MONSON BOARD OF SELECTMEN
TUESDAY, MAY 25, 2004
The regular meeting of the Board of Selectmen convened at 7:00 p.m. in the Conference Room at 110 Main Street. In attendance were James R. Manning, Kathleen C. Norbut and Richard E. Guertin. Also present was the media. The Town Administrator and Town Counsel were not present.
Mr. Guertin made a motion to accept the meeting minutes of May 11, 2004 – open and executive sessions with one change being made to the executive session on page three next to the last sentence, changing the word top to “to”. Ms. Norbut seconded and it was so VOTED.
Pioneer Valley Planning Commission representatives James Mazik and Paul Bracciotti approached the Board of Selectmen with a presentation update. Mr. Mazik went over the FY ‘01 and ’02 programs. Technically the “Fiscal ’01 program is still not closed, as there are a few minor details still to be completed. There is roughly under $9,000.00 worth of work still to be done in minor exterior work in one or two projects. In the Fiscal ’02 program, there are three programs still remaining. The Child Abuse Prevention Planning Program, a consultant needed to be hired to work with the setting up some protocol and to work with the teaching staff on child abuse prevention. A consultant was hired in April. In the First-time Homebuyers Program, the purchase did occur and $10,000.00 was used from this
programs monies for this.
Mr. Mazik said $30,000.00 was taken from Housing Re-hab and the walk through is scheduled for tomorrow for the contractors. Bids should be received in early to mid June and by mid June they will know the status of this project. Completion will be done by September 30th. They have received help from Chip Lapointe and Squier Lumber on this project.
Mr. Mazik added that of the outstanding projects, approximately six have been completed as of now. Of the remaining six or seven, four are under construction. One was bid at the end of April and is not under construction yet. One project is under contract but has substantial deletions on it due to the costs, as it is a very expensive project.
The Child Abuse Prevention Planning Program, they are hoping to dovetail to call the Family or Domestic Violence Prevention Program, which will take on a broader town roll by involving the Police Department more. The Child Abuse would be a sub-center part of it, where now it is just focused on schools.
Mr. Bracciotti said the 2003 program has a new Teen Advisory Board Coordinator who started last week. They have been interviewing this week for the Youth Enrichment Coordinator and should be ready to make a decision by the end of the week. Mr. Bracciotti said it looks like there will be money enough for twelve to fourteen positions. Mr. Mazik added one critical thing here is the awards might not be granted until the end of June this year. The ’04 money might not be accessed if it gets funded for this program, so all the money left in the ’03 program might be it. Mr. Bracciotti said the Child Care Subsidies has money through early July. Green Street has had the asphalt applied to it over the last couple of days. The berm should be finished this week, which would allow them to come back to do the base for the
sidewalks. After some delaying and settling they will come back to do the overlay. All the leveling and tamping is done. This project has until September 30th to be completed.
Betty Sloope, the Town Treasurer approached the Board of Selectmen. Ms. Sloope said she would like to be able to appoint a new clerk. She had just previously done this, but the new clerk had to leave due to personal problems. This woman has been an account agent for temporary positions. She came from Account Temps to help Ms. Sloope out and she is a local resident. Ms. Sloope would like to be able to offer her the position. The only problem right now is there is a contingency in the contract that states, if you employed someone they get a conversion fee of approximately $1,000.00. Ms. Sloope wanted to make sure this was okay with the Board of Selectmen, even though she has this in her budget, before she went ahead and asked this woman if she wanted the position. Ms. Sloope said she didn’t know how long the agency
would require her to work as a temp before she can actually be hired. Ms. Sloope is meeting with the Account Temp representative tomorrow to find this out. Mr. Manning said he checked into this and said it can be done. Ms. Sloope said she would like to do this within the next two weeks. Mr. Guertin made a motion to have Ms. Sloope move ahead and pursue the hiring of the temp that had been discussed with the understanding that there is an open date that will be subject to whatever comes out of the discussion. Ms. Norbut seconded and it was so VOTED.
Master Plan Committee members Marilyn Gorman, Rebecca Jacobs and Joe Dasco approached the Board of Selectmen with a presentation of the Master Plan. Mr. Guertin said the Master Plan Committee consisted of fifteen people which was formed a couple of years ago. A month or two ago, the Planning Board officially approved the Master Plan document making it an official document. Sometime next month, they will ask that the document be placed on the Town’s web site. This week the Town Library was given a hard copy of the Master Plan as well as a disk. A copy was also given to the Town Clerk and the Building Inspectors office.
Ms. Gorman explained the make up of the Master Plan Committee and the process involved in obtaining the information and feedback. Also explained by Ms. Gorman was the four key areas or chapters. The Inventory Analysis is Chapter one. The Planing the Framework is Chapter two. The Plan for the Future is Chapter four. And Chapter five is Implementation. Ms. Gorman also explained Monson needs a Master Plan basically due to the increase in population.
Mr. Dasco explained the Planning Framework and the Plan for the Future. Mr. Dasco also explained there were three public meetings and bi-weekly monthly meetings, which were open to the public. They also met with various town departments and fixed some existing problems by re-codification. The re-codification was approved at the Special Town Meeting several months ago. Mr. Guertin added the re-codification has been approved at the State level with just a few cosmetic changes.
Ms. Jacobs explained the Open Space, Recreation and Agriculture as well as the Economic Downtown and Historic Sections of the document. Ms. Jacobs added through the CPA, Monson has the potential of raising half a million dollars a year. This would be used for open space acquisition, recreational repairs, restorations, building of ball fields or acquiring space for new fields, repair of historic buildings such as the library, Town offices or any number of buildings for a small share per person here in town. Ms. Jacobs added there has been talk of forming an Implementation Committee, and it is currently on the “to do” list. Ms. Jacobs also spoke of hiring a part-time or full-time Town Planner, which would benefit the town in the long run, by having someone in here to work on re-writing by-laws, work on grants,
etc. As the committee has worked on this document for two years and spent $70,000.00 on the re-codification as well as the document itself in making sure the town is moving in the right direction.
Mr. Guertin said he appreciates the effort the committee has put into this and the Board of Selectmen agreed and thanked them as well.
The next item on the agenda was to approve the Memorial Day Parade. Mr. Manning stated the parade would start at the Monson Medical Center at 10:00 a.m. Everyone is welcome to march down Main Street, stopping at the cemeteries along the way and ending at Memorial Hall where refreshments will be served. Mr. Manning said the American Legion is trying to get Barns Air Reserve to do a fly over at 11:00 a.m., which will be the end of the parade. Mr. Guertin made a motion to approve the Memorial Day parade starting at 10:00 a.m. and concluding at Memorial Hall. Ms. Norbut seconded and it was so VOTED.
Ms. Norbut encouraged the public to watch the television coverage or to go to a local Legion or VFW, which will be televising the new dedication of the World War II monument in Washington, D.C. on Saturday afternoon at 2:00 p.m.
Mr. Guertin made a motion to approve the Auctioneer License for Frank Kapsia d/b/a Wintergarden Auctions. Ms. Norbut seconded and it was so VOTED.
Mr. Guertin made a motion to approve the Pool Table License for Fat Cat Capital d/b/a Mustang Sally’s. Ms. Norbut seconded and it was so VOTED.
Mr. Guertin made a motion to approve the Bowling Alley License for Evelyn and Ronald Josefiak d/b/a Monson Bowling Alleys. Ms. Norbut seconded and it was so VOTED.
In other business to come before the Board of Selectmen, Ms. Norbut said the Board of Selectmen would be looking at re-appointments in the near future. She was wondering if a memo could be sent to the chairs of the different bodies to ask them to submit a report as to their recommendation of the membership including looking at the attendance and other qualifications, so the Board of Selectmen will know those being appointed do participate. Mr. Manning said this was done about four or five years ago, and should probably be done again. Mr. Guertin said he felt attendance is important and that the person being appointed should be there for 75% of the meetings, unless there is a perfectly good reason, as absenteeism makes it hard to get a quorum. It was suggested to ask the Chairperson to make a judgement as to how much that
person contributes to the committee. Ms. Norbut said she was looking at attendance, participation, knowledge of the subject and the interaction of community members that come to their Board and vice versa if the Board is going out to interact with the public. Mr. Guertin added the whole idea of someone being on a committee is for them to contribute to what is going on. Mr. Guertin said there are people trying to get on committees and there is no room as the committees are full. He feels that maybe the people trying to get on would be a greater contributor if there are those who don’t attend regularly or get involved. Mr. Manning said he would like to think about this first. Mr. Guertin made a motion the Board of Selectmen send a memo to each committee chair stating the criteria that Ms. Norbut has stated. And to ask each committee chair to notify the Board of Selectmen before their second meeting in June, when they have to do the re-appointments. And to notify the Board of
Selectmen of those members on the committee which meet this particular criteria with the understanding the Board of Selectmen are only going to re-appoint those people who meet this criteria. Ms. Norbut seconded and it was so VOTED.
Correspondence was read and completed.
At 8:33 p.m., Mr. Guertin made a motion to adjourn from open session. Ms. Norbut seconded and it was so VOTED.
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Richard E. Guertin
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