OPINION: Can the Taxpayers Afford All the Bells & Whistles on FS1?

The following opinion article represents the views and opinions of the author, and not necessarily those of Westwood Minute.

By Allison Drescher

In May or June of 2025, you will be asked at Town Meeting for yet another tax override to fund FS1, or Fire Station 1. This is unfortunate planning by town governance. Having toured FS1 Captain Lund needs and deserves a new fire station.

But must it come in at a price tag of $40 million? That should be actively debated in the coming months.

At the most recent Select Board meeting, Stephanie McManus (Assistant Town Administrator/Finance Director) points out that the Westwood Assessor’s officers will soon complete re-evaluations on all our homes. Didn’t we do that last year? Is Westwood’s Select Board suggesting we face annual tax increases of 12-15%? In addition to a $40 million override? It appears that might be on the menu.

Westwood finds itself in an unenviable position. After years of neglecting its real estate, the preference of town leadership and their highfalutin consultants is to build everything shiny, new, and green. Dissenting voices are told that they’ve made a profit on their homes and perhaps they’d feel more at home in a neighboring town with lower taxes.

Perhaps the revenue (linkage money) from University Station funded a new police station, fire station and library; but that is a one-time win at the gambling table. Westwood simply cannot afford to continue in this direction. Not only is it unaffordable for the taxpayers, but it’s also mathematically impossible. At what point will this spending impact the town’s credit rating?

The answer on FS1 is not difficult. Cut the cost of the project by 30%. The current price tag of the project is $40 million. The entire building is electric. Maybe we can’t afford that. Are there any high-net-worth individuals in town who would like to underwrite a portion of the project? That’s what hospitals do. Construction costs at almost $900+ per square foot is what Harvard University with their $50.7 billion dollar endowment can afford. When commercial construction costs currently run at $300-500/per square foot, can a town of 19,000 people afford that?

With taxes, water and sewer and insurance costs spiraling out of control, are you buying a new car in this inflationary climate? Likely not, unless you are extremely wealthy. The same should go for the town. Do more with less.

At the September Finance and Warrant Commission (FinCom) meeting, these questions were asked. They told Molly Fitzpatrick (Assistant to the Town Administrator/HR Director) that they did not think the town had the appetite for another tax override. It’s unclear who made the decision to plow ahead with the full project (with soft costs funded by $3.5 million of taxpayer dollars nonetheless) and start the public process with the voters.

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An important suggestion at the FinCom meeting was to move the town’s internet only once, which currently exists in the rear of FS1, not twice. A rational alternative was to move it only one time to the second floor of the relatively new and secure police station.

Not only were these suggestions ignored, the Select Board voted to allocate $25,000 of reserve funds to hire a PR company to “sell” the project to the town. Why aren’t the voters allowed to understand, digest materials and make up their own minds as to whether they want to allocate their hard-earned dollars to the project? Are we too ill-informed to decide for ourselves? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvkz23YlYRU
the vote is taken at time stamp 1:58.)

There are some unsustainable costs associated with the current version of FS1. You simply cannot responsibly go to a consultant - Dorr Whittier, who has designed every new building in town, whose job it is to design and build new buildings - without a budget number. That’s not the way the process should be done. The town should have come up with a budget number, assisted by operating funds, part of the tax dollars we already pay, so the entire project ask does not fall on an override. $1.9 million is the project management fee being asked by Vertex, the consultant company and project manager who has worked in tandem with Dorr Whittier on most construction projects in Westwood. That’s eye watering.

If you are interested in learning more about the FS1 here is a link to the meeting and my questions for the committee begin at minute mark 41. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWxnteTgIDQ&t=3012s

We just built a $100M elementary school. The bonds issued at 3.7% instead of 2%, meaning the interest rate on the municipal bonds costs a lot more money. In the four years I have lived in Westwood, the school system has plunged in its ranking according to US News & World Report from 12 in Massachusetts to 20 to now 40. (https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/massachusetts/rankin…)

Why are we taking valuable staff time from Town Hall to create 100-page documents on a sustainability plan, when we have unfunded retirement mandates for town employees? Why are we loading up town committees with staff members on the Canton Street project? Couldn’t the $25,000 PR budget have been better utilized by training fire fighters?

This is not the fault of the fire fighters. They are our first responders and are an important part of our town. They are also caught in an unenviable mix of town governance, staff, consultants and overburdened taxpayers. We need to do what is right by them. But they should not be used for an excessive overbuild we cannot afford. It is also important the override pass and the fire fighters get a new station.

Who is at fault for this? That remains to be determined. Once again, I encourage Westwood residents and taxpayers to tune into what is happening in town. I, personally, do not hear any voice on the Select Board with adequate concern for the taxpayers who fund virtually the entire budget.

Get involved, attend meetings, perhaps contemplate running for Select Board or Town Moderator. Westwood is a wonderful town with a lot of positive attributes, however current leadership and the bloated administrative staff rolls at Town Hall are on their way to chasing anyone with even a concept of fiscal sanity out of town.

Thanks to Allison Drescher for contributing this opinion article to Westwood Minute. Ms. Drescher is a resident of Westwood, a principal and manager of a family-owned real estate portfolio in and around Boston, and president of the Small Property Owners Association. She can be reached at westwoodtaxpayers@gmail.com.

Westwood Minute takes no position on the opinion articles that it publishes, but seeks accurate and thoughtful commentary on topics that matter to our community, from a variety of differing viewpoints. Feel free to reply with your reaction below, or submit another perspective to WestwoodInAMinute@gmail.com.

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