I received this comment this morning that I think is worth it's own posting:
If you think my post is worth sharing on your blog please feel free. Thank you for allowing people a place to voice their thoughts. I apologize in advance for the length of my observations/ideas/comments.
1. I have thought of this idea for awhile and ironically it is what Provincetown will be voting on as written about in the CCT earlier this week, regarding all their town buildings. Redesign/contruct Oakcrest, to house all town office personnel. (DPW, Fire and Police not included.) Wouldn't it be great to have them all in one building? Once the decision is made to renovate Oak Crest and relocate employees, put on the market the town buildings that would be empty upon renovation and relocation of employees. Clark Haddad (I voted to sell), Annex, Jan Sebastian, Council on Aging and dare I say the new Town Hall. Did I miss any town buildings?
2. Imagine the Rec. Dept. having some of our more mature residents volunteering/mentoring/helping the Rec. Dept., especially during there summer programs. Also, the council on aging could offer great recreational activities for our more mature population. (Walking/hiking trails, kayaking etc.)
3. Now don't get all panicky about the idea of selling the new town hall. Maybe a group that can get the monies from our preservation funds could buy the building. Imagine the tax money we put into the preservation fund going back to the town. Some ideas for purchasers, the new Economic Development group, historical society, or the Sandwich Chamber. They could also generate income from the second floor meeting room. Even a residential buyer, look at the former doll museum.
4. I believe, as others, that we need a new police/fire complex. If you agree which of the former stations would you close and sell to help with the construction? My understanding is that there are already plans for this new complex, as indicated by Mr. Dunham during town meeting last fall. If so would you take the time to review them and voice your opinion prior to town election in May? Wouldn't these existing plans help defray the initial costs? I'm assuming that the new complex would be at the former Hewlett Packard field or the "Golden Triangle", right where a "new" town office building (redesigned Oakcrest) would be located.
5. How about civilian police and fire dispatchers? How about using more civilian flaggers on road projects? Wouldn't these help to reduce Police/Fire OT?
6. How about looking into outsourcing our ambulance service? What does it entail and cost to send out RFP's? Is the only cost the legal notices? The company could potentially purchase a station that would not be in use if we can agree to sell town properties.
7. Conduct a review of the fees the DPW collects from contractors, and where do these fees go into the town budget?
8. A complete inventory of town owned vehicles, commercial trucks and equipment. When are they used and by which dept., and are they used? Compare the inventory to the invoices, payments and leases to and from outside vendors by the DPW? List of vehicles/equipment and why we own/lease them, should be made public to residents to justify why so many new vehicles.
9. Tracking of "customers" to town offices, to identify what offices would be better served by part-time vs. all of our full-time employees. The potential cost savings in benefits could be worth the endeavor. Full or part-time employees, cross trained, to float to different offices to cover vacations, sick-time etc. Town management might get some useful feed back from these hires regarding what is done on a daily basis between departments, what is duplicated and what is unnecessary.
10. My thoughts on the library, as I will always prefer holding a book and turning the page than reading on a "computer". If the trustees can raise the funds to match what the state provides without involving the town or resident pocketbooks, I say go for it. But we only need one library!!! So here I go again, we would sell the library downtown, and that would be the town contribution to building the new library.
11. Finally, wouldn't the sale of these town buildings to residential and/or commercial purchasers add funds to our tax collection?
I believe the town needs and is ready to start thinking outside the box. We have to much town-owned "stuff" that we don't need and can't afford to repair and/or maintain. We need to move forward and stop always looking at how it use to be!
10 comments:
Did you miss a building on Dewey Ave/Factory Street?
I would add that the School Department needs to get out of the Health & Fitness business. Operation of the pool should be done by the Rec Dept, which expenses/revenues clearly reported as an Enterprise Fund.
I felt this way even before the recent problem that illustrates the internal conflict for a school department with a #1 priority of student safety being asked to compromise that safety for the sake of non-student desires/needs.
Give the pool to the Rec Dept. Establish standards for how the pool and its environs are to be used during school hours and make it the responsibility of the Rec Dept to police the pool patrons.
I know of towns where the town is responsible for the pool even when it is located within the HS...has anyone done research on how most towns run their pools?
One additional note re: the post that started this - I don't think the refurbished Town Hall can be sold, because it was purchased with Community Preservation Funding...isn't that why nothing can be done with the acerage around the golf course?
2:58,
That's the Clark-Haddad Bldg on Dewey Ave. The Schools gave it back to the Town to sell and the Hysterical Commission started shrieking -- so Town Meeting voted to "save it" --- so it can slowly decay and eventually collapse or burn down.
For crying out loud.....will you PLEASE stop making sense!!!!!! All good and sensible ideas (not new ones but fine to be repeated) that have been discussed for at least 20/30 years yet being talked about.......again. Town wide maintenence is my personal favorite with town wide purchasing for department vehicles. New? Nope....but for the ten billionth time it is brought up. When you have dept heads that are not qualified to be hired for an entry level position making decisions what do you expect? These "progressive" ideas have no place in making someone looking bad.
Much of looking forwards ideas have been brought up at meetings and in private conversations. I read this on Randy's blog in the section for Selectman Candidates. Is this a Selectman candidate who is looking for input and buy in?
With this amount of ideas, it would be helpful if we knew who this was. I would like to know the full agenda if there is one. If this person has no agenda or is not connected to a group with a particular agenda or frankly even if they are, they should consider funning for office or being a part of one of the major committees.
Good Evening,
I can appreciate everyone's frustration over the SC/Super saga, but it is in the hands of the court, if in fact Dr. Johnson appeals. But why aren't people as up in arms about how the town is run. Everyone seems to be running around like chicken little looking at the sky to see when it's going to fall but won't look at what's right in front of them to stop the sky from falling. That is why I threw out some completely out of the box ideas. The town has multiple pieces of real estate, that we can't afford to maintain and/or repair. So why not sell them and take the money to make one central office complex for town personnel? Maybe a firm like Carey Commercial could give us the value of the properties in question. Then the town could have plans drawn up for Oakcrest to be redesigned to house town office personnel, for less than the determined value of the properties, since real estate doesn't always sell for what it should. Some type of temporary override would be required but as each property is sold, it would be applied directly to the override balance, and eventually taken off our tax bills. Another elephant on the horizon what if we can't afford to repair the Wing School what's the alternative, a housing complex, office complex, what. I really don't see anything wrong with using what we own/have, to move ourselves forward.
I don't know the identity of this contributor --- But I'm not too worried about any potential "agenda" given the fact that these ideas have been discussed for years.
I also think we should be more concerned about pursuing the ideas -- rather than who brought them up (most recently).
I do, however, agree this person should consider getting involved with FinCom or running for office.
I'm all for pursuing ideas but have seen that undisclosed agendas and connections to people who want to do business with the town and get their hands on tax dollars is causing quite a problem right now for the town. It clearly lends itself to the "chicken little" thinking Looking Forward brings up. The distractions of agenda driven stuff and the actual staff dollars it costs the town is not something I take lightly. But all in favor of ideas, especially good ones. A good idea where the town is considered needs to be vetted in the proper channels obviously. Other wise, move over chicken little.
Good Morning,
I am not a person with an agenda, nor a candidate running for office. I believe our town can be reinvigorated at minimal cost and with what some seem to think are hard choices. As flattering as running for office is, at this point in time my life is chock full, thank you for your positive thoughts.
So let's start talking about the candidates and the ones that will move us forward and possibly willing to implement ideas that have been out there for "some time".
Thank you.
Good for you Looking Forward. You are not alone. There are so many people who care passionately about moving our town forward. They give up hours and hours of time to participate in the process of doing so. We have a narrow field of candidates for Board of Selectman, only three with two seats open. It is a critical election for all the reasons you state. There are lots of ideas in the mix and quite a lot of energy. In my humble opinion all your ideas have merit. You are right, the local elections really are important. I hope people come to the upcoming Candidate Forums at Town Hall.
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