BOS decides to support
The Library project, to now ones surprise. And to hear CFO Kelly speak about it last night in such glowing terms, one might think it was a done deal. The number I heard her say was it will cost each tax payer in Town 249.00 over 20 years. Business would pay 279.00 or so over 20 years. What they didn't say is that the property takes in around 10,000 a year in taxes and in 20 years, 200,000 less in revenue for the town. Selectman Chaaba Smith who is heading the private fund raising efforts claims it will not effect the schools whats so ever and has raised 17,000 already. Herb Chasen should have called on the big man to fund raise for the schools.
So we now have the other committee's to weigh in and as of last night, the property owner dropped the price by 40k I think I heard. Mighty generous.... we should offer to name the Library after him if he donates the land.
It makes sense to add a library to any Town, at most any time, but now might not be then. My biggest concerns are, what if the State doesn't pay it's promised share.. after all, we are down 1.5 billion in revenue already for next this year. Is the building "green enough", where are the solar panels? Does McCauliff really see 500 to 600 people a day? I've stood on that corner many hours over the years and have never seen that many patrons. The Library Board claims the old library needs 450,000 in repairs.... does that include detail cops?
The BOS decided to revisit the window and doors replacement project at Brophy. The SBoard has not yet decided if it's a project deserving their support as of today. There also seems to be ground noise about how the long the building will be a school. The grant, as Mr. Sisitky pointed out, makes certain the school has to be a school open for 10 years... and if not, we'd pay big time for violating the grant guidelines. There's plenty of talk about buildings, who's in them, why and at what capacity. The windows may not make it to TM if the SB has better uses of capital monies.
And of coarse, all of these decisions are down to the last minute... hours before TM will start.
posted by Jim Pillsbury @ 3:54 PM
6 Comments
6 Comments:
Having to commit to keep the school open for 10 yrs is a pretty important piece of information for the TM members voting on this article to have, yet that was not included in the information given to TM members. Makes me wonder what other important information they are withholding from those who have to decide on this.
I say we vote down the window money simply because they clearly are not being honest with us. How could they not tell us about the requirement the school stay open for 10 yrs? Maybe it was another accidental mistake by an employee of the Town of Framingham.
Something does not make sense here. I watched this on tv the night of the meeting, and the guy from building maintenance who was selling the idea of buying these windows seemed to not even be aware that the school department was still not sure they were going to support this. Someone has not done their homework and this is an awful lot of money to spend if we are not absolutely sure we need it and that we won’t have to pay it back.
Why is it that this town can not get anything done in a timely manner? If they don’t have all the information to the TM members 14 days before a vote is going to be taken, then it should not be voted on. A simple rule like that could eliminate all these uninformed, mistaken choice TM members make. If you can not do the job in the time frame required, then you should not be doing the job.
If the school department is not sure they want this money, then why the hell is it on a special town meeting warrant?
Windows for a building that may close, and one bidder on a contract for bus service, and they wonder why we are not all willing to give the school department what they want. I think they deserve more than they are getting, but I also think they need to prove they are responsible with the money they do get, and so far, I have not seen that responsibility exhibited.
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