and move on?
DeleteActually, Ashburham is pretty close to finishing up their new elementary school and the budget is right about 27 million, 2 million under the projected cost of 29 million dollars, and they began their feasibility study back in 2009, right about the same time Templeton did. By the highway department doing that work, it saved the taxpayers from spending another approximately 250 thousand dollars. This was voted at a selectmen meeting so people had the chance to question it then. Now it needs to be determined what if anything it cost to have Boucher repair that one section, then take a look at the hours that the highway worked, they are asking for salary payback from water for $2,717.71, is there a private contractor who will come in on the weekend and do all the work that the highway did for that short doe??? Perhaps go to water department and see if they want to put the work out for bid and see what you get for prices then. The longest working employee for that weekend did 18 hours, does anyone think you will get an operator and an excavotor for 18 hours on saturday, short notice for 27 hundred dollars. ($2,700.00) Then consider one dump truck with operator and remember, that excavator has to be transported. One way to compare may be to see what Dave Richards gets for emergency watermain break in Gardner as he does that work, either by contract or hourly, either way, there is a measuring stick or ask these local contractors what they would charge, estimate.
ReplyDeleteThe funding for the feasibility study was already voted a t $550,000 for the elementary school. The MSBA reimbursement for the elementary school would be 60% . Some original estimates came back at 32 million for an elementary school. Those estimates were based on the Brooks property. MSBA now has more elementary school plans to choose from as a model school. The goal of the model school plans was to keep costs down when building a school. We'll see how that turns out.
DeleteIf we are able to secure land at the TDC for no cost, it will take some time for the town to obtain clear title. That time should be used to look at the town's debt and how to manage that debt. Ashburnham stopped adding to their debt when they knew they were going to go for a new school. Templeton needs to have a plan like that. Prioritize the capital projects and stick to a plan. Templeton seems to lurch from crisis to crisis - reacting to situations instead of proactive planning.
The Highway department was able to save a lot of money for the senior center project. The $500,000 debt exclusion was for 1 year. It was on the tax rate and off the tax rate. This project also includes money from the ZBA and the affordable housing units at Day Mill. The total budget was not just the $500,000 override. I believe the senior center oversight committee (Doug) should be commended for finally getting this project closer to the finish line with DONATED land...and DONATED modular units all with goal of keeping this project within budget for the benefit of the Seniors in town.
For the record my taxes are up to date and I like to pay my taxes using the online bill paying module from Unipay. Town Offices closed on Friday, I can still pay my tax bills or excise tax bills on Friday or Saturday or Sunday. What a concept! And it benefits the town's cash flow.
Part of our financial plan should be collect on the outstanding debt that is owed the town, when you look at what you owe and what you have on hand, you can then decide what you can do and right now, Templeton has quite a bit owed to it and I believe it is a responsible thing to collect that, that is cash the town could use for stabilization through its designation as free cash. Collecting this debt also looks good with bond rating agencies, people will look at Templeton as being a good town because it has its financial affairs in order. Move with a purpose rather than jumping from issue to issue. Hard for taxpayers to keep an eye on the ball when we keep tossing it around every which way. Since I am a little slow and not to smart, read that as having a plan and reacting proactively, as in when something breaks or you need to replace something, the money is in place to buy or fix it, no emergency, no crisis, no rush to have a meeting cause we have to deal with this emergency. Example: money spent on generators, and some peole questioned the need. Well in 2008 there was a need and when we used em, a few people almost did not make it because of problems as in carbon monoxide and one generator could not support all the operations it needed to. Now we should not have those problems because we spent the money to place the generators where they will be needed and they were installed in the proper way. Next we need to have and use a maintenance plan so they work as in start when we need them, hopefully we never need them but that is wishful thinking. Take the highway loader, do we have any money in place to help pay for that replacement, no we don,t because we have no plan. Even if you keep a loader or truck in great condition, after 20 years parts become an issue and hard or impossible to get, the town needs a plan for its finances. Yes it is being worked on.
DeletePauly - I think Light & Water should reimburse Highway for any costs associated with the water break. But it will come out of the Water budget, correct? That's not the "rich" part of TML&W.
ReplyDeleteI have some comments about your question: "Why is the Templeton light and water department so rich and the rest of the town so Poor?"
What should we, as citizens, do to take control of the Light Company? Well, Templeton has a lot of debt. We are in no position to build all the public works projects that people say we need. One way to get out of debt would be to sell the distribution network and all facilities to National Grid. Last time I looked, with all charges, we were paying about the same as my family who have National Grid. I don't know how much it would fetch, but it would have to be in the millions at least. Pay down town debt, replenish the stabilization account, and carefully consider how to proceed with capital expenses.
We would eliminate the two-tier system of town employees. We would pay the same electric rates as our neighbors in other towns. And we could use the money gotten from the sale of the Light Co. as well as their cash stash to pay down town debt and have a decent stabilization fund.
One other thing - National Grid would pay property taxes to the town of Templeton.
DeleteDo you think a private company would have built that fancy headquarters? Make sure National Grid buys that building, because the taxes on it would be plenty.
there is tons of free money to home owners and business from rebates for lighting and energy efficient appliances ..you do not see Templeton light doing any of this
DeleteMark, obviously, you haven't seen the news about how National Grid is being fined by the state for poor service and reaction time to recent outages. One of the reasons I like living in Templeton is having a local light & water dept. Yes, they need some managerial changes there, but it is still nice to have control over power locally. We would have been out of power for way longer during the ice storm if it wasn't a local light co. Ya, let's have National Grid own our electricity, Casella own the dump and truck in trash from the rich towns, put a solar farm at E. Templeton school, get Walmart and Home Depot to sponsor the school building, sell advertising on the gazebo in the town common, and hire robots to run the town offices. That way, we will solve all our money problems!
Deletebut when there is an outage we have power back preety quick unlike theses other towns. must be another way to get there money
DeleteMe be thinkin the local contractas jus wish to stay attached to the town teat, government always be payin de bills, why der be more peeps a workin or hangin on to de goverment jobs dan be in de private sector? why do mass highway be a payin as much for de ot for the white hats ya know, de bosses as de be a payin for de salt they be a usin on dem snow storms? da more de highway do of dis here work is less money de be gettin in der pockets off the taxpayer teat and de don't be alikin dat. dey should pay der taxes on time then they no need to be gettin them demands (late charges) removed by dat der tax collector, which dem demands should be collected if they be late on dem taxes, one big merry go round a be goin on here and it jus might be a time to shutt her down!!!! dey be use ta gettin piece of de taxpaye pie and now de not be gettin it and de don't be happy! why de town be a buyin a used generator for 85 hundre when for 10 grand de could a be gettin brand new delivered set up and de warranteed, why, cause de had the inside track to the town teat and now de don't, ohhhh weeeell
ReplyDeleteGee, it would be nice if you would write english so I could under stand you, ttwistedssisster68. Right now we are paying more for electricity than National Grid. There is one thing to think about. In the last few years, my friend from Spencer has been with out electricity for days, at times for a week or more. Having the Electric company we do, we have been in much better shape than towns who wait for service from the big companies.I do not think we realize it, we have been spoiled in that way. I don't really think people would not pay their taxes unless they are having problems. If they are in trouble, we should find a way to do a payment plan, with these people. If the town had not sucked all of the money out of the stabelization plans, we would have the money to fix and replace the equipment we own. I agree with anonymous 8:38, We get off track and we sound as bad as ltps. We need to stick to the most important issue at hand, getting our town on track. It is always easier to be a Monday morning quarter. We need to solve our own problens, before we can take on anything else. Bev.
DeleteIf we can raise our children's IQ's by simply getting fluoride out of their diet most significantly by ending fluoridation maybe we do not need a new school. New schools are nice but teaching the children the truth on life's matters may be more important. Fluoride is just the tip of the iceberg on life's mistruths. Just my opinion.
ReplyDeleteMunicipal Light companies in Massachusetts do not play by the same rules as National Grid and other private sector providers. That's why they do not have to give rebates for new appliances.
ReplyDeleteAlso, electricity sold back to the town (as from a private windmill) is sold at "wholesale". So-called "net-metering" does not apply to the Muni power companies.
My power was out 4 days. Similar to others in the area. As for Coakley's grandstanding with the fines, I wish government held muni utilities to the same rules (energy star, net-metering) as commercial enterprises.
ReplyDeleteMost people in Massachusetts live with a public utility. Most towns in Massachusetts are not in the dire straits Templeton is in.
Government has as many or as few functions as we choose to pay for. If we can fulfill traditional government missions, like a new school, public safety building, by selling a non-traditional town asset, why not?
The reason for municipal utilities was for small towns to become "electrified". That need has passed, and perhaps townspeople should consider what roles town government should fulfill and whether or not we can better fulfill those roles by shedding this asset.
Mark you need to come and join us at the next light and water meet and help us on that!
ReplyDeletethey need to put a face to these posts, I'll save a seat next to will springs and I. Go DPW!We can move into their old/new building!
Everyone needs to go to the next light and water meeting. It will be a real experience. My grand daughter, Sarah works for a company called E.F.I., she processes rebates for big companies . When you get a dryer, refrigerator, freezer, anything that is energy efficient and you qualify for a rebate, she is the girl that will send you a check, if the company contracts with her co. She sends out some decent $. She can get good deals on light bulbs and other things. This is a thing to think about. Want to liven up your life, and make Mr.Driscoll happy go to the next TL& W meeting, the more the better. Bev.
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