Selectmen discuss issues with DOR
Board members discuss concerns about e-mail from Whitney
By Caitlyn Kelleher JOURNAL REPORTER

Interim Town Administrator Paul Boushell and Town Account Jim Shanahan updated Ashburnham Selectmen on the status of a review by the state's Department of Revenue, while Selectmen expressed concern about the actions Margaret Whitney, a member of the Advisory Board, who sent an e-mail to the DOR questioning some of the town's financial practices.

Whitney wrote an e-mail to the DOR citing concerns about delay in paying the town's assessment to the school district, as well as three other small unpaid bills. This came after the DOR was altered to the fact that the voters appropriated free cash at the November town meeting before it was officially certified.

Whitney's involvement and her e-mails come just days before next Tuesday's municipal election, where Whitney is challenging Mark Carlisle for his seat on the Board of Selectmen.

Boushell said there was a rush to hold the fall town meeting, but he should have recommended canceling the meeting and waiting until for the formal certification came in form the DOR.

The town paid one of the past four months' assessments on April 11, after a letter of reminder was mailed to the town.

"The third- and fourth-quarter real-estate taxes are due on 5/1/08, and the town will be able to make the remaining school payments at that time," states a letter from the town's Treasurer to the school district

Shanahan said the delay in setting the tax rate had caused a cash-flow problem with the town, and the school district was aware of the issue. Shanahan had said he saved the town money by not borrowing to fill the shortage.

Shanahan said the other issues had already been resolved before the e-mail was sent to the DOR.

"Why this has become a major issue is beyond me," Shanahan said.

Selectman Christopher Gagnon said he is not concerned about any type of review by the DOR and is in some ways pleased about the review.

"Don't look at this as being a bad thing," Gagnon said. "Nobody is going to have any questions about our finances after this."

The DOR has placed a series of mandates on town officials so they can get their tax rate set for FY09. This comes on the heels of a multiple month delay in setting the FY08 tax rate.

Shananon said the mandates and the extra reviews will not be done at the end of this situation.

"This is the way it's going to be for a couple of years," he said.

Boushell said he has invited DOR officials in to review any and all of the town's financial records.

"It's my reputation of 34 years (that is being questioned)," Shanahan said.

Carlisle called Whitney's e-mail a "total break down of protocol." He said questions should first have been addressed to Boushell or Shanahan and then to the Selectmen before even beginning to address the DOR.

"It should not have been done through secret e-mails," Selectman Jonathan Dennehy said.

When Dennehy began to question Whitney's actions of representing herself as speaking for the Advisory Board in the e-mail, Gagnon told him not to start that line of complaints.

"You don't want to go there, Jonathan," Gagnon said, adding that the Selectmen had a tendency to also work on their own.

In other business: • Director of the Department of Public Works Don Ouellette explained to the Selectmen the need for the new pay-asyou throw program that voters will be asked to approve at the Annual Town Meeting. Residents are going to be asked to set up a revolving account so the town can take in the money to operate the transfer station and then take the money pay for the trash to be removed from the station.

The program will require those residents that use the transfer station will have to pay before hand and receive stickers from the DPW office to drop their trash at the DPW's facility or the town will have to hire someone to man the transfer station on Saturday mornings to collect money.

Ouellette said if the new program is not adopted by the voters, then WasteManagement may pull out of the collection of materials at the transfer station, effectively closing the station.

Ouellette said there will not be an increase in fees.

Gagnon explained this is one of the last steps in a multi-year process to get the town's transfer station fully licensed by the state.

• Gagnon said the Selectmen should ask officials at the Ashburnham-Westminster Regional School District to reduce the rent the town is paying to the district in exchange for leaving the $50,000 fiber optic cables (that run the town's phone system) in the high school, where the town is temporary housing their offices.

"We should try to get some of that value back in some kind of amicable manor," he said.

• Bob Fitchel, the chairman of the Focus Group, approached the Selectmen to present the idea that the town auction off some of the property the town had acquired in through tax title, to off set the cost of a parcel of land for a new DPW facility.

"I'd agree that whatever property we sell at auction, we could dedicate some of that revenue," Dennehy said.

The Focus Group has looked at properties around town but would like the town to try to acquire a 17-acre parcel of land at the intersection of Turnpike and Platts roads. It is unclear how much the property would be worth on the open market.

Fitchel said the owners may not want to sell the property. But, Ouelllette said, part of the process would be to do perk tests on the land and see if it could sustain a wastewater treatment facility. Town officials think operating a small facility may be cheaper than extending the contract with Gardner.

Carlisle and Gagnon also agreed with the concept.

• Selectmen announced that the state is going to buy a conservation restriction on 166 acres of land in town, which will leave the land on the tax rolls but will prevent development on the land in perpetuity.