Midpoints: Keeping the funds flowing

Many Saturday mornings during the spring, the municipal parking lot across from the Norwood Civic Center is transformed into an open-air car wash. For a nominal fee, often of the customer’s choosing, an energetic, enthusiastic group of young people swarms all over the vehicles as they move through the cycles of a happy, human washing machine.

The process begins with the kids, ranging in age from preteen to high school, depending on the fundraising group, spraying the cars and often themselves with water from hoses hooked up to a town fire hydrant to ready them for the soapy sponge crew. Then, from sunroof to bumper, the car is lathered and scrubbed. After a rinse by another hose crew, vehicles are toweled dry and sent on their way with a wave and a smile.

The entire operation is overseen by a group of volunteer parents who give freely of their time to see that those activities that are important to their children can continue. Scouting, sports and music programs, and extracurricular clubs benefit from the funds raised. And the kids understand that their efforts directly impact activities in their lives that they care about.

A little known downside to the effort has been the cost to the town to turn the water on and off at the hydrant. Town Manager John Carroll estimated that the town pays $3,000 in overtime annually for water department employees to supply the water for these weekend fundraisers.

To solve the problem, Department of Public Works Superintendent Joe Welch and Town Engineer Mark Ryan offered the solution of tapping the water main beneath Nahatan Street and installing a one-inch water service pipe that will run to an aboveground lockable cabinet. An on-duty DPW employee can easily open the cabinet and turn on the tap for the car wash crews.

The one-time cost of the pipe and cabinet will be $1,500 to $2,000, which can come out of the existing budget. That’s one-half to two-thirds the cost for a single year under the present system.

This is a win-win solution at several levels. First, by not having to pay extra to turn the water on and off, the town can avoid having to pass the cost on to groups that host car washes by charging them fees. Such fees would dilute the effectiveness of this popular fundraising activity and, perhaps, make it unfeasible for the groups do.

The town also decreases its payroll costs by not having to pay overtime. Even if by a relatively small amount, it is still a savings. And the funds raised by the kids for their programs is money that the town does not have to find elsewhere.

This solution also demonstrates that Norwood is vigilantly looking ways to save money. By involving the various departments to find solutions to trim the town budget, Norwood officials show that a cooperative effort can yield positive results.

Most importantly, it shows that Norwood has its heart in the right place. Known as a town where residents routinely reach out to help one another, hampering or taking away any opportunity for Norwood residents to contribute to the greater good would send the wrong message.

By successfully seeking a creative solution to a simple problem, Norwood officials show that they can find ways to spend less while maintaining services and programs that are important to town residents without soaking the taxpayer.

Norwood resident Candace Leary’s Midpoints column appears Mondays in the Transcript.