A Pool of Shoes: New Underwood Pool Will Cost Taxpayers a Trip to Marshall's

If you want to know just how much Belmont homeowners will payout for a new Underwood Pool in real world terms, there is no better person to ask then Floyd Carman. 

The town's treasurer and tax collector, who is also the co-chair of the Community Preservation Committee, Carman has calculated the amount each taxpayers will be payout in additional real estate taxes if voters approve an expected $2.5 million debt exclusion for the new pool at the April 1 Town Election. 

And that amount is equivilent to a purchase at a strip mall store. 

"It will cost the price of a pair of shoes bought at Marshall's," said Carman at the meeting of the CPC on Wednesday, Dec. 11, referring to the inexpensive price for footwear at the national discount chain. 

The Underwood Pool will add $42 a year in real estate taxes for a median-priced house in Belmont pegged at $777,000 for the 15-year municipal bond that will finance the $4.5 million pool currently in the design stage.

Carman said that amount will decrease "a few bucks" each succeeding year for the life of the debt security. 

"It'll be a pretty cheap shoe by the end of the 15 years," said Carman, noting that the CPC approved spending $2 million towards the construction of a facility to replace the 101-year-old historic community pool that is on the verge of being shut down by the state and town health departments due to safety issues. 

The CPC is preparing to release a final list of projects it has approved to send to the annual Town Meeting for its OK in May, 2014. CPC funding – which goes towards projects that focus on historic preservation, open space, community housing and recreation – comes from the imposition of a surcharge on the tax levy against real property.