Finance Committee Q & A meeting

***Continuing: Flags & Signs**Semi-Annual Tribute to Our Fallen Troops***

**TODAY Thu: Decoration of Veterans Graves**Meet at VFW**5pm**All Welcome**

***TODAY Thu: Relay for Life Fundraiser**Bertucci's**4-9pm**Coupon in article**

***Sat: Holliston Cash Mob**Begin at Pejamajo's**10:45am***

***Coming Mon 5/27: Memorial Day Parade**Ceremony on Town Hall Steps***

***Coming Tue 5/28: Adam Green with new "Holliston" episodes**HHS Aud**7-10pm***

***Coming 5/30: Moving Wall**Medway VFW**Opens 6pm***

by Bill Tobin 5/1/12

The Finance Committee met on Tuesday to respond to questions regarding the warrant for the Town Meeting on Monday May 7.

The agenda was dedicated to Q & A.

The agenda for the May 1st Finance Committee meeting was dedicated to a question and answer session to help residents prepare for the upcoming Town Meeting on Monday, May 7th. They anticipated a roomful of interested town folk.

The room was basically empty. Keith Buday was on hand to help the FinCom answer school budget related questions and there was one. Carmen Chiango asked why the gymnasium floor in the Adams Middle School was being replaced now and was not done when the building was renovated in 2000? Keith explained that the original floor installed circa 1950 was ok when the building was overhauled. The floor is a wooden parquet tile type floor that is now declared to be a safety issue. If not replaced now, the gym could no longer be used as a gymnasium. There is asbestos in the flooring that must be removed including under the bleachers, very costly.

A question was raised as to why the town can not be run like a business and make decisions on the pension and health plans. The answer is that municipalities are not like a business, and can not control these issues as they are mandated by state authorities. Town supervisors can not determine the increase or decreases of employees based on merit as a business can do.

The meeting was on HCAT, and the committee decided take a 30 minute break to give any resident watching the meeting a chance to come to the town hall to ask questions. No one came during the break so they adjourned the meeting.

You had your chance and you missed it. See you at Town Meeting on the 7th.

Posted in Politics, News.

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Comments (6)

I can't say I would have attended anyway, but since it was buried in an email about the town meeting (which I knew I couldn't attend) I didn't even notice it. I agree that it would be great to have, say, a once a month email with all the scheduled town meetings in it.

- Mark | 5/6/12 10:39 PM

Don: http://www.townofholliston.us/Selectmen/blackboardconnect.htm ...there was information on this included in the town census several times (prior to this new system information was sent with the census every year).

- Ken Szajda | 5/6/12 10:10 PM

How do you get on the e-mail notification system? How many people are on that system?

- Don MacLeod | 5/6/12 9:04 AM

Hi Dianna, Funny you should say that--if you are on the town's e-mail notification system, on 4/27 you got a notice about the upcoming town meeting. Included in that notice was a separate paragraph that said: "The Finance Committee will host a public forum regarding their town meeting recommendations on Tuesday, May 1 at 7:30 p.m. at Town Hall." So we did in fact send out notification, but as Mark points out, it didn't produce a better result.

- Ken Szajda | 5/5/12 12:50 PM

Hi Mark, I was wondering: is there is a way for residents to sign onto an e-mail or Facebook notification system for meetings like this one? This is probably a stupid question, sorry. I rely on notifications coming to me rather than scanning through websites checking calendars. Something like that might help? Thanks!

- Dianna Vosburg | 5/4/12 2:52 PM

Again this year some difficult decisions had to be made regarding the town budget. Last night's meeting was one of those nights that totally amaze me. One would think that people would be happy to question the FinCom in an open forum, make their feelings known and ask questions. Only 2 people came with questions. This means that either we are doing such a fabulous job that every question as been answered or there is a huge amount of apathy. Unfortunately it is most likely the later. Next week at Town Meeting there may be a problem getting 100 voters just to show up and vote on the budget (and other important issues). The real problem is that, as always, there will be the charges of a lack of transparency, personal attacks and cries of town officals not being responsive. Nothing could be further from the truth. We have done everything imaginable to keep the public involved short of inviting the voters for diner, yet no one shows up to learn how we made our decsisons. Please keep this in mind when the a few citizens decide to make these charges, as always. When they do, I hope someone asks them if they bothered to show up and learn when they had the chance.

- Mark Schultz | 5/2/12 4:26 PM

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