Where can the selectmen get the funds needed to cover the shortages in the FY 2017 budget?
Well, according to a Templeton police chief, it only costs Templeton taxpayers less than forty thousand dollars ($40,000.00) per year to operate Templeton dispatch service. That is what a former Templeton police chief told selectmen and the Town back in 2014. You can ask then and current members of the select board, Brooks and Morrison, about that. There is paper work and since it was recorded, there should be a video of this. That being the case, there is/was $299,590.00 appropriated for dispatch service in Templeton at the 2016 annual town meeting. That would mean there is about 250 thousand dollars sitting in a fund that is not required to be used for anything so some transfers would seem to be available for and to "fix" the problems.
Of course, if this is not the case, if it indeed costs about 300 thousand dollars to operate Templeton dispatch, that money would not be available for transfer and it would mean Templeton selectmen and the Town was lied to by a police chief. That is troubling enough, but there is another issue blooming in Templeton and that is with the building of a jail in Templeton. There was a proposal a few years back, when Gardner was building a new police station, there was a study and a report completed and within that report was a discussion of a regional lockup facility. There was a meeting where it was reported that on weekends, the regional lockup facility could be covered by people from the sheriffs office, as this would keep small towns from bringing more people to an already crowded facility for lockup until Monday for court. That means rather than small towns building their own jails, there could be one to maintain and for a fee per year which is cheaper than having additional personnel on the books, as in health insurance and retirement along with salary, uniforms and all the rest.
Then there is the responsibility of the people locked up for say, over the weekend, you have to feed them and if needed, you have to transport to hospital/emergency room for any medical issues. Since Templeton already voted for the building of lockup, those are the things you will be dealing with in the future and you will now have to pay for them with more tax dollars. With the fiasco that is the Templeton so called 2017 budget that has to be fixed along with that looming 47 million dollar debt for a new school. Speaking of debt, the Advisory Committee had requested a report of the number of debt exclusions on the books as of now, along with how much for each, when will they come off the books and the rest of the details. This information was requested from the Town Treasurer and while some information was received, debt exclusion information was not among it. In my opinion, this indicates that the information is not known, the information is being withheld or the individual does not know what it is or how to find it.
With so many questions still around concerning Templeton debt, it just may be time to ask Town meeting if they feel the vote from November 9, 2015 should be rescinded. That most likely will have to come in the form of a citizens petition, as I believe the selectmen will not voluntarily put an article on the warrant for the upcoming special town meeting.
posted by Jeff Bennett
