Residents, Please NOTICE: The Assessor's Office will be holding limited office hours on the week of August 7, 2023. The office will be closed Monday August 7th and Tuesday August 8th. The office will be open from 9:00am to 3:00pm on Wednesday August 9th and Thursday August 10th. Staff will be attending class at the Annual Assessors School for education toward certification that week.

Notice from the Treasurer/Collector's Office

POSTED ON: JULY 12, 2023 - 8:35AM

Bills were mailed for 1st and 2nd quarter preliminaries. 1st quarter is due August 1st.

Please note that the office will be closed from August 15th - 17th for employees to attend the yearly Massachusetts Collector/Treasurer school for certification.

Again, where are the assistants? Nice planning town administrator, give yourself a pat on the back for piss poor planning - you are in charge of day-to-day operations and planning appears to suck in the corner office.

 from Templeton town website.

This is our fourth project highlight for the month of July. The Gilman Waite Scoreboard was completed in coordination with Parks & Recreation, Templeton Municipal Light & Water as well as our Highway with Building & Grounds crews. This relatively new scoreboard will provide folks that attend games to stay updated with the latest results and statistics for each game. We would like to recognize and give thanks to Woodford Electric, IBEW Local 104 and Graves Concrete for their generous donations which the Select Board accepted.

The Town of Templeton is continuing with positive progress and momentum working with our many Boards, Committees and Commissions. Stay tuned for our next project highlight!

No time for administrator reports but time for patting themselves on back because somethings got done that town meeting voted for and/or volunteers completed - nice.

This was done by all volunteers and with the exception of Templeton Light dept., this was not really a town project. You realize the Scout Hall reuse committee was created February 22, 2016 and where is that project at? Do you realize the police station rebuild was started with a vote back in November 2015 and it is still not complete. Not to mention these now highlighted projects have been done for a while, seems like town hall is on a rerun summer schedule because that is all they got, reruns. How is that veterans park coming along, there was a big to do on that at the site of the Rivers Edge park.

 from Templeton town web site.

"Our third highlight will be town roads and initiatives that are complete or will be getting completed relatively soon. As one can see in the photo, Hamlet Mill Road has been resurfaced with Winter Recovery Assistance Program (WRAP) monies. Hamlet Mill also received new street signs as well. The Town is in the process of replacing all street signs as part of a phased plan so folks will see these improvements throughout town which has been funded out of the Town's free cash. Additionally, a portion of Brooks Road was redone using the WRAP monies."

"The Town has been diligent following a Pavement Management Plan from 2018 while prioritizing our roadways."

 new street signs, all at different annual town meetings, June 2020, article 21 -$7,500.00, May 2021, article 18 - $7,500.00, May 2022, article 25 - $7,500.00, May 2023, article 25 - $7,500.00. Got to keep up!

Did the bridge on Hamlet Mill Road get repaired/replaced? Did the town put down the appropriate counter measures while working near a moving body of water? (Hay bales, silt curtain, etc.) How much drainage work was done on Hamlet Mill Road? Sidewalks installed?

from pavement study:

Begin to explore borrowing/bonding money to fund an affordable and effective roadway improvement program that funds both maintenance and

capital improvement projects. Road maintenance on roads in “good” condition cost less to maintain.

• Institute a regular drainage maintenance program that focuses on cutting back sand buildup at the edge of roads, re-establishing drainage swales to

low points, and ensuring debris free catch basins and pipes.

During our survey it well noted that annual sweeping of winter sand was deficient. Remants of sand was evident well after the spring season.

Furthermore, nearly 30% of drainage conditions found on Templeton roadways attributed to accelerated pavement deterioration, i.e. lack of shedding/blockage of positive water runoff, and erosion of shoulders.

When was the last selectmen meeting where road/sidewalk/drainage was discussed?

 Financial management policy states accountant and treasurer do a cash forecast, why has it not been done? Even as a selectman (me) brought it up at several meetings, it is still not being done, even as auditor stated this lack of doing it could be costing town money, I am not going to cheer the selectmen or town administrator for that! It is like weekly town administrator reports "taking the summer off see you in September", hey town government is a full time job, so do what you are paid to do! Government employees did not lose one penny, not one paycheck during the covid shutdown and then they asked for premium pay, a friggin bonus for working when residents were losing hours and sometimes jobs and careers, so they can take the heat, bashing, critique or whatever one wishes to call it. No Mercy!

Town Meeting vote back a ways voted to increase selectmen from 3 to 5 and then town meeting voted to have town administrator (town meeting never voted for assistant TA) there is an assistant town administrator who over the past few years was given pay increases because of a work load and now there is an admin assistant to help out. There is state law, town bylaws and local policy to guide selectmen. Selectmen have put these various projects in front of town meeting and town meeting voted for them. The least the selectmen can and should do is follow policy to the letter, follow town bylaws to the letter and follow state law to the letter and get projects finished and keep the start of new projects at bay until a few of the previous approved projects are completed. It is their job and responsibility. Perhaps selectmen would have more time to devote to their primary duties if they stayed off other entities such as other town communities, which the MA department of revenue by way of division of local service has suggested over a number of years.

May, 1990 Templeton annual town meeting, article 24, town votes to increase selectmen from 3 to 5.

What has selectmen pay going to $3,750.00 per selectman gotten the town so far?

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 Hey selectmen, you sit on your hands and do nothing to market/sell 10 Pleasant Street, can you scoot on down to Drury Lane and get that mess cleaned up and then get on up to Baldwinville and Mobil station cleaned up where I am certain there is unlicensed activity taking place. Also while some town officials are trying to come up with a swish mark (watch the last meeting of EDIC) can you tell the residents what is the status of the old earthen damn up behind Baldwinville Station, ya'll just waiting til the levees gonna break? Mr. grasshopper Lamontagne, never mind the attempt at public relations and trying to deflect from lack of action on your part and part of select board, work on getting these things complete and then you might have something to market.

 from Templeton town website:

POSTED ON: JULY 12, 2023 - 4:56PM

River's Edge

The Town of Templeton has been focusing on getting projects completed. We would like to highlight the River's Edge Conservation Area which was completed in 2022. The name of the site was selected based on a survey that was conducted. It was commemorated on May 9, 2022. The Town of Templeton received a Senate and House proclamation recognizing this new green space. Since that day, the Emergency Management building had their overhead doors painted with a matching green.

Okay grasshopper, what about getting some other things completed.

Highlights some more Templeton projects; Senior Center kitchen, Scout Hall Project started in 2016 (what exactly will be in there if it is ever complete) Stone Bridge - money voted for this in 2019 and 2020, total funds sitting there, $83,337.00. Main Street Bridge, article 10, STM November 2019 "$200,000.00 should get us to 75% design and permitting by summer of 2020 which may allow us to apply for grant from MA works." Summer of 2023 and we still waiting on santa clause. Cupola on Town Hall, still waiting. Has anyone driven down Otter River Road and come to flooded road at N. Main Street intersection? Yeah grasshopper, keep trying to tell us how many projects have been completed. Just in case people forgot, Riveres edge was voted on in November 2015, article 6, to establish a conservation area, which was "hijacked" by a few selectmen to turn it into a veterans park, which by the way, how is that coming along and what happened to materials, if any, that were collected and donated?

In case they forgot or do not know, article 6, special town meeting, November 2015.

On a motion duly made and seconded the Town voted that Ninety-Eight Thousand Dollars ($98,000) be hereby appropriated by the Templeton Community Preservation Fund to provide for the removal of the two buildings at 4 Elm Street, and further, to establish a conservation area under the jurisdiction of the Conservation Commission and maintained by the Cemetery and Parks Department; and that the Board of Selectmen, or such other Town board as the Board of Selectmen may designate, be authorized to acquire by purchase or gift and hold in the name of or enforceable by the Town and to grant a non-profit organization, charitable foundation or corporation, such conservation restrictions that will meet the requirements of Chapter 184 of the General Laws, as may be necessary or proper to carry out the foregoing. 

Passed Unanimously/November 9th @ 9:25pm

 Hubbardston, MA fiscal year dispatch costs, Hubbardston is in regional dispatch service with Rutland. FY24 budget for dispatch $125,000.00. Why would Templeton not want to go same route and reduce dispatch costs as well as health insurance, retirement and OPEB costs to town? 125 thousand is about same cost of one full time dispatcher (probably a bit less)