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Williamstown Fin Comm Talks Mount Greylock Budget, Historical Museum Move
By Stephen Dravis, iBerkshires Staff
01:39AM / Friday, February 27, 2015
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Town Manager Peter Fohlin is proposing the town cover the $10,000 cost to operate the Little Red Schoolhouse as a home for the Williamstown Historical Museum.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Little Red Schoolhouse and a larger than anticipated school budget were on the minds of the town's Finance Committee on Wednesday night.

The committee held its second round of detailed analysis of the town's proposed fiscal 2016 budget, and while the panel had a few questions about the cost centers under review, two items not on the agenda sparked the most discussion.
 
The first was the Mount Greylock Regional School budget request, which was approved by the School Committee on Tuesday but has yet to be delivered to the town.
 
Town Manager Peter Fohlin relayed to the Fin Comm that based on a news report from that Tuesday meeting, he expects the junior-senior high school to ask for about $400,000 more from Williamstown for FY16.
 
That is significantly more than the $118,000 increase built into Fohlin's proposed FY16 budget.
 
The Mount Greylock assessment came up in the context of a discussion about the town's unused tax levy. Currently, the town plans to raise about $800,000 less than it is allowed without seeking a Proposition 2 1/2 override from the voters.
 
Given that unused levy and the fact that the town will be retiring some bonds in the next couple of years, Fin Comm member Michael Sussman asked Fohlin whether the town hypothetically could finance a large project — like a new Mount Greylock Regional School — without needing an override.
 
"Yes, depending on the outcome of this year's Mount Greylock operaing budget," Fohlin said.
 
"In this budget," he explained later. "Taxes will go up 2.5 percent anyway ... but we have the legal right to raise your taxes [up to the level needed to raise the $800,000]. But we're not doing that."
 
Committee member Charles Fox asked Fohlin how the town would pay for a higher Mount Greylock budget if it is approved by Town Meeting in Williamstown and Lanesborough.
 
"The unused levy capacity," Fohlin replied. "I wouldn't volunteer to cut my [town] budget in order to make up the difference."
 
"There is more money in free cash that you didn't appropriate," Fin Com Chairwoman K. Elaine Neely noted.
 
"You could take it out of the stabilization fund if you want," Fohlin said. "There are as many bad ideas as good ones in this situation."
 
Williamstown's situation with respect to Mount Greylock is tied to the district's other member town, Lanesborough. Officials there have told the Mount Greylock School Committee that it would need to win an override vote in order to get more than the 1 percent assessment hike the town is offering.
 
The School Committee says the school needs to raise its operating budget by at least 2.61 percent. The property tax component of that budget is split proportionately between the two towns.
 
Down the road from Mount Greylock, the Little Red Schoolhouse at the Five Corners intersection may be getting a new tenant, and Fohlin proposes that the town financially support a new use for the town-owned historic structure.
 
Fohlin told the Fin Comm that recently he heard independently from two town entities — the South Williamstown Community Association and the Williamstown Historical Museum — that they were in a state of transition.
 
The SWCA, which has leased the Little Red Schoolhouse from the town, is "going out of business," Fohlin told the committee.
 
At the same time, the Historical Museum has "not been able to reach a meeting of the minds" with the Milne Public Library Trustees about a long-term lease to extend the museum's tenancy in the back of the public library.
 
Fohlin suggested to the two non-profits that there was a "suitable solution to everyone's problem" by relocating the museum to the South Williamstown location.
 
"The Williamstown Historical Museum cares as much about the Little Red Schoolhouse as an historic prize as the South Williamstown Community Association does," Fohlin said.
 
But the museum does not have the resources to operate the building on its own. Fohlin said the SWCA told him that it costs about $10,000 per year to keep the building operational. And he is proposing the town grant the museum $10,000 per year to keep the lights on.
 
Last year, the town supported the museum to the tune of $5,500, so it would be an increased expenditure, not a new one.
 
"The Williamstown Historical Museum is the custodian of the town's history," Fohlin said. "They are a quasi-town department. They're certainly not a town department, and we all know that. .... But they are certainly a close family relative. They have all our stuff over there. And they need a place."
 
Likewise, the Little Red Schoolhouse is a town asset that would cost money to keep up whether the Historical Museum moves in or not.
 
"As far as the building is concerned, we need a tenant," Fohlin said. "If the South Williamstown Community Association is not caring for that building, the building will deteriorate. We've invested $300,000 in that building, primarily with [Community Preservation Act] money. The town has shown no inclination to sell it in the past.
 
"We need someone to live it in and keep it a breathing building, and it all feels like a good fit."
 
For nearly 50 years, the historic building was home to the Williamstown Cooperative Nursery School, which closed in 2012 because of declining enrollment. In recent years, the SWCA had an arrangement with IS183 Art School of the Berkshires in Stockbridge to operate a satellite campus. Currently, the building is largely vacant.
 
Fohlin praised the leadership of the museum and said it indicated it is willing to make part of the Little Red Schoolhouse available for use as community gathering space.
 
"The historical museum is coming alive, it's getting vibrant," Fohlin said. "And this is an opportunity I hope we don't miss. [$10,000] is what the Williamstown Historical Museum would need to take on the operating expense of the building. And if they don't we'd have to operate our own building anyway."
 
The main business of Wednesday's meeting was the review of those parts of the budget related to the Milne Library, Public Works, capital improvement and finance.
 
In addition to the usual expense increases driven by the rising cost of health insurance, a couple of changes that the taxpayer would notice if the budget is passed relate to two of the town's enterprise funds.
 
Fees for water and sewer and the town's transfer station are up in the proposed budget.
 
Water and Sewer Superintendent Edward Rondeau told the Fin Comm that the water rate (which last rose six years ago) and the sewer rate increases are being driven by lack of consumption.
 
The water and sewer systems have fixed costs that are rising, and if demand falls off, then receipts cannot keep up with the costs unless the rate rises.
 
In 2013, the town's water customers (essentially everyone not on well water) used 21.7 million cubic feet of water. In 2014, that number was down to 20.1 million.
 
Part of the decrease has been because of declining population, part of it is due to conservation efforts. But the end result is that revenues from usage are declining for both water and sewage, Rondeau said.
 
As a result, the proposed FY16 budget has a 6-cent hike in the water rate, from $3.79 per 100 cubic feet to $3.85, a rise of 1.6 percent. The proposed sewer rate would go from $5.77 to $5.96, an increase of 19 cents or 3.3 percent.
 
As for the transfer station, the price of an annual sticker would go from $75 to $85 (13 percent). The price of a second sticker in the same household would double from $5 to $10. The price of a monthly sticker would go from $8 to $10, a jump of 25 percent.
 
"Fixed costs and recycling are paid for by stickers, and we weren't making enough," Public Works Director Tim Kaiser told the Fin Comm. "Revenue from bag sales was covering the cost of disposal of what's in those bags. The real deficit was in the stickers."
 
The cost of recycling glass, cans and plastic, for example, went up 24 percent from 2012 to 2013.
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