Notes and Summary from December 17 Select Board Meeting

Many parents of children in the Stoneham Schools Spoke and the board completed their regularly scheduled business.

Although the board can not respond to the public comment, it was clear that having concerned citizens present had an impact on the board. The board also shared several comments that seemed to be aimed at the concern over the budget.

The major themes were:

The budget is a huge, town-wide issue that is having a detrimental impact on every department in the Town, and will have a huge impact on the town's ability to provide all necessary services (Police, Fire, Maintenance, Water, Sewer, Schools)

The cost of all necessary services have gone up at a rate much higher than the rate of revenue increase.

The budget deficit is not the result of mismanagement, but the cost of providing services and goods the towns need going up more than the revenue have gone up.

A member of the Select board expressed frustration at the fact that Stoneham was required to allow building of significant residential dwellings based on the square miles of the town, without an exclusion for the DCR land that can't be used for town revenue.

A member of the Select board also expressed frustration at the fact that Stoneham has a reputation of being "anti-business" when the Select board actively tries to foster business growth in the town (no specifics of how this reputation came about, or the efforts by the boad to support businesses was given).

There is hope among members of the board that in the future, efforts made by the town to develop the downtown and develop parts of Montvale will bring more businesses in, allow them to prosper, and allow for greater business revenue in Stoneham to help in future budgets.

There seems to be an acceptance among the select board that an Override is necessary to help Stoneham overcome the budget deficit and provide the necessary services to the town.