This Week's Winchendon News
Lively Candidates' Night Forum Gives Candidates a Chance to Speak Out
From left, Glenn LaRochelle, Rick Ward, Greg Vine and Michael Gaynor.
Photo copyright Town of Winchendon
From left, Michael Gaynor, Tiffany Newton, Yvonne Senecal.
Photo copyright Town of Winchendon
From left, Audrey LaBrie, Christine Haslam-Giovannucci.
Photo copyright Town of Winchendon
The Beals Memorial Library Auditorium was filled to capacity on Wednesday evening, April 23 for the annual Candidates' Night forum featuring candidates for open seats in the 2025 Town Election. The event was sponsored by Beals Memorial Library and By Light Unseen Media, LLC, publisher of The Winchendon Courier. Courier publisher Inanna Arthen served as moderator for the panel at the invitation of Beals Director Manuel King.
Participating in the forum were all four candidates for the two open seats on the Board of Selectmen (Christine Haslam-Giovannucci, incumbent Audrey LaBrie, Yvonne Senecal and Tiffany Newton), two write-in candidates for School Committee (Michael Gaynor and Greg Vine), and two candidates for Town Moderator (write-in Rick Ward and Glenn LaRochelle, who is also running for Board of Health). School Committee candidate Tara Teixiera was not able to attend.
The event was recorded by WinchendonTV but could not be livestreamed from the library. The complete video is available on WinchendonTV and can be watched at winchendon.cablecast.tv/CablecastPublicSite/show/234?site=1%C2%A0%C2%A0. Although the planned length was about 90 minutes, with so many candidates and questions, the forum ran for two hours. Attendees were supplied with index cards and pencils to write their questions, which were passed to the moderator by volunteers.
After the Pledge of Allegiance and opening words from Mr. King and the moderator, the candidates started with opening statements, explaining why they're running for a town board.
Ms. Haslam-Giovannucci said, "I've been a resident here in Winchendon for a little over five years. I have attended a lot of town meetings, and I've learned a lot, and I now feel ready to take the next step, so that's why I'm running. I'm a graduate of Fitchburg State College, and I'm deeply invested and care a lot about our residents and our community."
Ms. LaBrie said that she has been a town resident for over 50 years and has served on the BOS for 10 years, "and I am looking to continue serving the town in this capacity."
Ms. Senecal said, "I am married here, adopted and raised two children from India here, and I'm dedicated to our community. As a nurse and past small business owner, I see our potential. We now face challenges. My plan is to bring common sense and accountability to our town government."
Ms. Newton said, "I'm a lifelong resident of Winchendon, and I have been involved in Winchendon town government since 2017, volunteering on various different boards. I also worked for the town of Winchendon as the Recreation Coordinator from 2022 until 2024. While I no longer work in the town of Winchendon, I do work for the town of Hudson, so I'm still in municipal work, and now that I've stepped away from my position here in the town of Winchendon, I really love being involved here. I have four children. I grew up here, and I really want to continue to be involved and make a difference in the town of Winchendon. I have invested a lot of time into learning more about municipal government, not just in my job, but in my free time. I'm currently serving on the Charter Bylaw Committee here in town as well, to learn more about the official rules and the way that the town is run and what's on that Charter to make sure that we are following that, and that what's in there matches what we need to do, or what we are doing here in town to make it better. So I wanted to put my hat out there and my expertise with municipal government to do my best in this role."
Mr. Gaynor said, "I recently moved to this community approximately four years ago, four years in October. And you know, I really love this town. It has a wonderful group of people, and I had the opportunity to serve as a special education teacher for about a year and a half at Murdock High School. And I really love our kids, and I just want the very best for them. There's so much that we can do to invest in this community, and make it a great school system. And I appreciate your support."
Mr. Vine said, "I served a total of 11 years on the School Committee, from 1999 to 2003 and again, from 2015 to 2023. I currently serve on the Communications Committee and the Audit Committee, and I'm working as a correspondent for the Athol Daily News." He explained that he'd been sure people would pull nomination papers for the open Committee seats, and decided to step up when that didn't happen. "I still have two granddaughters in the Winchendon Public School system, one at Murdock and one at Toy Town, and a grandson at Monty Tech, and I just think that education and doing what we can to strengthen and improve the schools in Winchendon is about the most important of a lot of issues that need to be addressed. So hopefully I'll get a chance to do that."
Mr. Ward said he was born and raised in Winchendon. "As a young 29 year old, I organized the town celebration for July 4. Many of you do remember those. They were the hugest events ever held in this town, and we did that for many years as volunteers. Later on, I became a library trustee. Did that for many years. Also was on the Charter Bylaw Committee. Was a Selectman, still currently a Selectman, which I finish up in about three, four weeks. And after those six years, I thought, you know, getting on in years that was probably enough." But citizens asked him if he would run as a write-in for Moderator. He described graduating from Murdock High in 1964, went into the Air Force, was a journalist, a government contractor and an instructor at Fort Devens. He and his family moved to Arizona, then New Hampshire and back to Winchendon. "If elected to serve as Town Moderator. I consider that a critical position in this town, because it's the purest form of democracy we have, the Town Meeting, and I feel I can be a very impartial moderator."
Finally, Mr. LaRochelle said, "I have four children in Winchendon public schools. I serve on the Board of Health, as vice chair. I also serve on Conservation. I'm a DPW employee. I ended up taking papers out for Moderator because no one was rushing for it. So I will appear on the ballot for Board of Health and Moderator, I will have to choose one or the other. I'm a life-long resident. I graduated from Murdock High
School, and I went to Mount Wachusett Community College, and I'm still here."
The first question in the queue was the question of the hour: "Do you believe in the override, and if not, what would you cut?"
Mr. LaRochelle replied that he was for the override, because he has four children in the schools. "The problems that we have are, they're all over. They're everybody's problems. It just isn't because money's missing or something like that. Costs have gone up everywhere. I know employees, and I'm a fortunate one, I have insurance through my wife, who's a postal worker. I don't have to take the town insurance, but I know other people that do. I get paid $400 every two weeks. Costs have crept up and it's across the board."
Mr. Ward said, "I do support the override, 100 percent, because this town is in a critical position right now. I know people go on social media and there's a lot of information that is totally incorrect out there, that this is all a scare tactic. This is not a scare tactic. If the override doesn't pass, this library will close. There's no turning around that. The Rec Department will close, the Senior Center will close. The school will take hits. Those are not threats. That's the truth, and you need to understand that when you make the decision, the costs have gone up astronomically across the state, across the country. There are so many towns in Massachusetts seeking an override, and I hear all this stuff on social media about being mismanaged, missing money, all of these sorts of things, they are not true."
Mr. Vine said that education for children doesn't just take place in the schools, it takes place in the library and all over the community. "I think it's vital that we have the resources to keep these facilities open. I think that it's important, obviously, as someone running for the School Committee, that we provide the optimum amount we can for the education of our students. Yes, it's the responsibility of committing to keep an eye on the budget and make sure that finances are spent wisely, but you can't spend what you don't have. So I definitely look forward to the override and hope that the community all will be as well."
Mr. Gaynor said, "Yes, I wholeheartedly support the override. I am the proud parent of a preschool student." Without funding, school opportunities will be limited, athletic programs will be cut. "all the other things that will be cut. Closing the libray. This is the beacon right here, of democracy as we speak. This is where ideas flourish...to close the library, to cut back on our schools and the Senior Center. It's just wrong. Please, please pass the override and vote for these communities and the schools."
Ms. Newton said, "I really struggled with this question, and really thought long and hard about what I would say...I think it's a necessary evil. We all have financial burdens at home. I have four small children, husband's back in school. It's a difficult decision, but I also am really invested in this town."
Ms. Senecal said, "Cutting services is difficult, but I also think living within our means is important. If you put it in your own home environment, what happens if you can't pay a bill, you cut something else, or you compromise somewhere. This is not a problem that came up in the last six months. This is a problem that's been going on for a period of time. So it's not just this current Board of Selectmen. This is something that's been brewing for a couple of years. I do think that this problem could have been nipped in the button, if it had been addressed sooner. Lot of people lately have been coming up, going to meetings and putting forth suggestions on, what if we did this? What if we did that? The town needed to be willing to make those considerations a year, a year and a half ago, and then we wouldn't be in the pickle that we are right now, with looking to cut services." Her sons graduated from Murdock and went on to college, she said, but if Winchendon Schools don't improve, they will "continue to bleed students out of our district." She added "I'm not for the override, because I think that we need to look at other mechanisms to work within our means. And I think that that could have been done and it could still be done."
Ms. LaBrie said, "I do support the override at the minimum, the $1.9M." She went on, "I think that as a country, if you look at the last five to ten years, costs are going up. The General Accounting Office put out a very interesting report a few months ago, and they report at the federal level, the state of the country's finances, and the whole country is on a non-sustainable trajectory. So we knew it was coming. We didn't know how much. We've looked at ways to consolidate departments, but some of the things that we didn't know coming, number one, in the last two years, the state has cut our state aid by almost $2.5 million. We didn't see that coming. Three years ago, we got $1.5 million. Last year, they gave us $100,000. This year, they're giving us under $500,000 and so much of what we do in Winchendon depends on the state." She said that if we froze wages in the upcoming union contract negotiations, people might agree for a year but after that, we'll lose good employees. The $1.9M override will continue services and the $2.9M "will give us some buffer," she said.
Ms. Haslam-Giovannucci said, "For me, it's about the residents, and I know that a lot of people are really struggling right now, and I know our town is in financial ruin. I have to echo what Yvonne and Tiffany have said." She said that she's attending most of the meetings and all she hears is the override. She doesn't hear a plan. "What are we going to do from here? So we throw money at a problem, but that still doesn't fix the problem. I know inflation has gotten better, and I know that this is not just a Winchendon issue. It's on a state level. So I asked, has anybody written a letter to the state to explain what we're experiencing?" She sees a lot of passion and great ideas, but none of them about being implemented. What is the vision moving forward? "As of right now, I am not for this override, because I think that we could potentially have saved a lot of money...If there's no plan, then we're just going to be back in the same boat next year."
The candidates for School Committee were asked what they saw as the top three priorities for the schools. They agreed that giving children the best education possible and maintaining good teaching staff and resources in the schools were important. Disagreements arose over the topic of regionalization, which Mr. Vine brought up. Mr. Gaynor argued that "Regionalization takes away independence and autonomy," and we'd lose what we are as a community.
Board of Selectmen candidates were asked what they saw as the Board's responsibilities, and what the town's biggest challenge is.
Ms. Haslam-Giovannucci said the Board should be interacting closely with other Boards and committees and holding joint meetings. The biggest challenge is communications--with residents, among departments, and around financial issues. Ms. LaBrie said that one of the hardest things for a Board member is balance, weighing what side to favor as a Board member and a resident of the town. The Board has five members and decides by majority vote and not all votes are unanimous, so members sometimes have to go along with a decision they don't agree with. Ms. LaBrie agreed that communications and finances were big challenges, but said that Town Manager Bill McKinney has been doing a very good job. "Unfortunately, he uncovered, it wasn't past misfeasance or intentional anything, but previous positions were filled, perhaps by unqualified people," she said.
Ms. Senecal and Ms. Newton agreed with the other two candidates, both commenting on what they learned from being on the Charter and Bylaw Committee about the Board's role as the town's chief Executive office. All agreed that communication with residents and among town boards and departments need to be improved, and that finances are the major problem. Ms. Senecal mentioned a need to listen to residents and not bounce them from board to board. Ms. Newton spoke of the importance of economic development, and coordinating the town's approach to that.
School Committee candidates were asked how they saw and defined DEI and "equity" and what they thought about "biological males playing on girls' sports."
Mr. Vine said that to him, DEI "means simply having a system that's open to everybody, and a system where people, regardless of race or sex or sexual orientation is allowed to have an opportunity and advances based on what their abilities allow them to do." He thought it had been a "great political tool" but had done more to divide people than unite them, and shouldn't be so complicated. About males and girls' sports, he saw it as a non-issue because it's so rare.
Mr. Gaynor said not to forget the "B" in DEIB--belonging. Kids want to belong, and we should be supporting them unconditionally, even if they believe they are transgender. He agreed with Mr. Vine that the issue has become very divisive. He spoke about book banning and how children needed to be reading books about difficult history--book banning is censorship. The sports question is more "challenging," he said, but all students should be able to do what they do well and enjoy. If a girl can kick a 40-yard field goal she should be able to play football; boys should be able to be cheerleaders.
A question about the Town Meeting warrant articles about banning "incinerators" (or "high heat plastic recycling") and COMM97 fill materials led to some raucous input from the audience. All candidates agreed that neither has a place in our community going forward. Ms. Haslam-Giovannucci said she has gone door to door talking to residents affected by the current landfill capping project on River Street, and wrote the proposed Bylaw change that voters will consider at Town Meeting.
The candidates for Town Moderator were asked why they were running and if they believed they could be fair and impartial. Both Mr. LaRochelle and Mr. Ward said they would be completely fair and impartial. Mr. Ward spoke of his long years of experience as a journalist, federal employee and member of boards and committees. Both said it was important for citizens to have their chance to speak at Town Meeting.
All candidates were asked what they would do to motivate people to get more involved in their town government.
All agreed that it was a major challenge and the town needed to work on it. Mr. LaRochelle said he urged people who were unhappy about decisions made by town boards to run for positions, but admitted that "I really can't answer that question."
Mr. Ward said that the Town Meeting quorum of 75 voters was set because it was so hard to get more than that. Town Meeting is "the purest form of democracy" and he fears the town will lose it. "You need to get out and get the folks here. You need to get them to come," he said.
Mr. Vine decried social media as a way of reaching out the public, seeing it as discouraging public engagement because it's so negative and "targets" board and committee members. He suggested getting young people in town more involved, saying there has been legislation filed to allow 16 and 17 year olds to vote in municipal elections. People need to disagree civilly and intelligently, he said. Mr. Gaynor agreed that "this is where democracy thrives, right at the local level," and that understanding history is important. He agreed that kids need to be engaged in political discourse and their communities, and learn that their vote matters.
Ms. Senecal said that she disagreed that people are not participating now. But, she said, people feel that they're not being listened to and their needs aren't being met, especially people with issues that have gone unresolved for years. These people wonder why they should bother. Their concerns should be addressed.
Ms. LaBrie agreed with Mr. Ward, describing efforts to get people to come to Town Meeting to make a quorum so the meeting could start, and praying that the quorum wouldn't be questioned because after people voted on a particular question, they'd leave. She mentioned that a core group of people have been attending BOS meetings, and now two of them are running for seats. She added, "Social media is the bane of our existence. Electronics, this is so good, but it has so torn us apart as a country and as individuals. I would encourage people ideally, run for a position, but just start attending the meetings. Get off your keyboard. Stop being a keyboard warrior."
Ms. Haslam-Giovannucci said that it can be very difficult to attend meetings when you have many other life responsibilities, such as a job, working spouse and children. She also said that many people felt unheard and felt as though their participation didn't matter to the outcome, so why bother. She suggested "leading by example" to show people how they can get involved.
Ms. Newton said that she started by doing something that interested her, and learned more, which drew her into more things. Parks & Rec was always looking for volunteers, just for events. If you're not familiar with how things work in town government, it can be very daunting. She suggested having "one sheets" with all the basic information about what a board or committee does and how to join, that can be given to people on the spot when they express interest in participating. Parks & Rec volunteers responded to the message, "come on, we need you."
There was discussion of reaching out more to the schools, and about hybrid meetings so more people could participate than were able to come to meetings in person.
The forum was running overtime, so the candidates were invited to wrap up with their closing statements.
Mr. LaRochelle said, "I want to let everybody know that if you elect me to Board of Health and I don't get Moderator, you will still get the level of professionalism that you get now. Or if you do elect me Moderator, we're going to have an opening on Board of Health. I think you will all, whether I agree with you or not, you'll get a non biased opinion. I'll be giving you a chance. Yeah, people don't think they're being heard. Maybe the best thing for these people would actually be to get up and speak and get people on their side. You know, when one person is screaming, hollering, nobody else is going to truly come together in a decision, to get those people's back. You know, especially when they don't show up because they think they're not going to matter. But like I said, each of you will be given your time, and we can make it fun."
Mr. Ward said, "I know I can be a totally fair and impartial Moderator...I think I've shown in the past, anybody who's worked on committees with me for different boards, I am totally fair. I am not going to shut anybody down. I'm going to follow the rules. I've already started looking at all the rules on national law, the bylaws, the charter. To be a good town Moderator, you have to know what the articles are all about. And to do that, you have to attend all the public hearings on the articles so you know when there's going to be an article that it's going to be a lot of discussion, whether articles that are going to quickly move through the meeting, because your hope, your job as a Moderator is to take care of that meeting so that everyone gets heard. They have their say, and the meeting moves along at a good pace. So I can guarantee I will do that."
Mr. Vine said, "I'd like to echo what Rick had to say regarding that the library, and all of you who came tonight shows your commitment to the community. I look out in the audience and I see probably a dozen or more people who are probably more qualified to sit on the School Committee than I am, and yet, here I sit. I just felt it was important not to leave things to chance, quite frankly, and having served on the committee before, I felt I had some experience and maybe a little institutional knowledge to bring to to the committee...I can assure you that whenever I served before that I was, with rare exception, always there, always at the meetings and doing what I thought was best for first, the kids of the town and the taxpayers as well."
Mr. Gaynor said, "I consider myself a change agent, a visionary and a leader. I think I have sort of a nice, blended, wealth of experience, both education wise and experience wise. Masters of Public Administration from the University of Pittsburgh, so that gave me a lot of knowledge-based learning on how state and local government was run. I also earned a Masters of Business Administration from UMass Amherst, so I think that would be very valuable having some finance background when it comes to things like contract negotiations with the School Committee, but also more so for the school budget, understanding a line item, what the needs are, what our school needs, and so forth. So we need to approve or disapprove. So I think that's important. I also learned about political science at BU. I had my Master's in education from UMass Boston with a background of history. I'm also a licensed special education teacher. I've been doing that role for about five years now. So I feel like reform efforts for special education students, I have a lot of valuable information that I can use based on my experience as a special educator, some ideas on how we can best serve our students with disabilities, because there are more of them and they need our support. So we need to look at this very, very carefully, how we can best support them with policies and protocols and so forth."
Ms. Newton said, "I just want to state that I am excited to run for Selectman. I am pleased to see so many people that came out tonight....I spent almost an entire year thinking about whether or not I want to run for the Board of Selectmen's coming term, and it's something that I feel that I can do a really good job with. I have municipal experience so I can really understand how towns and municipalities work. I have a good understanding of how Winchendon works, having worked here in this town, but I also am a resident. I've been a resident here my entire life. I feel that I can take my role on the Board of Selectmen and take into consideration what's best for the residents and for the town, and weigh that balance of what's necessary and what is the best decision for our community. I want to see Winchendon continue to grow. I want to see all the great things that I've seen happen here over the last couple of years continue to move forward, not just for myself, but for my children, for the rest of the residents here. I don't have all the answers to everything, but I will say that I'm invested in learning and finding the right answers. Serving on the Charter Bylaw Committee, I actually chose to do so because I knew that it would be extremely beneficial for me in my role as a Board of Selectmen member...We have to follow the Charter. And so if things need to be changed or want to be changed, that's where it's going to start, not sitting on the Board of Selectmen. So I felt it was important to really take a good look at that document before sitting on the Board of Selectmen. And I hope that you all feel that I would do this job justice, and I'm happy to answer any additional questions, if anybody has any after this meeting or any time before the election. But it's not about the winning as much as I feel I would do a good job."
Ms. Senecal said, "I want to take more of a global view of how I see things happening. And one of the questions I have is, how do we recover from this downturn and turn to prosper. First of all, I feel we need to communicate effectively and collaborate with residents and other boards. We need a mechanism for listening and responding to issues and questions. Failure to do this creates great dissatisfaction and distrust and causes residents to disengage. That's a critical failure. We need the residents involved and not disengaged. Boards need to be responsive to issues brought before them, to facilitate what is best for the community and not to be promoting our personal agenda. Secondly, we need to court big companies to come here to increase our tax base. We can promote good businesses with careful zoning and not be targeted with cheap land and low voter engagement. Lastly, I'm dedicated to our community and preserving our quality of life through open spaces and prosperity for us all."
Ms. LaBrie said, "When you consider me for a candidate as how you feel I've done for the past 10 years, multiple of those years as Chair of the Board. These other three non-incumbent ladies come in without that baggage, depending if you feel I have done a bad job or without that boost. If you feel that I've done a good job, all I will say is, for the past 10 years and since, I've been back in 1995 but particularly in the past 10 years, I've been here for the town. I've given my best to the town. Sometimes that has gone short in the eyes of some of these citizens, and that's how it is, and I accept that. So all I want to say is I appreciate the boosters, but I also recognize those who may consider baggage."
Ms. Haslam-Giovannucci said, "I would like to thank the moderator, the library for hosting this event, and mostly all of you for coming. This really makes my heart smile to see so many residents involved and really caring about our community and coming out and showing our support. So thank you. So I'm very committed to this work. I would like to continue doing it in a different capacity, which is why I'm running for the Board of Selectmen. I really enjoy collaborating and hearing other people's perspectives and ideas. I have reached out to a lot of businesses and asked them some questions and I'm hoping to get their involvement. So I'm really excited about that, and they seem excited too. So I'm hoping to get more residents involved in that way. I believe in working within the guidelines of our charter, our state laws, bylaws, and I, within respect and action, I'm a very action orientated person. When I hear something, I want it done and resolved. So with your support and partnership, there's no limit to what we can accomplish together. Thank you for your consideration and collective, I look forward to representing you, and your voices will be heard."
The moderator thanked the panel of candidates and the audience, and asked everyone present to go to the polls and Town Meeting and vote their individual conscience.
Final Override Info Session Answers Many Questions
From left, Robert Heckman, Manuel King, Shaina Cunningham, Brian Croteau, Bill McKinney, Chief Tom Smith, Chief Dan Wolsky, Miranda Jennings, Dr. Marc Gosselin.
Photo copyright Town of Winchendon
The eleventh and final Proposition 2-1/2 override info session was convened in the Town Hall Auditorium on Wednesday, April 30, with about 35 residents in attendance. The session was recorded and livestreamed on WinchendonTV, and the recording may be watched at https://winchendon.cablecast.tv/CablecastPublicSite/show/236?site=1%C2%A0%C2%A0.
As in previous sessions, the panel of department heads included Beals Memorial Library Director Manuel King, Community Outreach Coordinator Shaina Cunningham, Department of Public Works Director Brian Croteau, Fire Chief Tom Smith, Police Chief Dan Wolski, Senior Center Director Miranda Jennings, and Superintendant of Schools Dr. Marc Gosselin. The session was facilitated by Town Manager Bill McKinney. This session also included tax assessor Robert Heckman from the Town Assessor's office, to offer insights on the tax assessments and tax levy.
The session was more formal than earlier ones, with the panel sitting at the tables in front of the room and audience members asked to come to the microphones with their questions, so that all dialogue would be clear on the live broadcast and recording. While some of the attendees have been at most or all of the sessions, many were new faces to the panel.
It was evident that ten sessions of answering questions had enabled all the panelists to sharpen their answers and provide clarity and depth, as well as anticipating specific topics. With this being the department heads' last opportunity to reach out to residents, Mr. McKinney allowed each panelist, and each resident who came to the mic, ample time. The session was by far the longest, clocking in at more than 2-1/2 hours.
Mr. McKinney began by explaining the financial situation and why the override was needed. He provided a couple of updates: the town will be switching from Blue Cross to Harvard Pilgrim for health insurance, reducing the 16.4 percent increase to between 9 and 10 percent. The school busing will increase only 12 percent instead of its initial 24 percent increase, but will go up 6 percent each year. Mr. McKinney also mentioned the millions of dollars in grant money the town has gotten for capital projects, and the generosity of the Robinson Broadhurst Foundation. "So the town really kind of punches above its weight as far as the value you get, because we get a lot of money that gets spent on behalf of the town that does not come from property taxes," he said.
Ms. Jennings explained in detail what would happen to the Senior Center if the override failed. Ms. Cunningham is DTA certified and can directly register people for SNAP benefits. Her position would be eliminated and none of the services she provides would be offered. Because the transportation the Senior Center offers would be cut far back, seniors couldn't easily get to other towns for services. Potentially the CAC would be impacted, as well. There would be some services but longer wait times.
Mr. McKinney invited each department head to explain what the cuts would mean for them without an override.
Dr. Gosselin said that they would cut the athletic program, which "crushes me" because he was an athlete and a coach. The schools also need updating to meet current standards for safety against an active shooter event. The entrances need to be refitted with double doors that automatically lock so anyone entering will be stopped and evaluated before they're buzzed inside the building. This would have to be postponed. Teacher salaries are about 85 percent of the school budget, so teacher layoffs would be likely. "The district has undergone years and years of cuts, so a lot of the easy to cut stuff is already gone, even, as you know, going into this current year, I've reduced three administrative positions to try to claw back some of that money, but it's still not enough."
An attendee asked if the schools could write grants for things like the safety modifications, but Dr. Gosselin said the grants are no longer there. The district gets some $8 million in grant money, from the federal government, the state, trusts, Robinson Broadhurst, but grants have to be applied to very specific things.
School Committee Chair Karen Kast came forward to point out that for every student that school choices out of the district, Winchendon gets a double hit. The state reduces what it gives the district in Chapter 70, and at the same time, Winchendon has to pay tuition to the district the student goes to.
Ms. Jennings spoke more about closing the Senior Center--the historical building would be closed, the commercial kitchen and all the indoor spaces could not be used. She explained that a lot of the Center's activities are grant funded. The town budgets about half of the actual cost of heating the building. They've just gotten a grant to install some heat pumps to save on heating costs. All the various programs cost about $16,000 a year but only $2,000 comes from the Senior Center budget. The rest is paid for by donations and grants. "We're trying to offer a lot and save as much as we can and put as little on the taxpayers as possible, through grant writing and the donations and things like that," she said.
Ms. Cunningham, speaking for the Parks & Recreation department which will be entirely shut down, explained that the department has a very small budget. "Essentially all the programming that we do is funded through the Robinson Broadhurst Foundation, Mass Cultural Council grants and the North Central Mass Community Foundation, in addition to a host of sponsorships that we have. We are developing partnerships across the community with local businesses and community members, really collaborating with the community and trying to create programming that is really informed by the residents and for the residents," she said. She said the amphitheater was designed to be revenue-generating and help put Winchendon on the map.
Mr. King explained that the library has no budget line item for programming. Everything the library does comes from fund-raising by the Friends of the Library, and multiple grants they get throughout the year. The two-year Autism Inclusion grant comes from the American Library Association. The town, Robinson Broadhust, and the library's trust funds have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into the building. If the building closes, all that will be wasted.
Mr. Heckman said, "The assessed [property] values don't necessarily have an effect on the override. The assessed values do not contribute to the levy. It's setting the tax rate because we can only tax two and a half percent under prop two and a half and the additional new growth revenue that we get from the town. For anyone who's not sure what new growth is, new growth is anything new to the town that can be considered taxable. So something like construction for a property, or a large addition on a home, new commercial buildings or buildings that are restored, anything large that we can add on to increase the tax revenue for the town."
While their departments are not facing complete shut-downs, Mr. Croteau, Chief Smith and Chief Wolski went into detail about the challenges the budget cuts create for them, including with the skyrocketing costs of materials such as salt for the roads, and the problems with recruiting and keeping qualified staff and crew when Winchendon's salaries are lower than average and pay raises are uncertain.
Mr. Heckman said, "I just want to address how the override would have an effect in regards to the assessed values of the homes. So say the override was not passed, that theoretically could have a negative impact on taxpayers' values, because, due to everything being based off of the sale market, if Winchendon becomes a less desirable place to live, in turn, it could have an effect on values to drop, businesses to not want to come in, people not wanting to be involved in the school system, which could all have a negative impact, in the sense of the community and the assessed value. Now you could look at that and say, well, if my value drops, then my taxes are going to drop, and they very well might, but you're also going to lose the equity in your home, and the effect that the assessed values and the taxes from them contribute to your overall well-being of living in town."
Dr. Gosselin pointed out that state and federal grants still come out of tax dollars, so residents are still paying for them indirectly. Foundations like Robinson Broadhurst don't want recipients to depend on them. "They want to be the icing on the cake, but not the cake," he said. Many grants also have a matching component; recipients have to come up with some of the project money themselves and then the grant will pay for the rest.
Numerous members of the audience came forward to speak at some length, and ask probing questions of the department heads. Most of them had spent some time and effort on looking for alternative ways to fund the three departments slated for closure, or spreading the cuts more equitably. One resident asked about wage freezes or even whether existing staff should take a cut in pay--"take one for the team," as she said.
Several department heads again tried to debunk the idea circulating around that all the department heads will be getting "large raises." Several people asked about the "Town Manager's Reserve" line item with $250,000, which Mr. McKinney says must be kept for negotiating on union contracts. But no negotiations have occurred yet, and most department head salaries are level-funded in the $1.9 million override budget, with no increase at all.
There was discussion of the need for bringing businesses into town, for economic development, for supporting the new businesses that have opened just in the last few months, and dealing with derelict and blighted properties in town.
Mr. McKinney emphasized again that only one of the two override amounts will be adopted. If both amounts pass, only the $2.9 million override will take effect, and the $1.9 million vote is void. They won't be added together. If people are in favor of the higher override, however, they should be sure to vote for both amounts, so that both have a chance of passing.
With all questions finished, Mr. McKinney thanked everyone. "Everyone who's interacted with everybody up here and the employees that work with them, has seen how passionate everyone is for the town. You drive around town during a snowstorm, those streets are clean. You go into the next town, I can tell where the border is between here and Templeton or here and Gardner, because I go over and whoa--not to bash them. But I just see the passion, I see the the dedication that everyone has, all the employees, all the residents, it's really about working together. I can't advocate one way or the other. I can only put the facts out there. But I really hope that people see what the impact will be, and that we want to continue the forward momentum that we have, because it's a great town, and I want to continue working with everybody up here to keep it moving forward."