BOARD OF SELECTMEN
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2013
The regular meeting of the Board of Selectmen convened at 7:00 p.m. in the Conference Room in the Hillside Building at 29 Thompson Street. In attendance were Edward A. Maia, Edward S. Harrison and Dr. Richard M. Smith. Also present were Town Administrator Gretchen E. Neggers and the media.
The Pledge of Allegiance was recited.
Acceptance of Meeting Minutes:
Mr. Harrison made a motion to accept the meeting minutes of October 8, 2013 – open session and September 24, 2013 – executive session. Dr. Smith seconded and it was unanimously VOTED.
Electrical Inspector Jerry Weston re: Proposed Fee Schedule for PV Solar Array Inspections:
Mr. Weston approached the Board of Selectmen.
Mr. Maia explained Mr. Weston was invited in to explain the proposed fee schedule, as the solar panel farm is such a large project.
Mr. Harrison added that the proposed fee sounds high. In Monson, inspectors receive 85% of the fees for compensation and in this case it equals out to about $19,500.
Mr. Harrison noted this is the first of three phases, with about 11,000 panels in each phase.
Mr. Weston said he did four solar generated farms in Palmer, and he is starting on the fifth one now which has 15,000 panels. Mr. Weston said the work on these farms is very involved, adding the first phase in Monson will probably take five months to complete, depending on their work load and what their actual schedule is, as the State of Massachusetts only allows licensed electricians to work on these projects.
Mr. Weston said the solar panel farm on Route 67 in Palmer consists of 4,048 panels, and his inspections totaled 29 inspections, with each inspection taking between one and three hours to complete. The permit fee for this particular farm was $7,048.00 with his portion of 85% of that totaling approximately $6,000. Mr. Weston explained if you divide this by the number of hours he put into inspections, it comes out to about $83 an hour. Mr. Weston said if you look at a new normal house, the electrical permit fee is about $120 which gives the person roughly three inspections at about an hours’ total time to do all three inspections. The proposed project in Monson will require about 83 inspections, as he walks the whole field inspecting each panel. Mr. Weston said he is figuring his time in the
Monson project to be about two hundred and some odd hours, coming out to about $94 per hour.
Dr. Smith made a motion to set Monson’s PV Solar Array fee at 10¢ per sq. ft. per PV panel. Mr. Harrison seconded and it was unanimously VOTED.
Final Approval and Sign IBPO/Town of Monson Contract:
Chief Stephen Kozloski, Officer Dean Gallo and Officer Donald Emerson approached the Board of Selectmen.
Ms. Neggers explained they have ended the negations successfully with IBPO Local 423. The agreed upon contract calls for an adjustment to the entire salary grid for the first year, for year two there is a 1½% increase, and year three has a 1½% increase. There is an increase in the off-duty detail rate, and a small increase in the uniform allowance, which hasn’t had an increase for a number of years.
Ms. Neggers explained they entered into a salary survey of fourteen other communities, some in our area and some with demographic similarities; and it was agreed the rate of pay for the Monson Police Officers was noticeably lower. The low pay rate caused concerns about retaining and attracting other officers to the Monson Police Department. Ms. Neggers noted there was some language limited to time off that was essentially eliminated from the contract.
Mr. Harrison made a motion to approve the successor agreement with the Police Department for the period covering July 1, 2013 through June 30, 2016. Dr. Smith seconded and it was unanimously VOTED.
Ms. Neggers noted the Board of Selectmen have been involved in the discussion about this contract and it wasn’t decided in one night, this is just formally announcing it in public for the listening audience.
Ms. Neggers added the new detail rate goes into effect upon signing, but the actual wage increase doesn’t go into effect until January 1st and there isn’t any retroactivity to it.
Update On Surrounding Community Agreement Discussions re: Mohegan Sun Casino License Application Including Review of PVPC Proposal to Provide Services:
Mr. Maia noted everyone has copies of the Beals and Thomas proposal provided to the Board by Mohegan Sun, as well as the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission scope of services which was received by email. Mr. Maia noted the Board also has a proposal from Fuss and O’Neil.
Ms. Neggers explained if the Town chose to go with Fuss and O’Neil, since it is below the $25,000 threshold it, would not need to go out to bid. Ms. Neggers noted for engineering and design services it is exempt anyway under 30B.
The Board of Selectmen had a discussion relative to which direction the Board would like to move toward, with respect to whether they want to go with the PVPC or if they want to go with the independent evaluation to be performed by Fuss and O’Neil, as has been proposed to the Board.
Mr. Maia said he spent a lot of time reviewing the report of impacts from the Mohegan Sun report from Beals and Thomas, released to the Board yesterday afternoon. Mr. Maia said he feels there are some unique characteristics Monson has from some of the other surrounding communities; such as the fact we are the closest to the proposed site at less than a mile, as well as some shared infrastructure and some shared resources; i.e. agreements with Monson and Palmer Police, and Monson and Palmer emergency services. Mr. Maia said he feels it would better serve the Town if we were to move not with the PVPC, but to move with Fuss and O’Neil to get some specific items that are going to impact our community looked at more closely that aren’t even addressed in the Beals and Thomas report.
Mr. Harrison wondered if we could take advantage of both, the PVPC and Fuss and O’Neil. Mr. Harrison said the PVPC is going to do studies anyway.
Dr. Smith said he feels some of the things that were missing in the Mohegan Sun proposal are also missing in the PVPC proposal, such as the schools, and he didn’t want to see the PVPC use a template for all the towns when Monson has all these unique areas where we would lose out because of it. Therefore he felt comfortable doing what’s best for the Town and going with an independent.
Ms. Neggers said the Monson Developmental Center Reuse Committee is meeting tomorrow and there is a draft report being produced by a consultant hired by the Commonwealth. Ms. Neggers said the report recommends certain possibilities, and goes on to state the casino impact as has been discussed, and there’s a significant variable factor that could have an influence on recommendations for viable uses.
Town Planner Dan Laroche approached the Board of Selectmen and said he and Ms. Neggers have spent a fair amount of time on this and he feels the PVPC report will be a public document and we will be able to take a look at this; it won’t be tailored to Monson but we will have all of their par information. Mr. Laroche felt having an independent consultant will allow Monson to tailor some of the questions that we have on things like schools, as well as having the Monson Developmental Center being a big issue, and Route 20 which Monson owns a couple of sections of, and how we patrol those areas with public safety with the traffic impacts if the traffic is greatly increased since we have to travel through Palmer to get to those areas. Mr. Laroche said a further question is if we are looking at huge
increases in traffic at exit 8 on the turnpike in Palmer, are people going to use alternate routes because the turnpike gets jammed up during the peak periods; then what impacts are we going to have to our local roads because of that. Mr. Laroche said the Beals and Thomas study doesn’t look at any of this and he felt having an independent study gives the town a lot of benefits.
Dr. Smith said he feels it’s worth the money and a good use of the money, to hire an independent audit to protect Monson as much as possible.
Ms. Neggers said every community has unique concerns that aren’t going to be addressed.
Ms. Neggers said our attorney did review the proposal from Fuss and O’Neil this afternoon, and he is fine with it.
Following the lengthy discussion, Mr. Harrison made a motion to go forward with Fuss and O’Neil as our consultant to the study on the casino impact on the Town of Monson as a surrounding community to the Town of Palmer, in lieu of any commitment to the PVPC to perform these types of activities on our behalf. Dr. Smith seconded. Mr. Harrison and Mr. Maia voted Aye. Dr. Smith abstained as he said he didn’t feel comfortable voting on something he hasn’t read, as he hasn’t seen the proposal from Fuss and O’Neil yet.
arrison made a motion to go forward with Fuss and
In Other Business to Come Before the Board:
Ms. Neggers announced on Saturday, October 26th, the Board of Health, the Monson Police Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration are doing a drug take-back initiative, where residents can safely dispose of potentially dangerous expired, unused and unwanted prescription drugs, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. here in the Hillside Building at 29 Thompson Street. This is a safe legal way of disposing old or unused medications.
Correspondence was read and completed.
At 8:00 p.m., Mr. Harrison made a motion to adjourn from open session to go into executive session to discuss non-union bargaining pursuant to M.G.L. Chapter 30A § 21 (2), and collective bargaining pursuant to M.G.L. Chapter 30A § 21 (2), not to return to open session. Dr. Smith seconded and it was unanimously VOTED.
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Dr. Richard M. Smith, Clerk
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