5 Things You Missed at the Selectmen's Meeting

In case you missed last night’s meeting, here are the highlights:

1.The Parks and Recreation Department announced that residents can now view the Fruit Street fields’ schedule, town wide recreation survey, and  program’s brochure on the Parks and Recreation page at hopkinton.org.  In addition, the Parks and Recreation department has installed new lights on the Hopkinton common.

2. Board of Selectman Chairman Todd Cestari, shared that the Casino Bill has passed the Senate.  The Selectmen will be meeting with other area town leaders to approach this problem as a coalition.  He also had a message for the public.

“I urge members of the public,” Cestari said “to make it known how you feel about this bill.”

Cestari also shared that he will do what he can to make this a positive outcome for the town of Hopkinton.

3. The Board of Selectmen approved a license transfer for the Exxon/Mobil gas station located at 92-94 West Main St.  The new owner is Global Companies out of Waltham, Ma. 

Steve Sharon, from Global Companies, assured that there were no changes to the workers or equipment for the gas station.

4. Town Manager, Norman Khumalo, presented a financial forecast based on current economic struggles.

“This is the beginning of a very long conversation.”  Khumalo said.

Suggestions included, level funding the 2012 operations budget and identifying all the impacts that would have on services.

These changes would bring the overall budget for the town from approximately $68, 450,000 in 2010 to $66,309,000 in 2012.  These numbers are based on a financial model.

In addition, Khumalo urged the Board to diversify revenue sources and take measures that would increase hard and soft revenues.

5. The Board of Selectmen voted to lift the hiring freeze on the positions of Administrative Manager of the and a call firefighter for the .