Monterey Select Board
Minutes of the meeting of 11/6/06
Meeting Opened at: 8:30am
Select Board Members Present: 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. Generator at the Town Hall is hooked up and working.
2. M. Forbes will check in with M. Amstead about the door in the meeting room.
3. Andrus Power Solutions should be here today to dig the ditch for the ballpark light.
4. Snowplow for the Mac was sandblasted and painted, if this works the Highway Department will do this on the others next year.
5. December 11th is the current production date for the new truck.
6. Lake Garfield is currently down around 4ft (we are going the full 6ft for draw down this year).
7. Fairview Rd project and Mrs. Montgomery’s visit last week were discussed.
8. Solar panel project at the town garage was discussed.
9. Lake Buel catch basins and who is responsible to inspect and clean them was discussed. M. Forbes and G. Backhaus are going to draft up what some of the problems are currently at the public boat ramp and J. Sylbert will find out to whom a letter should be sent to. M. Forbes had requested copies of a maintenance manual from Melissa Jette of BRPC awhile back but nothing has been received to date.
The board met with Building Inspector, Donald Torrico and reviewed the following items:
1. The new owners of the house at 34 Bidwell Rd have done some landscaping within the 100ft buffer zone of the Lake without filing with the Conservation Commission. There was heavy machinery used. C. Blair of the Conservation Committee was called and made aware of the situation and will look into it.
2. Issued building permits were reviewed.
3. J. Sylbert spoke with the Assessors last week about the status of the Building Department software and the Assessors is still waiting to hear back from Patriot Software to see if it can be integrated. J. Sylbert will continue to check in with the Assessors on a regular basis.
4. D. Torrico came in to ask for the board’s clarification on a building question with regards to the Town’s Zoning Bylaws regarding a non-conforming lot and a detached accessory building that wouldn’t be in the setbacks. D. Torrico asked if the bylaws could be spelled out more clearly for situations like this.
The board met with Police Chief, Gareth Backhaus to review the following items:
1. There was a complaint of a home on Beartown Mtn Rd that started burning a large brush pile yesterday (burning at this time of the year is illegal). The Police Department will make a visit to let the owners know that burning season begins in January.
2. False alarm at Hupi Rd set off by the caretaker. G. Backhaus will work with the Inter-Departmental secretary to get out letters and fines if applicable to the recent batch of false alarms.
3. During Halloween there was a complaint of a couple of kids going door-to-door asking for money.
4. Police Dept assisted with the Halloween Hay Wagon.
5. Lost weed wacker from someone working on Hupi Rd.
6. Multiple building checks were performed for people on vacation.
7. Abandoned 911 call on Wellman Rd.
The board met with Finance Committee members Dan Moriarity and Debbie Mielke to review the following items:
1. The Finance Committee wanted to know when the board wanted them to start getting involved regarding the budget process.
2. The recent Employee Compensation Committee meeting discussions/progress was discussed and their resident appointment of Janet Cathcart was announced. Copies of the Compensation survey sent to surrounding towns last Friday was passed out for review.
3. The Finance Committee suggested that the budgetary process will need to be firm and substantial increases will need to be scrutinized. The Finance Committee will need to be more aware and inform the town. The budgetary process schedule of events was finalized; December 18th: Meet with the Employee Compensation Committee members for their recommendations January 8th: Budget requests sent out January 29th: Budget requests due back to Finance Committee February – March: Work on budget February 26th: Budget
requests back to Select Board from Finance Committee April 9th: Finalize warrant April 17th: Mail Warrant April 27th: Informational Meeting May 5th: Town Meeting
4. Appointing a Capital Expense Committee was discussed and the capital expense purchase spreadsheet created several years ago by P. Brown was also discussed (D. Moriarity is going to email a copy of this to the Select Board)
Miscellaneous Select Board Items Reviewed:
1. All town offices will be closed on Friday in observance of Veteran’s Day.
2. Phone system quotes were discussed again. DT Systems was asking to match the warranty of Valley Communications, which they said they would guarantee the phones for 5 years and the server equipment for 1 year. The Select Board discussed that the hardest part of the deal is going to be the set up and training of the system and consolidating of the lines. A motion was made and seconded to award the contract to Valley Communications. A thank you letter will be sent to DT Communications and Raytel Communications for their bids.
3. Leroy Thorpe came in to discuss the fence that the Parks Commission would like to install along the river near the playground. The Parks Commission discussed it at their last meeting and will take this out of their budget. They want the fence to run from the property line to the concrete and it will be 3ft tall. The Select Board asked that it be installed behind the brush that is currently there. The board was in favor of it as long as they minimized the amount of brush that was cut.
4. Leroy Thorpe stated that the weeds at the beach would be done this year.
5. The minutes from 10.30.06 were approved as written.
6. Mail was reviewed.
7. The interview with the Outside Arbitrator/Consultant was discussed and J. Sylbert will send M. Noe 2 more companies to bring in for interviews.
The meeting adjourned at: 11:50pm
Melissa Noe
Inter-Departmental Secretary
Town of Monterey
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