TO: Board of Selectmen
FROM: Carter Terenzini, Town Administrator
RE: Administrator’s Weekly Report
DATE: August 23, 2018
CC: All Departments

Important Notice to All Departments
Job Openings: Director of Public Works
                               DPW – Truck Driver (CDL)
                              Seasonal Laborer (10 week)
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 finalized the 08/29 interview teams and scheduling with four prospective Management Fellows. One did drop out a bit earlier today, but I am still very pleased with the pool. We have received one inquiry on the Roofing specifications, so we will get the addenda posted by Monday with bids remaining on target. This will provide an opportunity to seek supplemental funding for this and the Senior Center siding – if needed – at the Fall TM. I have advised the Capital Committee we may need to submit projects for review, so we can try to have any such needed report by the time we ask you to vote on the final warrant. I have begun drafting a repair of private ways bylaw, special legislation and adoption of the statute allowing for deferral of payments by certain elderly. As you may know we need to get pricing on the engineering study needed for Stoney Bridge Road. I’ve spoken with John Henshaw who informs me the CPC may be able to provide some funding for someone to write the RFP using the state model. I’ve reached out to two engineering firms to see if they can do this for us on a very quick turnaround. Much of our time (4+ staff hours) was spent on addressing questions raised about our several financial reports which I have also provided to you. I do have to say that at some point we will no longer be able to continue to provide these kinds of detailed responses unless coming by means of a formal committee vote or a public records request. We are seeking proposals on survey and title work for Baldwinville Elementary School and agreed with Mr. Henshaw these are 100% eligible under our CPC appropriation. We had the kick-off of our CDBG planning. Mike P. should have a follow-up memo out to all within two weeks. Our several interns. work study students ended their service with us. While the program is in some jeopardy due to scheduling changes at the High School we have reached out to the Superintendent to see what can be done to preserve it

Administration & Finance
Town Accountant: This week has been very discouraging as I have worked with Carter on a number of email concerns about the financial reporting. We have addressed every concern with explanation, but none the less very time consuming and as I said before discouraging. I completed the final quarterly report and presented it to selectman on Wednesday. Today we interviewed for finance clerk in the Treasurer/Collector office and found a great candidate for the job


This report can be seen in its entirety on the town website under departments / town administrator.



When a resident has a problem involving a Town owned drain pipe, they contact the highway department. When the highway department people show up, see a hole in the hot top drive way (driveway apron?) and they also see an old drain pipe that is obviously old and rusted/rotted, because there is a hole in it as well; their solution is to put some road grindings in it and call it a day.

The next thing that person does is attend a selectmen meeting and inform them of the issue and the so called fix from the Templeton highway department. The other issue here is that the people from the highway department left without any verbal follow up, such as the pipe needs to be replaced and we have to order one, or we will be back on such a day/date and time to take care of this.

Selectmen take some information from the resident and inform the resident that someone will be contacting you from the highway department / DPW. Now, if you are a selectmen, someone from the highway department will come right over and help you tear up your driveway apron, (apparently) according to multiple town residents.

Perhaps residents of Laurel View Road are better off having a contractor do repairs on that road.

On another front, town finance, an issue with the balance of the Templeton general stabilization fund was brought up and question by a town resident; Town administrator sent out an email showing that the balance of that account was known to be in error last August, 2017. Almost a year later, that wrong amount is written in on a document used to borrow money for the town. How does that work, using a dollar figure, that you have known for about a year, to be in error, but you still put that incorrect dollar figure on the paper work??

Do not worry, the audits are complete, we have good numbers, a great financial team in place and some very good things are happening in Templeton.

And remember, the town administrator did not say anything about a tax override concerning stoney bridge work. Lastly, is it a good thing for a town employee to complain about having to spend too much time on answering questions and providing information to a town resident; I thought these selectmen were all about transparency, so which is it?