| Art, I think your hat's getting too tight :*)
HOWEVER, since you started this, how about no charge for anyone leaving
in a moving van?
AND BY THE WAY, there already are toll booths at all the roads leading
out of Maynard. Just ask Charlie Walsh. He's collecting tolls every day.
I think most people would be happy to only pay 50 cents.
Frank
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| Re: .1
Frank, you give new meaning to the term, Checkpoint Charlie.
:-)
Art, what happens when the rest of the towns in the Commonwealth
implement this great IDEA? Gee, to go visit someone five miles away
at Emerson Hospital would only cost $2 round trip, plus another couple
bucks to park. What a deal!
As Frank alluded, you'd see a mass exodus of moving vans heading north,
south and west, pronto.
Although I don't particularly like it, we just saw our town sewer rate
double this past year. This is a step in the right direction to make
the sewerage treatment plant a self funding operation. It would also
help if the state would make a commitment (as was approved with
Question 5) to give x% of aid to cities and towns. As it is now, it's
"hope for the best, and see what happens". This is crazy.
Steve
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| Lets not forget just because we know pay sewer and water fees, which by
the why is going up again, that property taxes still stay the same.
What this all means is more money out of your pocket and less to give
to your family or save for your retirment or what ever. It still does
not solve the 1 greatest problem with all governments is that are
they running effecent. We can not keep on given money to government
sooner or later no one will have any money to live on.
art
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| Art, I'm never sure if you're serious, but let's assume you are.
Seems to me that we've had this discussion before, but in any
event, it is obvious that the operation of Town government has
changed for better or worse in the past few years with the
decline of State and Federal funding. Towns are now faced with
the situation of operating as self-sufficient businesses, much
like zero-based cost centers in Digital. In effect, each Town
must assess it's needs, and find it's own means of supporting
and funding the various functions and services that it's owners
(in this case, the tax payers) decide that they want. Some of
these services are "shared", and benefit all, such as Public
Safety, Highways, Schools, and Administration. Other services
are measurable and can be charged out based on use or "consumption".
Examples of latter may include but not be limited to Water and Sewer,
Trash, extra-curricular School Activites, permits, fees, licenses,
Etc.
Most towns, Maynard included, are in the process of separating the
essential services from the measurable services. The trend is for
more and more self supporting services (zero-base), to help reduce
the Prop 2 1/2 restrictions on real estate taxes.
The problem is that there is not a clear line of demarcation. For
example, where does trash collection belong? It may be an essential
service from the standpoint of a Public Health, but a measurable service
in terms of an unfair burden on those who recycle versus those who don't.
I could go on (and probably will as this discussion goes on) but the
only point I want to make at this time is that, without State and
Federal assistance, the Town of Maynard cannot continue to provide
all the services that the citizens expect using real estate taxes
as the sole source of funding. Remember that we have only THREE
square miles of potential real estate to tap. We must continue
to ask for some of our services to stand on their own without
the use of precious tax dollars.
Frank
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| I would like to charge a toll of 50 cents per car for non-Maynard folks
who use Acton Street as a cut through to Maynard center thinking it
saves them time. They actually have to stop at two stop signs before
they get back on the road that would have taken them straight through,
and they have to deal with a semi-blind corner to boot :) Some days I
think my house uprooted and dropped onto 128 in the morning :) No
flame....just some comments. I've been a lifelong resident of Maynard
(I even live in the house I grew up in). It's amazing the changes
that have happened over the years (I'm not gonna say how many
years...). When my brother visits from New York, he can't believe it's
the same town he grew up in. It's a GOOD town with lots of GOOD folks,
and we have to grin and bear some of the changes to keep it that way.
How many towns can you call a pizza place for take-out and have them
recognize your voice and say, "Hi, Linda. How've ya been?"
Watching the news specials on towns that are in terrible financial
shape, it makes good ol' Maynard look pretty darn good!
Linda (Tervo) Snow
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