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Date of Meeting: Monday, March 21, 2011
Location: Town Hall, 221 Main Street
Time: 6:30 PM – 8:55 PM
Members Present: Kenneth Sydow and Roger Deal, James Stanton (arrived 7:05PM)
Others Present: Nancy Colbert Puff, Town Administrator; Lori Esposito, Administrative Assistant to Board of Selectmen; others as indicated on sign-in sheet
Financial warrants signed in approval.
7:00 PM Building Inspector Appointment:
- Tony Zahariadis – currently the Building Commissioner in Clinton, working full-time, 35 hours a week. Appointed as Alternate in 2004; full time as of three and a half to four years ago.
- Roger said he presumes Tony has a description of what we are looking for in a Building Inspector.
- Nancy Puff said he is just covering in the absence of an Inspector. He needs to be appointed and sworn in in the meantime. Nancy still needs to meet with Clinton for further discussion regarding possible sharing.
- Roger asked Nancy what his hourly rate is. Nancy said nothing has been set as of yet.
Motion made by Kenneth Sydow to appoint Tony as interim Building Inspector for the Town of Boylston; Roger agreed he would be hired on an “as-needed”, hourly basis and seconded the motion. Voted all in favor.
Electrical Inspector: James Morrill, Electrical Inspector, resigned last week, effective immediately. Assistant Inspector Tom O’Connor is interested in the primary position.
Meeting Minutes: Motion was made, seconded and voted all in favor to approve the Meeting Minutes for the following dates:
October 29, 2010, November 1, 2010, November 15, 2010, December 10, 2010, December 13, 2010 and December 20, 2010.
7:15 PM Finance Committee: Present: Eric Brose, Steven Dorval, Karen McGahie, Herb Cronin and Tim Houlihan.
- Nancy Puff presented the proposed FY2010 budget with the following changes from March 15:
- Building Inspector Assistant (additional two hours/week).
- $5,000 added to Building Inspector’s budget for additional Tahanto inspections.
- Free cash (certified) of $256,953 added
- Added capital requests:
- $75K for repaving of parking lot at Hillside;
- $15K for a new Hillside tractor;
- $25K for full replacement of the fire alarm panel
- $100K for Fire Department turnout gear. This can be phased in over a number of years. The Board would like to do $50K/year for two years;
- $164K for a Sweeper. The Board would like to hold off on a new sweeper and instead look into the cost for needed repairs to the current sweeper
- $30K for a new police cruiser; two Police cruisers are in need of replacement. The Board is in the process of discussing needs with Chief Sahagian. There is potential savings in doing it this year due to the fact that equipment will still fit in Crown Vic cruisers. Next year the cruisers will be Taurus’s and Chargers.
- Roger Deal does not agree with spending the taxpayers’ money for capital items.
- Cherry sheet: $ 740,826
- Local: $1,498,465
Still waiting for numbers from the legislature; possible additional cuts.
Jim Stanton asked Nancy Puff if the expenditure budget reflects crediting the Police Department with salary increases equal to two percent of non-union salaries. Nancy Puff said no.
7:40 PM School Administration/Committee: Present: Superintendent Brian McDermott; Finance Director John Roy; School Committee members Rebecca Dono-Healy, Brad Wyatt and Larry Brenner.
- Brian McDermott said he is still waiting for final numbers from State. They continue to work at level funding. No programs or staff has been impacted yet.
- Tahanto is $250K “in the hole”; Boylston Elementary is $138K in the hole. They are still working on getting these budgets balanced. Staff and programs likely will be affected to achieve level funding. Percentage COLA included; percentage longevity included. Union negotiations are continuing.
- Elementary School expenses are increased by .29% Revenue is down $130K:
- School choice is the biggest problem in creating reduced revenue (-36%) = $120K
- SPED circuit breaker -5%
- Prepaid SPED -4%
- Federal stimulus -7.5%
- Karen McGahie asked if we would have the capacity to have more School Choice in the Elementary School once the sixth grade moves to Tahanto. Brian McDermott said possibly, but we need to be careful to balance so we don’t need additional staff and also impact Tahanto.
- School Choice-Out is steadily increasing at both schools, especially Tahanto.
- Jim Stanton asked what the School Choice account/balance is. John Roy said there is $200K unallocated.
- Tahanto expenses are increased 1.85% ($138K). The big problem is less revenue: -3.95% (t-style-position:outside;padding-left:72px;padding-right:0px;">
- School Choice down $225K
- Carter reimbursements down $182K
- Federal stimulus down $41K
- E & D fund $155K (offsets reduced revenue.
- Mr. Mcdermott said the Berlin assessment is about $180K additional
- Jim Stanton asked about School Choice numbers. Brian said 72 this year at $5K per student (unless a SPED student, which is more). We spend about $150K more than we bring in.
- Jim asked about the balances for School Choice account for Tahanto/E & D? John Roy said >
- Roger asked if we are on target for the new building budget. Brian said the budget is fine. The General Contractor is out to bid. The scheduled opening has been delayed from September 2012 to early 2013. The 6th grade would move the following next school year (September 2013).
Brian said they hope to have groundbreaking in mid-May and will notify the Board when it happens.
- Ken asked about professional salaries at the Elementary School being up 8%; Brian said there is no grant money left to pay part of the salaries, and Federal stimulus money is no longer available. The money needs to come out of the budget.
Class II Hearing Continued – Anytime Auto Wholesalers:
- John Cherubini returned with information previously requested by the Board. He stated there are 48 parking spaces, total. Jim Stanton asked how many spaces are required by the Planning Board. John said he doesn’t know; he couldn’t find anyone who had the answer.
- Ken Sydow said it is a difficult parking lot now. Mr. Cherubini asked what he meant; Ken said the adequacy of the number of spaces needs to be known (from the Planning Board order of conditions). Ken also asked about lighting? Is more needed for the security of the cars?
- Regarding signage, Mr. Cherubini said the State says if he can park cars there, and a dealer plate is issued, a sign is needed. If no cars are parked, no sign is needed. The sign would be in the vacant placard space on the existing consolidated sign.
- The applicant requested a continuance of the hearing to April 4, 2011 at 8:00 PM. Motion made to continue the hearing. Motion seconded and voted all in favor. Needed is Planning Board approval of the project with the order of conditions, indicating the number of spaces required.
Roger Deal left the meeting at 8:40 PM.
Habitat for Humanity Update: Present: Howard Drobner.
- Need proof that the Chairman of the Board of Selectmen had permission to sign the regulatory agreement.
Motion was made, seconded and voted all in favor that the Chair was approved to sign the regulatory agreement associated with 40B.
- The regulatory agreement needs to be amended to spell out that each unit is 50% of condo association.
Motion was made to approve the amendment. A letter is to be sent by the Town Administrator. Motion seconded and voted all in favor.
- Women’s Build to be held May 1, which is a Sunday.
- Road opening for water line anticipated late spring/early summer. Need funding before it can be done.
- Aiming for late fall to complete and close if all goes well with funding.
Cell Tower RFP:
- Nancy Puff needs to put cell tower RFP out again for Mile Hill Road. Verizon would like the requirement of flush mount removed from the RFP. They want a minimum of 12 antennae, plus co-locators.
- Jim asked if that is the best aesthetic for the neighborhood. Nancy said the best would be a flush mount. The last RFP was $25K for four antennae.
- Ken said in theory, the rent should go up for 12 antennae.
- Howard Drobner (audience) said a conversion to 4G requires two antennae per provider versus one.
- Jim asked how Nancy suggests we do it.
- Ken said he would go with an RFP that would invite the most potential bidders.
At 8:55PM, a motion to adjourn the meeting was seconded and voted all in favor.
Respectfully Submitted,
Lori Esposito, Administrative Assistant
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