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Hubbardston acting chair accepts minutes, sets May 1 deadline for Chapter-land filings and signs abatements
Summary
At a brief Town of Hubbardston Board of Assessors meeting, Acting Chair Albert Alphonso and member Jeff Young accepted minutes, authorized staff to process a March motor-vehicle excise abatement, approved several lien releases/transfers and set May 1 as the deadline for Chapter-land filings; the board moved to adjourn into executive session to sign statutory-exemption and abatement paperwork.
Acting Chair Albert Alphonso called the Town of Hubbardston Board of Assessors to order at about 6 p.m. and the board unanimously accepted the minutes from the previous meeting.
The meeting was administrative in focus. Staff presented the motor-vehicle excise abatement report for March and asked the board to review and sign; staff said it would post the signed report to the finance department. A staff member said of the Chapter-land reminder letters, "I'll mail out the letters tomorrow," and the board agreed to give applicants until May 1 to submit their Chapter filings so property cards can be updated before the next fiscal year.
The board approved several property-related actions. Staff presented a farm-plate excise exemption request for a farm on Jordy Lane involving four vehicles; staff confirmed the owner had filed with the Registry of Motor Vehicles under the referenced DMV Chapter 5 provision and met the filing and income requirements, and the board authorized signing the excise form so staff may process the exemption. The board also agreed to sign paperwork to release two liens on 414 Apprentice Hill (one full release, one partial because a related parcel remains encumbered) and to transfer a lien on Map 1 Lot 74 (a large parcel behind 20 Cruz Road) into the buyers' name after the seller (identified in staff remarks as Glenn Taten) completed the sale.
A board member raised a concern that discussing Chapter-land specifics in executive session might risk violating open-meeting rules because Chapter-land is public record; the board discussed the risk but proceeded to schedule an executive session for the end of the meeting to sign statutory-exemption and real-estate and personal-property abatement paperwork. Acting Chair Alphonso requested the executive session, saying he wanted to "go into executive session" at the meeting's close so the members could confer privately before signing documents.
The board tentatively scheduled its next meeting for the third Wednesday (April 15) at 6 p.m. The public comment period was not opened because no members of the public were present.
The board adjourned to an executive session to complete statutory-exemption signatures and to address real estate and personal property abatements; the transcript records that the board planned to adjourn from that executive session when finished.
