Town keeps waiting for money to roll in
Published on July 15th, 1998
STONEHAM, MA - Two outstanding issues that the town is eagerly awaiting resolution on concern increases in the town's checkbook.
The impending sale of the Boston Regional Medical Center is of great significance to the town, but as of now, no reportable progress on the sale to Doctors Corporation of America has been made.
According to Town Adminis-trator Jeffrey Nutting, no date has been given to the town indicating when the sale will be made final.
"We were led to believe the sale would happen this May," stated Nutting who reported that the hospital leadership was also led to believe the sale would have already happened by now.
Nutting explained that the impact of this to the town is great since the town approved the use of resultant tax money as a revenue estimate.
"Every day that goes by changes our picture," he stated.
The town balanced its Fiscal Year 1999 budget based on the impending sale of the nonprofit hospital to a for-profit corporation. The tax benefit to the town translates into approximately $400,000 each year, according to Town Accountant Ron Florino.
"That's one revenue source the town looks forward to," he stated.
There has also been no progress to date on the reimbursement to the town from erroneous billing of sewer charges from MDC facilities along Woodland Road and the Stone Zoo. The town has been paying these bills for several years.
The MWRA has been billing the town for additional sewer charges in the Woodland Road section of town. The problem was discovered after a check of this area which continuously yielded suspiciously high charges, according to Director of Public Works Robert Grover.
Nutting stated that the town has not received any reimbursement as of yet and would likely not until the MWRA and MDC resolve their dispute over "who owns the line" feeding into Stoneham's system.
Once resolved, the town anticipates approximately $150,000 in reimbursement money. How to address the problem on an ongoing basis has yet to be determined.
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