Category Archives: Uncategorized

Andrew Sullivan and John Powers becoming Eagle Scouts Sunday afternoon, with their families.

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.

Article from the email newsletter I get from Massachusetts Department of Revenue –

Average Single-Family Tax Bill Rose $174 or 3.8 Percent in FY12
Bob Bliss – Director of Strategic Planning and Worcester and Springfield Office Manager

The average single-family tax bill in FY12 increased $174 or 3.8 percent in FY12, an increase in line with recent average increases of less than 4 percent, according to the Municipal Data Bank. The increase in average single-family tax bills is largely a reflection of Proposition 2 1/2, which allows for an overall annual tax levy increase of 2.5 percent plus new growth.

The average value of a single-family home in Massachusetts in FY12 was $358,687, and the average property tax paid was $4,711. For FY11, the average value was $361,629, and the average property tax paid was $4,537. For FY10, the average value was $373,702 and the average property tax paid was $4,390. For FY09, the average value was $391,762 and the average property tax paid was $4,250. For FY08, the average value was $403,705 and the average property tax paid was $4,110. For FY07, the average value was $406,673 and the average property tax paid was $3,962.

The decline in the average property value of single-family homes in Massachusetts since 2007 is due to the decline in home values resulting from the 2008 banking industry crisis and the ensuing Great Recession. Since FY2007, the average value of a single-family home in Massachusetts has declined 12 percent. During that same period, the average single-family home property tax has risen 19 percent.

Despite the decline in the average single-family home property value since FY2007, for the 10 years between FY2002 and FY2012, the average value has increased 52 percent, from $236,229 in FY02 to $358,687 in FY12. In that same period, the average single-family tax bill has increased 56 percent from $3,015 in FY02 to $4,711 in FY12.

The drop in the average value of a single-family home of $2,942 from FY11 to FY12 is the smallest since values began their decline in FY2007, indicating that home values have started to stabilize.

Here is the calendar of events for Medfeild Green this year, from its website  –

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This is a post on solar PV activity in town from my email yesterday on the Medfield Green (well worth joining – really active group) listserv –

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Evan Weisenfeld succeeded Stephen Phillips to become the third president of the Medfield Foundation at a meeting at the Town House last night.  Stephen Phillips has been the president since September 9, 2010, following Kevin Hern, the MFi’s first president.

Stephen Phillips oversaw the MFi’s

• building of the successful Natashia Domeschek’s Angel Run and its two $20,000 Kindness Scholarships that were awarded this past June,
• the expansion of the Medfield Foundation volunteer of the year program, and
• the MFi reaching $1.4 m. of private monies raised for public purposes in Medfield, entirely by volunteer efforts.

Evan Weisenfeld has been active in town, lending his technological expertise and his efforts to New ‘N Towne, the Angel Run, the Medfield Coalition for Public Education, and many other town projects.  He said, “I am looking forward to leading the Medfield Foundation, and I hope that we can use this time of transition to examine what we are doing well and what we can perhaps do even better.”

The town's moderator, Scott McDermott, said today that he is still looking to fill open positions on the Warrant Committee.  Contact him if you are willing to help the town vet its budgets for the upcoming budget season that ends with the town meeting on the last Monday in April.  The Warrant Committee tends to meet weekly at this time of year.

I have just finished looking over Gatehouse's Application for tax credits that the town received this week. Let me know if anyone wants to look it over.

It is in a 5" notebook that I guess contains 1,000 pages. 

My major take away was how much money there is for Gatehouse via those tax credits.  For the first phase, which is the first half of the project, the Federal tax credits were about $8.5m. and the state tax credits were about $3.4m.  For that first phase, of half the project, the sources and uses summary shows costs of about $13m., most of which are paid for by those tax credits.  The permanent financing was put at only $750,000. 

The other thing that especially interested me was the chart showing that the rents will be subsidized by 30% for most and by 60% for the five most subsidized units.  A $1500 apartment actually will rent for either around $1000 or $500.