As town and school officials spent more than two hours Jan. 11 foreseeing a dark financial future for Arlington, Allan Tosti summed up the mood: "It makes you feel like going home and sticking your head in the oven and lighting a match," the longtime chairman of the Finance Committee said. Joking, he added that he had done that once, forgetting that his stove is electric.

Fincom member Dan Dunn comments 

After chuckles from the 35 officials and board members as well as 25 in the audience at Town Hall Auditorium, Tosti made a serious point: "We need to look at [Arlington's financial future] one piece at a time.

 

The summit brought together state Rep. Will Brownsberger (D-Arlington/Belmont), Town Manager Brian Sullivan, Treasurer Stephen Gilligan, Assessor Robert Greeley and Superintendent Nate Levenson with members of the Board of Selectmen, School Committee, Finance Committee and the chairman
of the Capital Planning Committee.

The aims? To see how the town's current five-year plan is working and to begin to map out another five-year plan.

As town and school officials sat around a series of tables shaped in a
large rectangle in the center of Robbins Auditorium, residents sat
around the outside. Officials spoke; the public, which was not asked
to speak, listened.

The summit grew in part out of a public meeting last September at
Stratton School, where some of the 90 residents expressed concern
about the eventual rebuilding of Stratton. Information about future
town finances and state rules was presented that night indicating the
Stratton rebuild could be as long as 15 years away.

The Jan. 11 summit focused on the bigger picture. Here are some of
that picture's pieces: