Lenox discusses long-term financial plan

LENOX – Don’t fear the cliff.

That was the message the Lenox Board of Selectmen had for the public when talking about the town’s long-term financial health at its Nov. 28 meeting.

“I don’t like heights and I don’t like free-falling,” said Board of Selectmen Chairman Kenneth L. Fowler, referring to how some citizens have taken to referring to Lenox’s upcoming financial challenges as a “fiscal cliff.”

“You can’t have a plan without identifying what you’re planning for,” said Selectman W. David Roche, giving credit to the work Lenox’s finance committee has done in identifying the town’s projected future expenditures.

These expenditures include upgrades to Lenox’s water and sewer systems, which are expected to cost millions of dollars.

“I think its incumbent upon us to examine these challenges and to plan for them,” said Selectman Roche. “By planning for them now, we won’t hit that cliff, hopefully.”

Advocating for long-term financial planning has been one of Selectman Roche’s chief focuses during his time in office.

“I have every confidence that this group sitting here can come up with a reasonable…effort that will meet these challenges over the next 10 years,” said Selectman Roche, who said the needs of some departments might need to be deferred in such a plan.

His sentiments were shared by the rest of the selectmen.

“We have to prioritize each one of those…items,” said Chairman Fowler, referring to the lists of future expenditures presented to the board of selectmen by the heads of Lenox’s town departments.

“At some point in time we’re really going to come down to choices. What do you want to continue to fund? What do you not want to fund? Are you going to do away with certain services that we offer? Those are realities, that’s not a cliff,” said Chairman Fowler.

The selectmen acknowledged these decisions would not be made in a vaccum, however.

“One of the biggest advantages we have are the people we are dealing with. The department heads that we have in Lenox are team players,” said Selectmen Roche, praising their willingness to work with the town on budgetary issues.

Chairman Fowler also noted the citizens of Lenox and how the town’s budget priorities were set by them every year at Town Meeting.

“They want a town that isn’t just a bunch of buildings but a town that has services and has quality of life,” said Chairman Fowler. “[If] we continue to fund that, we have to do it through taxes.”

“This comes down to the town ultimately,” said Selectman Channing Gibson, who said he was looking forward to getting the finance committee’s findings out to the public and holding public meetings on the town’s financial future. “It does come down to making choices.”

“There are five words I seldom say in this meeting, but: Dave, I agree with you,” said Selectman John McNinch, who said he ran for the board of selectmen because he knew the town would be facing some hard decisions.

“We offer a lot of services in town, services that I don’t think people would want to give up,” said Selectman Edward P. Lane, who pointed out the selectmen were on the right track by starting to plan now. “With this ten-year plan, this is sound fiscal management, this is what we should be doing.”

“We can run along the edge of the cliff. We don’t have to go over,” said Chairman Fowler.

Posted by Bera B. Dunau on December 13, 2012. Filed under Community News,News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry