Since someone in Town hall really hates this blog, here's to it:

Article IV – Advisory Committee
Section 1. There shall be an Advisory Committee consisting of seven legal voters of the town who shall be appointed by the Moderator as hereinafter provided. No elective or appointive town officer or town employee shall be eligible to serve on said committee, except that a representative from the Advisory Committee shall be entitled to serve as a member of the Capital Planning Committee and the Insurance Committee. Amended 5-13-03 & 5-11-11

The above is from Templeton General by-laws, and there in lies the problem, seems like the Massachusetts General laws now say something different:

MGL, chapter 32B, section 3:

Said committee shall consist of eight members as follows: seven persons to be duly elected or appointed to membership on such committee by organizations of the employees affected, and one person who shall be a retiree of a governmental unit who shall be duly appointed to membership on said committee by the appropriate public authority. 

I was going to serve on insurance committee until a "discussion" came up as to how I was appointed to the insurance committee, hey, some people in Town Hall do not like me, but hey, who cares. During this "discussion" it was noted that the law said something else which contradicts the Town by-law so the Advisory Committee requested an article for the special town meeting in October to have 3 words removed from that by-law section. That would make the by law follow state law. Seems simple and logical, until it reaches the selectmen, who, voted to not place this item on the warrant. They stated they wished to wait until they bring in a consultant, for a fee, to have all the by-laws looked at and changed, eliminated so as to be compliant with current law. I agree with the concept, but why wait to remove 3 words which does what they say they wish to do. 

from my personal opinion: "Perhaps they do not like Advisory Committee bringing something up that may derail their school project. Since the Town would be getting very close, if not passing, what is the allowable debt limit for the Town, and to allow the Town to get word on the condition of it's fiance, it does not seem to be a bad thing to do, to put the brakes on the project. The Town will be able to go into 47 million dollar debt later. So the beat goes on and it seems that this board of selectmen still has advisory Committee on its target deck and wants to go around it and not follow Town by-laws, they still feel like they are the superior board." You can make the call as to how you see it.

posted by Jeff Bennett

Since Templeton is going to be looking for more debt to replace a sewer pumping station, I hope they are looking into this:

Sewer Rate Relief Fund - FY2017

The Division of Local Services has released Bulletin 2016-04B: Sewer Rate Relief Fund - FY2017. It can be found by clicking here.

The Sewer Rate Relief Fund operates under the provisions of Chapter 29 Section 2Z of the General Laws. The Fund was created in 1993 to mitigate escalating costs of sewer service in the Commonwealth. Awards were based on "eligible debt service" and were calculated at up to 20% of debt service. For FY2017, $1.1 million has been appropriated. Applications must be returned by Friday, October 28th, 2016 to the address noted in the bulletin.

posted by Jeff Bennett