With the upcoming meeting of the Town of Templeton, as in a special Town meeting in November. First, by state law, all Towns have to have one Town meeting per year to take care of Town business, then any Town can have any number of other Town meetings, which are called special Town meetings and the selectmen or a certain number of residents can call for a special Town meeting at any other time. Now with regards to a proposed transfer from a Planning Board fund to help pay for the excavator bought for the highway department, I think this looks like the taking of money from other entities in a fraudulent manner, in my opinion anyways. It was reported that this money was originally collected from developers and such for the purpose of maintaining detention ponds but now it is said that the highway department does this work so this money remains in an account unspent, possibly some more "found money". Seems to me that if this tax was collected for a specific reason, it should be spent on that or given back from whom it was collected. I am sure however, that a case might be made that since the funds were collected for this purpose and the highway department is doing said work then technically that money is being used for said purpose. I wonder however how those developers might see this? This could also be one more reason why there are not more business's trying to locate to Templeton. I am also curious on why to majow debt questions at this special Town meeting come before those financial transfers? Why should people be asked to go into debt for about 50 million before they hear the reasons why a FY2015 bill was not paid in a timely manner, what department failed to make the payment or keep track of their purchases? Kind of makes the argument for centralized purchasing, in my opinion. What is the reason (s) for more money to the accounting department or office, as I thought  this had already been addressed/ Kind of makes one wonder just what condition Town finances are in and what the "financial Team" is doing. See you at the Town meeting in November.

jeff Bennett

Wednesday, October 28, 2015 - budget versus actual.

What was budgeted versus what has actually been spent to date;
According the last budget vs. actual report from Town hall, highway department expenses, which began with an allotted amount of $65,000.00 for fiscal year 2016 (July 1, 2015 - June 30, 2016) and now has $17,092.50 left in it. Accordingly, $47,907.50 has been spent with October being the fourth month in the fiscal year, so either not enough funds were budgeted or the department has spent quite a bit of money on something, can you say used old Ford ten wheeler? On the other side of the fix it fence, there was $90,000.00 allotted for Town vehicle / machinery supplies with only $20,549.50 spent so far with $69,450.50 left. If you are keeping track, here are the amounts for the salaries for the people in the highway department:

Department head - $  63,809.00
Secretary             - $  30,832.00
Mechanic            - $  46,385.00
drivers/laborers   - $243,683.00

Jeff Bennett

Apparently someone does not like this alternative blog, oh well. It is here to stay for as long as it seems relevant. At tonight's selectmen meeting, one thing on the agenda was changing the boards meeting night to Wednesday, apparently there is a problem with getting selectmen into the office on that day to sign the weekly warrant, which is required to pay the town's bills. I guess some want the title of selectmen but are unable or unwilling to to do the things required of them, some required by state law!  Apparently there is a big stone that was dug up on Boyton road and it was said that the highway boss Bud Chase told the Town Administrator that it would probably take $1,000.00 to put it on a truck to remove it. It seems there will be some discussion on what to do with it, the large stone. It is really not that large.

Looking over the warrant for the upcoming special Town meeting, there are again more money transfers. I am personally in favor of a new school but how are residents to support it when it seems the finances are not yet in order? If additional funds go the accounting department, that will equal about $100,000.00, which I was told would be used in part to hire outside help to do the FY 2013 - 2014 books so the Town Accountant can concentrate on FY 2015 books.

Boyton Road paving is done, good job by the contractors who have the equipment and expertise to do the work, which is only paid for when needed, no additional fat like benefits or free boots, only pay when actual work is done. With the required budget item for OPEB, other post employment benefits, people will now see at least part of what it costs to have all of them town employees. The state of Massachusetts owes or needs 15 Billion over the next thirty years just to pay retiree health insurance. The 351 municipalities in the state are no better off and this could be the thing that brings more and more cities and Towns to the brink. It is something that is not going to go away and when government of any size grows, so does this EXPENSE. So badmouth contractors all you want, ignore cost saving things like regionalization of some services and reduction in other avenues or any of the other option to help reduce these long term costs, it is not cheaper to have a large in house work force because that thing that is at the very end of many financial reports is not going away, it is always growing and that is OPEB.

Jeff Bennett