Some important issues on the selectmen's agenda Monday night, issues affecting public safety; about land use; about financial support for individual citizen group requests.
Topics relevant to those who live here: fire equipment; tax revaluation; paying for road care; ordinance amendments; snowmobile funding request. In the running of a town, what's the common factor?
What brought 75 or so people to a meeting where there is little or no public input?
The answer in common: money. In the long run and in the short run. Whether asking for it, or looking to direct the use of it, or fearing it could be spent recklessly if not enough oversight.
At the end of the night, some unanswered questions:
Why the need for courtroom antics to readdress a concern about the care of a local subdivision's private road? For 30 minutes? Who was the audience? Is the road itself the only issue? Is there another agenda?
Why the need to hurry and sign up an assessment firm to do the revaluation? The process to be set up within the next 3 weeks? Our current tax assessor says revaluation is necessary because of the inequities between some sections of town, some individual landowners, some legal descriptions for land assessment; and a team, with his suggestions to go by, could move faster. But by December 3? Would that limit his opportunity to give input on very many specific problems? Why the hurry?
Is this the way other towns sign up an assessment firm (if they do)...to allow 3 weeks to go out for bids and get recommendations and come back to the citizens to tell them about the process in the first place and then get approval from the citizens somewhere in there to spend the money to have this done?
What is going to happen after December that will make this process impossible to consider? Was there mention of saving $15,000-$20,000 if we do it in December? Has there been a specific firm approached already by someone? When Assessor John Brushwein made the suggestion several meetings ago about a professional firm to do the revaluation, was that considered the research necessary to make this December 3 town meeting vote plan?
What about this $225,000 that the town could borrow from "undesignated funds" to pay for this firm (that will magically cost only 225 K) - and paying it back next year on each and every individual tax bill for Paris taxpayers? Wait a minute....can we talk about this? Before you get us all at the table to sign the paper?
And what about the new town manager? (That was a hurry up job, too. Why was that?) The executive session was just beginning when the audience left at 9:15 Monday PM. Is this discussion merely a ruse? Has the decision long been made? By a few?
Again. Over and over. More questions than answers.
