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Meeting of 2011-06/28
BOARD OF SELECTMEN
JUNE 28, 2011

The regular meeting of the Board of Selectmen convened at 7:00 p.m. in the Conference Room at 29 Thompson Street. In attendance were Dr. Richard M. Smith, John F. Goodrich II and Edward A. Maia. Also present were Town Administrator Gretchen E. Neggers and the media.

Dr. Smith announced to the people in the audience this was a regular meeting for the Board of Selectmen and not to discuss any bylaws or temporary housing, which the Planning Board will be doing that tomorrow night at their meeting.

The Pledge of Allegiance was recited.

Acceptance of Meeting Minutes:
Mr. Goodrich made a motion to accept the meeting minutes for June 21, 2011 – open session. Mr. Maia seconded and it was so VOTED.

FEMA Community Relations Representative – Explanation of FEMA Process:
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) representatives Frank Ollivierre and Elisa Nigaglioni and U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Public Affairs Specialist Officer with the Office of Disaster Assistance Greg Dawson approached the Board of Selectmen.

Mr. Ollivierre stated when the tornado struck on June 1st a preliminary damage assessment was done by FEMA. The assessment was presented to the President of the United States to be declared a national disaster. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts invited FEMA in to work in a joint effort with the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA). Mr. Ollivierre explained it’s a two way street with each needing information from one another. The SBA is a partner of FEMA and they always work together.

Mr. Ollivierra explained they visit to the streets impacted, going door to door asking if they had any damage as a result of the disaster and if they have insurance or not. FEMA also relies on word of mouth in notifying residents as they can’t reach everyone. It was noted residents need to register and get a registration number by going to the FEMA Recovery Center set up at Granite Valley Middle School, or on the website or by calling 1-800-621-3362; after sixty days from the declaration you can no longer register. The cutoff date is August 16, 2011. After an inspection is done, usually 7 to 10 days after registration, the resident will get a letter from FEMA notifying them if they are eligible and what they are eligible for. Mr. Olliverra said even if you have insurance, you should still register just in case the insurance company doesn’t cover something. Ms. Neggers added when in doubt, register.

Mr. Dawson explained it’s his job to make sure no stone is unturned in getting out information on assistance that is available from the SBA. Mr. Dawson reiterated the two teams, FEMA and the SBA always work together. When a resident registers with FEMA, they will get a SBA application. SBA makes long term low interest loans to homeowners, renters and small businesses. Mr. Dawson stated not everyone will qualify for the FDA loan, and that is where the SBA comes in. Homeowners and renters may apply for these loans for losses not covered by insurance or other recoveries. The SBA offers up to $200,000 with interest rates as low as 2.68% for homeowners. Renters and homeowners may borrow up to $40,000 to repair or replace clothing, furniture, cars, appliances or other necessary personal items damaged or destroyed in the disaster. Homeowners may apply for up to $200,000 to repair or replace their primary residence to its pre-disaster condition. The loan funds may not be used to upgrade homes unless the upgrades are required by the local building codes.

Businesses can borrow up to $2 million with interest rates as low as 4%. Non-profits can qualify for up to $2 million with interest rates of 3%. Mr. Dawson added even businesses that did not sustain physical damage, but lost revenues as a result of the incident can qualify. The most important thing is to not disqualify your self by not applying and going through the process, register with FEMA and fill out the SBA application. Mr. Dawson added these are your tax dollars from the federal government working for you. Residents who can’t get into a center may call 1-800-659-2955 and someone will walk them through the SBA application process. Again, the registration period will be over by August 16th.

The Board of Selectmen thanked them for coming in.

Vegetative Debris Pickup – Schedule Reminder:
Ms. Neggers said it was announced last week at the Selectmen’s meeting, and it has been on the sign board downtown, announcing this will be the last week for brush pick-up. Ms. Neggers read the list of streets and the days they would be picked up into the record.

Ms. Neggers said she was asked by FEMA to talk to people because there are only certain categories of vegetative debris they will reimburse the town on. The other category is called ineligible debris. What FEMA will pick up is brush that is off maintained property, if something fell onto a house, car, etc. It’s not for clearing debris from undeveloped land residents may own. Ms. Neggers added FEMA is gravely concerned there has been a number of areas they have tagged in town where they will not be able to reimburse the town at the 75% level. FEMA has a federal form that is a Site Record of Ineligible Debris Operations. They have aerial view photographs of before and after of the town and they are counting stumps and trees. The town is paying $31.93 per cubic yard for vegetative debris that is picked up. If it becomes too excessive, whatever FEMA does not reimburse is obviously the responsibility of the local taxpayers. Ms. Neggers added FEMA is coming down on the town pretty aggressively about some of the areas. They have a list of addresses and the property owners have been told, FEMA will not be able to pick up all of the debris. For example, one residence had the equivalent of 600 cubic yards of vegetative debris which would have been $18,000.00 for just that one property.

Ms. Neggers said at the close of yesterday 90,472 cubic yards of vegetative debris had been picked up, 194 trees had been identified as being dangerous in the right-of-way and removed, and there are an additional 758 hazardous trees identified that the town will probably be responsible for. The total cost is $3,421,648.00 just on the vegetative debris removal at this point; 25% for which we are responsible for paying at the local level. Ms. Neggers said she feels the town will hit the $5million mark just in vegetative debris.

Ms. Neggers noted if residents have debris that isn’t picked up; it has probably been deemed ineligible, especially if you have large quantities.

Mr. Goodrich wondered if it’s premature thinking or if it might be a good thing to start talking about holding a Special Town Meeting in the next month or so, to start discussing how we are going to pay for this on the local side. Ms. Neggers responded it’s premature thinking, the DOR has just received word that emergency legislation has just passed so we can do temporary borrowing to keep our cash flow intact, also she doesn’t know when we will know our final costs as we still have road damages, culvert issues, and many infrastructure issues and we haven’t even begun to tabulate costs on. Ms. Neggers said she is hoping that if people advocate with the state, the state may help out with the costs. There is discussion at the Congressional level or the Federal level, of possibly doing a 90/10%, but Ms. Neggers doesn’t know the status of this.

Town Offices – Status of Re-Opening:
Ms. Neggers said all the offices are open with the exception of the Board of Health office and running as they were. The Board of Health office is just getting going as there has been a staffing problem that we are trying to address by utilizing volunteers and existing staff. If people call the Board of Health office, messages are being checked and if people come in and it’s an emergency, we can contact the Health Agent or they can leave messages with the Assistant Town Clerk.

Ms. Neggers said many people have wondered about the old Town Office Building and what is going on there. Ms. Neggers said next Wednesday, July 6th, there will be a meeting with the insurance company and structural engineer to review the preliminary report. Mr. Goodrich, Chip Lapointe and Larry Tuttle who is the local architect who did the design for the renovation in 1998, will be sitting in on behalf of the town. Ms. Neggers noted a lot of this will depend on the structural damage done if any, other than the roof being gone. The building has continued to take on water and ceiling tiles continue to come down, so the building will need buttoning up stop the water from coming in.

Report on Tornado Losses – Estimated Residential and Town Losses/Expenses:
Ms. Neggers identified some of the claims the town filed on its losses due to tornado damage, which are: the Town Office Building; the roof at Memorial Hall (the Historical Commission has been overseeing the repairs on the Memorial Hall roof to keep its historic integrity); the Highway Department roof; the salt shed and storage building roofs at the Highway garage; the Water Department roof; two large 500,000 gallon water tanks which had no observed damage but the aerial photography showed the path of the tornado went right over them and it was agreed with the insurance company to hire a consultant to perform full interior and exterior inspections to see if there is any damage we couldn’t see; the roof on the gazebo at Dave Grieve Park; the Parks and Recreation storage shed was completely destroyed; destruction and loss of the skate park; numerous locations of fencing particularly at Veterans Field and the tennis courts; and the Keep Homestead Museum had minor damage to the garage and an alarm panel. The town filed claims on six vehicles, two police vehicles were a total loss and one was repairable, the Senior Center had received a donation of a car used to deliver meals that was destroyed. The Police lost an ATV trailer and the ATV is repairable. The town also filed a claim on the Police communication tower. Ms. Neggers noted the Police Department is utilizing a 50 foot pole for communications National Grid installed and the police Department had the last of their modular trailers installed this week behind the Office Building where the skate park was located, and conditions are getting a little bit better. Ms. Neggers added the Police Department never stopped providing services to the community. The Fire Department lost some expensive saws and Parks and Recreation lost a lot of their equipment that was inside their storage building.

Ms. Neggers said at this point in time the insurance company has $3 million on reserve and said we have relocation expenses. The Town has a $200,000 limit on our insurance policy. Ms. Neggers was unsure if we are going to go over that limit or not as a lot the costs are in building contents.

Ms. Neggers explained on the residential side, Principal Assessor Ann Murphy did a rapid response assessment on approximately 248 properties and documented about $11,917,210 in residential value lost. Ms. Neggers said if this had happened last year the tax rate for the current fiscal year would have been 26¢ higher on average, or $50 on an average home valued at $220,000. These values will over time come back on, but for now the tax burden has been shifted over to the remaining property owners. The land does retain its value.

Building Inspector Hiring Process – Status and Discussion:
Ms. Neggers reiterated pursuant to the vote of the Board of Selectmen last week, it has been advertised Monson is seeking a full-time Building Inspector; prior to that the town was looking for a part-time Building Inspector. Six applications were received. The applicants have been contacted, and they stated would be interested in the full-time position. Currently we are accepting applications until July 8th. The interviewing committee consists of Ms. Neggers, Mr. Lapointe, Linda Hull who is a key person in that department, and a local contractor that is somewhat on the retired side to participate from a builder’s side of the perspective. The Board of Selectmen agreed to have the committee screen the applicants and to bring forward the top three candidates, or possibly a strong forth.

Disaster Recovery with Dr. Shirley Laska from Centers for Hazards, Assessments, Response and Technology:
Dr. Laska approached the Board of Selectmen and explained the town will think about what they can lend to the next generation. Dr. Laska added you have to worry about the reconstruction yet be thinking about the visioning of the community and what you want it to be. Dr. Laska said the qualities for recovery are self-determination, creativity, trust and cooperation among community members and take time to mourn that which they have lost and then consider what they want their future to be. Dr. Laska also said you need to give yourself a break, don’t get exhausted, you can’t get it done today or tomorrow, it’s going to take time. Come to grips with the fact no matter how good the person is you are working with, bureaucracy never seems to work, trust that they will always fail you and find ways to make it work for you.

Dr. Laska explained you need to vision what you see the community to be so people can hear you and support you, with foundation grants, donations, government monies, historical societies, tree arborists’ society, etc., but they can’t help you unless you know what your vision is. Everyone has to come to the table and identify what they can do for the town and not drop it, but continue doing them by picking something that works for you. Dr. Laska said they discovered bureaucracy can harm a community’s recovery if they don’t know how a community functions, so you must take your own leadership. The timeframe can be a long haul, and it will be much longer than you think.

Dr. Laska noted, after speaking with mental health specialists both here and in Louisiana, the worse time for stress may not be yet, because you are so focused on that immediate recovery, you’re drilling down and holding yourself in your psyche; but once the first stage ends and you have a chance to stop, the mourning begins and some people will have more challenges with mental health issues and you need to reach out for support with clergy and counselors, as it will be very stressful.

Dr. Laska said neighborhoods might want to get a committee together to discuss the quality of the homes they rebuild and the vision they want for their neighborhood, if they want to go modern or think about qualities that have characteristics of the historic community. Dr. Laska said the committee should meet to discuss their visions, and they might also want to discuss recycling a fireplace or old hardwood floors. The committee needs to talk and argue with people in order to have it uniformed and conscious in vision.

The Board of Selectmen thanked Dr. Laska for coming in.

Other Business to Come Before the Board:
  • Ms. Neggers said the Local Resource Center has been set up in the Hillside Building, staffed by volunteers for the past few weeks. Ms. Neggers said she has spoken to Hope Bodwell and Liz Manley who has said the Resource Center is closed, however the room will be maintained as a Resource Library which will contain all the written material, and may be accessed during regular business hours. If anyone has a specific question we will have the answer or we will find the answer. This information will also be posted on the town’s website.
  • Ms. Neggers read into the record another Zoning bylaw on the books addressing reconstruction after a catastrophe or demolition, and noted this can also be found on the town’s website, or they may call the Zoning Officer if they have any questions.
  • Mr. Goodrich said after the last meeting the Selectmen’s Office did reach out to
our Legal Counsel regarding temporary housing, as well as to the elected officials all the way through the Governors Office of Massachusetts, and it is the opinion of everyone, very clearly, a State of Emergency does not allow a governing body to ignore its laws. Mr. Maia said he got a call from Senator Brewer’s office and they are still pursuing avenues. Mr. Maia read the outline he received from Ms. Bandy in Senator Brewer’s Office into the record which states:
“Currently the Planning Board must post 14 day notice for a public hearing before they can vote on any amendment they come up with. Once the Planning Board approves the amendment, there is another 14 day posting requirement to hold Town meeting to vote on the bylaw change. The two 14 day posting requirements are not part of the Open Meeting Law and are not enforced by one particular agency. There is no emergency provision included in the14 day posting requirement at the state statute”. Therefore, even the Governor cannot overrule on a state statute.

Mr. Maia added, in the opinions of the Governor’s legal counsel, Senator Brewer and Representative Ashe, the three actions which could benefit the Town of Monson in the short term as well as the long term would be:
Option 1) To ask the Governor to file an Executive Order recommending the town not enforce said bylaw for set period of time out of public necessity. Typically this is done for 30 or 60 days. Senator Brewer Office is currently in conversations with the Governor’s Office in this regard.
Option 2) File special legislation exempting Monson from the 14 day posting requirements for the Planning Board and the Town meeting under Chapter 40A of the Mass. General Laws.
Option 3) File general legislation creating an emergency provision to the 14 day posting requirement to prevent the situation from occurring again in the future. Additionally Senator Brewer’s Office would like to coordinate a conference call between the Attorney General’s Office, representatives from the town such as someone from the Planning Board, Board of Selectmen, Town Administrator, Town Counsel and someone from the Senator’s office, most likely Alicia Bandy the Legislation Director or Kate Cohen Chief of Staff. Mr. Maia added this call should probably occur within the next couple of days to try to figure out which option would better fit the Town.

Mr. Maia stated currently the Governor’s General Counsel is looking at making an emergency provision in the general statute, so if other towns encounter this in the future there would be something on the books. Mr. Goodrich noted clearly it’s beyond the power of the Board of Selectmen.

  • Dr. Smith noted Highway Surveyor John Morrell said because the culverts are blocked with debris he has experienced some washouts from the storms and he is addressing this but it continues to be a problem because of all the debris.
  • Dr. Smith read an email from Police Chief Steve Kozloski stating the temporary relocation of the Police Department is continuing with the arrival and assembly of the modular trailers. Once assembly is complete, they will begin the process of having electricity, telephone and computer network installed. There was an unexpected delay with the arrival of the trailers so they have moved the expected occupancy date to next week. Persons having business with the Police Department can continue to call or stop into the temporary trailer closest to the ball field where they are maintaining limited service until the rest of their facility is up and running.
  • Dr. Smith informed residents, per Hope Bodwell, the Storm Center at Monson Developmental Center has been moved to the FEMA Disaster Recovery Center at Granite Valley Middle School. Services include unemployment insurance, mental health, etc. Monson Developmental Center is still offering laundry and clothing donation services. Laundry services are Monday,  Wednesday and Friday 6:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and both laundry and donation areas will be open Saturday 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday 6:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. or call 283-3411 ext. 1387 for laundry pick-up.
  • If anyone wants to volunteer or needs a volunteer they may call 2-1-1 or the United Way of Pioneer Valley.
  • Ms. Neggers said Ms. Bodwell and Liz Manley are attending a meeting tonight in Brimfield with a FEMA volunteer coordinator and non-profit organizations involved to try to coordinate all the non-profit activities.
  • Dr. Smith read a letter received from Country Bank in the record. Country Bank also included a check for $25,000 for the Monson Tornado Relief Fund. Dr. Smith noted Monson Savings Bank is continuing to collect the funds, and the Monson Tornado Relief Fund Committee is working on establishing the criteria to disperse the money. Mr. Goodrich explained the Board of Selectmen can give direction and instructions to the Relief Fund Committee and the Board of Selectmen have to approve the distribution subject to approval by Town Counsel, but it was the intention of the Board of Selectmen that the Monson Tornado Relief Fund Committee would be its own entity to do what it does.
Correspondence was read and completed.

At 8:40 p.m., Mr. Goodrich made a motion to adjourn from open session to go into executive session for a collective bargaining discussion, not to return to open session. Mr. Maia seconded and it was so VOTED.

____________________________
Edward A. Maia, Clerk