Pepperell Board Approves Restaurant License, Police Hire, and Equipment Surplus Sale

PEPPERELL — February 1, 2016 — Pepperell approves restaurant license and surplus equipment sale while receiving clean audit and new budget proposal. The Board of Selectmen unanimously approved a common victualer's license for Ned Altalis of Altalis LLC to open a Middle Eastern and American restaurant at 87 Elm Street, contingent on a Board of Health food inspection, and voted to surplus five aging town vehicles and pieces of equipment including a 1961 International fire truck and a Sandpiper screening plant. Auditor Jim Justey presented fiscal year 2015 financial statements showing a $2.9 million general fund balance, approximately $1.3 million in certified free cash, and — for the first time under GASB Statement 68 — a $9.2 million net pension liability to the Middlesex County Retirement System recorded directly on the town's financial statements; Justey said the change is universal across Massachusetts municipalities and praised the work of Town Accountant Lori and Treasurer-Collector Debbie Nutter. The town administrator's proposed FY2017 budget, filed on schedule, would add a police officer at $74,524, a fourth firefighter-paramedic at $48,660, a DPW laborer at $34,139, and $34,799 to bring the library to state certification for the first time in seven years, with capital spending nearly doubling to $311,000.