On being a selectman

Selectman work this week –

• sent the Board of Health an article from the Massachusetts Municipal Association’s monthly magazine, the Municipal Bulletin, on town’s enacting regulations to control marijuana use based on the existing tobacco regulation , and the Massachusetts Municipal Association’s sample regulations (e.g. – no use at schools and public buildings).
• attended the Medfield Historic District Commission’s inspection of the Medfield State Hospital buildings and subsequest meeting to learn their thinking about possible demolition of the buildings beyond repair
• attended the Medfield State Hospital Advisory Committee’s meeting – lots happening while they are awaiting DCAMM’s “sunk costs” dollar figure, which will be the starting point to discuss the town purchase of the Medfield State Hospital site.  The town purchase will assure the town gets future uses it wants.
• long selectman meeting Tuesday evening, as the BoS heard from many groups/committees dealing with issues related to the downtown.   Exciting to hear about the Cultural District, the box art that Jean Mineo is doing, and the signs around town that are all better because of the work of Matt McCormack, Jeff Hyman, and the rest of the Sign Committee – I especially liked that changes they made at the signs at Rockland Trust, Starbucks, and the Shaw’s Plaza.
• discovered and sent to Mike Sullivan, fellow selectmen, and Gus Murby the Mass Taxpayers Foundation’s report on the Other Post-Employment Benefits (OPED) problem.  Like all other towns, Medfield has a large OPEB liability, ou’s is an estimated $39 m. unfunded obligation to our current and future retired town employees for health insurance.  The town is soon to get an update on our every two year actuarial report from our consultant, and the state is also looking at legislation to try to resolve/ameliorate the problem.  The town started this budget year to fund our OPEB liability with $300,000, but the OPEB amount is projected to increase at $1.5 m. per year, so we are still getting behind.  More study is needed as to how to deal with OPEB, and more will happen when we get the actuarial update and the see what the state does.