Funds for Narragansett, proposed town hall committee going before town meeting voters
Kerry O'BrienNews Staff Writer
TEMPLETON — While the lack of a quorum led to the cancellation of a planned meeting, Board of Selectmen Chairman Jeffrey Bennett on Monday expressed optimism regarding the outcome of tonight’s Special Town Meeting being held largely to appropriate recently approved Proposition 2 1/2 override funding toward the town’s assessment to the Narragansett Regional School District.
“I scheduled this meeting in case anyone had any real issues or questions,” said Mr. Bennett. “(Wednesday) we have the special town meeting question about divvying up the money, and it should be smooth.”
Following an August joint town meeting with Phillipston during which voters approved providing the school district with its full requested budget for the current fiscal year — representing an additional $550,749 over what voters at Templeton’s Annual Town Meeting approved — town officials requested a $620,000 override as a way to stave off significant municipal budget cuts.
Tonight, special town meeting voters will be asked to appropriate $550,749 to the school district, with the remaining $60,000 being sought to restore town employees’ hours that were previously reduced as part of budget cuts.
Elsewhere on the warrant, voters will be asked to accept Victoria Lane as a public way and the Cook Pond Estate’s sewer pump station.
Through Article 4, a group of citizens is asking voters to create a committee to plan for the renovation of 252 Baldwinville Road for use as the town hall.
The town purchased the building — the former home of Materials Unlimited Inc. — in 2010 after voters approved borrowing $1.9 million for the project. A building committee also completed environmental, feasibility and engineering studies utilizing funding approved by voters.
However, once a contractor was hired, the total estimate for the project — $2.3 million — exceeded the funding available. Town meeting voters later approved a citizens petition seeking to disband the project’s building committee.
The selectmen currently have 252 Baldwinville Road up for sale, and have the authority to dispose of the property without a town meeting vote.
Through Article 5, voters will be asked to declare East Templeton School as surplus property and put it up for sale.
Several town officials, including Advisory Board Chairman Wilfred Spring, have said the facility is an asset to the town and could be used as the town hall. Town meeting voters have twice rejected funding renovations to the school building for that purpose.
The town meeting begins at 7 p.m. at Narragansett Regional High School.
It is disappointing to see that the Gardner News continues to not check the facts or figures. Didn’t the actual bids number get shared here on Pauly’s blog just days ago? The lowest bid was for $3,289,535.00. Reading both this article and the paperwork handed out at 252 would lead people to think that $2.3 was what the bids were. They were no where near, which is why the town said no to this project the last time around. I just find this small point very annoying and I believe that this misleading of the public is intentional on the “committee” side.
ReplyDeleteThe one thing that stands out to me was when an individual asked why he was not allowed into a couple of spaces at 252, the answer was the bathrooms do not work. I wonder if when those doors were opened and all you saw was mold had anything to do with it. Also, there was no article 64 for 1.9 million dollars at the 2006 annual town meeting because there is only 61 articles. Article 64 happened in 2010 (check the annual town report of 2010, article 64 as presented by the building committee chaired by Gerald Skelton with Dennis O'Brien, Ray Paige, Kirk Moschetti, Hank Mason, Chris Stewart and Deb Dennis (2011 annual town report) One would think that if this was important to them, they could get the date, year and annual town meeting vote correct. This in my opinion leaves everything they presented suspect due to this one big error. I would expect better from Gerald Skelton, who by everything I have seen is an intelligent and organized man.
ReplyDeleteThis blog with the question about expecting better of an intelligent organized individual reminded me that Bell, CA was in the news again. Look at those so-called intelligent leaders that took such horrendous advantage of their residents & taxpayers. Google Bell, CA (small town, like us) & see how far these officials ripped their townspeople off. Just goes to show the damage that can occur when others in trusted positions go unchecked for too long. One official had finally pushed his salary to one million dollars a year (hoping no one would notice) & because in his mind he was worth it. Thank goodness they are now being prosecuted for abuse of power, unfair practices, breech of the public trust & basically Grand theft. Just thought this is a good example if people think it couldn't happen here. It seems to happen, to a certain degree everywhere, more & more lately but, this one stands out as particularly egregious. However, the greed, arrogance, entitlement & non- caring of others is the same in my opinion.
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