BOARD OF SELECTMEN
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2008
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, Kathleen C. Norbut and Richard E. Guertin. Also present were the Town Administrator and the media.
The Pledge of Allegiance was recited.
Acceptance of Meeting Minutes:
Mr. Guertin made a motion to accept the meeting minutes for January 22, 2008 – open session. Ms. Norbut seconded and it was so VOTED.
The acceptance of the meeting minutes for the executive sessions of January 8th, 15th and 22nd were carried over to the next meeting, scheduled for March 4th.
Monson Library Director Hope Bodwell: “Monson Moves” Program Introduction:
Hope Bodwell approached the Board of Selectmen and explained the “Monson Moves” program. Ms. Bodwell stated the Library received a $5,000.00 health grant to provide health access to the town. One component of the grant will allow the library to up-date their collection of health related items such as books, videos, magazines, etc. and to create a health area in the library, which has been done. Another grant for $2,000.00 and a private donation, allowed the library to install new shelving and purchase a new computer for this area. A third part of this grant allows the Library to bring a health program to the community. Ms. Bodwell explained a brief survey was conducted with most of the community members agreeing they were concerned with obesity, for all ages. Due to this agreement, the Library is offering a
grant funded full slate of healthy programs, such as the “100 Mile Diet” with Sheila Sullivan on March 5th, “Calcium & Bone Health” with Kimberly Ladue RN on March 6th, and “Climbing the Food Chain” with Scott Gonnello on March 12th. Another goal is to have the community join in and walk a million miles. A walking kit will be offered at the Kid’s Fair on Saturday, April 12th from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon at Quarry Hill Community School. The kit is complete with a walking log, pedometer, water bottle and other healthy goodies. The time frame for the million mile walk will be from April 12th to August 31st and open to people of all ages. Once a month, the walking logs must be turned in. The total miles walked by all the participants will be added together to try to reach the goal of one million miles. At the end of the walking program, a community walk will be held with a block party held
afterward in the field behind the Town Office Building.
Monson Water & Sewer Commissioners: Discussion Regarding its Adjudicatory Appeal Relative to the Renewal Registration Statement for Verified Water Withdrawal:
Water/Sewer Commissioner Marshall Harris and Superintendent Craig Jalbert approached the Board of Selectmen. Mr. Jalbert explained the renewal registration is usually a routine procedure for the town wells, which happens every ten years. Mr. Jalbert explained the registration is an authorization to pump out water at a withdrawal rate that is approved by the Department of Environmental Protection. This time however, the Department of Environmental Protection has decided to add new conditions and restrictions aimed at Conservation. The first requirement is the town will be required to meet a sixty-five gallon, residential, per person, per day, per year, capital, which means for every person served residentially by the towns’ water system, the water used has to average out to no more than 65 gallons per person per day
throughout the year. In addition to that amount, is an unaccountable water clause that cannot exceed 10% of the amount used. This 10% is to allow for water which you don’t know where it went, such as leaks, breaks, etc. This plan must be in place by the year 2017 no matter what. Mr. Jalbert explained the town is meeting the number right now, but there is no guarantee the town will continue to meet it in the future, as this is based on a ten year program and does not account for any demographic changes.
The town must also develop and implement a compliance plan if certain milestones aren’t met, and along the way there are different milestones Monson will have to meet in performance standards. The big implementation, which will affect a lot of people, is the town will be required to develop a Seasonal Demand Management Plan which will restrict all non-essential outdoor water use between May 1st and September 30th during drought advisory or drought watch conditions. Mr. Jalbert added we are under a drought watch right now, in the winter, therefore this will pretty much happen every summer affecting people watering lawns, gardens, filling swimming pools, washing cars, etc.; golf courses are considered non-recreational and therefore the water restriction would not apply to them, or to any
commercial property. Mr. Jalbert further explained, when you place a restriction on water use, usage goes down. In order to get the same amount of money to cover the budget for the Water Department so they can do the things they need to do on a yearly basis, they would have to charge more for the water which is being used. The second issue is the enforcement of the restriction as there is nothing in place for this. This is a statewide program with all the cities and towns monitored by the State. Monson must have these restrictions in place by the spring of 2009. Mr. Jalbert added he has no idea what the penalties are if Monson doesn’t comply, but feels if this works the way everything else does with the DEP, there will be letters of non-compliance followed by fines. Thirty-nine communities across the state are appealing these conditions. Monson is close to meeting the criteria. Last year Monson met the required 65 gallons per day, per person, however on the 10% unaccountable,
Monson was over the limited amount.
Ms. Norbut felt our State Senator and State Representative, should be made aware of these regulations, as she doesn’t see where this is statute if it is DEP directed. Mr. Jalbert doubted the authority of the DEP as well because they aren’t legislative. Ms. Norbut stated we also aren’t seeing studies done to see if this is even relevant to our community. Mr. Jalbert noted Mass. Water Works have been very instrumental in a lot of the points mentioned. Mass. Water Works is a private organization which has a committee regarding legislature and mandates.
Mr. Harris said the reason he and Mr. Jalbert are here tonight is to make people aware of what is going on, as they will be hearing about this and seeing a lot more in the newspapers. Mr. Jalbert added he and the Water Commissioners are doing all they can by appealing this, but he really isn’t optimistic. This is a legal process with Town Counsel involved.
Mr. Jalbert stated the car wash in town recycles water and both, Ace Molding and Lamcotec, recycle a lot of the cooling water used on their machines for economical reasons, however the restriction isn’t aimed at businesses, it’s aimed at residential properties and watering lawns, gardens and so on. Mr. Jalbert suggested everyone at home contact the State Representatives and the people at the DEP.
Request to Endorse Pioneer Valley Clean Energy Plan – Discussion:
Ms. Norbut read the Memorandum of Agreement for Promoting and Implementing the Pioneer Valley Clean Energy Plan and the Local Endorsement (as attached -pages 1 & 2), into the record.
Mr. Guertin made a motion to sign the Memo of Understanding. Ms. Norbut seconded and it was so VOTED.
Appointment of Insurance Advisory Committee Members:
Mr. Guertin made a motion to appoint Pamela McDonald, Karen Canning and Peter Matrow to the Insurance Advisory Committee effective immediately through June 30, 2008. Ms. Norbut seconded and it was so VOTED.
Appointment of Timothy Gerry as “Student Police Officer”:
Police Chief Stephen Kozloski approached the Board of Selectmen regarding the appointment of a Student Officer. Chief Kozloski explained this is a town resident who is a full time teacher in another town, but who wishes to attend the Part Time Police Academy so that he may have a supplemental income once he graduates.
Ms. Norbut made a motion to appoint Timothy Gerry as a student officer effective February 26, 2008 (the starting date for the academy) through the successful completion of the Academy. Mr. Guertin seconded and it was so VOTED.
Budget Presentation – Finance Director and Town Administrator:
Finance Director Deborah Mahar approached the Board of Selectmen. Ms. Neggers explained tonight, she and Ms. Mahar just wanted to put out suggestions for the Board of Selectmen to consider.
Ms. Neggers explained in the past few months, the Finance Committee and the Board of Selectmen have had discussions where early on in the budget process it was evident the town would be facing huge challenges this year. Ms. Neggers added the House One Governors budget has been received, the lottery has been level funded in the State aid calculation and a level services budget has been prepared. Ms. Neggers explained Monson has approximately a one million forty thousand dollar deficit between what is available and what is needed to provide level funded services. She and Ms. Mahar have added in $316,000.00 from Free Cash which is half the amount of the $633,000.00 currently available in the Free Cash Account. When looking at the revenue, Ms. Neggers said it looks impressive. The Chapter 70 funds have increased this year by
$460,000.00, when last year it only went up $170,000.00, therefore there is actually a 3.9% increase in revenue this year. However, there is a $900,000.00 increase in revenue including State Aid; Snow and Ice went up $150,000.00, the assessment we were charged on the Cherry Sheet is up $153,000.00 ($147,000.00 is for the retired teachers health insurance) so there is a 34% increase in this one assessment alone. This number will continue to increase. The town’s health insurance for the remaining active employees is up $155,000.00 with a 9.1%increase. The pension account went up $100,000.00. The town is mandated by the State to increase school spending by $79,900.00. FICA is at $17,000.00. Fuel for town vehicles is up $40,000.00 with fuel for the buses up $30,000.00. Heat and electricity for the town buildings, excluding the schools, is up approximately $21,000.00. This totals $750,000.00 for increased expenses on the aforementioned items. That would leave about $156,000.00 to
fund school energy costs and any increase in the Pathfinder appropriation and any school spending beyond net school spending. This is why there is a 3.9% budget and the town is in a position of having to talk about cuts. Ms. Neggers said she and Ms. Mahar have come up with a menu to itemize different reductions to move forward in the budget process, which will ultimately proceed from the Board of Selectmen, to the Finance Committee and then to a Town meeting. Ms. Neggers explained right now, the town is short by $1,040,000.00. Mr. Guertin added, within the school budget itself, the State mandates special needs for children have to be addressed first, and the special needs identified have gone up considerably. Mr. Guertin recalled the school budget has a proposed special needs budget which ranges from a low $2 million to a little over $3 million. This is mandated by the State and comes out of the money that would be there for all of the rest of the students which means the
school gets hit twice. Basically what happens is by the time the mandates are funded, the amount left for the general population of students is squeezed so the only way to come up with the amount needed is to start reducing teachers. Ms. Neggers noted the special needs budget has increased over $400,000.00 for next year and all of our new revenue only totals $900,000.00. The State mandates net school spending, so if that is all the school receives, it would mean the town would have to come up with another $14,292.00 to meet that figure. If net school spending plus $180,000.00 was allocated to the school, the town would have to come up with $194,292.00 in cuts. If the net school spending plus 3% was allocated to the school, the town would have to come up with $248,981.00 in cuts. These figures do not include raises, etc. Ms. Mahar stated the School Department is looking at their level services budget and coming up with what their cuts are going to look like if they receive the net
school spending budget. Ms. Neggers further explained, if you take the total budget and ruled out all of the school items, it leaves $5.2 million and if you try some how to hold onto the police, fire, ambulance, highway and the debt service, it leaves $2.3 million to run everything else in the town on, such as the Selectmen’s office, legal accounts, collections and all of the Financing departments, the municipal buildings, maintenance, ZBA, Planning, Conservation, Board of Health, Animal Control, Library, Cemetery, Parks & Recreation, Council on Aging, the Veterans, insurance benefits and capital; and this is what the town is looking at to make the needed cuts. Ms. Neggers went through some of the potential cuts she and Ms. Mahar have identified as follows:
· Potential to reduce a clerical position in the Collector’s Office from full-time to 16 hours a week for a saving to the town of $17,000.00 including benefits.
· Level funding the Town Report for a savings of $2,500.00.
· Reduce the full-time custodian from 30 hours to 25 hours per week for a savings of $3,400.00.
· Eliminate the clerical over-time in the Building Department for a savings of $1,400.00.
· Eliminate the Building Inspector’s Site Clean-up for a savings of $2,000.00.
· Level funding the Police Department expense for a savings of $10,000.00.
· Eliminate a Police Officer for a savings of $30,000 with benefits, net unemployment.
· Eliminate all the dispatchers and to approach the State Police to take on dispatching on a regional basis – if feasible.
· Eliminate the clerical part-time position at the Cemetery Department for a savings of $6,200.00, net unemployment.
· Eliminate all seasonal help at the Cemetery Department for a savings of $11,500.00.
· Eliminate a Laborer at the Highway Department for a savings of $32,384.00 plus the benefits of $4,400 added to it.
· Reduce the Emergency Management salary by $1,000.00.
· Eliminate the second shift of EMT’s for a savings of $32,000.00 net unemployment.
· The School is working aggressively on the School Transportation budget – originally they sought a 17% increase – reducing that by $66,000.00.
· Level funding the General Highway and Bridges Account with a cut of $43,540.00.
· Level service for Snow & Ice for a savings of $23,250.00.
· Level funding Emergency Road Repair for a savings of $2,000.00.
· Level funding the Tree Warden Expense Account for a savings of $6,500.00.
· Eliminating Valley Human Services funding for a savings of $3,000.00.
· Not holding a Household Hazardous Waste Day for a savings of $6,200.00.
· Eliminate the part-time clerical help within the Board of Health Office for a savings of $2,100.00.
· Council On Aging – level funding would be $3,000.00 leaving $9,970.00 for expenses – reduce from a 5 day to a 4 day schedule for a savings of approximately $22,000.00, leaving $126,000.00 for salaries for the Council On Aging.
· Eliminating the 30 hour a week Parks and Recreation grounds employee for a savings of $11,700.00 with $9,600.00 in benefits net unemployment costs.
· Library – to level funding would achieve a reduction of $7,800.00. This could be reduced additionally to a $26,000.00 reduction which is a 10%, leaving the Library $236,000.00 in funding.
Ms. Neggers said she has spoken to everyone who might be affected by the proposed budget cuts, so there will be no surprises.
The aforementioned cuts equal $495,000.00. In scenario number one, if the schools are at net school spending, this would leave $481,000.00 for give back, such as keeping a Police Officer at $30,000.00 or EMT at $32,000.00, etc. In scenario number two if it is the net school spending plus the $180,000.00, this would leave $301,000.00. In scenario number three with the 3% increase, it would leave $246,000.00. Ms. Neggers said she also thinks the department heads need to review their budget proposals in order to try to come up with additional places for budget cuts. Ms. Neggers explained even in the worse case scenario, which would be the 10% reduction; the School Department would still need to reduce their level service budget by $800,000.00. Mr. Guertin suggested the Board of Selectmen reduce their salaries to zero to save
$5,000.00.
Ms. Neggers said this might also be the time to inspire Park and Recreation and the Cemetery Departments to work together, as she would rather deal with grass not getting mowed versus having 25 or more children in classrooms or having to wait 25 minutes for an EMT.
Ms. Mahar said next week, on February 20th, she and Ms. Neggers are going to meet with a representative from MIIA to look at what kind of products they have that might help mitigate some kind of health care increases locally. Ms. Neggers added the most important component is the current unstructured benefit plan for the Town employees. There is no consistency as it has been developed over many decades. Some things were voted on by the Selectmen, some on a ballot and some at a Town meeting. There are retired teachers who receive a 90% health insurance benefit and municipal retirees who receive a 50% health insurance benefit. The costs of the HMO’s also vary. Ms. Neggers said by converting to the GIC, we could save about $200,000.00 a year. Ms. Neggers also said the Town of Longmeadow had a committee that
did a very comprehensive analysis of the Hampden County Retirement System, their investments and the way they do things in a Municipal Partnership Act and the laws which were passed. Ms. Neggers added the people in Longmeadow are very interested in coming to speak in Monson regarding this. Recently this group met with the Town of Wilbraham. Mr. Harrison thought maybe Monson should meet with them as well.
Ms. Norbut suggested forming a study committee, comprised of municipal personnel as well as community members, to get ideas and to look at all the options possible of forming a DPW, as this has been discussed for several years. Steps would need to be taken to work together on this with the Highway and Parks & Recreation Commission, and to take an action approach. Mr. Guertin said the committee’s responsibility would be to see how a DPW works, all of the plusses and minuses, speak with other towns and then put it up against our town. Ms. Norbut suggested placing this on the agenda for the next meeting, and if anyone listening tonight had any suggestions, they could let the Selectmen know prior to the next meeting. Mr. Harrison also suggested working with, or against, the legislature to try to ease some of the
burdens placed on municipalities created by the kinds of regulations, as previously discussed earlier by the Water Department. Mr. Harrison felt there is a need to pressure the legislature to come out with more reasonable regulations that don’t place a financial burden on the town or make it extremely difficult to accomplish.
Ms. Norbut added with regards to the proposed cuts within the town, the town needs to be very careful and very thorough in looking at the impact to the town, the level of the workload and the number of people serviced and cared by the department.
Peter Ross of the Finance Committee, and who was in the audience, stated Senator Brewer has been invited to the Finance Committee meeting to have a discussion regarding some of the issues facing the town and to be informed on just how the town is being impacted and the seriousness of it.
Acknowledge Request for Determination of Right-of-First-Refusal Richard Cardano, Bumstead Road, 30 Acres:
It was acknowledged the Right-of-First-Refusal has been received for the 30 acres of land owned by Richard Cardano on Bumstead Road. The Conservation Commission has sent a memo to the Board of Selectmen regarding this property, and they are now awaiting word from the Planning Board prior to making any decisions.
In Other Business to Come Before the Board of Selectmen:
· Mr. Guertin made a motion to appoint Joseph Prior to the Local Casino Study Committee effective immediately through June 30, 2008. Ms. Norbut seconded and it was so VOTED.
· Ms. Neggers said she will be on vacation during the next scheduled Selectmen’s meeting on February 26th. It was agreed to cancel the meeting for February 26 and reschedule it for March 4th, along with the regularly scheduled meetings on March 11th and March 25th. It was also agreed to place the discussion of a Department of Public Works on the agenda for March 4th.
· Ms. Norbut noted the meeting minutes for the Local Casino Task Force are now posted on the Town’s web site under www.monson-ma.gov on the page for the Selectmen’s Office.
At 9:20 p.m., Mr. Guertin made a motion to adjourn from open session to go into executive session for the purpose of discussing collective bargaining and litigation, 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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