FinCom prepping for Town Meeting

The Norwood Finance Commission (FinCom) met last week and discussed several issues coming up for Town Meeting in May.

Town Manager Tony Mazzucco said there would be some items for the FinCom to sign off on, but nothing is ready for a vote just yet. He did say, however, that there were new expenditure items coming that they could discuss.

“There will definitely be some snow and ice,” he said, referring to the expected spending overrun in the Snow and Ice budget due to the 37” of snow the last two large snowstorms dumped on the Town. “But let’s see what next week holds.”

Mazzucco said they would also likely be looking at legal fund increases, as well as repairs to the main steam heating pipe below Town Hall and the building’s elevator. He said there was some good news on both of those fronts.

“There is a possibility that the elevator may end up being an insurance claim, which doesn’t mean we’re completely out of the woods, but it would reduce what we’re going to Town Meeting for,” he said. “Same thing with the steam pipe; we’re still waiting on better estimates. We can’t get that work done, obviously, until the heating season is over. We’re thinking in the $30,000 to $40,000 range, but don’t quote me. It could become several times that. Remember the middle school was $70 million before it became what it was (around $140M-$150M).”

Mazzucco lamented the fact that the elevator was replaced only six years ago.

“The steam pipe has gotten to the point where we can’t repair it anymore, but it is 96 years old,” he said. “The elevator ‘essed’ the bed, excuse my language, after six years. I know we like to cynically say, ‘They don’t make them like they used to,’ but our six-year-old elevator is costing us more than our 96-year-old main steam trunk for this old building.”

In other news, members from the Community Preservation Committee (CPC) came in to give a rundown of the proposed projects for this year. Of particular note, the FinCom focused on the annual $14,000 for the Shared Housing Services Organization (SHSO) the Town shares with other municipalities to keep a handle on the affordable housing index for the Town.

This is important because of Massachusetts General Law Chapter 40B, which allows developers to ignore local zoning laws if a municipality has less than 10 percent of its housing stock dedicated to affordable housing or less than 1.5 percent of its total land dedicated to affordable housing. The Town ran into trouble with this about a decade ago when it was found that the Town was out of compliance – at 1.47 percent of its land dedicated – and was forced to allow two 40B projects many residents did not want.

The Town didn’t want the projects, so much so that it ended up purchasing the Forbes Mansion to prevent one of the proposals going through (though the sale of that land to Moderna did end up netting the Town $10 million surplus; Mazzucco has harped again and again that that was a ‘fluke’ and shouldn’t be policy for the Town).

So that’s all to say the SHSO provides a historically important function, but CPC Chair Catherine Walsh said the organization will be returning $14,000 because it was not able to start up quickly enough.

“This is the fourth year we have funded this and I think when we came before you the last time we had committed the funding for three years,” she said. “But unfortunately, they got a slow start and there was a change in the consultant that was doing that, but the good news is the planning group has not called upon all those funds and they will be returning $14,000.”

Walsh also said the organization has got the Town’s affordable database up and running, along with other services.

“(Community Development Director) Sarah Dixon feels very positive about the services they are getting,” she said.

Walsh said the funding will be going back into the housing bucket.

FinCom Chair Sarah Sullivan asked about the description of the services in the Town Meeting Warrant, as she said it didn’t seem like it was bringing much to the table based on the description in the Town Meeting Warrant Article.

“I just think it would be a good idea to hear what they’ve delivered, because them returning money? To me that was kind of a red flag,” Sullivan said.

“We can beef that right up for the warrant,” Walsh said.

Advertisement

A similar concern came up when discussing the $25,000 request from the Conservation Commission (ConCom) for the Conservation Fund. The fund holds monies for the Town to help purchase properties to hold in conservation. Walsh said the ConCom upped that from $10,000 last year due to commentary from Town Meeting members saying that wasn’t enough money to buy pretty much anything.

FinCom members Alan Slater and Vice Chair Eric Fleming said they felt a bit uncomfortable having a fund with no specific purpose accumulating monies every year and wanted to see something a bit more concrete. Walsh said right now, the fund is not dedicated towards “huge projects.”

“But easements and smaller things,” Walsh said. “The goal is to buy big chunks of land, but we know that is just not realistic in this economic climate, but what this fund allows us to do is to position ourselves to do some due diligence, assessment of parcels, environmental work, surveys, title searches, that kind of thing, that could eventually position us to get matching grants or Town funding. And so if we fact fund this for $25,000, the balance in the fund would be $178,500.”

Walsh said they have spent the fund a bit in the past to do some of this due diligence, easements and potential purchase of pocket parks. When asked by Fleming about future potential uses, Walsh confirmed that they are looking at additions to the Norwood Trails System via the Norwood Trails Advisory Committee’s direction.

Walsh said the main plan however was to “establish a healthy fund.”

“There are other cities that have $800,000 or $900,000 in there that really gives them the leverage to do what they want,” she said. “(Conservation Agent Carly Rocklen) shared a list of potential parcels, but we don’t really want to share that, and the fact is, given the current economic climate, we’re probably not going to be in the business of purchasing a large parcel with the money.”

Slater said he’d like to see more specific action items in the plan to shore up the funding ask at Town Meeting, and pointed out that the ConCom is asking for another $10,000 from the operating budget for that fund.

“I get it, I know what you’re doing, but not much money has been used in this fund in the past and how much money can this fund really take?” he said. “If there was a plan out there that we knew we wanted to spend X dollars for this and Y dollars for that, I’d feel a little better about the appropriation of $25,000 from the CPC, as well as the understanding that there is going to be a request at Town Meeting from the ConCom for additional funds.”