Adams Finance Panel Backtracks on Capital Projects
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At its Monday meeting, the committee rescinded its May 1 vote not to recommend $98,640 to be taken from free cash for nine items in Article 7 that the Board of Selectmen called "extraordinary expenses and capital." The list includes repairs for the Town Hall clock tower, maintenance for town buildings and property and an upgraded Town Hall telephone system.
Reviewing each item individually, the committee approved all but two of the items — $12,600 for the telephone system upgrade and $5,500 for repairs to the field house roof at the Valley Street field.
Chairwoman Rosemarie Stachura said the committee had originally voted not to recommend the article because the items "looked frivolous."
"It was my personal feeling that they were extraordinary expenses and should have been included in various department budgets," Stachura said.
Stachura also said she found it "coincidental" that the list of items came before the committee immediately after the calculation error by the school district was discovered. The Adams-Cheshire Regional School District has been underassessing Cheshire and now owes Adams $95,000.
Selectmen Joseph R. Dean Jr. and Joseph Solomon and Town Administrator William Ketcham explained that the board excluded the items from its individual budgets so as not to affect the tax rate. Because the funds are to come from free cash, the money allotted to each project is guaranteed to be used for that project and nothing else.
The $94,640 would have raised the tax rate by approximately 24 cents, said Ketcham.
Committee member Timothy Burdick suggested that, in the future, a note should be placed on budgets to inform the committee that an additional article may contain an appropriation for other departments.
The decision to review the nine items, listed individually, came after Selectman Donald Sommer questioned why the article had not been recommended at the board's last regular meeting.
The items that were recommended are:
- $10,000 for repairs to the Russell Field tennis courts, what Parks Commission Chairman Wilfred Bourdon called the commission's "No. 1 priority"
- $10,000 to repair the Town Hall's leaking clock tower
- $18,620 for duct work cleaning for Town Hall and $11,920 for duct work cleaning for the police station
- $12,000 for asbestos removal and ceiling replacement in the basement of the Registry of Deeds
- $2,000 for ice guards at the Berkshire Visitors Center to protect pedestrians from falling ice and snow
- $16,000 to cleaning up the flood control chutes, including removing trees in order to comply with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer's recommendations. If not cleaned up, the Corps would rate the flood-chute maintenance not acceptable, which could affect residents' ability to get flood insurance.
The committee voted 5-6 not to recommend that article on May 1 in an effort to save the town money in tough economic times and declined to reconsider its decision on Monday.
Several of the 16 employees were present and argued for the increase, since every other unionized employee will receive one via negotiations.
"You tell us what a good job we're doing and now you turn around and tell us we can't have our increase?" asked Thomas Satko, the director of public works.
The Selectmen recommended working with the Finance Committee to change the system so that the employees could receive proper compensation for the next year.
"At a time where the worker is getting squeezed more than any other time in recent memory, I don't think it's right to make it tighter," said committee member Craig Corrigan.
The motion to reconsider the recommendation failed to receive a second.
"I've never seen so many problems with the budget as we've seen this year," Stachura said.
