The Board of Selectmen has updated its budget calendar showing important dates leading up to the Annual Town Meeting on May 19th and setting forth an aggressive meeting and hearing schedule of the Board of Selectmen, Finance Committee and School Committee. 

The town manager's budget filing will be released on January 25th which will be immediately followed by the traditional twin Saturday day long budget hearings before the Finance Committee that will start at 9:00 AM on February 2nd.

• Revised Meeting Schedule

The Board of Selectmen will hold a public hearing on Monday, January 28, 2008, at 7:45pm in the Selectmen’s Meeting Room, to hear a presentation on the draft regulation prepared by the Town’s planning consultant for expedited permitting, Chapter 43D.  

To date, the Allen parcel is the only parcel that has the MGL, Chapter 43D designation which allows for the expedited permitting. The Town's planning consultant, Judi Barrett, has written the regulation and will present the draft to the Board on January 28th at 7:45PM.   The draft regulation and master permit application are in final form. Town staff continues to work with Ms. Barrett in gathering submittals required by each permit granting board or commission. 

Upon the conclusion of the public hearing, the Board of Selectmen will consider what action the Board should pursue relative to the 43D – Expedited Permitting Law.

The Board welcomes any interested resident to attend this public hearing and to offer any written or oral comments.

Material associated with this initiative can be viewed in the Office of the Board of Selectmen during normal business hours or by clicking the link below.

• Chapter 43D Rules and Regulations

The Board of Selectmen has released the 2007 Citizen Survey Final Report.  This survey was conducted and the report was prepared by a group of Clark University students and reprises a similar survey that was conducted in 2005.  The survey was provided free of charge to the Town with the only significant expenses incurred by the Town were the cost of postage and staff time to support the project.

The Board of Selectmen thanks the students for their efforts on behalf of the Town and for all residents that took the time to participate.  The Board also thanks John Lukach, William Gooley and Dina Nichols for assisting in the design of the questionnaire.  The Board has taken the findings of the survey under advisement.

• 2007 Shrewsbury Town Citizen Survey
• 2005 Shrewsbury Town Citizen Survey

On Monday night the Board signed a Special Town Meeting Warrant for a meeting to take place on Monday, December 10, 2007, at 7:00 PM in the Oak Middle School Auditorium.  The Finance Committee will review this warrant and take public testimony on Thursday, December 6, 2007, at 7:00 PM when they meet in the Old Selectmen’s Meeting Room. 

The five article warrant covers various matters with the two most pressing matter are the sale of the former Fire Station #3 located on Rte 20 and the authorization of an extended term for the Town’s waste disposal and landfill operation agreements. 

• Special Town Meeting Warrant December 10, 2007
• Memo to Town Meeting Members

On November 2nd the town manager filed the Draft Waste Disposal and Landfill Operation Agreement that if signed will become effective on January 1, 2008.  This is a successor agreement to the original agreements signed by in 1988 when the Town first contracted with Wheelabrator Millbury Inc. both as a vendor on the waste disposal side and customer on the landfill operation side of the Town’s very innovative solid waste program. 

On Monday, November 5th, Mr. Morgado will be formally presenting this draft agreement to the Board of Selectmen during their regular meeting.  The agreement will require additional Town Meeting authorization and Mr. Morgado will ask for a Special Town Meeting for Monday, December 10, 2007.

• Final Waste Disposal and Landfill Operations Agreement

On November 26th, the Board of Selectmen held its annual financial workshop during which a review was conducted of various fiscal matters involving both Fiscal Year 2008 and Fiscal Year 2009. The workshop is an integral part of the preparation process as the Board begins to develop its recommendation for the ensuing fiscal period.

• Annual Financial Workshop November 26, 2007
• Update on Average Residential Tax Bills
• DOR City and Town November & December 2007
• Memo on Motor Vehicle Excise Tax

On November 8, 2007, the Moody's Rating Committee reviewed and assigned to the Town of Shrewsbury a rating of MIG-1 and affirmed the Town's Aa3 Bond Rating.  This action was taken in preparation of the upcoming sale of $13.9 Million in Bond Anticipation Notes

• Moody's Investors Service Bond Rating

At the Board's recent workshop it met with the department heads that work in the public works and public facilities areas to review the Public Works Priority List for 2007-2008.  This annual event in the traditional kick off of the successor budget development process since much of the Priority List will form the Capital Budget for the next five years. Attending this workshop along with the full Board of Selectmen was John Knipe, Angela Snell, Robert Cox, Jack Perreault, Robert Tozeski, Michael Hale and Daniel Morgado and involved a project by project update on each item. 

Recent success in the public works and public facilities areas are the result of this identification and prioritization process which continually evolves on a daily basis as projects are advanced and held based upon current conditions and opportunities.

• Public Works Priority List 2007-2008

The Board of Selectmen has released a November 9, 2007, report prepared by Daniel Sherman of Buck Consultants.  This report was prepared and issue pursuant to Government Accounting Standard Board (GASB) Statements 43 and 45 to identify the current funded position of the Town's post-retirement health benefits program.  The report indicates the Town's actuarial accrued liability to be between $34.6 Million to $73.0 Million depending on funding mechanisms.  

This report supplements the information contained in  the Retirement System Actuarial Report that was most recently competed on January 1, 2006, outlining the Town's unfunded liability.  While there is no requirement that the Town begin the process of funding the actuarial accrued liability at this time, it is expected that some recommendation, policy or regulation will be enacted at some time in the future once all governmental entities disclose their respective liabilities.

• Retirement Benefits Analysis Report

Last week, Town Manager Morgado filed with the Board of Selectmen and Finance Committee a report on the Town's Free Cash certification as of July 1, 2007.  The balance of $4,850,038 indicates that the erosion of Free Cash that began in Fiscal Year 2002 has abated and the balance has stabilized meaning the amount used in setting the FY 2008 budget was offset from gains resulting from closing the books on Fiscal Year 2007.

Morgado advised the Board and Finance Committee that, “The $4,850,038 Free Cash balance demonstrates the advantage of your solid conservative management of the Town’s finances as supported by the Town Meeting and will bode well for the Town when discussing with Moody’s the Town’s fiscal condition when issuing permanent financing this year for the various light, water and fire facilities projects.”  He added  “In addition, this balance puts the Town just above the 5% of operating budget goal that the Finance Committee has used for a number of years.”

• Free Cash Certification 2007

Selectmen Maurice DePalo and Moira Miller and the Town’s economic development staff met last week with Kelly Arvidson, Vice President of Business Development and Shyla Matthews Vice President of Business Development of MassDevelopment to discuss development opportunities in the Town of Shrewsbury.  Also present at this meeting was Representative Karyn Polito, Clare O’Neill, Regional Director of the Massachusetts Office of Business Development and Richard Ricker a board member of the Shrewsbury Development Corporation.

MassDevelopment is the Commonwealth’s finance and development authority charged to stimulate economic growth across the State working with communities, developers, business leaders and financial institutions.

Mr. Depalo and Ms Miller outlined the Town’s goals for diversification of the tax base and discussion centered on CenTech East, the former Allen parcel and several of the parcels held in private ownership in which the development staff has been working with to develop non-residential development prospects.

Mr. Hale provided an update on the Chapter 43D planning process for the former Allen property which is being funded through a $150,000 grant.  Mr. Morgado also pressed this issue of water and sewer capacity as being a major obstacle to economic development in the central Massachusetts and Metro-West region.  Ms. Arvidson, Ms. Matthews and Ms. O’Neill provided information on various grant programs to foster economic development in the form of the CDAG and PWED programs.  They remarked that the Town was well positioned in the area of economic development having worked over the past few years to put into place a business friendly zoning by-law and expedited permitting process that will be now enhanced via the Chapter 43D program.

There will be future follow-up meetings focusing on the former Allen parcel once the master plan process is completed.