Minutes of the Chilmark Board of Selectmen & Molly Flender Affordable Housing Trust – June 25, 2014
Meeting called to order in Conference Room # 1 at the Town Hall by Chairman Bill Rossi at 4:30 PM.
Present: Selectman Bill Rossi, Selectman Jonathan Mayhew, Selectman Warren Doty, Tim Carroll, Melanie Becker, Jim Malkin, Ellen Biskis, Sergeant Jonathan Klaren, Charles Downs.
Arrived at 5:15 PM Molly Flender Trust members: Janet Weidner, Jessica Roddy, Bill Rossi.
Molly Flender Trust members absent: Andy Goldman & Bruce Golden.
Police Appointment
Sergeant Klaren introduced former Traffic Officer Charles Downs to the Selectmen and communicated Chief Cioffi’s request that Mr. Downs be appointed a Special Police Officer. Mr. Doty moved and Mr. Mayhew a motion to appoint Charles Downs a Special Police Officer. SO VOTED: Three Ayes.
Refunding of the 2004 General Obligation Bond
The Selectmen discussed the prospect of refunding the 2004 GO Bond in the amount of $3,083,000. The Selectmen reviewed the highway paving needs with the financial team and FinCom member Jim Malkin. Mr. Mayhew moved and Mr. Doty seconded a motion to refund the 2004 GO bond and to include an additional $600,000 for highway reconstruction/paving subject to a Special Town Meeting vote in mid-October. SO VOTED: Three Ayes.
Beach Department & Harbor Department financial operations
Town Accountant Ellen Biskis & Treasurer Melanie Becker reported on failures of the Harbor and Beach departments regarding their revenue collections. The harbor had not properly batched out their credit card transactions and a $1,000 batch was still not deposited. The harbor staff was either unaware of the missing batch or failed to communicate the problem to the Treasurer. The questioned the training being given to the harbor staff and commented that Assistant Harbor Master Steves, who had previously handled the credit cards, was not scheduled to work until July 1. The beach had not implemented the agreed upon procedure and were doing business as usual in the beach sticker office.
The Selectmen commented on the sudden loss of the Beach Superintendent to an injury the day before the sticker office opened. Mr. Carroll explained that he had re-implemented the previous year’s procedures because there was no one to train the returning staff on the new procedures at the same time training the new sticker clerks and new assistant superintendents at this time.
Mr. Rossi said he would speak to Harbor Master Jason about the town’s expectations for the harbor department. Mr. Doty asked to post a meeting of the Harbor Master, Accountant and Treasurer for Monday at 4:00 PM in the Town Hall to review the situation.
Molly Flender Affordable Housing Trust
Mr. Carroll requested that $20,000 be appropriated from the Housing Trust to reimburse the town in FY2014 for a portion of the $35,000+ in legal expenses incurred during the Hillman appeal of the Nabs Corner Agreement. There was discussion.
Mr. Carroll requested that the Trust appropriate $100,000 towards the cost of developing the four homesite housing lots at Nabs Corner Community Housing. This was a portion of the total budget for Nabs Corner Community Housing development. Mr. Carroll said that the budgeted contingency allowance wasn’t needed at this time, but would come back to the Trust and Selectmen in the fall if necessary. He also said that, if Mr. Hodgkinson and he felt there would be a need for more than the contingency funds, they would seek funding from the Community Preservation Committee for STM vote in the fall. There was discussion.
Mr. Carroll proposed that the $25,000 per home site housing lot fee charged to the selected lessees be deposited into the Trust. This would reimburse the Trust for the $100,000 appropriation. He reported that the previous ground lease fees from the Middle Line Road and Tea Lane Farm projects were all deposited into the Trust by the Selectmen.
The Trust members discussed the project with the Selectmen. Janet Weidner moved and Bill Rossi seconded a motion to transfer $20,000 from the Molly Flender Affordable Housing Trust to the Chilmark Fy2014 legal budget. SO VOTED: Three Ayes. Janet Weidner moved and Bill Rossi seconded a motion to appropriate $100,000 from the Molly Flender Affordable Housing Trust to a new capital account for the development of Nabs Corner Community Housing. SO VOTED: Three Ayes.
Selectman Doty moved and Selectman Mayhew seconded a motion to approve the Trust’s transfer of $20,000 to the town’s legal budget. SO VOTED: Three Ayes. Selectmen Doty moved and Selectman Mayhew seconded a motion to approve the Trust’s appropriation of $100,000 for the development costs of Nabs Corner Community Housing. SO VOTED: Three Ayes.
Menemsha Harbor Commercial Dock – Piling
Selectman Mayhew revisited the discussion of the broken piling between Slip 4 (Walter Wlodyka) and Slip 5 (Everett Poole). The 42 foot Bruno has a documented beam of 13’, so the Selectmen agreed to put the replacement piling back in as close to the original location but allowing for the beam of the Terri II (13’).
Meeting adjourned at 5:47 PM. Approved 08/05/14
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