Selectmen vote on a single tax rate for Templeton. That is, residential and business / commercial pay the same tax rate. With that vote, it was indicated the tax recap paper work could be filed before Thanksgiving and the tax rate could be set by the DOR and tax bills could go out. Now, the selectmen want to hold off on that action. Apparently there are some figures from the treasurer/collector that are not accurate or correct. No real surprise there from someone who serves on the Advisory Committee. We have gotten documents with conflicting numbers on them several times. It is a head scratcher when debt figures go up despite debt being paid off. This raises the question on whether the information from the treasurer / collector can be trusted. This also raises the question how accurate is the information on the already filed schedule A for Templeton. The information received so far shows different figures for the same item several times. Either things are not as fine as has been reported or someone in a very important position does not know the job as well as they should. Either way, more delay in filing an important piece of information.
If you are a follower of Templeton events, there are a few emails and reports where the question of "pushing" the numbers or "fixing" the numbers so the paperwork could be filed, as the case for the schedule A. I am still waiting for the annual town report of 2015 to be redone per town meeting vote.
As for the auction of town property, there was about $14,000.00 raised or bid and now the wining bids have to be paid off, as was indicated by the interim town administrator. Selectmen opted to reject bids on items 17, 21,25 and 26 and it was stated it would be a winter project for the highway department, as it was stated by the interim town administrator that Bud Chase informed him that the highway crew could take these items apart for scrap which would result in more money for the town. I have to wonder if anyone has checked the price of scrap recently.
item #17 listed as 53 elementary school desks
item #21 listed as metal folding chairs
item 25 listed as 29 orange hard plastic chairs
item # 26 listed as 3 metal filing cabinets.
Question asked about when a fire chief will be hired/chosen, the answer was the selectmen are on it. Seems like more delay and the chairman seemed to blame the no vote on taking $87,000.00 from town savings at the most recent special town meeting as part of the reason. Just more delay and lack of action on the part of selectmen. In my opinion anyway.
posted by Jeff Bennett
