A face book post by a Templeton resident, who may not be alone in their thoughts.
"Long meeting. So apparently the chair and the co-chair think they are the selectboard as a whole. It was the right thing for Currie to resign as chair. Now I think the co-chair should also resign. Since the two of them have been making decisions, seeking legal counsel prior to even telling the rest of the board. Currie refused to answer Jeffs questions about the complaint was it verbal, was it an email. What was the complaint. It was silence, I mean besides for saying he did feel like he did no wrong. Also listen to the taxpayers and stop just offering people promotions. We need a qualified with experience town administrator. This let's just keep promoting administrative assistant to new roles without putting out the job posting is the nepotism people are talking about. Also, no talk about how to deal with a regional school district with no legal regional agreement. This school system is too expensive on the taxpayers. 7 percent every year is not affordable. I've been saying that since 2018. We need an adhoc to look at cost comparison for the taxpayers, in regard to the school system. So, 2019 the selectmen ignored a vote and letter, from the then advisory board, stating we should have cost comparison that we can't afford these increases. We just lost a town administrator over the same issue. This is ridiculous. By the way selectmen you were elected to micromanage the taxpayer's money. You were not elected to go to bat for a regional school system which is a separate entity that simply currently educates the students with our tax money."
Whomever wrote the comment has been paying attention. It's nice to see that people WANT the government to function s its laid out by policy, procedure, bylaws, etc.........
ReplyDeleteTempleton has been doing a dance around those items for a number of years and we are now feeling the results.
RTM
Reality is going to come as a shock to those that think everything is peachy with our Town government. Our financial situation is no different than it has been over and over. Taxpayers deserve better. As a community nothing will change unless we demand it. I don't understand where anyone thinks money for an override is coming from ! Parents are already working two jobs. The elderly are on fixed incomes ! It is simply going to cost more for everything people need. There is no escaping it. As far as the school goes, think about this. When Bart and I are gone, who will live in my house, or the homes of the other elderly in this town ? Bob May told me there are 18% of the people in town that are elderly. That is a good number of homes that will go from one or two people to parents with kids. That is a good number of children added to the school system with out building another house. Giving Phillipston the boot looks better and better to me.
ReplyDeleteVery good to see these posts. The Massachusetts government classes may want to pay careful attention. People are fed up with property taxes. You don't really own your home if your tax bill is $500 a month. For many of us, that is higher than our mortgage when we built the house.
ReplyDeleteWe had low taxes because people didn't use government as their hobby. I can't image anyone considering some of these hare brained ideas back in the day of Jack Strott and Dana Putnam. Too many town vehicles. No pickup truck for Candace.
Another thought occured on reflection. Our property tax bill in 2025 exceeds our mortgage payment in 1985, which included property taxes.
ReplyDeleteOur roads are worse. We pay for trash collection instead of going to the dump. And we're building our own Bureaucracy at Town Hall. That's progress?
Sorry but I don't agree. The majority of people have worked hard for us. Thank goodness they know their jobs and have not required a lot of support from the Town Administrator. It is easy to take our frustration out on "Town Hall", but trust me we are lucky we have these people. Retirement is just a few years away for three or four of them. We need to dig our way out of the hole we are in and stay out of it. Being broke constantly has not gained us a thing. We could have had a public safety/fire station that everyone wants but we as a town have not had the ability to plan or maintain a plan for years. This has to change in a big, big way.
Deletehttps://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/several-states-seek-end-property-taxes-shouldnt-have-rent-from-government
ReplyDeleteLook at how Winchendon is handling this. I would like that proposed budget in Templeton.
ReplyDeletehttps://winchendoncourier.net/
Sounds like Winchendon is cutting quite a bit to include their library and senior center. That has never been a popular solution here in Templeton. If the library closes, I believe that Templeton residents are then not allowed to borrow from CMARS, which is the Central Massachusetts Library System. And closing down the senior center is detrimental to the 18% elderly population we have living here as they rely on many services through the senior center. Couple that with impending cuts to federal grants, those services will disappear completely.
Delete"In order to reach a balanced budget without compromising public safety, or breaking contractual obligations (which would be illegal), the entire budget lines (a combined total of $507,960) for the Beals Memorial Library, Old Murdock Senior Center and Recreation Department will be zeroed out. All staff will be let go and the buildings will be closed."
"Police, Fire and DPW will be level-funded, probably leading to thinner shift coverage, longer wait times, less snow plowing and less work done around town. "
This is from the article in Winchendon, they are planning many cuts from the sounds of it.
Time for Templeton to follow that path! Parks and Rec has hiring ads posted and we can’t fix our roads, bridges etc, Need a ft officer or 2, time to start cutting and the low hanging fruit like rec, library and unfortunately trim some services at the senior center. Keep them open so we don’t lose total funding!
ReplyDeleteHow much do you think Templeton would save by Rec, Library, senior services?
ReplyDeletePersonally I disagree with that option. Why should service to citizens be cut because of Bad decisions by management.
We have enough money in budget i's just utilized poorly, broken out poorly and that needs to end!
After listening to Chief Bennett I cannot help but think we spent $600k on holding cells we didn't need because we dont use them. Did anyone else see this being the case before they were installed