After identifying “clouds on the fiscal horizon” earlier this year, town officials continue to keep a watchful eye on revenue projections. The latest projections offer a more positive outlook for the next few years.

During a joint meeting of the Select Board, the School Committee and the Finance Committee on Monday Town Administrator David Cressman said that growth in the tax base for fiscal year 2016 was “substantially better than anticipated.” The reason rests largely with solar farms and new medical facilities such as Hawthorn Medical Associates' expansion and Southcoast Behavioral Health.

“What we’re seeing is that, because of this jump that we’ve had, it improves our situation for the next fiscal year. Therefore, we think the picture is not as bleak as it was six months ago,” said Cressman.

Finance Director Gregory Barnes cautioned that, because there may not be any solar or medical facility projects in 2017, it will make the same level of "new growth" more difficult to attain. However, he noted the town saves money through strategic investments.

“One way the town has attempted to prepare for the future is by employing capital in a way that will lower our long-term costs,” said Barnes. “By updating our vehicle fleet, we have lowered our long-term cost in terms of maintenance.”

He said that building upgrades and the way in which the town uses electricity also save money.

“I did an analysis recently, and it looks as though, in the last few years, the Town of Dartmouth has cut back on its utility usage by over 300,000 kilowatt hours. To put that in perspective, that’s more than the Town of Freetown uses – not including their school system,” said Barnes.

He said the Number 1 reason for that reduction is Dartmouth’s adoption of more energy efficient LED lights.

Officials were pleased with the town’s attentive approach to the future.

“As much as we can run government like business, that’s what we’re doing,” said David Tatelbaum, chair of the Finance Committee. “It’s a positive thing. It’s being future driven.”

Chris Garth of the School Committee suggested that officials should be looking to attract new residents and businesses, not just making the town operate more efficiently.

“If you look at the town facilities, we have not built a new building since the high school,” said Garth. “We have made a choice, financially, to have a budget that is a sustainable budget. But we have not added capacity.”

Officials agreed that growth options could be fully explored after voters have weighed in on police station renovations. The $8.4 million renovation project was recently approved by Town Meeting members and awaits an April town-wide vote on a "debt exclusion," allowing taxes to rise above Proposition 2-1/2 limits to repay money that would be borrowed for that project.

“April is going to be the starting point. We can categorize all these new potential places for growth: Route 6, UMass Dartmouth, public facilities. Once the police station is voted on, we can then move on. We can move on and say, ‘What do we need?’” said Tatelbaum.

Officials offered several potential ideas for future areas of growth, such as acquiring and utilizing more town-owned property. Select Board Chair Shawn McDonald said there likely won’t be a lengthy wish list of new, major projects formed immediately after the April election elections, but the police station could be used as a model for keeping the public informed.

“The way the police station was handled was probably a good blueprint on how any large capital items with this town should be handled – as transparent as possible, as much information out there as possible,” said McDonald.

The group will reconvene for another round table discussion in early spring.