Important to Bridgewater
October 31, 2003
Bridgewater
Raynham
Easton
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Massachusetts
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Joseph Gillis Jr.
You can do something!
It has been brought up before, and needs to be discussed - is having a golf course owned by the town important and essential to the town? Also, in difficult financial times, we must also review other areas within the town budget that may need funding reductions or complete funding eliminations. As far as I am concerned, the Recreation Department is not an essential service of the town. There are many recreational opportunities already offered within the town, and it does not make sense to keep reducing staffing levels at the Fire and Police Departments while maintaining funding for Recreation.
(a) Have the golf course listed with an agent, with the goal to sell for more than is still owed on the bonds. Make sure that there are restrictions on the buyer whereby the town would have 'first right of refusal' should the owner later desire to sell, and also to prohibit the conversion of the land to house construction. Bridgewater took out a $5M bond for the golf course, so if we use that $5M as a value (and it is probably low), then a private owner would provide $55k to the town in property taxes. That $55k would bring back one firefighter, with a few dollars to spare.
(b) For fiscal year 2004, Bridgewater voted to fund Recreation for about $160k. That amount of money would probably allow us to bring three firefighters to our Fire Department. Require the baseball leagues and all of the rest of the groups to pay enough to make the Recreation Department self-sustaining.
These two changes should allow us to re-open full-time the infrequently used Fire Station 2, and provide the fire and medical support we need, and voted for when we voted for the Station's construction.
