November 23, 2010 7:10 p.m.
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Present: Board of Selectmen: Chairman E. Bernard Plante, Francis B. King, Kenneth I. Schold, Brian W. Stowell, Brian M. Ashmankas; Town Manager Spain, Richard Record, Scott Blair, Michael O’Connor, Brian Turbitt, Donna Boynton, Edd Cote, Tara Johnson and concerned citizens.
New Common Victualler License-Panera Bread
Manager Scott Blair appeared for Panera Bread. Spoke regarding the store and how it works.
Motion made by Selectman Schold to approve the license, seconded by Selectman Stowell.
Motion carried unanimously.
Opening is set for December 13, 2010.
New Drainlayer License-Richard Record
Mr. Record appeared to ask for a Drainlayers license to do a friend’s sewer connection in Town.
Motion made by Selectman Schold to approve the license, seconded by Selectman King.
Motion carried unanimously.
Scott Robbins-Orchard Street resident. He presented a petition for repairs to their road, he would ask for attention and resurfacing Orchard Street immediately. Chairman Plante will turn it over to the Roadway Advisory Committee and ask the committee to get to the street and look it over. Town Manager will meet with the committee and update them.
Chairman Planted mentioned again that we need to put money into the account every single year because Ch. 90 money is not enough.
Holiday Liquor License Hours
Motion made by Selectman King to extend the hours for pouring establishments on November 24th and December 24th until 2:00 a.m., seconded by Selectman Stowell.
Motion carried unanimously.
Motion for the Board of Fire Engineers to set up a written policy on how to pay firefighters when they go to a call made by Selectman Schold, seconded by Selectman Ashmankas.
Motion carried unanimously.
Motion made by selectman Schold to enact the Winter Parking Ban/Snow and Ice Policy: There will be no parking allowed on any town road after the accumulation of two inches of snow-exception: parking is allowed on the north side of West Main Street between Gould Street and Waters Court, seconded by Selectman King.
Motion carried unanimously.
Mike O’Connor-Chairman of Finance Committee. The Finance Committee did an analysis of the budget for the past five years and went over it a few weeks ago with the Board, the Manager, the School Committee and the Superintendent. That analysis is on the town website under the Finance Committee tab called Budget Analysis. The purpose was twofold-understanding structure of the town was unchanged last five years, if you were to take the voted budgets from town meetings and look at the trends in the fact that they go a long way in interpreting the pressure points; the other purpose was to demonstrate the split of the revenues/deficit over the years. He encourages the citizens to take a look at this document.
Chairman Plante wanted to thank Mr. O’Connor for the work he put into this document.
One-Day Liquor License - Banks Catering - Asa Waters - December 11, 2010
Motion made by Selectman Schold, seconded by Selectman King to approve the license.
Motion carried unanimously.
Brian Turbitt-Finance Department Update: The department is made up of the treasurer/collector, the assessor, the finance and IT. They are preparing to send out 3rd and 4th quarter tax bills. They are exploring accepting credit card payments at the Town Hall at the treasurer/collector window. If it goes well, we will be looking at expanding it to different departments. The DOR approved the tax rate on October 28th. They are working on commitment 37 of the sewer betterment phase; it is approximately $1.3 million. The RFP for the triennial assessment update for property values is out and responses are due by December 7th; the anticipated competition date is August, 2011. Finance Department has had a timely and
successful completion of the Audit. The new audit firm is Roselli, Clark & Assoc; they did their field work in September. We have received the draft management letter; there are only recommendations, no deficiencies or material defects. Mr. Turbitt completed the procurement courses needed to be certified. He will be bringing you two policies soon for procurement and fixed assets in February. The audit presentation will be December 14th. He wants to thank the school department, Rick Bedard, Denise Marlborough and Paula Aspinwall for completing the audit in a timely manner. The IT consulting firm is Worldband Communications from Milford. The server contract should be out next week and the server project deployment will begin in January. They built it with an overcapacity of memory and have an offsite storage unit.
Mr. Spain wanted to commend the finance department for their work and is very proud of the clean audit again.
Selectman King asked about the betterment fee interest rate, it is 5% on unpaid balance each year. Will the use of credit cards cost the town anything? The fee will be charged to the user.
Previous Minutes
October 26, 2010- Motion made by Selectman Schold to approve the minutes with corrections to Selectman Ashmankas comments on the split rate tax-add with exemption, and instead of lose business put didn’t have any effect on business, seconded by Selectman King.
Motion carried unanimously.
November 3, 2010-Motion made by Selectman Stowell to approve the minutes, seconded by Selectman Schold.
Motion carried unanimously.
Town Manager Report *see attached list.
Mr. Spain appointed Dennis Hill to Asa Waters to June 30, 2012.
Motion to concur with the appointment made by Selectman Ashmankas, seconded by Selectman Stowell.
Motion carried unanimously.
Mr. Spain has appointed a Public Safety Building Sighting Committee consisting of Fire Chief Matt Belsito, Ray Hobin, Andy Krumsiek, Dave King, Police Chief Richard Handfield, Tom Hall, Kim Brothers, Patty Rutherford and Brian Turbitt as the Chair of the committee.
Motion to concur with the appointments made by Selectman Schold, seconded by Selectman Stowell.
Motion carried unanimously.
Tax rate has been certified at $14.55 per 1000; it went up $1.09. Average impact is $51.00 on a house value of $228,152.00. Values went down about 5.3%. This is the 2nd year in a row that values went down so the rate went up.
Just FYI-we are in the process of updating the Employee Handbook and hope to issue it in the beginning of the year.
Wheelabrator Tonnage is slightly up but right on target-no worries there. If the trend continues we will get a check from Wheelabrator.
The open positions of Operations Manager, Asst. Town Clerk, Wire Inspector and Asst. Wire Inspector have been posted.
A proposed budget schedule is attached. On March 3rd Mr. Spain would like to present the budget to the Board at a special meeting.
Selectman King wants the Town Meeting postponed until the first Tuesday of June because of budget figures and too close to election. Selectman Ashmankas echoes Selectman King’s thoughts. Mr. Spain thinks the better change is the election date after the town meeting.
Motion to change Town Meeting to June 7, 2011 made by Selectman King, seconded by Selectman Stowell.
Motion carried unanimously.
The budget schedule will now change slightly.
The DPW elected the Government Employees Union as their sole bargaining unit. Recently the Supreme Court ruled that the Evergreen Contract is no longer valid. This means that the expired contract does not continue until another one is in place. He looks forward with working with the unions and getting new contracts together.
New Police Hire-one man has signed from the rehire list. Mr. Spain recommends interviewing this person on the 14th. He is already academy trained. Selectman King wanted to know how long he worked before laid-off. He was in the class that went through training and then got laid off.
Motion made by Selectman King to interview the rehire candidate, seconded by Selectman Stowell.
Motion carried unanimously.
Update on Transfer Station being closed on Tuesdays; for the most part no complaints. We are handling the volume and getting a lot more done in the Highway area.
The Sycamore Street no parking signs have been posted on the South side.
The Manager is taking December 10th off to attend his daughter’s college graduation in North Carolina.
West Main Street Issue: NStar opened road with a street opening permit from the DPW director. They are supposed to come back in the spring to resurface the road from the center line and blend it together. We asked them to come back earlier because of the trenches sinking in. A meeting between NStar and Mr. McGarry was held on how to complete this project and they all came out with a different story. They have fixed the sinking trenches for now and will come back in the spring to complete the roadwork.
Selectman King wanted to know about the manhole covers. We will take care of them ourselves.
Old/New Business
Selectman King wants to know if we have a Safety Committee. Mr. Spain thinks we do, but he will look into it and has every intention of getting it back together.
Selectman King asked about Verizon; they are in total compliance with their contract.
23 South Oxford Road has been used for littering for the past 4-5 years. Kathleen Mardirosian picks up the litter, bags it and the DPW pick them up. We need to put up a sign and maybe a camera. We do try to go through the left rubbish to find who owns it.
Selectman King does not feel that the privatization of transfer station was taken far enough. Mr. Spain is open to any suggestions. They said they will sit down with Mr. Murgo when he is available. Mr. King would like to put together a committee to study this.
On a Good Note:
The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, Matt Gardner-trimmed and pruned all trees in the common.
We had the opportunity to present Pearl Morrill who turned 105 with a proclamation on November 17th. What a terrific woman.
Thank you to the school for a great student government day. We had another bright group of students, Taylor Fox, Jillian Perkins, Brian Bott, Michael Miller, Brandon Moseley and Matt Jachimczyk. They did learn that things that they thought were simple were actually more complicated.
Mail:
Letter from the Bicentennial Committee regarding donations: $51.52/Uno fundraiser, $26.55/donation can, $1250.00/David Matson, $1000.00/Lenny’s Liquors, $275.00/Lenny’s Wine tasting, $5,045.00/direct mail campaign.
Motion made by Selectman Schold to accept the $7,648.07 in donations, seconded by Selectman Stowell.
Motion carried unanimously.
Chairman Plante wants to send his compliments to citizens and businesses of Millbury.
Letter from West Main Street residents Rosemary and Eleanor Norton regarding no parking on the street due to uneven surface and sewer covers. It has been addressed by the Chief and new sewer covers were put in.
Executive Session
Motion made by Selectman Stowell, seconded by Selectman Schold to move into Executive Session at 8:37 p.m. under Chapter 39, Section 23B, Paragraph 3.
Selectman King - Yes
Selectman Schold - Yes
Selectman Stowell - Yes
Selectman Ashmankas -Yes
Chairman Plante -Yes
Chairman Plante stated that the Board will leave Executive Session solely to adjourn.
The Board returned to open session as 9:20 p.m.
Adjournment
Motion made by Selectman King, seconded by Selectman Schold to adjourn at 9:20 p.m. Motion carried unanimously.
Respectfully submitted,
Tish Hayes, Secretary
E. Bernard Plante __________________________
Francis B. King __________________________
Kenneth I. Schold __________________________
Brian W. Stowell __________________________
Brian M. Ashmankas __________________________
Board of Selectmen
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