Doing my first monthly selectman office hours at The Center. Fun to see The Center activity mushroom after 9 AM. Big benefit for early visitors is the huge selection of day old pastries from Blue Moon and Donut Express, two of my favorite places.
Roberta Lynch has slotted my office hours in monthly on the first Friday of the month from 9:00 to 10:00.
Comments Off on Selectman hours at The Center
Posted in Uncategorized
Patch is reporting the sale and closing of Lord’s, the store that sold everything and that gladly handled the sale of tickets for all the local community events.
The Lord’s store property appears to have been purchased by the same company that is exploring siting a Starbucks at the old Mobil gas station site next to the Town House.
The deed, which was recorded at the Norfolk Registry of Deeds on 12/31/12, lists the buyer as an LLC named for the street address. It is common for attorneys to recommend a separate LLC for each property owned. However, the required mailing address for that LLC is the same office address as Salvatore Capital Partners, LLC and GJS Management, LLC, 858 Washington Street, Suite 309, Dedham, MA 02026, which is the entity working on the Starbucks deal.
When Nancy Kelly-Lavin told me of the sale a couple of days ago (she asked me not to say anything, but where Nancy has given the story to Patch, I have been released) , she said that the buyer had not said what they intended for the site. However, the Salvatore Capital Partners, LLC website lists the firm’s clients, three or four of which struck this reader as possible candidates: Bertucci’s, Trader Joe’s, Eastern Bank, and/or Walgreens.
Massachusetts deeds are required to list the full consideration, and this one says the property sold for $1,725,000. The deed says the premises contains about 38,615 sq. ft., slightly less than an acre.
I hope the Medfield Memorial Library parking that the Kelly’s have graciously been providing at the back of their lot gets continued.
I also hope that the Kelly family enjoys the accolades that are sure to come their way in the next couple of months, for having been such a huge part of the recent history of the Town of Medfield. As I told Nancy this week, Mr. Kelly was the perfect retailer, whose smile and compelling nature always made you feel welcome. Nancy and Tom have well maintained what Mr. Kelly originally sowed, but it was all of we residents who reaped the substantial harvest that has been having Lord’s in our downtown.
Mrs. Kelly, Tom, and Nancy – we recognize that change happens, and we wish you all well in your new endeavors, but please know that we will miss you and Lord’s terribly. I thank you for all the many things that you have done for the Town of Medfield.
Interesting and long discussion with Mike Sullivan yesterday afternoon, when I called to see what the Board of Selectmen was going to do about having missed our meeting on the first Tuesday of January – we will probably add a meeting on at the end of the month, given our need to review budgets.
I also suggested that we have department heads plan to give the Board of Selectmen and the town seminars and/or reports on topics of interest, such as (1) proper staffing levels for town departments, and (2) how to maintain the roads for the longest time at the least cost. The Massachusetts Municipal Association recently prodded the legislature to spend more on Chap. 90 highway maintenance by pointing out that something like each dollar spent on maintenance postpones five dollars of repairs and/or replacements of roads. I thought the town would like to know why we grind down and patch sections of roads and use stone seal, versus just re-paving.
That lead to discussions of Rte. 109 and 27 being state numbered roads, but not actually state highways. The distinction is that we own the cost to repair them. Rte. 27 is the super wide drag strip that it is on the North side of town because of former highway superintendent, Billy McCarthy, who liked wide roads and convinced the state to pay to build it that way. Mike thought it may have been an early iteration (before I-495) of plans for an outer circumferential highway.
North Street by the Memorial School is as wide as it is because Billy McCarthy liked to have wide rights of ways. Up further, the North Street right of way goes behind the houses on the railroad side of North Street up where Farm Street takes off, because years ago a property owner in the area named Cheney objected to the Norfolk Hunt Club riding over his land. Next thing he knew, a right of way for North Street was taken by the state across the Cheney (and all of his neighbors’) land, and the Norfolk Hunt Club was then connected to its fields at what is called the racecourse. The racecourse land is the old Medfield Golf Course.
Governor Sargent, a Dover resident, had a main Dover street coming in from Chestnut Street in Needham declared a state roadway, thus making the state liable for all the repairs. However, Mike says that it was eventually de-listed by the state, and now Dover is again responsible.
Mike is giving his annual seminar on municipal budgeting to the Warrant Committee this coming Saturday morning, starting at 8 AM.
Comments Off on Road stories
Posted in Budgets, Transportation
The Lincoln Institute publishes an on-line magazine called Land Lines, and this month it has an article on Boston’s experience implementing PILOT’s for non-profits. Boston only ask non-profits with over $15 m. in real estate to pay, and the article says they use the following formula to determine the amount of the ask –
======================
“Determining PILOT Payments
Many alternatives were considered for the basis of PILOT contributions, including a per-student or per-hospital-bed fee, or a charge based on the amount of land or building area. The Task Force determined that a charge driven by the assessed value of the institutions—reflecting size and quality of real estate holdings—would result in the most equity. There was a general consensus that nonprofits should contribute some amount toward their consumption of essential services such as police and fire protection, as well as public works such as street cleaning and snow removal. These services consume approximately 25 percent of Boston’s budget, and the Task Force found that a PILOT equal to 25 percent of an institution’s fully taxable amount was reasonable.
Credit for Community Benefits
The public benefit provided by nonprofit institutions was a major focus of the Task Force, which recommended that institutions receive up to a 50 percent credit on their PILOT in exchange for community benefits. This credit recognized the significant inkind contributions made by nonprofit institutions that directly benefit Boston residents. The credit was limited to 50 percent of the PILOT amount to ensure significant cash contributions from each institution. However, the Task Force felt that if an exceptional opportunity for a program or service were available, the 50 percent cap could be exceeded at the city’s discretion.
While the Task Force did not offer detailed specifics on the services that were eligible for PILOT credit, it did provide general guidance on the types of services that should qualify. To be eligible, community services must directly benefit City of Boston residents, support the city’s mission and priorities, offer ways for the city and nonprofit to collaborate to meet shared goals, and be quantifiable.”
Comments Off on PILOT
Posted in Budgets
Medfield Select Board member
I started this blog to share the interesting and useful information that I saw while doing my job as a Medfield select board member. I thought that my fellow Medfield residents would also find that information interesting and useful as well. This blog is my effort to assist in creating a system to push the information out from the Town House to residents. Let me know if you have any thoughts on how it can be done better.
For information on my other job as an attorney (personal injury, civil litigation, estate planning and administration, and real estate), please feel free to contact me at 617-969-1500 or Osler.Peterson@OslerPeterson.com.
 | Lester Cohen on Town’s Buildings Require… |
 | Select Board member… on Black Out at Budget Works… |
| Lester Cohen on Black Out at Budget Works… |
 | The Sullivans on Thank you Linda Thompson! |
 | cherryblossomcasuall… on Roundabouts both safer & b… |
Medfield02052's Blog 