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Town Council to Consider Waiving Rental Fees for Clinton Non-Profits

Starting soon Clinton based nonprofits may be able to get a break when it comes to renting a room at the Town Hall. At its Dec. 1 meeting, the Town Council directed the town manager to draft a proposal that would waive facility fees for the nonprofits holding events.

Due to the multiple rooms and large space available in the building, from time to time the Town Hall is sought out as a destination to rent rooms in for different events. Town Manager Karl Kilduff said that the fee for these rentals depends on which room is reserved and for how long but that the fees can range from $50 to a couple hundred of dollars. Kilduff explained that the entities are charged both a facility fee for renting the room and then a separate fee for the custodial duties.

At the Town Council meeting on Dec. 1, Kilduff said that a request has been made to waive the facility fee for Clinton-based nonprofits. Under the proposal, the facility fee would still apply to for-profit entities and out-of-town nonprofits. Kilduff said that the total revenue generated out of the rental of the rooms is about $3,000 to $4,000 annually, which he said was not a substantial amount as related to the town budget.

Kilduff said that review of the history of the room rental has shown that there has been an uneven application of fees in the past.

“Looking over the last two years of fee experience, sometimes a nonprofit has paid, sometimes it doesn’t pay, so it’s kind of been up and down,” Kilduff said during the meeting.

“It certainly would create more equity in term of the different organizations because currently there is some policies that have been unspoken for a very long period of time and they don’t always get applied equally, so having it on the books would certainly help that,” council member Christine Goupil said.

The council members generally agreed with the measure and Kilduff said that a draft of an update to the policy will be prepared for the council members to review at the next meeting.