Pre-Town Meeting Feb. 27th

Pre-Town Meeting Feb. 27^th

At last night’s Pre-Town meeting, the Advisory Board met to discuss and to vote on the articles for the Special Town meeting. The meeting was held in the Kiva.

The warrant for the STM contains 6 articles. The Advisory Board voted on 5 out of the 6 articles. The Advisory Board did not vote on the Light and Water citizen petition – Article 6. The Advisory Board voted unanimously to recommend FOR the first 5 articles.

Article 1: Seeks to reverse a vote that was taken at the May ATM. The vote to use $163,100 2008 MEMA Reimbursement Account to fund town charges was found to be improper by the DOR. (This money should have gone to “Free Cash”; been certified as “Free Cash: then it could be used to fund the operating budget) As a Town we need to rescind this vote so we can set the tax rate.

Article 2: If Article 1 passes, the Town must come up with a way to cover the $163,100 shortfall – in the last quarter of this fiscal year. The Treasurer was on hand to present a plan to cover this shortfall. This plan uses every dime of Stabilization money as well as adjusting local receipts to cover the $163,100 shortfall.

The alternative to the plan presented by the Treasurer (and endorsed by the BOS) is to cut into departmental budgets that have already been pared to bare bones or to take money from public safety budgets.

No one wants to “zero out” Stabilization accounts. The Town needs to set the tax rate to generate income coming into the town. The Town will be able to use the $163,100 next year once it has been certified as “Free Cash”. AT the ATM in May, the voters can decide if the want to replenish Stabilization with this money.

To complicate matters, the Town has $222,766.62 in the bank credited to “Stabilization”. Unfortunately, until the Town can correct issues with its accounting and those corrections are approved by DOR, that “extra money” can’t be used.

Article 3. Rescinds the vote taken last November to expend money from the Sewer Enterprise Fund. The DOR will not set the tax rate unless this vote is rescinded, because the DOR insists the funds in the Sewer Enterprise Fund be reconciled, before they will certify the figures. The $135,000 appropriation was to test the sludge in the lagoon

Article 4. This article is a transfer of money between Highway Department line items.

Article 5. This article is to place permanent agricultural/conservation/forestry restrictions on town-owned land in exchange for state-owned land on Crow Hill in order to site an elementary school.

Article 6. Citizen Petition Light and Water 

To see if the town will vote to authorize the Board of Selectmen to seek Special Legislation as set forth below: provided, however, that the General Court may make clerical or editorial changes of form only to the bill, unless the Board of Selectmen approves amendments to the bill before enactment by the General Court, and that the Board of Selectmen is hereby authorized to approve amendments which shall be within the scope of the general public objectives of the petition, or take any other action thereon or in relation to.

   An Act Authorizing the Board of Selectmen in the Town of Templeton to Act as Light and Water Commissioners

Section 1. Notwithstanding the provisions of section 21 of chapter 41 and section 56A of chapter 164 of the general laws, or of any general or special law to the contrary, the board of selectmen of the town of Templeton shall be authorized to act as light and water commissioners and shall exercise all of the powers and duties of a light and water commission as set forth in the general laws. 

Section 2. Upon effective date of this act, the terms of the incumbent members of the light and water commission of the town of Templeton shall be terminated and the elected light and water commission abolished.

Section 3. This act shall take effect upon passage. 

No recommendation was made on this article by the Advisory Board, as is the case with Citizen Petitions.

My opinions…supported by FACTS ! ! !

Julie Farrell