Mattapoisett’s Annual Town Meeting is only a few days away and it should prove to be a meeting that will go down in the town’s history.
Voters will be facing warrant articles that ask for $9.275 million to fund the construction of a new fire station, and their share of another $2 million for athletic field and auditorium improvements at Old Rochester Regional High School (ORR).
On May 7, the Finance Committee members reviewed those articles that needed their vote one last time. By voting in the affirmative on any given article, voters have the assurance that their appointed fiscal oversight committee believes a request can be adequately funded without undo burden on taxpayers.
Coming in last place was Article 28: ORR Athletic Facilities and Auditorium Funding. The article asks for a total of $2 million from the three towns for improvements – money that would have to be borrowed beyond the limits imposed by Proposition 2 ½.
FinCom Chairman Pat Donoghue said, “If this is an override, you’ve got to tell people what this will do to their taxes.” She said her research into artificial turfs has found that none are expected to remain viable surfaces after eight years, but that the town is being asked to secure a 15-year borrowing schedule. She thought it wasn’t reasonable to pay for something for that long when its usefulness ends before its paid off.
Donoghue said she had a conversation with the school’s facility manager, Gene Jones, and that he told her the track could be resurfaced, and that other big-ticket projects on the horizon included a new roof for the high school.
“If we do this, we’d need a 10-year note,” Donoghue said.
Presently, the estimated annual cost to Mattapoisett based on a 15-year note is $76,000. That figure rises to above $100,000 on a 10-year note.
“The more I read, the more concerned I become,” she said of the borrowing that would be needed.
FinCom member Paul Amoruso agreed, saying, “I think this needs more work.”
But FinCom member Kevin Geraghty felt otherwise.
“Their mindset is the kids,” he said of the school committee and the article’s supporters. “This is for their children; they aren’t thinking about roofs or HVAC.”
“This is a passion for the parents – they aren’t thinking of paying for it,” said FinCom’s Colby Rottler. But he continued to express his concerns that artificial turfs are being studied for the negative impact they may have on the future health of children who play on them. As for the need for repairs and improvements the school committee is requesting, Rottler said, “I fault the school department. Why weren’t they planning and making repairs?”
When the vote was taken, three members voted against recommending the Article, one voted for recommending it, and one abstained (3-1).
The members were unanimous in their support of Article 14 for a new Fire Station. The finance team had been alarmed over unsafe conditions of the fire station. They reviewed for several months the viability of funding a new structure that had been on the Capital Planning schedule for 10 years. The retiring debt schedule was discussed as the main reason the project could be taken on by taxpayers at this point in time.
Other Articles they voted to recommend were: Article 1: Elected Officers’ Compensation; Article 2: General Operating Budget (which stands at $28,024,603 for FY20); Article 3: Appropriation for OPEB Liabilities, $414,000; Article 4: Revolving Fund Authorization; Article 5: Cyclical Annual Property Revaluation and Town Mapping, $40,000; Article 6: Personnel Schedules; Article 7: Acceptance of Revised Old Colony Regional Agreement; Article 8: Water Reserve Account, $10,000; Article 9: Sewer Reserve Account; Article 10: Reallocation of Funds for Project Funding (water department); Article 11: Funding for Sewer Extension (located at the terminus at the Bay Club, $35,000; Article 13: Appropriation To Debt Stabilization Fund, $100,000; Article 15: Capital Plan Funding, $231,000 for repairs to highway department buildings, $12,457 for the purchase of trench safety box, $310,000 for the Fire Station design, engineering, and bidding, $49,500 for local schools education modules; Article 16: Allocation of Revenues Community Preservation Act; Articles 17 through 20 for individual CPC grant applications totaling $61,500; Article 21: Street Lights; Article 22: Road Improvements, $75,000; Article 23: Authorization of Use of Grant Anticipation Notes For Town Projects.
The Finance Committee did not schedule another meeting, but Town Administrator Michael Gagne suggested the committee take some time over the summer months to discuss what should happen to the Town Hall building with Capital Planning, saying, “The time has come…”
Mattapoisett Finance Committee
By Marilou Newell