ABOUT TOWN: Selectmen to Discuss Tax Rates, SMAC and Fortune Tellers
Welcome to "About Town with Mark Snyder," a column that will keep you up to the minute with what's what, who's who and what's going on around town. If you see or hear something we could use here, let us know by sending an e-mail to pmpco@aol.com.
TONIGHT AT TOWN HALL: There’s a trio of meetings tonight in the historic Town Hall, located in Stoughton Center at 10 Pearl Street.
The fun starts at 6:30 p.m. with a meeting of the Board of Assessors, in the Assessor’s Office on the first floor. The Assessors are scheduled to prepare for the Property Tax Classification Hearing (at 8:30 tonight at the Selectmen’s meeting. Assessor Joseph Gibbons, and B.O.A. Chairman Stan Zoll will make the presentation.)
The Assessors will be updated on the Reebok Appellate Tax Board case and the Hansen Property Classification cases. They’ll approve or deny personal exemption applications, as well as sign off on personal property abatements and betterments. The Assessors will also be updated on Veterans Clause 22D Exemptions.
***
Also at 6:30 p.m., in the first floor Fitzpatrick Room is the Board of Health. Chairman Steve Pozner and the Board have a full agenda.
Stoughton Visiting Nurses will present a Community Health Update. Environmental updates on Mosquito Control Project, Household Hazardous Waste Collection Day (October 15, from 8 a.m. to noon in the O’Donnell Middle School parking lot), and Septic Betterment Programs will be heard.
Updates on the inspection of food establishments, and emergency preparedness will be discussed.
***
Finally, the evening will conclude with the 7:30 p.m. meeting of the Board of Selectmen.
Chairman John Stagnone will preside over a packed agenda, which includes an attempt on the consent agenda to approve the updated Massachusetts Bottle Bill, which is billed as environmentally friendly, but is just another TAX.
The website Bottlebill.org, explains that "as in previous years, the bill in Massachusetts aims to expand the deposit to almost all noncarbonated beverages," so the website states, "the most significant change that this bill makes to Massachusetts' deposit law is to add all noncarbonated beverages (except dairy and medicines)."
Try finding places to RETURN your water and juice bottles. Good luck. Our selectmen should walk away from supporting this new TAX.
Also on the agenda is a request from Liam Galvin and Lori Sheridan (doing business as Soulstice Healing Center) for a Fortune Teller’s License.
Sheridan’s bio, on an ad for the Healing Moon Wellness Center in Norwood, says, “Lori Doupé Sheridan is a gifted angel messenger, spiritual counselor and medium. Her practice is dedicated to empowering her clients on their life journey, encouraging them to manifest the happiness they desire.”
At the same location, Galvin’s reads, “Liam Galvin is a gifted and well respected local spirit medium. He brings messages to others from loved ones who have passed over and spirit guides. Liam is also an ordained minister through the Universal Life Church.” (It should be noted that I am also an ordained minister through the Universal Life Church. I sent away for those credentials years ago, for a one-time payment of $25.)
The afore-mentioned hearing on the tax rate will follow the fortune teller’s application, as well as the permit for New England Sinai Hospital and Rehabilitation Center’s annual fundraising walk.
Karen Hall, Director of the Stoughton Youth Commission and Council on Aging, as well as John Denison, Recreation Director, will speak before Selectmen. Public Works will discuss sprinklers and hydrants.
The status of the liquor license in the old Porter Street Pub in front of Town Hall (26/28 Porter Street) will also be discussed.
Then, prior to a Joint Capitol Planning discussion <stifling yawn>, the Annual Review of Stoughton Media Access Corporation (SMAC) will take place.
Based on their lack of quality local community programming, lack of sponsorships, lack of paid members, and failure to use half of the rented facilities, I would expect selectmen to urge them to get on the ball, if nothing else.
Of course, SMAC’s president is also the Chairman of the Board of Selectmen. That conflict alone prevents any real honest look at the “results” so far.
I have a LOT to say about where the SMAC organization I helped create stands, but this isn’t the place for it.
In This article
-
-
Stoughton Town Hall
10 Pearl St, Stoughton, MA -
Dr. Robert G. O'Donnell Middle School
211 Cushing St, Stoughton, MA -
New England Sinai Hospital
150 York St, Stoughton, MA -
Mark Eckstein
10:38 am on Wednesday, September 21, 2011
We need to update the bottle bill now.
Jill Somers
10:41 am on Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Mark, The bottle bill is not a tax at all. Its a great effort to reduce plastic waste and encourage people to recycle the bottles just as we do with soda cans and beer cans. I hope you will consider the environmental impact of such bills before considering it as a TAX. Last time I checked, I dont get any of the Gas Tax money back. BUT, if I pay .05 more for a bottle of water - I can easily get that money back if I recycle that bottle. I dont know of any other 'taxes' that give me 100% of my money back. Do you?
Bruce Promisel
12:17 pm on Wednesday, September 21, 2011
For those of us that already recycle all our cans and bottles it is a tax. Part of my Trash Fee (yes another tax) provides me the ability to recycle, which I take full advantage of. Having to pay an additional fee for other bottles and then having to use gas (and pay more taxes) to return them, if a place can be found is just not effective. Providing more money to the State is just another way for them to create a useless job (someone needs to track this tax). We should be pushing for more recycling in the state similar to what we do in Stoughton, not just increase the layout of money from my wallet.
Jill Somers
12:56 pm on Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Im afraid you are both misinformed. Recycling plastic bottles in the bimonthly curb side pickup program is excellent. However, do you also throw your cans that have the .05 deposit in that same recycling bin? If so, you are throwing away money. While it is not "Free money", as it was already paid for at the check out, I encourage you to return them to the redemption center to get 100% of your money back. That is the very essence of the Bottle bill. Visit here for more statistics: http://www.massrecycle.org/bottlebill/index.html
Paul Lauenstein
1:29 pm on Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Empty non-deposit bottles littering our roadways are a tax on all of us when we have to pay DPW workers to pick them up. Why should my tax dollars be used to pick up after litterbugs? The nickel deposit provides a modest reward for those who pick up empties and turn them in, which keeps our neighborhoods cleaner. The effectiveness of this policy has been proven. Carbonated beverage containers with a nickel deposit have an 80% recycling rate compared to just 25% for non-carbonated beverage containers with no deposit.
The handling fee paid by bottling companies that profit from the sale of beverages has remained at 2.25¢ since 1990. No wonder so many redemption centers have gone out of business! The Bottle Bill Update would require that bottlers increase the handling fee to 3.25¢. Maybe then some redemption centers would re-open.
Bruce Promisel
2:22 pm on Wednesday, September 21, 2011
I do return the bottles and cans to redemption centers. But I would be just as happy not paying the extra money and seeing better and more effective recycling programs.
And as far as paying DPW workers to pick up trash, we are wasting another resource that costs us millions in tax dollars by not using people who inhabit our jails to do this. At least they would be earning their keep and providing a service to the public although I suppose this might be considered inhuman treatment by some.