Update: Things that are not getting done?

Burned out houses in Templeton, MA

165 North Main Street - current on property taxes: $234.90 paid.

21 Sawyer Street is in tax title, with back taxes of $2,331.54

10 Pleasant Street, Baldwinville - tax title with back taxes of $32,489.37

To begin with, it takes about $500.00 to get process started; legal and land court.

Then, if the town becomes owner of burned out property, what then? What if lead or asbestos is found before demolition is started, what is the cost of that. It is not as simple of taking property because of back taxes (as well as it should be) and in my opinion, unless you are paying your neighbors property taxes, why should you have any say in how they maintain their property; either we are a free society or we are not. So, are we a free country or not?

There could be a surprise down the road regarding 10 Pleasant Street, Baldwinville (christmas present perhaps?)

This information was gained from Town Hall, by way of the deputy assessor and I hope this shows that things are being done and looked at, considered and discussed. Remember, this is government and it moves slow, if at all (sometimes a good thing).

Also, these are some of the reasons why your tax dollars fund tax title, so there is money available to do these things, as they are not free and they do not just happen.

There a couple of other properties that were in the beginning of tax taking who up and paid their taxes, another part of the process.

Part of what can happen if the Board of Health becomes involved:
from the State sanitary code.

Hearing

Owners and/or occupants are entitled to file a written petition for a hearing before the local board of health if:

a. they have been served an order pursuant to any regulation in Chapter II of the Sanitary Code by the board of health. Their petition must be filed within seven days after the day the order was served.

b. they believe that the board of health or any inspector has failed to follow the provisions of Chapter II by neglecting to conduct an investigation as requested, to issue a report on the inspection, to cite violations claimed to exist, to certify that a violation may endanger or materially impair the health or safety and well-being of the occupants or to issue an order as required by Regulation 410.850.

The petition must be filed within 30 days of the initial request for an inspection. [410.850]
Affected parties, owners and occupants shall be informed of the hearing and of their right to inspect the files of the board of health. [410.851]

The hearing must begin within 30 days of the date the order was served and, in certain instances, must begin within less than 30 days. [410.852]

Within seven days after the hearing has concluded, the board of health shall inform the petitioner in writing whether the board has decided to sustain, modify or withdraw the order. [410.854]

Appeal

The final decision of the board of health may be appealed to the appropriate Massachusetts court. [410.860]

Looking at the weekly Town Administrator report from last week;

Police - nothing to report
Fire Department - nothing to report

Apparently, not much going on in Town.

Regarding the three burned out homes, spoke with the Health Agent back in June, one home in Baldwinville, the homeowner apparently did not have insurance, one home on Sawyer Street is apparently owned by 2 people, who are not together anymore, so this is a bit complicated on getting 2 parties to settle, short of going to court I suppose. The other one is again, been burned out for a while.

Thinking those three things through, Town takes home owners to court (costs money) they are instructed by court to fix, tear down, etc. parties inform court they do not have insurance, cannot afford to do it, etc., does tabman recommend the Town spend money on those properties. What is tabman's solution? So, the Templeton Health agent seems to be aware of the issues and trying to come up with a solution, as far as I know.

One thing that has happened is the big rock that was on the common near Historical building is gone.

TAB MAN9:51 PM

burned out houses left for five years no action from the BOH
DPW not doing their job per the VSO these are just some of the things not getting done Don't look for any more because you will find so many things not getting done you will wonder why you pay taxes But yet we have our accountant going to Hubbardston 10 hours a week and getting paid 7,500 more and the her assistant now at full time and paid benefits and the BOS let us staying the agreement with Hubbardston. OH yes lets give the MGMT fellow a 37.9% pay increase for his lack of experience all this and we are cutting the police and fire. Great job BOS and TA

The above is a comment posted to this blog. The part that caught my eye was the 37.9% pay increase for the management (MGMT) fellow. I quickly broke out the budget documentation books for fiscal year 2019 and fiscal year 2020. I looked under the board of selectmen section / personnel, as that is where the salaries for the selectmen office are listed.

What I found - personnel total for fiscal year 2019: $168,750.00

What I found - personnel total for fiscal year 2020 - $170,000.00

At the time this information was presented, selectmen had not added their "salary" yet:

$500.00 per selectmen = $2,500.00, so the $2,500.00 must be added to the $170,000.00, which in no way shows a 37.9% increase in funding.

What might explain the above statement is while the "pile of money" did not increase, the amount going to the management fellow may have increased.

Perhaps the question should be, what would the advisory committee think is the appropriate amount of money to pay for someone to apply for, work / learn the job of Town Administrator and to stick around for a while. This is not a question of hiring experienced T/A, this concerns the current situation, how much is right? 

Recall there was a "big to do" from one member of advisory committee concerning a 75% increase in EMD budget; from $1,000.00 per year to $1,750.00 and then it was learned that EMD has brought in about $60,000.00 in grants over the course of the last 10 years or so.

Again, I see no 37.9% in appropriation, only, perhaps, in distribution of a town meeting appropriated amount and I think there is a difference.

So the Templeton fire chief says the fire department office will be closed on some days in reaction to possible cuts in town budget, he will be in the ambulance as a responder to calls. Okay, say the chief rides the ambulance with a patient, to the hospital; checking in, doing paper work etc, there is a large fire in Templeton, how will the chief respond to that?

What about the billing, why is the fire chief doing billing, I mean the sewer commissioners were told the Town has a Town Collector so all Town collections should be done there, why not have ambulance billing done there as well, if you are going to bill additionally for a town service.

I looked at Ashburnham, MA, costing of accountant services: $85,040.00 and then at Templeton costing of accountant services: $193,470.00 ($28,000.00 for audit expense included)

Can the case be made for Templeton to do business in a different way resulting in better use of tax dollars?

If Templeton officials are truly interested in getting more out of taxpayer dollars, perhaps Templeton should be looking at moving it's dispatch service to a scenario like the Town of Hubbardston has done. There are many things that could be done to provide same services, free up dollars for education and road repair; leaders just need to be willing to take those issues on. Again, put away heart strings, friends, family, etc; it really comes down to the bottom line / $$$

(from July 2018)
Town of Warren to join Rutland dispatch center

HUBBARDSTON — Town officials have ap­­proved the Rutland Reg­ional Emergency Com­munication Center’s plan to add the town of Warren to the center, which will save Hubbard­ston thousands of dollars.

Currently, the Com­munication Center serves Barre, Oakham, Rutland and Hubbardston.

However, it will expand to include Warren starting in January, which will save Hubbardston roughly $18,000 a year. Currently, the town spends $134,241 on dispatch, but after the savings begin the town will spend $116,502.

“There are no known drawbacks to adding Warren,” Director of Communications Michael Moriarty said. “There won’t be any change in service to any of the towns, and Hubbardston will have the same service.”

In order to address the additional calls, the Communication Center is hiring additional dispatchers in order to assure no change in service with the addition of Warren.

“We are happy to be realizing long-term savings due to the addition of Warren into RECC,” Board of Selectmen Chairman Dan Galante said. “We feel as though we vetted it thoroughly and asked all of the necessary questions to make sure the citizens of Hubbardston are unaffected by this merger.”

Hubbardston was the last town to approve Warren into the center.

With Warren added, the current capacity of the facility will be maxed out, but the center is still looking at options to allow future expansions that could save the towns even more money.

“We are looking at new locations to continue to grow,” Moriarty said. “The building next door to us actually, if we move into that
we will be able to hold even more towns.”

With each town that is added to the center, there will be more overall savings for the towns already participating.

The Communications Center has also found additional savings in switching to Swift 911, swapping out Code Red, for recorded mass emergency calls. Swift 911 offers the same townwide calling services that CodeRed does, for about $7,000 less to the cost of each town using the center.

With Swift 911, the town is able to make wide-ranging calls for a number of scenarios, notably emergencies like floods or serious crime, but Swift 911 will also allow people to sign up for specific call lists, so they can be notified about non-emergencies like town meetings as well.

Special Town Meeting - Phillipston:

See the articles that relate to Templeton (entire warrant can be found on Phillipston town website.)


Greetings: In the name of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, you are hereby directed to notify and warn the inhabitants of the Town of Phillipston qualified to vote in elections and town affairs to meet at the Phillipston Memorial School, 20 The Common, Phillipston, Massachusetts, on Wednesday, July 31, 2019 at 7:00 p.m. to act on the following articles:


Article 1. TO AMEND THE NARRAGANSETT REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT AGREEMENT To see if the Town will vote to authorize the Board of Selectmen to petition the Narragansett Regional School District to amend the Narragansett Regional School District Agreement by deleting the current Section XII, Assignment of Pupils, and replacing it with the following:

SECTION XII ASSIGNMENT OF PUPILS Students in kindergarten through grade five (5) shall attend schools in their respective towns of residence, except as hereinafter provided. The School Committee may determine by a majority vote of the entire Committee to assign kindergarten through grade five (5) students to schools in a town other than their respective town of residence under the following circumstances: (1) in the event of an emergency which prevents use of a building in whole or part; or (2) a student requires specialized education or accommodation for a disability that cannot be provided by the school in the student’s town of residence and the parent or guardian of the student approves of the assignment.

Parents may request attendance in any of the Member Town schools through the so-called “school choice” program, subject to approval of the Superintendent.

or act in relation thereto

Article 4. TO PETITION THE GENERAL COURT FOR SPECIAL LEGISLATION PROVIDING FOR RECALL OF ELECTED MEMBERS OF THE NARRAGANSETT REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT COMMITTEE

To see if the Town will vote to authorize the Selectboard to petition the General Court for a special act providing for the recall of elected members of the Narragansett Regional School District School Committee, which act shall be prepared by the Selectboard and shall include but not be limited to the following: an affidavit to be signed under the penalty of perjury, setting forth the grounds for recall, to be signed by no less than 50 voters of each member town; a petition form including the grounds for recall as set forth in the affidavit, and listing the names of the first five voters who signed the affidavit from each member town, to be signed by no less than 10% of the voters in the district, with no more than 7.5% of such signatures to be from one member town, and which act authorizes the holding of a district election, to be paid for by the district, at which the question of recall and the election of a successor shall be acted upon; and further that a person who resigns following the submission of a recall petition, or who is recalled from office, shall be ineligible to be appointed to a position with the regional school district for a period of one year; provided, however, that the General Court may make clerical or editorial changes of form only to the bill, unless the Selectboard approve amendments to the bill before enactment by the General Court; and, provided further that the Selectboard is hereby authorized to approve amendments which shall be within the scope of the general public objectives of this petition;
or act in relation thereto

Article 5. TO DIRECT THE SELECTBOARD TO OBTAIN AN AGREEMENT FROM TEMPLETON REGARDING PHILLIPSTON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

To see if the Town will direct the Selectboard to obtain the following as a signed agreement from the Selectboard of Templeton: “The Town of Templeton swears that it will not seek or accept monetary payments from the Town of Phillipston to help pay for their new elementary school should Phillipston students be assigned there.” And the Town further directs that no Phillipston students shall be allowed to attend the new elementary school in Templeton unless this agreement is signed by all Templeton selectmen and notarized;

or act in relation thereto