{"id":96443,"date":"2024-05-30T14:15:10","date_gmt":"2024-05-30T14:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelandmark.com\/?p=96443"},"modified":"2024-05-30T14:15:10","modified_gmt":"2024-05-30T14:15:10","slug":"rutland-approves-firetruck-cpa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/2024\/05\/30\/rutland-approves-firetruck-cpa\/","title":{"rendered":"Rutland approves firetruck, CPA"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Ken Cleveland<\/em>
\nLandmark Correspondent<\/em><\/div>\n

RUTLAND \u2014 Voters spent part of their day on Saturday, May 11, taking care of business.<\/p>\n

Gathered at the Glenwood Elementary School for the annual town meeting, voters passed budgets and other spending articles.<\/p>\n

One major appropriation funded a new ladder truck for the Fire Department (which needed a two-thirds vote, passing 100-32), a borrowing of $1,850,000. That was passed contingent on the Proposition 2\u00bd debt exclusion included on the May 13 town election ballot, where it passed by a vote of 615-442.<\/p>\n

Fire Chief Seth Knipe said the current truck, which is 25 years old, has been out of service for 147 days of the last 18 months, costing an average $30,000 a year in repairs and using 85% of the maintenance budget.<\/p>\n

The ladder truck scores fire rating points, Knipe said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it is not replaced, Rutland\u2019s rating would go from 4 to 5, an average 7.5% increase in homeowners insurance.\u201d<\/p>\n

The cost for the truck would cost the average homeowner approximately $55 annually and decrease going forward. If insurance goes up, it would be $75 or greater based on the value of each home, he said.<\/p>\n

The truck is expected to be delivered in about two years, Select Board member Harry Sechman said.<\/p>\n

Extensive discussion on the proposed Community Preservation Act resulted in a vote of 73-33, passing the tax surcharge, to be supplemented by a state contribution. That includes setting aside funds to preserve open space, historic sites, create affordable housing and fund outdoor recreation spaces.<\/p>\n

The CPA surcharge voted is 3%, with some exemptions including the first $100,000 of property value and for low-income residents. The surcharge would be effective July 1, 2020, contingent on passage at the Nov. 5, 2024, election. It would cost about $145 annually for average town homeowner assessment, Jennifer Leger said in a presentation.<\/p>\n

State matching funds are provided; with a 3% level, Rutland would be eligible for the maximum, up to 100% match of the town\u2019s funds.<\/p>\n

The local surcharge would have been about $469,363 this year, Leger said, with $140,809 match at 30%; the higher matching percentage would increase the state contribution substantially.<\/p>\n

\u201cRutland residents ultimately decide what projects to fund,\u201d Leger said.<\/p>\n

Budgets<\/strong><\/p>\n

The town appropriated funding for municipal departments was set at $11,490,780, approving the article 102-20.<\/p>\n

Separate schools budgets funded the Wachusett Regional School District assessment of $16,555,122 (91-41) and the Southern Worcester County Regional Vocational School assessment of $790,635 (117-15).<\/p>\n

The three major budgets passed in a matter of minutes, with School Committee member Sherrie Haber explaining the Wachusett district assessment and cooperation between town and school.<\/p>\n

Voters also approved operating funds for the water and sewer department of $3,019,958 funded by revenue for the department (104-20).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ken Cleveland Landmark Correspondent RUTLAND \u2014 Voters spent part of their day on Saturday, May 11, taking care of business. Gathered at the Glenwood Elementary School for the annual town meeting, voters passed budgets and other spending articles. One major appropriation funded a new ladder truck for the Fire Department (which needed a two-thirds […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":96545,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}