Sunday, December 17, 2017

TO:            Board of Selectmen
FROM:      Carter Terenzini, Town Administrator
RE:             Administrator's Weekly Report
DATE:        December 14, 2017
CC:             All Departments




Town Hall will be closing at noon on Thursday, December 21, for the Holiday. Other Town
Offices will be closed at noon on Friday, December 22, for the Holiday.
All Town offices will re-open on Tuesday, December 26, 2017


Important Notices

Budget and Legislative Packages Are Due January 2, 2018
Please make sure all of your units and committees are submitting their projects to the CPC

We are having a continuing problem with CH. 30B procurements. Please confer with this
office before entering into any purchase or contract with a value of greater than $2,500.00. 
More formal guidance will be issued in mid January after conferring with the BOS.


Business Meeting or Workshop: The following is intended to supplement agenda items where a full memorandum may not have been required or updates are needed.

Weekly Report:  We opened the bids for the timber cut at the landfill and highway site (s). Our estimate was for a gross income of $15k with a net of $10k. The actual bids are closer to a gross income of $21k with a net of $15k. This will be on your 1/08 agenda. We have rejected the Police Station bids. The Chief met with the project manager and others to try and see where the major differences were between the estimates and the final bids. He will be prepared to brief you at your January workshop along with a plan to go forward. The several offices of the Treasurer/Collector and Development Services have been relocated. While we have a few more things to do over the coming year, this should address the safety concerns expressed by the Town Auditor. That said, the new security features for the Treasurer/Collector will mean a need to relocate the copying and faxing activities of some to the hall copier or other methods. Eric arranged for Jackie Abbott from the State's Operational Services Division to come to Town Hall on Tuesday to train staff members how to use CommBuys for state-wide contracts. Jackie trained staff members on how to make purchases and post bids for services on CommBuys. The staff felt more confident and prepared to use CommBuys in the future after the training. Along with Eric Politt, the following people attended: Eric Baker Dispatch, Felicia Kuehl, the accounts payable clerk from NRSD, Holly Young from the BOS office, Mallory Seamon of development services and Pam Rogers from DPW office. COA and Fire both wanted to attend but had other obligations. They will receive training on CommBuys in the near future.


Assessors:  The past two weeks have been very busy in our offices as work was being done in getting bills ready for 3rd and 4th quarter billing. Exemptions have been posted; liens for utilities have been placed on the tax bills. The actual FY 2018 Real Estate and Personal Property Commitment was processed on Tuesday afternoon and the files have been sent to the Collector/Treasurer office to export to the billing company. This year's tax bills bring a tax rate of $16.72 (an increase of .60 cents per thousand valuation) One reason for the increase is for the elementary school feasibility studies that were never committed in 2009 and 2013 thru 2015. Also real estate property values have increased this year.

16 comments:

  1. Anonymous7:33 AM

    It's comical how much paid time off our extra special paycheck patriots receive. Christmas is Monday, Friday the office is closed. Why let them out at noon on Thursday?

    This is one reason why they retire with hundreds of unused paid days, despite hardly ever working a 40 hour week.

    If Thursday were a day off, they would be released Wednesday at noon.

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    1. Anonymous9:02 AM

      If the "Christmas Party" is in the AM on Thursday, that means no work is done at all. Where is our tax bill ? I thought they were supposed to be out before Christmas ? Oh yes, we still have time to get them. Ho, Ho, Ho

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  2. Templeton, will you ever learn? * rhetorical
    If I’m not mistaken, as I was watching the planning board meeting the land that was just mentioned in the special town election for changing the zoning coincidentally now has an auto recycling plant as it’s new neighbor, how fortuitous.
    Templeton, a quaint New England hamlet that already has 2 EPA Super Fund Sites within it’s borders. As well as numerous “recycling yards” located along its scenic country trails, peppered in with pastry shops and antique boutiques and the ever present Dunkin Donuts.
    The ground water and drinking water ( as the wells for drinking are only 55 feet or so in depth ) in Templeton Ma are already one could say not exactly pristine. So, congratulations! on adding yet more carcinogenic chemical cocktails to the former farm land.
    One would never expect Templeton to fall asleep on the job of monitoring for contaminants in the ground water runoff.
    ******
    The primary environmental concern at motor vehicle recycling facilities is the potential for groundwater and surface water contamination due to mishandling of vehicular fluids, including
    gasoline, diesel fuel, oil, transmission fluid, power steering and brake fluids, gear oil, and mineralspirits. Motor vehicle recyclers also generate a number of other wastes, including: mercury from
    light switch assemblies, HID head lamps, display screen back lighting, and ABS brake sensors; lead from lead­ acid batteries, wheel weights and battery cable ends; chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and other refrigerants from air­conditioning units; sodium azide from air bags; asbestos from brake shoes and clutches; and waste tires.
    Templeton, where the environment is of no concern.

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    1. Addendum: I’m sure the “water” that’s filling up basements of homes accross the street from this proposed automotive recycling facility of 55 acres will be monitored correctly and reported correctly as to all of the carcinogenic chemicals that it will be containing. The Town over the past 50 years has done such a stellar job of monitoring contamination sites.

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    2. I can't agree with some of what you have said, but you are right about one thing, just what this town needed, one more junk yard ! Especially off Rt.2, the gateway to the town. For one thing, I think the junk business has slowed down, prices have way down at least for the time being. Having a junk yard in your town keeps abandoned cars off the sides of the roads, and out of your neighbor's back yard. Years ago people would dump oil on the ground, but hopefully people know better today. I know Pauly had to keep records of how much oil and other fluids he collected, and this has to be collected by a approved source. The State checks on this, so you have to keep records. If you owned land, would you pollute what you own ? That would be like crapping where you eat ! Gross but true ! If what is going in next to RT.2 is a place to auction cars, then they will not stay, long term. Maybe we could get excise tax out of this deal some how, but I doubt it. The State had no problem leaving tons of rubbish and who knows what behind Hutchies Dump, in the seventies. Our water quality did not bother them then. Seeing there are a number of homes in the area,(Victoria Lane), maybe it is good thing they have town water now. Bev.

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    3. You’re defending what exactly? With all due respect. Yes, kept to “ the standards “ like all businesses until they close, then the 21E goes in and WHAT? You say ..it’s contaminanted even though those good Town folk would never “crap where they eat “ ( just don’t eat next to : Templet Stuart’s , Baldwinville Paper aka Erving Paper aka American Tissue, or “ back bay “ or the new unlined 1970’s dump capped recently) .

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    4. The fact that “ glad they have Town water now “ is such a misinformed, dangerous and uneducated understanding of the situation at hand. I find this especially ironic considering some in your town including yourself are worried about the Flouride Ion.

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  3. Well, wait now even better a private corporation is “ in charge of monitoring the quality of water and maintaining the “ catch basins with a baffle contraption “ to make sure gasoline, PFOA etc and other carcinogenic chemicals are not leaching out into the neighborhoods basements. What could go wrong?

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    1. Just a reminder, the Highway Department has a waste oil burner. You can bring your used car or truck oil there and they will use it for heat.

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    2. So, The corporation will to have the waste that flows into gravel divert into the waste oil burner. Templeton ... always thinking.

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  4. So, this corporation, the very one that is supposed to be monitoring the quality of the “Water“ that is flowing into the catch basin baffle system for levels of contamination by PFOA, Benzene, Glycol etc Was NOT following the law already ( I wonder if anyone on any of our boards knew this ). They had STOP construction because they were not following the town bylaw of Commercial and Industrial use for STORM WATER . I wonder who will be making money on this. Don’t go looking to the EPA for help for contamination as there is no money for that.

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  5. Anonymous10:15 AM

    Didn't Moschetti buy the former MB&W site?

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. Amazingly the same good neighbor corporation that has an identical recycling facility in Massachusetts which falls under the EPA for Stormwater management had No idea that Templeton Massachusetts has the same Storm water regulations which require a special permit before construction.

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  6. Anonymous6:03 PM

    According to the Templeton Bylaws there are only 4 Class III licenses available. if Templeton Auto parts have 1, Stans (what ever the new name is) has 1, Cosentino's has 1, and MB&W has 1, how does the new place plan on getting one.

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    1. I am sorry if I upset you ! If you want to argue, sorry I don't need to argue or debate with anyone, even you.

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