New figures add to Town's deficit woes
By Patrick Blais
Published on March 12th, 2003
STONEHAM, MA - Budget issues again dominated last night's Town Selectmen meeting after Town Administrator David Berry reported that recent figures released by the Romney administration will add nearly $209,000 to the Town?s previously estimated $2.1 million deficit.
Although the numbers still aren?t definite, Berry plans to treat the figures like they will be. Other developments at the meeting included:
The Selectmen approved the Town Warrant for May 5th's Town Meeting. They will vote and issue recommendations on the Warrant's articles next Tuesday. Because some revenue proposals were not included in the document, the Selectmen may call a special Town Meeting in the coming weeks.
Selectmen discussed endorsing a bill that will make it easier for Stoneham to break away from NStar in the coming years.
The hearing for approving the Dunkin Donuts site plan was again continued to allow a 40-day independent traffic study to take place. Because the site will also contain a Baskin Robbins, unknown to many audience members and Selectmen, Selectman Cosmo Ciccarello motioned that the site plan be withdrawn without prejudice and resubmitted. The motion was accepted by a 4-1 vote.
Selectmen entertained the idea of allowing a carnival take place at the Stoneham Arena parking lot from May 29th to June 2nd. However because Storage USA is under obligation to pave that parking lot before July 8th, some Selectmen seemed concerned about time constraints. The Selectmen plan to continue discussion about the carnival in a March 18th joint meeting with the advisory board.
Board of Selectmen Chair Anthony Kennedy discussed the possibility of closing the predicted budget deficit with surplus funds from recently collected water and sewer rates. The surplus also includes money overcharged Stoneham residents for the rates over the last couple of years.
Selectmen discussed the possibility of selling town property at school locations. According to reports, the town could receive up to $500,000 in 2004 for such a sale.
Selectmen reported that Michael Gallerani of the Office for Community Development has invited the public to visit a photo exhibit featured in the town hall's lower level. Several photographs will represent Stoneham on the newly proposed town web site.
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