Amherst DPW/Selectman

Over the past couple of years I’ve had the displeasure of listening to a friend gripe about the DPW in Amherst and the obvious waste that seems to be common place within the department. After listening for so long and not doing anything about it, a recent conversation put me over the top and I thought, enough is enough.  

This information needs to be published so that common sense tax payers in the community can have a chance to hear about the lack of concern our selectman and department heads seem to have for the taxpayers of this community. I was recently made aware of a conversation regarding our building inspector and the vehicle the DPW is trying to purchase for him. Currently, the building inspector is driving an older Ford Explorer,  the department just put thousands of dollars into this vehicle to keep it up to safety standards. 

Why would we then need to go and purchase a newer Ford F250 with a plow for this position??  What would we do with the current vehicle that has really no value even after putting thousands of dollars into it? Does a building inspector in the town of Amherst need a Ford F250 with a plow, what does he carry with him in his daily job to require such a large gas guzzling vehicle, and a plow?! Where is the benefit to the taxpayer, is he going to plow the roads and inspect buildings now?

There are dozens of options available to our inspector if he truly needs 4 wheel drive in his daily job, the first option is to keep what you have and be thankful for it, we did just pay to have a bunch of work done to it. The second option would be look into alternative vehicles or smaller 4 wheel drive options, why would you choose to buy a guy that spends his days driving,  the largest, most inefficient vehicle available on the market? Where is the money coming from to purchase this vehicle, is it the surplus that the DPW had at the end of the year? Shouldn’t that money be returned to the tax payer? Did the selectman in town not get the message when we voted down the budget this past March, was it not clear to them that we all need to tighten our belts in these tough times?

I urge all of you to call our selectman and ask them why our building inspector needs this vehicle, should we be looking at a Chevy Volt or some other common sense vehicle for this position? Why would the DPW want to spend excess money at the end of the year rather than give it back to the taxpayer? 

I think we all know how it works in these departments; if they don’t spend the entire budget they can’t ask for more next year.   If they return their surplus to the taxpayers then they can’t ask to have the budget increased, they have to work under the same size or maybe even smaller budget the following year. So the best thing to do is spend it regardless of whether or not it’s needed,  that way they can ask for more money in the budget next year.  It’s a cycle that government at all levels seems to think we don’t understand.

Call your selectman and ask them about this purchase!

Respectfully,

Jim Farrow