HOLDEN - On Tuesday, in its first meeting of the year, the Holden Board of Selectmen declared the town’s positions on three resolutions set to come before the upcoming Massachusetts Municipal Association annual meeting. Also, selectmen discussed a proposal to change the pool pass policy for this summer.
In 4-1 split, the board voted not to support a resolution supporting a “local-state-federal partnership to combat the impact of climate change.” Selectmen said the town is doing its part to combat climate change and voiced skepticism about unfunded mandates from the state or federal government.
Selectman Jeremy Kurtz said, “Our light department and DPW are doing good things we should keep moving forward.”
Timothy Ethier, the only selectman to vote in support of the resolution, said, “I am delighted we are discussing climate change here at a Holden select board meeting. I think we should support this resolution to send a message that we are leaders on this issue and set a positive example for other cities and towns.”
On another resolution, the board voted 4–1 not to oppose a state ballot question that would reduce the state sales tax to 5 percent.
Mr. Ethier, the only one against the ballot question, “In one breath we want the full funding from the state for schools and local aid, but then we want to restrict the amount of revenue the state takes in. The money will need to come either from the state or higher local taxes. Lowering the sales tax will certainly affect the town.”
Robert Lavigne, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, said, “If I remember correctly, the sales tax was raised during the Deval Patrick administration to help with the state’s fiscal hole, and it was only ever intended to be temporary.”
Selectman Anthony Renzoni said, “Even if we raised the sales tax, there is no guarantee we would see any of it for school transportation funding. The state doesn’t have a revenue problem, it has a priority problem. For years we have been told we don’t have the power to get the transportation funding. We’ll see if that changes now that our state senator, Sen. (Harriette) Chandler, has the Senate president’s chair.”
In a unanimous vote the board agreed to support a resolution calling for a strong fiscal partnership between cities, towns and state government.
The board also discussed a proposal from Mr. Renzoni to change the prices and availability of passes to the town pool for summer 2018. The proposal would increase annual pass prices by an average of $4, and would eliminate daily non-resident passes. Instead the town would offer a $10 daily guest pass.
The proposal seeks to address concerns of overcrowding at the pool, which the board addressed last year by reducing the number of daily non-resident passes from 400 to 200. Mr. Renzoni said, “This is not a problem every day, but on many of the hottest days, Holden residents who don’t usually show up do show up and it becomes very overcrowded. I feel bad for residents of other towns without pools, but Holden residents must come first.”
Mr. Lavigne said, “This is a Holden-centric asset. One of the problems was buses of people getting dropped off.”
Mr. Ethier responded, “Have we ever had a problem with people being turned away at the pool or are we ever kicking people out of the water?” Town Manager Peter Lukes said that was not happening.