Town Administrator Jean Kitchen told me last night that the New England Center for Children donated $120K toward the purchase of a new ladder truck. The donation will be paid out over ten years.
Add the NECC donation to the $100K contributed by St. Mark’s and the $100K (ish) raised at the Fire Ball, and that brings the private contribution total to $320K. Town selectmen are still pursuing Fay School, Harvard University, and potentially other non-profits for donations.
A new ladder truck is estimated to cost about $950K.
While we’re on the subject of NECC, here’s something I didn’t know. The school is not required to pay property taxes because it’s a non-profit, but NECC makes an annual donation to the town. They set the donation amount to be equal to the property tax bill from the year they purchased each piece of land they own. In fiscal year 2008, their donations to the town totaled $77K.
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It might be worth mentioning what the PILOT payments were of St. Mark’s, the Fay School as well as Harvard last year. Those are worth publishing, and most certainly will raise an eyebrow or two.
All three schools have their focus and success records, and I’m sure if NECC had a soccer field or a field for special events their PILOT would be less, which shouldn’t be the case but it unfortunately is.
It’s hard to put NECC is the same category with the (other) two schools because of their ‘elite’ status and deep pocketed parents vs. a school that’s federally and state funded educating children with Autism.
I will raise the question again regarding the many businesses in Southborough – where is their financial support? Realizing you cannot demand donations – but it should be expected that businesses and or property owners contribute something to the cause – making it part of their property protection guarantee by the town.
For those businesses who have sat and continue to sit on the fence over their donation, just remember you get what you paid for. So if your building should happen to have a need for a ladder truck and the town can’t provide one – you have no one to gripe to.