2011 Town Report - Town of Ludlow

MODERATORTown Meeting met on the traditional dates in May and October. Both meetings proceeded in an efficient and timelymanner.Increasingly, the Town budget is facing the effects of declining State aid and lowering property values. Afterseveral years of no growth-low growth income, it appears that the annual Town Meeting in May 2012 will be forcedto choose between higher property taxes or reduced services, most probably a combination of both.I again thank the Selectmen’s Office and particularly, the Town Administrator for providing a clear and precisewarrant and appropriate motions making my duties less difficult.The Finance Committee deserves particular praise for working with limited resources to obtain agreement with alldepartments on their budgets particularly when those budgets have been constrained for several years.To the public, I would urge that more citizens seek election for precinct seats at the Town Meeting. The TownMeeting forum is unique to New England and was established by the earliest settlers. At times it appears slow andcumbersome; however, it is one of the few forums of government that allows any citizen to speak on the issues and arelatively large group to vote on those services that effect their day to day lives.Respectfully submitted,James V. ThompsonModeratorFINANCEBOARD OF ASSESSORSMichael S. O’Rourke was elected to a three year term on the Board that was vacated by Edward P. Mazur. Mr.O’Rourke joined Donald J. Lake and Beverly Barry on the Board. Beverly Barry was elected chairman. The Boardmembers welcomed Mr. O’Rourke to the Board and they would like to thank Mr. Mazur for his 10+ years of serviceon the BoardThe firm of Paul S. Kapinos & Associated performed an interim year adjustment to the assessed valuation of allproperties in Town. The total town valuation was reduced from $1,792,208,050 in Fiscal 2011 to $1,781,756,570.00in Fiscal 2012. Resulting in a decrease of the total town valuation of $10,451,480. The total amount that had to beraised through taxation was $30,254,226.56 which resulted in a Fiscal 2012 tax rate of $16.98 per thousand.The Board would like to thank Tax Collector Fred Pereira, Alice Bolow, and Carmen Desrochers for coming intowork on their Christmas Holiday in order to have the Fiscal 2012 Actual Tax Bills ready to be mailed out byDecember 31, 2011.The Board would also like to thank Assistant Assessor, Juanita Testori, Associate Assessor, Joe Alves, and LoriLeduc the work they performed for the department and making it possible for the Board to meet all departmentdeadlines and the assessors would like to welcome Deidra Thompson to their department and thank her for hercontribution to the department.Respectfully submitted by,Beverly BarryChairman13