What is up with the Town finance/?

At the recent STM, it was stated by the Town Administrator that the FY2015 books were about half done, but they wil be done on time to set the tax rate by December 31. We shall see as we shall see someday, just how much so called certified free cash the Town will have

At the special town meeting, i was concerned about using one time funds to pay recurring expenses. That would be article 4, from planning board detention pond fund to highway expense account, $16,000.00, and that is where some concern should be, in my opinion.

FY2016, voted at Town Meeting, $65,000.00, spent as of budget vs. actual, Nov. 10, 2015; $50,222.21 with $14,777.79 at the middle of the 5th month of the fiscal year. I hope people do not still wonder why the Finance Committee or Advisory Board wishes to have each department head come before the board to explain and justify their budget wishes. So now the highway department has $14,777.79 plus $16,000.00 or $30,777.79 to make it the rest of the way or about 6 1/2 months.

Now for the folks who say the Town should keep what they have and fix it or update it, that is a good idea but the folks still have to provide the funds, as in the money, to do the work and considering that Town Meeting vote turned down requests for funds on multiple occasions and different amounts of money for just one roof, who thinks the town will give up millions to update two buildings. Before anyone points the finger at the school district, you need to read the regional school district agreement. Any amount over $5,000.00 falls to the Town and yes I have seen at least one instance in which the school district bundled projects together to get over the $5,000.00 dollar amount but any major repair or update will fall on the Taxpayers and so far they have refused to pay so we may as well go thru the motion of a new school with Templeton probably going to wastes one million, fifty thousand dollars on nothing.

Jeff Bennett