BOARD OF SELECTMEN
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2014
The regular meeting of the Board of Selectmen convened at 7:00 p.m. in the conference room at 29 Thompson Street in the Hillside Building. In attendance were Edward A. Maia, Edward S. Harrison and Dr. Richard M. Smith. Also present were Interim Town Administrator Daniel Laroche and the media.
The Pledge of Allegiance was recited.
Mr. Maia welcomed Evan Brassard, who will be the new Town Administrator starting on Monday; and thanked Mr. Laroche for the great job he has done filling in.
Acceptance of Meeting Minutes:
Mr. Harrison made a motion to accept the meeting minutes for February 10, 2014 – open and executive sessions. Dr. Smith seconded and it was unanimously VOTED.
Introduction – Mike Valanzola, running for State Senate:
Mr. Valanzola approached the Board of Selectmen and explained he decided to run for State Senate when Senator Brewer announced he was going to retire and not seek another term. Since he announced his candidacy, Mr. Valanzola has been going around introducing himself to all the Boards of Selectmen in the 28 towns in the district.
Mr. Valanzola stated he is the only candidate in the race who was a Selectman; serving two terms as Selectman in the Town of Wales. Mr. Valanzola stated he therefore knows how difficult the job can be and the pressures the Selectmen are under in their communities.
Mr. Valanzola is employed full-time at the Hopkinton based EMC Corporation, where he runs finance and operations for the American inside sales division, and is currently the Chairman for the Regional School Committee for the Tantasqua School District which encompasses Brimfield, Holland, Brookfield, Sturbridge and Wales.
Mr. Valanzola said the focus of the race for him is that of partnership and working with the communities in the 28 towns in the district.
Mr. Maia noted whoever wins the Senate seat, is going to have some big shoes to fill, and noted Senator Brewer was the kind of guy where you could pick up the telephone and call him with a question and he would almost always have an answer within 4 hours for you. Mr. Maia said hopefully that rapport will continue with the successor.
Mr. Maia noted Monson’s biggest problem is the same as all the other small towns, money, and not enough of it. Mr. Maia noted the small towns rely a lot more on State Aid than some of the larger suburban communities, and Dr. Smith agreed a large percent of Monson’s budget comes from the State Aid. Mr. Harrison agreed as well and added, budgets are always tight.
Mr. Valanzola said he faced the same issues when he was a Selectman in the Town of Wales, and noted the response the Selectmen just gave him is very consistent with most of the responses he has been getting from the Select Boards in the towns he has had the opportunity of meeting.
Dr. Smith noted the State has the same issues with money.
Mr. Valanzola said priority number one in the budget and the things he would be concerned with funding first as a Senator would be to insure Local Aid Chapter 70 dollars, and school transportation. Mr. Valanzola stated over the last eight years they have seen about a 40% cut to Local Aid, which just drives property taxes higher, and added if Local Aid isn’t supported, we will continue to have major problems.
Mr. Harrison noted Proposition 2 ½ overrides are hard to pass at town meetings, for any reason.
Mr. Valanzola said the Town of Wales leveraged the debt exclusion a number of times for capital purchases as they found a little more success with that approach rather than trying for a Proposition 2 ½ override because there was an expiration date at the end of the debt exclusion process.
Mr. Valanzola said he hopes his experience will be helpful in supporting the towns if he is elected.
The Board thanked Mr. Valanzola for coming in, and congratulated him on running for the Senate, and wished him luck.
Lisa Ronaldson – Mother’s Day Road Race (May 10, 2014):
Ms. Ronaldson approached the Board of Selectmen and stated she is the Treasurer of the Monson PTSA, and they are looking to do a run/walk road race on Saturday, May 10th, the day before Mother’s Day.
Ms. Ronaldson said she spoke with Police Chief Stephen Kozloski and he endorses a race with a slightly different route rather than the route she presented to the Board of Selectmen earlier. The route she and Chief Kozloski worked out goes from Granite Valley Middle School to just past Macomber Road and back to Granite Valley, to make it a 3.2 mile race. The day will consist of family events where the kids can run on the track at Granite Valley to promote movement and health, with the roads utilized for the older participants.
Ms. Ronaldson said Chief Kozloski informed her about the required police coverage they need to pay for. The proceeds will support the outgoing 8th graders as they transition to 9th grade through the program Adventure In/Adventure Out that Dr. Linkenhoker would like to do at U-MASS. This program is close to $3,000 in cost, and Ms. Ronaldson’s goal is to raise about $2,000 with the race, however there are some higher expenses than she anticipated, so they are looking for sponsors, and that will be worked out.
The sponsors will help with the costs for tee shirts, port-a-potties, and the expenses of running the event, with the entry fees being mostly for profit.
Ms. Ronaldson said she is hoping for an entry fee of $25 for adults; and a $10 entry fee for kids grades K through 4 for the kids run of one time around the track.
Mr. Harrison asked if the route will be closed to traffic. Ms. Ronaldson responded traffic will be allowed on one side of the road. The participants will be on the right side of the road so there might be a portion of the race where runners/walkers will be on both sides until they catch up. Ms. Ronaldson said Chief Kozloski told her officers will be stationed at the intersection of Thompson and Margaret Streets as well as where the runners-walkers turn around, just past Macomber Road.
Registration will begin at 8:00 a.m. with the runners starting at 10:30 a.m., and they are hoping to have everyone back at the school by 12:30 for the other events.
Mr. Harrison made a motion to allow the PTSA to conduct a Mother Day race as described in the presentation, on May 10, 2014, and to have Ms. Ronaldson continue working with Chief Kozloski. Dr. Smith seconded the motion and it was unanimously VOTED.
Request to Use the Gymnasium in the Hillside Building:
Mr. Laroche noted a request was received yesterday from Mark Bodk wishing to use or rent the gymnasium in the Hillside Building where the current Town Offices are located, for futsol practice. Mr. Laroche noted Mr. Bodk wishes to use the gym on Saturday mornings when the building is closed.
Mr. Laroche said we don’t have a policy regarding handing out keys to the door and the concern is having keys floating around to this building as we have records and all sorts of things here. This request is for a private affair and not associated with the Parks and Recreation department.
Mr. Bodk, a resident of Monson, approached the Board of Selectmen and stated Peter Beaupre is currently doing a class on Friday nights, and since he is a Commissioner for Parks and Recreation, he has a key to the door. Mr. Bodk stated Mr. Beaupre is willing to change his class from Friday evenings to Saturday’s so he can open the doors on Saturday morning for Mr. Bodk and then hold his class following Mr. Bodk’s in order to lock the doors afterward.
Mr. Bodk said futsol is similar to soccer without the real bounce of a soccer ball. This practice will be open for 9 to 11 year old Monson boys. They will allow up to 20 boys, but Mr. Bodk feels only 10 to 12 boys will sign up for the program. The program will run from March 1st to April 5th from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. This is just for small foot skills until they are able to get outdoors for practice.
Mr. Harrison made a motion to approve the request as presented based on the fact the Commissioner will open and close the building, and waivers are signed by both Mr. Bodk and the parents, with the program being held in the gymnasium in the Hillside Building on Saturdays beginning March 1st through April 5, 2014 from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Dr. Smith seconded and it was unanimously VOTED.
Overall Budget Discussion – Finance Director Deborah Mahar:
Ms. Mahar approached the Board of Selectmen and explained the handouts she presented to them regarding the budget process so far, which is still basically in the beginning stages with most of the numbers yet to be determined.
Ms. Marhar said right now she and the Finance Committee are using the Governor’s numbers, and there is no way of knowing where the House or Senate is going to go from there. Ms. Mahar noted the State Cherry Sheet is only up $25,000 from the current fiscal year, which isn’t a lot of money.
Ms. Mahar noted at this point, the new growth in town isn’t known. Local receipts are $1.2 million, mostly the results of motor vehicle excise taxes, which comes to about $930,000 of that amount, and all of it stays in town. However, she said she will need to look at the next assessment which should be coming in from the Registry of Motor Vehicles in a month or two.
Ms. Mahar also noted under the ambulance, the number will change depending upon which budget gets approved.
The total funds are $22,713,211.00, with $22,853,663.00 in budget requests, creating a shortfall at this point of $140,452.00.
Pathfinder is level funded as are the Monson Schools. Ms. Mahar said she will be attending a meeting with Pathfinder regarding their budget on March 12th, and she will find out our numbers then. Raises are also not included, nor are any COLA’s for the department heads and non-union employees. Raises for the Police are included as this has been ratified. Capital is level funded at $90,000.00. Moving costs back to 110 Main Street and various maintenance system agreement costs are not included.
The Selectmen questioned some of the more substantial increases in the budget proposed by various departments and agreed the top priorities should be with public safety and education, as they have been.
Ms. Mahar said at this point, there is no use of Free Cash which is currently at $491,373.00, and noted we have attempted and been successful in avoided using Free Cash for the last two or three budget cycles.
Ms. Mahar handed the Board of Selectmen another sheet describing the results of the capital plan from the Capital Committee along with minutes from that meeting, and an overview of all the options of doing any kind of capital. Ms. Mahar explained that as well, noting the budget includes $90,000.00 for capital and it has debt payment for a new bond.
Ms. Mahar said at this point the Committee is recommending rolling over a $400,000.00 bond and utilize the appropriation for $90,000.00, which was in the budget the Board just looked at. Ms. Mahar said there are some unspent appropriations from the 2013 bonding that was done because people were able to get good deals on their vehicles where the estimates were higher than the actual items cost.
Ms. Mahar noted the 1983 fire truck needs to be repaired a lot, and they felt this was a top priority for this particular round of capital; this is $325,000.00. A backhoe loader, which Mr. Morrell said was his number one priority and is the backbone of his fleet is also seeing considerable wear. The School is looking for security at Granite Valley Middle School and to fully replace the boiler at Quarry Hill. The last item is a driveway/walkway at Quarry Hill that needs to be repaired or replaced, however they don’t have a number for this yet.
Ms. Mahar said the next rolling off of a bond that won’t impact budgets by taking away money from other departments and uses won’t be until 2018, with the appropriation being done in the spring of 2017, and she believes this is a $500,000.00 bond.
Fire Department Budget – Fire Chief Laurent McDonald:
Chief McDonald approached the Board of Selectmen and explained his four different scenario budget requests, which he presented to the Board of Selectmen. Chief McDonald explained the first budget is how he would like to see it funded; the second budget is level funded; the third budget is a proposal he has to switch from staffed in quarters and on-call, to a staffed in quarters using the same full-time force and maybe using per-diem EMT’s working from the station; the last scenario proposal is reinstituting the 5th person who was cut several years back, but not as a full-time position through the combination use of per diem EMT’s.
Chief McDonald explained the State used to provide their own standard of EMT training and levels of certification until this past year or so when they adopted the National Scope of Practice that is put out and sponsored by the National Highway Transportation Safety Board and the National Register of EMT’s. What they have traditional known as Emergency Medical Technicians, the EMT basic, EMT intermediate and EMT paramedic, is changing, affecting the licensing and the level of care they provide to the public. Currently Chief McDonald said he has three full-time intermediates and four paramedics who operate at an intermediate level under the way they are licensed right now. Chief McDonald said the ambulance is staffed with an intermediate and a basic for the majority of the time. With the adoption
of the National Scope of Practice what’s going to happen is the intermediate level of EMT is going away, and they are implementing what is called an Advanced Emergency Medical Technician. At the national level this means he has to take his intermediate level EMT’s and send them back to school for about 100 hours at a pretty significant amount of money; the amount is still unknown. Chief McDonald said with this, the level of care goes down as an Advanced EMT can only do less than an intermediate level EMT.
Chief McDonald said it really makes sense now to jump to the paramedic level service, which is really driving a lot of what he has presented to the Board of Selectmen tonight in terms of this budget.
Chief McDonald went over each of the four different budgets he presented. Chief McDonald stated he is advocating for budget scenario number 4.
Dr. Smith and Mr. Maia said if Chief McDonald found a way to pay for it with receivables, they don’t see any problem with it, as long as he isn’t hitting the town budget for more money. Chief McDonald replied when he met with Ms. Mahar and Mr. Laroche it looked like the money was going to come in to meet that threshold.
Mr. Maia asked Chief McDonald to request projections from Comstar for the ambulance billing information to bring to the Finance Committee.
Chief McDonald also spoke about a new concept for the ambulance service that more and more ambulance services are going with; a la carte vs. bundling. Chief McDonald explained traditionally the method for billing is a la carte, where there is a basic rate for basic life support, or advanced life support, and a mileage rate with so much for oxygen, so much for packaging, immobilizing spinal injuries, etc.
Chief McDonald stated Comstar has noticed insurance companies are getting away from the a la carte pricing and going towards the bundling services where there is a set rate for all of the ambulance services. Currently Monson goes by the a la carte rates.
Chief McDonald said he did discuss this with Finance Director Deborah Mahar and the Town Treasurer/Human Resources Director Cristina Pedro, and they all recommend changing from the a la carte pay schedule to the bundled rate.
Mr. Maia felt the rate changes are more than appropriate, Mr. Harrison and Dr. Smith agreed.
In Other Business to Come Before the Board:
- Mr. Laroche informed the Board that Reed Coles presented the Office with a press release on his up-coming Art Wall event he has planned, and he was here tonight to talk about it.
Mr. Coles approached the Board of Selectmen and explained the Art Wall is coming along nicely. The unveiling is scheduled for Saturday, March 22nd and the project has commitments from 30 artists to donate 33 works to the wall. The theme will be “Expressions of Monson” and the event will be called “Monson Rocks Day”. The art works are primarily done by Monson artists, with the exception of about 3 coming from artists from surrounding communities. The unveiling will take place between 10:00 a.m. and noon, and will be a major event celebrating Monson, its past and its future. There will be a speech or speeches by notable regional figures. Senator Stephen Brewer and Representative Brian Ashe will be invited attend, and Mr. Coles is hoping the Selectmen
will be able to attend and possibly give a little speech. Mr. Coles also plans to have performances throughout the downtown area by musicians and entertainers, maybe a dance routine, both indoors and outdoors such as in the gazebo at Dave Grieve Park, and on the front porch of Memorial Hall. Main Street businesses are being encouraged to join the celebration in any way they see fit. Each panel is being sponsored by a Monson trades company. The panels will be up for viewing, for approximately the next six months.
Mr. Maia asked Mr. Coles if he has spoken with anyone from the Police Department and Mr. Coles replied he has left a message for the Police Chief, however he hasn’t gotten back to him yet. Mr. Coles said he wants to avoid any problems with traffic, and might have it at the Senior Center so it will be close since there isn’t a lot of room in front of the fence itself.
Mr. Maia asked Mr. Coles to reach out to Chief Kozloski again as we definitely need some input from him, get his input on all of the planned activities, and ask Chief Kozloski to send an email to the Selectmen’s Office indicating his thoughts on the whole occasion.
Correspondence was read and completed.
At 8:30 p.m., Mr. Harrison made a motion to adjourn from open session to go into executive session to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining and/or litigation. Dr. Smith seconded and it was unanimously VOTED.
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Dr. Richard M. Smith, Clerk
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