Looking at the end of the year revenue and expenditure report from the Town Accountant for fiscal year 2017, the as time it was in detail line item format.

Under revenue, it shows the council on aging / MART revolving fund as having taken in $85,408.63 and another $2,160.60 in COA donations.

When looking at the expenses of running the senior center / council on aging, one might wish to investigate the reimbursements from MART as well as the Massachusetts council on Aging (MCOA) and one would be well informed if you visited that website and see what they deal with and help with.

I also think if one checks, when it was discussed about inviting Phillipston residents to use the Templeton Senior center, it was put out there would be a Phillipston Town Meeting warrant article concerning that matter. To the best of my knowledge, that warrant article never happened.

I am still wondering what happened with that bond rating by June 2016, which many of the now serving selectmen stood behind.

On the bright side, fiscal 2019 which begins July 1, 2018 is the last year of the over 400 hundred thousand dollar Templeton town payment for the high school. I think it is around .52 cents per thousand. Oh wait, that is gonna stay on for another 28 years to pay for the new school. Them selectmen are cagey. I think they are craptastic!

Do not lose faith - remember there was talk from the selectmen about debt smoothing.

This is not about the school per say but it is about the handling and spending of your tax dollars. I believe there was enough financial evidence to show the mistakes over the years, of which I was part of making some of them. However, I was not part of telling taxpayers that all is well, the fiscal year 2017 budget is all balanced, we have a good financial team in place. Then an auditor tells the Town, after looking at records, that there are like 17 shortcoming involving the Town Treasurer/Collector.

The Town voted at Town Meeting to combine the positions of Treasurer and Collector and to hire experienced and certified Treasurer/Collector. That has not been done.

On a document dated October 30, 2015 and made available to all who attended the special town meeting of November 9, 2015, page 9 at the top left, is a illustration that shows Costs to Templeton and it has the cost per year at 3.5% equaling a yearly payment of $1,406.800.00.

It goes on to show Less NRSD debt end of $438,073.
so, Net new debt will only be $968,792.00 for a net new tax increase of $1.74.

My thought is if you are going to use the debt payment amount in effect right now as a means of paying for the new school, it is not really going to go away. I believe you could ask Diane Haley Brooks about this, since she was one person who tried hard to stop any discussion on this matter after that special Town Meeting. It was a sales pitch, in my opinion, to get something passed. See, you are already paying that .52 so you are not going to notice it on your tax bill as an increase, which you have been paying for over 20 years, so another 28 should not matter.

It will be, using the presented information, $1.74 pus the .52 which according to my 4th grade math, is a cost of $2.26 per thousand. No one really knows what it will be until it goes on the books. I believe the plan is to schedule the opening of the school in the fall of 2019, so we will find out soon, I hope. My contention is, the information should have been $2.26 per thousand based on what is available now, at the time, 2015.

If people wanted a school and I mean really supported it (I voted for it) then the $2.26 would not have mattered. In my opinion, it is called truth in lending, the selectmen asked for your money, $47 million dollars, so a school could be built. You should have been given the larger number and let you decide.

On the 47 million, you were asked for that amount because no one can say exactly how much MSBA will pay for. If you read what was presented to you to vote on,  The Town acknowledges that MSBA's grant program is a non-entitlement, discretionary program based on need, as determined by the MSBA, and any project costs the Town incurs in excess of any grant approved by and received from the MSBA, through the Narragansett Regional School District, shall be the sole responsibility of the Town. It was voted on but I still feel it was not presented in a good way.

These are the same selectmen who now wish to try and limit what Advisory Committee can report to Town Meeting. If you publicly disagree or criticize this board of selectmen, they seem to try anything to shut you up and shut you down. That is my opinion.