MONSON BOARD OF SELECTMEN
TUESDAY, MARCH 15, 2005
This meeting was held in replacement of the March 8, 2005 meeting, which was canceled due to inclement weather.
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 were the Town Administrator and the media. Town Counsel was not present at this meeting.
Acceptance of Meeting Minutes –
Mr. Guertin made a motion to accept the meeting minutes of February 1, 2005 – executive session and February 22, 2005 – open and executive sessions. Ms. Norbut seconded and it was so VOTED.
Pole Petition #8083 – Thayer Road – For the relocation of one pole.
Mr. Guertin read the petition into the record. There was no public comment or input. The Water/Sewer and Highway Departments expressed no objection to the pole relocation. Ms. Norbut made a motion to approve pole petition #8083 as presented. Mr. Guertin seconded and it was so VOTED.
Pole Petition #8084 – Silver Street – For the installation of one J.O. pole.
Mr. Guertin read the petition into the record. There was no public comment or input. The Water/Sewer and Highway Departments expressed no objection to the pole location. Ms. Norbut made a motion to approve pole petition #8084 as presented. Mr. Guertin seconded the motion and it was so VOTED.
Open Space and Recreation Plan Update Committee – Status Report –
Jessie Greene approached the Board of Selectmen. Mr. Greene said the committee has completed gathering the information and public participation will be involved in the next stage. Mr. Greene showed the Board of Selectmen the preliminary so far, for the first three sections, and explained there are numerous maps throughout the proposed booklet. Mr. Greene said the committee has tried to do the maps in black and white, as well as the other pictures, to save money on the color, however a lot of the overlay maps get very complicated with too many shades of gray. One of the criticisms that the Ninety-nine Plan had from the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission was that the maps were not adequate and should be improved. Mr. Greene said twenty booklets will be printed and asked if the town would be willing to provide $300.00 so
that the copies could be printed in color. The Open Space and Recreation Committee will be holding a public meeting to receive input from the public on Wednesday, March 23, 2005 at 7:00 p.m. in the cafetorium in the High School. Mr. Greene invited the Selectmen to attend this meeting. The meeting will start with a short presentation by Leslie Duthie and Mr. Greene on why the committee is doing open space planning and what the state of open space is in Monson along with some of the good things that have happened since the last plan. Ms. Duthie is going to present some tools for property owners to use to help preserve their land. The rest of the meeting will be in workshop format in small groups. The participants will be working on filling out surveys, holding group discussions and mapping activities, just to name a few. Ms. Neggers said flyers have been placed around town regarding the public meeting and it has also been posted on the towns’ web site. Ms. Duthie and Ms.
Neggers have left some materials with the Library Director, Hope Bodwell, who is putting together a display using some of the new maps, photographs and basic informational materials in order to help notify the public of the up-coming public meeting at the High School. This will also give residents an idea of some of the types of things they will be looking at and discussing at the meeting. Ms. Neggers said it is very important for the local citizens to attend these meetings, to participate, to fill out the survey and to give input on what is important and what isn't. The Open Space and Recreation Committee is hoping to get as many people to attend this meeting as possible. Ms. Neggers added this meeting pertains to historical resources, recreational resources as well as the open space. The committee will continue to collect the surveys for a few weeks after the meeting. Surveys can be printed from the web site and submitted. Ms. Norbut thanked Mr. Greene, Ms. Duthie and the others
for doing a lot of prep-work, putting a lot of thought into preparing everything, including the surveys and presentations, and for getting ready for the up-coming meeting. Mr. Guertin made a motion to transfer $300.00 from the Gifts to the Town Account to support the printing of the maps as Mr. Greene has requested. Ms. Norbut seconded and it was so VOTED.
Review Capital Funding Proposal –
The capital funding proposal was carried over from the last meeting of the Board of Selectmen at which time the Financial Components presented a recommendation to the Board of Selectmen. During that meeting, the capital funding proposal was discussed in great depth. The recommendation was presented to the Finance Committee last Monday night (March 7th) as requested by the Board of Selectmen. The Finance Committee also had additional questions. This information was provided to the Finance Committee last night at their meeting. The Finance Committee voted last night to endorse this proposal as presented. Mr. Guertin made a motion to transfer from the Gifts to the Town Account, the sum of $34,000.00 to be used as follows: $18,000.00 would be used to replace the garage doors on the Highway Department building;
$10,000.00 would be used to repair the fire escape on the Town Office Building and $6,000.00 would be used to up-grade the software in the Assessors office. Ms. Norbut seconded and it was so VOTED. The other component of this did not need to be acted upon tonight as it is a warrant article and still has time.
Landfill ISA Consultant Selection –
Ms. Neggers said companies were solicited for proposals. Ms. Neggers met with four of companies, which submitted proposals, Tate and Howard, New England Environmental, SEA Consulting and Tighe and Bond. Ms. Neggers presented two proposals to the Board of Selectmen tonight, one from SEA Consulting and the other from Tighe and Bond, as she felt their qualifications, particularly their experience on similar projects, were more what the town was looking for. On the project approach and scope of services, each firm was asked to present their own approach to the project and what they would do. After analyzing the various approaches submitted, the search was narrowed down to two firms, Tighe and Bond and SEA Consulting. Ms. Neggers recommended awarding the contract to SEA Consulting of Rocky Hill Connecticut, based specifically
on their projectile approach, which is more aggressive then that presented by Tighe and Bond. In the proposal submitted by SEA Consulting, they spoke about doing an expanded ISA and potentially allowing the town to avoid performing a costly comprehensive site assessment. This approach has been successfully used in other communities. They also spoke of performing an Electro-magnetic survey in order to outline the horizontal width of the landfill and to actually delineate it. SEA Consulting is also proposing one up-gradient well and three down-gradient wells with at least one or two being deep wells for monitoring. Ms. Norbut agreed that the three-prong approach, looking at three sites within the site, makes a lot of sense. Ms. Norbut made a motion to accept the proposal that Ms. Neggers had put forth with the recommendation of SEA Consulting Inc., as the ISA consultant selection. Mr. Guertin seconded and it was so VOTED.
Approve Additional Snow & Ice Deficit Spending Authorization –
The Finance Committee approved last night at their meeting, an additional $50,000.00 in Snow and Ice Deficit Spending. $30,000.00 of this has already been expended, leaving $20,000.00 to the good. Ms. Neggers said Mr. Morrell has very energetically been completing the forms and attending meetings with MEMA to receive reimbursement from the January blizzard. The town anticipates receiving a little more than $30,000.00 back in this reimbursement. Mr. Guertin made a motion to approve the additional $50,000.00 for Snow and Ice removal. Ms. Norbut seconded and it was so VOTED.
In Other Business to Come Before the Board of Selectmen :
Town Meeting Warrants -
The Annual Town meeting is scheduled for Monday, May 9th according to the by-law, and the warrant must be posted seven days in advance. This would mean the warrant would have to be posted by Friday, April 29th. A Special Town meeting will need to be held within the Annual Town meeting, which the warrants will have to be posted fourteen days in advance, which will be April 22nd, or no later than April 25th. The Board of Selectmen will open the warrants at their meeting next week on March 22nd and the goal for closing the warrants will be April 12th, but the Annual could be left open until April 26th if needed. The Special Town meeting warrants would have to be closed on April 12th. Ms. Neggers said she would notify all of the department
heads and post this information on the web site.
Also, in Other Business to Come Before the Board of Selectmen –
Annual Town Elections
Ms. Norbut reminded everyone of the up-coming Annual Town Elections to be held on Monday, April 4th from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. in the Town Office Building, and added she is hoping for a good turnout with a lot of citizen participation.
Correspondence was read and completed.
At 7:40 p.m., Mr. Guertin made a motion to adjourn from open session to go into executive session for the purpose of discussing collective bargaining, not to return to open session. Ms. Norbut seconded and it was so VOTED.
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Richard E. Guertin, Clerk
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