Selectmen Fortes attended the Advisory Committee meeting and stated he is willing to try and help move a few items along for the betterment of Templeton, while talk is cheap and good whiskey costs money, hopefully this is a start with at least one selectmen who is willing to listen and hopefully help move some important things along.

One item of discussion was a monthly financial report (expenditure versus appropriation) was discussed, along with the financial policy (brought forward and voted on by selectmen) which states a monthly expenditure report will be present in accordance with state law.

Problem is the monthly report of June is not going to be made until late August; so is it good to have a policy but not follow it?

An unlikely duo of Bennett and Fortes having civil discussion on issues of Town governance; is that considered progress? I would say it does not mean that we agree on everything nor are we best friends, it means we are willing to have "the talk" to try and improve things, especially the perception of the residents, that their representatives, despite a contentious relationship, can and will move to get things done in an attempt attempt to help those residents out.

I believe that is one of the reasons people run for office; to try to help.

Again, thank you to selectmen Cameron Fortes for taking time to attend a meeting to hopefully assist in getting some needed changes completed.

From the weekly Town Administrator report:




Public Works
Highway Department: The street sweeper is down – again! The bridge on Stoney Bridge Road has had deterioration causing us great concern and the need to think of a possible closure. We are reaching out to our public safety team and the Phillipston folks as the roadway continues onto their Burnshirt Road. We are also researching the costs of a potential engineering report and possible sources of money especially given its historic nature.



If the Town owned sweeper keeps breaking down, maybe it is time to put that service out to bid just as the drain cleaning was.