BOARD OF SELECTMEN
TUESDAY, JULY 24, 2007
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 Edward S. Harrison and Richard E. Guertin. Also present was the media. Kathleen C. Norbut and the Town Administrator were not present.
The Pledge of Allegiance was recited.
Acceptance of Meeting Minutes:
Mr. Guertin made a motion to accept the meeting minutes of July 10, 2007 – open session. Mr. Harrison seconded and it was so VOTED.
Pole Petition #8300 – One J.O. Pole – Ayers Road:
Mr. Guertin read pole petition #8300 – Ayers Road – into the record. There was no one in the audience to speak for or against the petition, and the Water/Sewer and Highway Departments had no objection to the pole location.
Mr. Guertin made a motion to accept pole petition #8300 as presented. Mr. Harrison seconded and it was so VOTED.
Hope Bodwell – Monson Free Library – Community Read Program:
Hope Bodwell approached the Board of Selectmen and announced, the community read program will kick off on Tuesday, August 14th with a book entitled “A Walk in the Woods” by Bill Bryson. Ms. Bodwell presented Mr. Harrison and Mr. Guertin with copies of the book and buttons which were made up in hopes to inspire everyone to speak with friends, family and strangers about the book. The program will kick off on August 14th which is the 70th anniversary of the Appalachian Trail and conclude on October 21st with the birthday party for Peaked Mountain. There is a full array of programs that will be taking place between these dates that are posted all over the town as well as listed on the library’s web site. Ms. Bodwell said this is a great book which is very funny.
Mr. Harrison and Mr. Guertin agreed it sounds very exciting and thanked her for the copies of the book as well as the update.
Monson Tourism Association -Town Wide Tag Sale Discussion:
Denise Morgan approached the Board of Selectmen on behalf of the Monson Tourism Association with a request for the use of the gazebo for the annual town wide tag sale on September 1st. Ms. Morgan explained nothing new has been added this year, the Boy Scouts will once again be holding a car wash in the Municipal Town Office Building parking lot, as well as a can and bottle drive at the gazebo. Food will also be sold at the gazebo as was done last year. Ms. Morgan explained the town wide tag sale to the listening audience.
Ms. Morgan also requested eight to ten orange cones to place on both sides of the street for the drive through map handouts, which worked great last year. This allowed the traffic to keep flowing smoothly without any back-ups. Ms. Morgan also inquired if the banner could be placed across Main Street for a longer period of time. Mr. Guertin explained there is a limit of three weeks and it was agreed she could place the banner at Dave Grieve Park from August 3rd to August 10th, prior to it going up across Main Street.
Mr. Guertin made a motion to allow the Monson Tourism use of the gazebo in Dave Grieve Park on Saturday, September 1, 2007, from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., permission for the use of eight to ten orange cones from the Highway Department, permission to hang the banner at Dave Grieve Park from August 3rd to August 10th and then to have the banner hung across Main Street from August 10, 2007 to September 1, 2007. Mr. Harrison seconded and it was so VOTED.
Parks and Recreation Commission/Cemetery Commission – Discussion of Planning Exercise for Outdoor Grounds Maintenance Operations:
Cemetery Superintendent Paul Lovell, Cemetery Commissioners Albert Wilcox, David Martin and Shawn Connery, Parks and Recreation Superintendent Timothy Pascale along with Parks and Recreation Commissioners Barry Cady, David Braskie and Stephen Slozak, approached the Board of Selectmen.
Mr. Guertin explained back in June of 2005, he initiated a memo that was sent to all the town department heads. Attached to the memo was a copy of their department’s annual budget for the last year and also a listing of all the capital items in that particular department. This was due to the fact that there is an annual shortfall in the town’s budget for the departments, and complaints of not receiving enough money from the departments. On the annual budget sheet was a request to list next to the item for this past year how much more money they would have wanted if they didn’t receive enough. Also, if there was something they would have liked to put in the budget for but didn’t because they knew they wouldn’t get it, put that down along with how much it would have cost. All of this data was
collected and processed by Mr. Guertin. Mr. Guertin explained just for the town departments, not including the school, the total was probably short about $1 million a year. On the capital side, a list was given to each department listing each capital item the Long Range Capital Planning Committee knew they had, when it was purchased and what it cost, and asked each department to estimate the life expectancy of that item. In the year that the item would be needed, they were asked to estimate the replacement cost. This was done up to the year 2038. Based on just this, the lowest amount on the capital perspective they were short was about $600,000.00, some years were a million and a half dollars short, and some years were a million three quarter dollars short. Mr. Guertin added what is interesting about this is the town basically has never pre-funded any of this as it has always been worked on an as needed basis.
Mr. Guertin explained in 2006, the Long Range Capital Planning Committee was formed with Deborah Mahar, Gretchen Neggers, the Superintendent of Schools Daniel Tassinari, the Business Manager, two people from the Finance Committee and himself. They met for the last year and a half every six weeks, sometimes more, sometimes less, but he sees this as going on for the next ten to fifteen years as this is not a short term issue. Mr. Guertin explained this is all about how does the town get more efficient and added if the town had a Grounds Maintenance Department whose responsibility was to take care of all town owned property, i.e. cemeteries, parks, schools, Memorial Hall, Municipal Office Building, gazebo, and this was their job, things would get done in an efficient manner with less duplication of equipment. Mr. Guertin
explained currently everything is done individually with the Cemetery doing what they do with their equipment and Parks and Recreation doing what they do with their equipment and the schools trying to mow the grass with a smaller more time consuming lawnmower and he wondered if there was anything that could be done with the current structure that could bring more efficiency to these departments and the town. From a capital perspective, Parks and Recreation are going out and purchasing new lawnmowers while at the same time the Cemetery is going out and purchasing new lawnmowers. If there was one department, possibly not as many new lawnmowers would be needed. The Board of Selectmen were asking these two Commissions if they could get together as a group, take the next month or two and see if there were something that could be done to make this situation more efficient and come back maybe in September to say this is what we have come up with. Even if they aren’t able to come up
with anything, come back and maybe something could be worked out. Mr. Guertin told the Commissions, to think of it as a town and not individual departments, in trying to develop a plan.
Mr. Lovell questioned if he could meet with the Long Range Capital Planning Committee to show them what he is up against and what the Cemetery does, as his department runs on seasonal labor. Mr. Guertin said he would rather they meet after the Departments and Commissioners had discussed this amongst themselves and together.
Mr. Wilcox said he would like to see liaisons on the Finance Committee brought back as he thought that worked out excellent and explained the liaisons would go up to the different departments two or three times on a Saturday to learn first hand what was going on, that way when they asked for something you had an idea if it was needed or not and this saved a lot of bickering back and forth. Mr. Wilcox said he would be willing to talk this over with the other two Cemetery Commissioners and then with the Parks and Recreation Commissioners as it would be helpful to know what their problems are and to find out what the Cemetery could or couldn’t do to help.
Mr. Harrison wondered who has the responsibility of maintaining the school property as both, Parks and Recreation and the custodians, do mowing. Mr. Pascale explained basically Parks and Recreation take care of the school grounds from the parking lots out and the schools take care of the grounds from the parking lots in. Mr. Pascale said the schools have two lawnmowers, one is a 54” and the other is a 72”. Mr. Harrison wondered if there are ways mowing could be reduced with larger equipment and added Mr. Lovell and Mr. Pascale know what their problems are on a day to day basis and how they deal with them, as well as what they would need to do to make it better and more efficient, along with what the overlaps between the departments are and where they could possibly share a common piece of equipment. Mr.
Harrison said he really didn’t have the familiarity in this area and that is where the two Commissions would need to get together and discuss this.
Mr. Slozak said he felt it would work out best if each Commission would meet, then correlate together and then contact the Board of Selectmen. Mr. Guertin added it would be nice if they could be in agreement when they returned, and if not, bring it back anyway so they could try to sort it out as a group.
Correspondence was read and completed.
At 7:45 p.m., Mr. Guertin made a motion to adjourn from open session. Mr. Harrison seconded and it was so VOTED.
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Richard E. Guertin, Clerk
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