Towns to share legal opinions; Joint ventures could save money.Byline: J.P. Ellery BROOKFIELD - It may be just a baby step forward, but area towns have agreed to share legal opinions and stop reinventing the wheel Reinventing the wheel is a phrase that means a generally accepted technique or solution is ignored in favor of a locally invented solution. To "reinvent the wheel" is to duplicate a basic method that has long since been accepted and even taken for granted. . Rather than several towns asking the same legal question week, months or years apart, officials will e-mail the legal opinions they receive to neighboring neigh·bor n. 1. One who lives near or next to another. 2. A person, place, or thing adjacent to or located near another. 3. A fellow human. 4. Used as a form of familiar address. v. towns for informational and cost-cutting value. The towns are represented by the law firm of Kopleman & Paige of Boston. Selectmen SELECTMEN. The name of certain officers in several of the United States, who are invested by the statutes of the several states with various powers. from Brookfield, New Braintree, North Brookfield North Brookfield is the name of some places in the United States.
The officials on hand decided to meet quarterly to continue talk of possibly sharing inspection services, such as one building inspector The following articles relate to the topic of building inspector:
They also agreed to explore joint health insurance bidding, a shared town manager or town administrator, maybe similar job descriptions for town employees in all towns, a possible combined public safety complex and establishing a human resources The fancy word for "people." The human resources department within an organization, years ago known as the "personnel department," manages the administrative aspects of the employees. department. "We want to keep this thing going and not be too ambitious at any one time," West Brookfield Selectman se·lect·man n. One of a board of town officers chosen annually in New England communities to manage local affairs. Noun 1. selectman - an elected member of a board of officials who run New England towns David M. Eisenthal said. There have been other such joint meetings over the years, he said, "but then the interest seems to die out." "We come up with great ideas and we don't go anywhere," Brookfield Selectman James W. Allen said. Selectmen agreed to meet again in Brookfield Sept. 11 and then schedule quarterly meetings beginning Dec. 11. North Brookfield Selectman James J. Foyle said health insurance for town employees is getting more costly, but he did not know if mutual bidding was the answer. "We all have older employees, which puts us in a more expensive insurance base," he said. "It depends on whether the insurer will insure you or not." There has been talk in the past of area towns combining forces to build one police station to serve two or more towns. New Braintree Selectman Martin P. Goulet said his town is interested in that. Towns would retain their own police forces, but police quarters would share a joint lockup See hang and abend. , dispatch and exercise facilities, which would save money, officials said. "I'm excited about it because it makes a lot of common sense," Mr. Goulet said. West Brookfield and Brookfield are exploring the possibility of building a police station, and New Braintree may consider that in the future.North Brookfield is close to constructing a $3.1 million public safety facility, and East Brookfield police not long ago moved into new quarters, so a joint facility is of no interest to those towns, officials said. Mr. Foyle was pessimistic about such a venture, because of the task to convince voters to approve such action and questions surrounding the administration of the site. "I don't see this happening in our lifetime," he said. Mr. Allen said the state needs to provide towns with a fiscal incentive to invest in a joint police station to make it palatable to voters. |
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