Town of Braintree

What Geniuses!

The rental income from those properties has been paying for repairs at all of the schools for years. When the SC lists their annual capital needs, and they get 1/4 of what they ask for to keep the buildings in proper shape, this revenue helps to offset that It comes up every year in the budget presentation...just listen. Meanwhile people complain that not enough is spent each year to keep town buildings in good shape, but the capital planning budget is never funded well enough to do anything but band-aid work.

If you want to sell them off, the money should go to permanent capital structures...it would be crazy to put that $$ into the operating budget of the town unless there's a disaster. What happens if the population rises ten years from now? Wouldn't it be better to already own the buildings, even if they need to be updated, instead of having to build new?

By Listen Up

Ha, Ha, Ha. What a joke

These buildings will never be sold even if it makes sense. People can't get over the fact (fear?) that Messina or Thayer will buy the properties and develop them for profit.

Look at the Noah Torrey school. It was costing us 3 grand a month for maintenance, it was suggested that we develop it into housing and now we have the DPW department, which is another joke, occupying it while leaving the Water and Sewer building vacant. What's going to happen to that?

People won't support selling these properties because of Daddy warbucks Messina. Any rents that these buildings generate should go directly to the capital repairs of them and nothing else. If the Selectmen were renting them for the town this would happen but since it is the schools being the landlord, there's no chance of that happening.

Does anyone know just how much money these buildings generate in rental income?

An idea?

Why can't the school department bond say a million dollars for repairs from the leases of these buildings? I think they can only enter into three year leases but if that's the case, why don't they perform three years worth of bonds to get the large cash up front and pay them off with the rentals?

Why Repair Rented Buildings?

Why should the town throw scarce dollars into buildings not being used as Town schools? To do so again in the future would cost huge dollars to update the buildings according to state building code and School Ed Reform. Can't just move back into any of these buildings once vacated as public schools. I say sell them off, and use the proceeds to fund desperate town capital needs - one time source of revenues paying off one time infrastructure repairs. We all know we have huge repair needs in town.

By Polly