Adams Selectmen Approve Reserve Fund Transfers
 Town meeting member Jeffrey Lefebvre addresses the Selectmen on Wednesday. |
ADAMS, Mass. — The Selectmen approved the transfer of funds for increased insurance at the Memorial Building, blight removal, and other projects.
Town Administrator Tony Mazzucco asked the Selectmen on Wednesday for a $3,200 transfer from the reserve fund, which is used for unforeseen expenses, to the Property and Casualty Insurance fund for an increase insurance after an adjuster toured the building.
"They decided that the risk level was higher than what they were assessing us for," he said, adding the prior amount was assigned before an actual tour could take place.
Chairman Richard Blanchard asked if Mazzucco could gather insurance quotes for closing the building down.
Mazzucco said he anticipates it would cost substantially more but he would look into it.
He said $800 would be used for insurance on other properties the town has taken for taxes.
"We have to make sure we are covered with liability insurance before we can move these to auction and sell them," Mazzucco said.
Another $10,600 would be used to tear down and remove debris from the Hoosac Valley Coal and Grain property the town took for taxes. He said parts of the building are a health hazard and would clean up some blight downtown.
Some $2,000 would be used for trash container rentals to clean the insides of other properties taken taxes. Many are filled with garbage.
"We just have to clean the crap out of them and seal the buildings up," Mazzucco said. "I heard from quite a few people that they are happy we are taking care of the outside as well as the inside of many of these properties."
He said the town will continue to try to get money back on stagnant properties that have been taken for taxes. He said the properties affect the town's finances.
"If that property is not going to be remediated or reused we have a responsibility to take the property and get it into some kind of use," he said. "The condition of the buildings are only going to get worse and as the bill climbs, it makes it more and more difficult to sell these buildings so we have to go in and try to stop the bleeding when we can."
The board also approved $7,000 for an employee shift in Town Hall; this amount is only a shift and will be a "wash" at the end of the year, according to Mazzucco.
The board approved $750 for overtime to aid in the installation of the permitting software in the building inspector and Board of Health office.
The Finance Committee still has to approve these amounts.
Mazzucco said he would like to build these anticipated items into the budget in the future.
Lynette Bond of the Community Development Department told the Selectmen during a public hearing that the Charles Street Bridge that was blown out during Hurricane Irene has been replaced and largely completed.
Bond said the town utilized a $250,000 Community Development Block Grant for disaster recovery from fiscal 2013 to replace the bridge. It was installed this August.
"Much of the work for this project was done off-site; it was a precast structure," Bond said. "They dropped the structure in using a crane. It was impressive."
The town at this point has spent $181,310.97 and anticipates the last of the bills should use the total $250,000.
Mazzucco added that work has been delayed on the roundabout project because the contractor found a culvert it did not expect to have to replace.
"As they got into construction, they realized that some of the bricks were starting to fall out so they are hiring to put something in so that it doesn’t cause future problems," he said.
He said road barriers should be out of the way by the winter.
The board also approved the town's new fuel efficient vehicle policy. The policy must be adopted for the town to benefit from the Green Communities Program, through which it can receive funds for efficiency projects.
Mazzucco said the agreement asks that the town commit to purchasing fuel efficient vehicles. He said police cruisers and DPW vehicles are exempt so there is little impact.
"If we did have fleet vehicles for assessors ... and for town staff, we would be required to purchase fuel efficient vehicles, but we don't have vehicles for that," he said. "So it's relatively to no impact on how we work."
Should that change, the town would be required to make an effort to purchase such vehicles.
Mazzucco said he expects to set the tax rate mid- to late October. He anticipates it will increase 75 cents per $1,000 valuation.
"I think it is going to be lower than that and it certainly won’t be higher than that," he said.
Tags: green communities, insurance, reserves, tax taking,
