Monterey Select Board
Minutes of the meeting of 8/14/06
Meeting Opened at: 8:30am
Select Board Members Present: Michael Storch, Chairperson, Jonathan Sylbert, and Wayne Burkhart
Also in attendance for the meeting: Laurily Epstein for the Monterey News
The board met with the Director of Highways, Maynard Forbes and reviewed the following items:
1. Maintenance of the Monterey School Building
2. Sandisfield Rd work should be done in approximately 3 days and the next project should be Fairview Rd
3. The highway crew mowed across from the beach last week
4. Tyringham Rd, north of Art School – hopefully this fall it will be seeded
5. Electrician update: has called and not received a response back
6. Spoke with M. Amstead last week and M. Amstead stated he hadn’t heard back from the building inspector yet – M. Forbes will check in with D. Torrico.
7. M. Storch requested that the highway department remove all the paint from the downstairs storage area and either get rid of it or take it to the shed. M. Forbes will speak with R. Tryon about the possibility of putting shelves in the elevator room and storing it there.
8. M. Storch will call L. Thorpe this week about going through the books downstairs that we’ve gotten permission to discard
9. The fence at the dam at Lake Garfield has been fixed and a sign has been hung.
The board met with Building Inspector, Donald Torrico and reviewed the following items:
1. Certificate of Inspection before the 30th for the Monterey School
2. Emergency Management Hazard Mitigation Grant Program notification he received – to be handled by the Emergency Manager, G. Backhaus
3. Electrical Inspector inspection timeframes – M. Storch spoke with N. Fredsall about recent complaints of not showing up for scheduled inspections
4. Town is contemplating the installation of a voltaic system on the Town Shed – a building permit will need to be applied for when we reach that point.
5. Next Monday D. Torrico will not be available as he has to attend 3 hearings in Boston
6. D. Torrico is in conversations with the Board of Health with regards to the General Store and exceeding any state requirements for the handicapped bathroom and septic capacity.
The board met with Police Chief, Gareth Backhaus to review the following items:
1. Emergency Management Hazard Mitigation Grant Program
2. Police Department Report was reviewed:
a. Domestic call that ended up with 7 more responses made by the department for violation to a restraining order.
b. Money found in the parking lot of the store.
c. False alarm on Hupi Rd
d. Assisted with a medical call at Camp Half Moon
e. B&E on Rt 57, crime scene service fingerprinted the area
f. Abandoned 911 call on Bidwell Rd
g. Dog complaint at beach – dog was removed. Town Counsel should be consulted to find out if a bylaw is necessary to enforce the Parks Commission’s current policy of “no dogs on the beach”
The board met with Town Secretary, Melissa Noe to review the following items:
1. Vacation Contact Sheet was reviewed and approved to be posted on the door and on the phone system when the Town Hall is closed August 28 – September 4
10:30am – 11:30am Tim Fountain from Cartographics presented the new Town Assessment Maps and reviewed the following:
1. Maps current from 1/1/06. There were 17 old maps and there are now 43 new maps and they are legal for assessment purposes only. Every parcel has been given a new map and lot number and in the Access database the new map and lot number is linked to the old parcel id’s. There were records that are on the new maps that were not on the old maps. The Registry of Deeds book and page numbers are also referenced.
2. The town’s old maps lacked a ground control. A ground control survey was performed in April. Deeds and survey plans on file were reviewed and a database was created and inventoried and extracted the intent of the conveyance.
3. The maps were all digitized on a seamless composite modeled on the Massachusetts State Plane Coordinate System and are now on a geographic information system.
4. Public review sessions were held and additional information was received and compiled.
5. A CD in Access, GIS and Auto CAD format has been delivered to the Assessor’s office. The software to view the data will need to be purchased by the town and town departments that would like to access it. Cartographics recommends using ARC View and they are a reseller of this product which can be purchased by a seat ($1500/per seat plus a $500/per seat per year maintenance fee)
6. Updating the data can be done by the town with the proper software, Cartographics or any other outside firm.
7. Any landowner map disputes/errors will be researched and taken care of directly with Cartographics and a landowner that has any disputes should come in and get the appropriate forms from the Assessor’s Department. This service will be at no cost for one year from the date the deliverables were received by the Assessor’s office.
Miscellaneous Select Board Items Reviewed:
1. W. Burkhart met with the Town Clerk regarding records storage; she would like to work with the WMH for some storage space there. J. Sylbert stated that there is no storage space available there at this time. The board informed W. Burkhart that this has already been discussed and it’s a 100k plus expense that the Secretary of the Commonwealth has already stated that a town of this size is not expected to have a records storage area of that size and specifications. The Town Clerk states that there is not enough room in the current area but J. Sylbert, M. Storch and G. Backhaus all stated that this is not a known fact because no one has
been able to get in there to see what records are not permanent and can be disposed of. G. Backhaus mentioned that when the planning was in process for the records storage the Town Clerk was given several opportunities to present what she would like and wanted to do and she would not participate.
2. Employee Compensation Proposal: J. Sylbert proposed an Employee Compensation Committee composed vs a Salary Committee of 2 full time employees, 1 select board member, 1 finance committee member and 1 citizen to go over all compensation given by the town for all town employees and to establish recommendations prior to January. Recommendations will need to be adopted before the budget sheets go to the Finance Committee for the budget process.
3. W. Burkhart stated that the Town Clerk has compatibility issues right at the moment but is working on getting the electronic copies of the town meeting warrant and minutes to the Town Hall for the website.
4. Berkshire Mediation Services has been contacted about coming in to do a presentation in September. J. Sylbert will be contacting 2 more companies as well. The presentations will review alternatives to handling all personnel matters.
5. The Assessor’s threw out a broken CPU and were informed by the Select Board that they needed to notify the Town Accountant when disposing of an asset. D. Moriarity also noted that the hard drive should be destroyed prior to disposing of any computer. R. Lazzarini mentioned that when he tried to dispose of this at the dump, the Transfer Station attendant would not accept it and stated he needed a letter from the Select Board that it was town property and ok to be disposed of.
6. Jet Ski Use: The Town Clerk stated that Hy Rosen has been in touch with the Fish and Wildlife Law Enforcement Division (Captain George Louganis) and they have looked over the situation and are questioning that it be at 4:00pm was too soon to close the lake to jet skis (regardless of the narrowness of the lake, echo effect, etc) and should be at 6:00pm. He has not sent a letter stating definitively that the answer is “no” and he hasn’t said “yes” either.
7. The minutes from 8/7/06 were approved as corrected.
8. M. Leonard mentioned the Preliminary Subdivision application from last August for above West Rd for Steepleview. The definitive plan has not been received yet for the upper road sub division. Trucks have been coming and going and complaints have been received by abutters. The Police Chief thought they might be removing brush. D. Torrico stated that an approved sub division road was shown to him that dates back years ago for the lower part. Conservation Commission has no recollection of a preliminary plan ever having been received.
9. Stephan D’Alessio came in to inquire about his Earth Removal Permit and what it allows. He is allowed to remove more than 500 cubic yards from the earth his client owns.
10. 11:30am – 12:30am Steve Peplowski of PermiTech and presented his Building Department software
The meeting adjourned at: 12:30pm
Melissa Noe, Town Secretary
Town of Monterey
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