Change to the Templeton Select Board


Kenn Robinson announced he will not seek reelection next year.


John Columbus is now Chairman, Diane Brooks is vice chairman and Doug Morrisson is clerk.


For some reason, new board member Julie Richard thought it was a good idea to vote on accepting meeting minutes from before she was elected. The dates are March 30, 2015, April 23, 2015 and April 30, 2015.  Generally members abstain if they were not present at the meeting and certainly if you were not even on the board yet and new chairman John Columbus, well, I don't think he even noticed. I do recall Mr. Columbus saying something about the Town needing to be run by the book when he was running for office last year.
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Town Administrator noted that the town will only be getting around 30 thousand dollars for snow and ice from FEMA for one storm from this past winter. Another topic that was discussed was the hours and salary for health Agent Phil Leger, which apparently the advisory Board recommended to be cut on a small scale. There was some question on just how much money the Board of Health brings into the town. The Board of Selectmen say one thing and the annual Town reports tell another story so I will post those figures later for you to see.




Another question raised by me was the cost of dispatch, which apparently costs more than we were told last year by former police chief Whitaker. It apparently costs more than the 36 thousand we were told last year, as in a presentation to the Board of Selectmen. When I asked about this, there was silence from the Board of Selectmen, other than new chairman John Columbus who simply stated, "we have other things to discuss Jeff" and my response was "we are tired of being given false information, bad number and budgets." All one selectman could do was drop their head and look down at the table.




On some other things were appointments, which was put off until later date, Cable TV Manager position, put off until a later date, doing away with cable commission, put off until later date.


Lastly, it seems that the old pumper truck from the fire department, the one that is old, worn out and hard to get parts for, well, it seems the Highway department is interested in it. Just what a department with most of its equipment already old and worn out needs, another piece of old worn out equipment, unless that truck is not as old and worn out as we have been told.  Does anyone see a pattern and issues with this scenario? Yep, we were recently told during an election that it was time for a change but so far, it seems the same old same old with no selectmen speaking up for the taxpayers.


Is it too early to begin running for selectman for 2016?




Jeff Bennett