Blandford Select Board Chair, Cara Letendre, will deliver her first State of the Town address on behalf of the Town of Blandford. Letendre will deliver the address at 6:30pm on December 18 in the Gym of Town Hall located at 1 Russell Stage Road. She will discuss current and future initiatives that aim to address small Town challenges that contribute to quality-of-life issues, including how the Town is handling issues of the past. She will also share new growth initiatives that look forward to generate revenue, and discuss policy changes that help increase accountability and better address Town needs.
Following her address will be a presentation of the Town’s financial forecast from the Massachusetts Department of Revenue’s (DOR) Technical Assistance Bureau. Immediately following the forecast presentation will be a panel made of the Financial Management Team of the Town which include Treasurer/Collector Sara Hunter, Accountant Eric Kinsherf, Chair of the Finance Committee Janet Lombardo, Assessor from Regional Resource Group Harald Scheid, Chair of the Board of Assessor’s Stephen Jemiolo, and Town Administrator Joshua A. Garcia – along with the presenters from DOR. David Hopson will be facilitating the panel and Q&A from the audience related to the presentation as well to address the activities of the Town’s day-to-day financial operations responsible for addressing the vision of the Towns Select Board. Overall, members of the public will get to learn key challenges and successes within the fields of finance, education, public safety, and new growth opportunities resulting in the state of the Town.