Writing about Lancaster, Massachusetts

  The Capital Group's "Master Plan" specifically promised the town these parcels would become a "34,000 square foot industrial building" and "7,300 square foot retail building" if new zoning was approved.   It seems that will join the growing list of broken promises, as the actual owner of the properties has placed them on the market.    Because the 40R district was approved, one of the is now eligible for by-right high density housing at more than 20 units/acre: Cadette & Nadreau, the actual owners, were not party to the "Memorandum of Agreement."

  Generated by DALL-E 2 ai At the Tax Hearing on Monday the Lancaster Select Board reviewed estimates that would levy $24,076,641 for FY2024 -- $340K more than the FY24 budget implied in May.  This is a substantial increase in the levy, and will bring Lancaster within $7K of it's new levy limit despite a $1.2 million levy limit override.

Dickinson turned on a resident during a formal hearing to quote the villain in "Gladiator."    Rule of thumb: if you're angry and find yourself about to quote a villain...count to twenty.

  If you've received a real estate tax bill in Lancaster, you've seen a box at the top:  "VOLUNTARY CHECK OFF FOR CONTRIBUTION TO ELDERLY AND DISABLED."    And if you're like me, you've never heard another word about this fund and have no idea what it is does. 

  Adobe Firefly AI:  "Illustration of a leaking heating oil tank in a basement" Have you been thinking about adding coverage for a heating oil leak to your homeowners policy?   I went through the process this fall and wrote up my experience.  If you've been wondering what you'll need or what it will cost, maybe this will help you.

  Adobe Firefly AI:  "Smokestacks against a gray sky" An update to Lancaster's page on the Colonial Power website shows that Lancaster's electric aggregation program has contracted for a rate of 15.1 cents per kWh for two years, beginning this December.   The supply contract includes the state-minimum 57% energy from renewable sources.   Harvard recently announced it's own 2-year contract, offering a lower rate with 100% from renewable sources.

  Adobe Firefire AI: "Wind Turbines Against  A Blue Sky" Lancaster's Community Choice Aggregation Program will soon have to sign a new contract for electric supply after December, but the town hasn't released any information yet.   Harvard's program just announced a new 2-year contract:  they have locked in 14.841 cents/kWh for two years.    Even better, 100% of that power will come from renewable sources.   

      On 10/16 the Select Board briefly looked at the results of a survey about Annual Town Meeting day and times; residents seem to prefer our current Annual Meeting day and time.

    By Adobe Firefly AI:  "A Puzzled Man" According to the "resignation" filed by Steve Kerrigan, Heather Lennon resigned to him a full day before he even spoke to her.   The date on his memo, the stamp and his notation say that he spoke to Heather Lennon a full day before he actually did.

    By Adobe Firefly AI: "Decisions Being Made In A Dark Smokey Room" Steve Kerrigan clearly bit off more than he could chew when he attempted to force Heather Lennon off the Historical Commission.  Heather is a long-time member and the current chair of the Lancaster Historical Commission:  for the past two months Select Board Chair Steve Kerrigan has been spearheading a one-man campaign to remove her, including attempting to "file a resignation" on her behalf.  No town volunteer should have to endure this nonsense -- and the town shouldn't have to pay for this.  It should have been resolved two months ago when it started, and it needs to end this evening.  

  All three Nashoba District towns have now passed a debt exclusion to allow them to pay their shares of the debt for the high school project.   Like at the special town meeting last Monday, Lancaster's voter participation was conspicuously low: 16% versus 25 and 29% in Bolton and Stow.

Although 75% of Lancaster's voters at the special town meeting supported the school project, only 6% of the towns voters attended, half of the 11% in Stow and 12% in Bolton. In Stow's special election on Saturday, only 56% of voters supported the debt exemption -- a big drop in support from the 74% who supported the project at their Special Town Meeting .

National Grid announced that their default supplier rate will be 18.213 cents/kWh for November through June.   Lancaster has yet to announce the new rate for the Municipal Aggregation Program: the current contract expires in December.  The pressure is on: the Aggregation Program rate has actually been more expensive than the National Grid default supplier for 13 of the last 18 months.

Image generated by Adobe Firefly AI: "Dollar Signs Flying Around A High School" Interested in seeing an estimate of how the proposed high school project borrowing might change the taxes you pay in the future?  (Or are you just wondering what your FY2024 taxes will look like?)   This interactive spreadsheet will show you the actual tax history of your property since FY2010, plus a couple interesting estimates about the future.

"Auditor" Joshua Abrams, from his YouTube video A couple of "First Amendment Auditors" made their way to Lancaster; they failed to provoke anything sensational, and produced a pretty dull 45 minute recording of a beautiful Prescott building staffed with friendly people.

AI Generated Image ( midjourney.com ), prompt "Municipal Hammer of Justice"  On August 1st, the Attorney General's Office determined that Lancaster must release it's FY2023 tax abatement records and ordered the town to respond within 10 business days.  The Attorney General's Office has now had to issue 8 orders for the town to comply with the law since Town Administrator Kate Hodges start last year.

Orginal image made by the " Midjourney AI ."   Prompt "A bureaucrat at a desk in swirling chaos" After last years "Quinquennial Revaluation" led to some puzzling property valuations around town, many homeowners in Lancaster requested abatements.  How many, and how much was ultimately abated?  The town is required to maintain and share public records of approved abatements; I've spent 45 days  trying to get a copy of them.

An image from the original comprehensive permit application by Crescent Builders   Sale on May 15th puts the developer in control of the parcel where he was approved to build two large 40B projects in 2019.

Photo by Randy Laybourne on Unsplash   FACT CHECK:   The town's post today is wrong --  the town definitely could use ARPA funds to balance this years budget: "revenue replacement" is an allowed use, and towns can claim a standard allowance for revenue replacement, without any need to show a loss, of up to $10 million.  The Treasury's standard allowance for "revenue replacement" made the town's entire ARPA award available for this purpose in early 2022.  Other towns have already used their ARPA funds this way.  If the budget was formulated around this critical misunderstanding, maybe we SHOULD take a step back and look at it again.  The latest in the Town's "Two Facts and a Fib" series is incorrect.

  Photo by Chris Arthur-Collins on Unsplash   "This is the moderator's meeting, his rules, knowing full well that it is on the ballot five days later, he made the decision as is his right, to not vote on an item because it's going to be voted on by a larger group of people, arguably, five days later."  - Steve Kerrigan, 4/19/2023 

  Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash "No-excuse early voting-by-mail" became a permanent voting option for everyone in Massachusetts after the pandemic.  It works well!   You do have to sign-up once a year, so even if you signed up last year don't forget to sign up again for this year.

                                      Social media has been a pitfall for Lancaster officials in the recent past.  Last July, Select Board Member Jason Allison found himself the target of questions after pulling the town administrator and Planning Board in a Facebook argument in which he desired to be declared "right."

  Photo by regularguy.eth on Unsplash Since 2021 the Town of Lancaster has paid $17,000/year for use of OpenGov's budgeting and planning package .   It has never been implemented, and at the moment there's no intention to ever use it.  The town has a three year contract with OpenGov that will end next June.  

  Photo by Amy Elting on Unsplash    National Grid announced their summer electric-supply rate yesterday, for the six months starting in May.  The supply rate for residential customers will drop to 14.2 cents/kWh.  On the other hand, if you're a member of Lancaster's Municipal Aggregation program you'll pay 29.984 cents/kWh for supply through June.    After that, you'll pay a 14.781 cent/kWh supply rate into December.   Boston Globe:  National Grid has Good News About Electricity Rates Typically Municipal Aggregation programs are able to offer savings over the National Grid default supplier:  National Grid ostensibly doesn't make any profit on supply, but the state requires them to sign new contracts every six months.    Municipal Aggregation programs have the flexibility to sign much longer contracts:  from 2019-2021 Lancaster benefited from a three year contract at 9.978 cents/kWh cut bills a bit. It's been tough sledding for the Municipal Aggregation program

This all refers to the updated "Lancaster FY2024 Budget Book" released on Monday, March 6th. ( LINK )    The FY2024 budget book and executive summary suggest that the town approve an override to increase the FY2024 levy limit by $1.3 million.   One of the estimates in that budget is the FY2024 levy limit: a component of that limit is an adjustment for "New Growth", and the value currently used as a placeholder would be 33% lower than the lowest adjustment in the past 20 years.     Because of that very conservative estimate, the budget may be underestimating the FY2024 levy limit and overstating the override needed for the FY2024 budget. The calculation for the levy limit in the current fiscal year is included on page 135 of the budget book: The town's levy limit is increased 2.5% each year.  The "new growth" adjustment is added to that:  the town calculates the assessment it would have collected from the increase in the town's tax base from new co

  Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash The town released an updated "FY2024 Budget Book" on Monday, March 6th.   It corrected some of the resident-reported errors that were found in the March 3rd version.  ( LINK )    The final page of the budget book is a projection of next year's tax rate, and the impact on our real estate taxes of a budget that anticipates approval of a $1.3 million levy limit override.  The projection shows an $18.20 per $1,000 tax rate,  up from $17.19 this year.    According to the "executive summary" this is meant to show the "Estimated New Tax Liability,"  but if that's the case it's a miscalculation. The new "3/6 Version" of the budget book seems to show the proposed FY2024 tax levy on page 34.  There are two lines listing levy amounts: "Real Estate & Property Tax INSIDE"   $21,779,615   (an increase of $766,480 over FY2023)  That seems to reflect last year's maximum allowed levy -- $21,

Photo by Mr Cup / Fabien Barral on Unsplash   According to several articles over the weekend, Lancaster Select Board Chair Steve Kerrigan is a frontrunner to chair the Massachusetts Democratic Party, when the current chair leaves his seat on April 24th.   According to the articles, he has the support of Governor Maura Healey and the outgoing chair. Article on Politico.com Boston Herald Article Globe Article Lancaster has had links to the Massachusetts Republican Party recently as well: current Lancaster Finance Committee chair Susan Smiley served as a member of their State Committee for a number of years.

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash In response to a public records request, the town has placed all the FY2023 applications for Community Preservation Act (CPA) funds online.  Link:   Lancaster FY2023 CPA Proposals * 4PM Update:  there was one more application, from the Library, that the town was having some trouble uploading.  It may be on the website shortly, but in the meantime here's a download link.   It's over 100MB.  (I guess if you ask library professionals for paperwork, you shouldn't be surprised when you receive a book.)  Link to the library application. These are all the applications that were received for FY2023: they may or may not receive funding in the end. CPA funds can be directed towards "open space, historic preservation, affordable housing, and outdoor recreational facilities." Lancaster adopted the Community Preservation Act in 2020 and we started collecting the "CPA surcharge" with our tax bills in July, 2021.   As we adopted i