At the January 7 GTAC meeting we were given a set of ‘templates’ to help town officials collect data on a range of items that includes town real estate, town vehicles and equipment, businesses operating in the towns, a road inventory, bridge inventory, a listing of Chapter and Government-owned land, major components of a town budget, employees and elected officials (including salaries). It was interesting to note the discussions about how much of this information was available through the Department of Revenue (although at least two years old) and that much of the information would be time consuming to gather and collate, with some information difficult to obtain. I find this interesting because, over the last decade or so, the school district has developed and updated long-range capital plans, including technology, and freely shared this information on the Gateway website, including approval of said plans by the school committee. This allows us to anticipate needs, financially plan for acquisitions and replacements, and attempt to put together funding plans to accomplish these goals. Of course, much of the problem with funding some of these long-term projects has been the lack of overall financial town ability to immediately fund or set aside funds in a capital project fund to plan for the larger cost items, thereby potentially avoiding larger bond costs in the future.
At a recent Blandford Selectboard meeting, it was noted that Blandford has no long-range capital plan, in part due to a huge backlog of needs in the town, the lack of full time staff or dedicated time from part-time staff to undertake this planning process, and a lack of financial resources. As GTAC moves forward with collecting this data and potentially seeking financial resources to hire a consultant to look at ways to increase sharing services, equipment, and resources between towns, it is my hope that we will have some baseline information to help all citizens understand the total picture of our towns’ financial standing and be as open and transparent as Gateway has been. I also hope that, as we move forward, the towns will share their budget planning processes and information as fully and transparently as the district has including presenting a baseline budget to the towns well before the annual town meeting.
I also remain surprised that many individuals believe that the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), through the Commissioner and his designees, will come in and ‘save’ the district when, just a few months ago, the feeling from these same individuals was that DESE was the major cause of the district’s problems. Such a sea change in attitude seems unlikely and the occasional comment from some that they (the DESE) needs to circumvent our elected school committee officials seems to fly in the face of town governments that should be ruled by a knowledgeable populace, with town meetings providing direction to elected and appointed town officials. As we progress through the rather long and multi-step process of hiring a consultant to look at district educational opportunities, I hope that the overlap of interests between the town officials, GTAC, the school district, and our towns’ residents will result in finding many mutually beneficial collaborative activities that will enhance services to all, be cost effective, and provide a way forward in effectively finding solutions to the lack of communication that increases misperceptions and makes effective problem solving so much more difficult.
