Lanesborough Finance Appoints Baker Hill Road District Liaison
LANESBOROUGH, Mass. – The Finance Committee elected a new chair and heard updates on the Baker Hill Road District during its meeting earlier this month.
Lyndon Moors was elected as chair of the committee again and David Parks as Vice Chair, which was previously held by Juli Baker before she joined the select board.
After Baker left, the committee needed to find another member to replace her. The committee received two applications from Al Terranova and Mark Siegars. Both were invited to the meeting, but Terranova was the only one in attendance.
Terranova is not a stranger to the town's committees, as he previously held a position with the finance committee for 10 years and five years on the school committee, saying it was the best 15 years of his life.
The opposition is only for one year until the next June to have a vote; he says he has no intention of being on the committee for three years but thought it was great to help in the interim.
The board was grateful for two applications of two strong candidates and made a recommendation to the select board, who approved at Monday's meeting.
Moors spoke about his new role on the BHRD and what his priorities are after taking over for member John Goerlach.
He said he wants to prioritize lowering the BHRD’s budget, be more transparent with the town, including updating the website and meeting minutes, and to keep the district as an asset to the town.
"I think the most important thing is really the preservation of the district as an asset both to the town and to a sincere property developer. I think it can be an asset to both, and it was set up that way in 1989 to manage the bond payments on the road and to be a liaison between the town and [former owner Pyramid Companies] at the time. I think it has a place in the future," Moors said.
The board commended the need for more transparency.
"I think a lot of people don't even know what the road district is or what it does, and so the idea of getting rid of the road district being a way to, 'Oh, we're finally going to save money because we don't have to pay the road district anymore.' I've had someone come and say that to me, and I was like, no, that's not how it's ever been. The town has not ever ever paid the road district, so there's definitely some education, community education pieces needed," member Kristen Tool said.
Moors said lowering the budget will hopefully lessen the tax burden on their tenants.
"The reason why it's important to lower the Baker Hill Road District budget, just as it would be important to lower the town budget, is that the taxes they levy on their tenants are simply based on their budget," Moors said.
Moors also brought up helping with communication between the boards and representing them at their meetings to help lower the budget, if someone from the finance committee would be a liaison with the BHRD. The liaison would help answer questions such as: what does the town really need from BHRD versus what it has historically taken?
Member Vera Farrell volunteered to be the liaison, saying she is new, with no prior ties, and feels she can bring a fresh, neutral perspective.
On that note, Tool said she wanted to start getting data and compare what the mall would pay if it were in Pittsfield, which has a much higher commercial rate, versus what it pays now to Lanesborough and BHRD.
And see if they should consider a split tax rate or a special commercial district to balance the tax burden between large commercial properties like the mall and homeowners.
She noted that business owners often claim they’d be put out of business by a split rate, but prior analysis showed changes on the order of $1,000 a year for a business versus $300 to $500 a year savings for a homeowner.
She said she will start collecting the data and see what can happen, especially when the Select Board goes to vote on how to establish the tax structure for the various tax designations in town, which may not be usable this year but can be brought forward next year if they don't get everything they need by the time they vote.
