Monterey Select Board
Minutes of the meeting of 2/26/07
Meeting Opened at: 8:30am
Select Board Members Present: Michael Storch, Chairperson, Wayne Burkhart and Jonathan Sylbert
Also in attendance for the meeting: Maggie Leonard for the Monterey News
The board met with the Director of Highways, Maynard Forbes and reviewed the following items:
1. Weekly report was reviewed.
2. The board showed M. Forbes the proposal that a Monterey resident presented to the board for a public boat ramp at Lake Garfield.
3. Valentine’s Day storm took a long time to clean up; it was a mixed bag of snow and ice.
4. Gennari was supposed to come on the 14th but cancelled due to the storm and will reschedule. They think they may need to do some replumbing to fix the heating problem at the Town Hall.
5. The highway department will take care of shoveling the back steps/deck at the Town Hall when it snows.
6. M. Leonard switched hats from the Monterey News to the Monterey Planning Board and gave M. Forbes and the board a copy of their proposed common driveway regulations to review. These regulations would serve as a protection to landowners for emergency vehicle access.
The board met with Police Chief, Gareth Backhaus to review the following items:
1. Cows in road on Blue Hill Rd
2. Assisted with a fire.
3. Pixley Rd vehicle sale/bounced check complaint.
4. Assisted with a tour bus stuck on Chestnut Hill and another on Main Rd.
5. False alarm on Brett Rd.
6. Disable MV on Pixley Rd.
7. Abandoned 911 call at the Town Hall.
8. The Chief let the board know that he continues to have computer problems and Practical Solutions is coming in tomorrow to work on them.
G. Backhaus attended a Regional Emergency Planning Meeting on Tuesday and an EDS (Emergency Dispensing Site) walk through on Friday at the middle school in Gt. Barrington.
9:30am – 10am Town Counsel Jerome Scully and Attorney Jeremiah Pollard
1. J. Scully came in to officially announce his retirement and to introduce his replacement J. Pollard, effective July 1, 2007. Attorney Pollard has been focusing on municipal law for the last 5 years. The firm’s business clientele is currently 50% municipal.
2. The board asked town counsel to research whose responsibility it is to take minutes at the Town Meeting and Special Town Meetings. A town resident recently brought it to a select board member’s attention that typically it is not the Town Clerk’s responsibility but the Select Board secretary’s since it is the Select Board’s warrant. J. Scully will research it and get back to the board.
3. The board asked about the status of their 1/29/07 request to research Edith Wilson’s will with regard to the Wilson McLaughlin House. J. Scully is still researching how much time this will take and if it falls under the current retainer or if it will be at an additional cost.
4. J. Scully was also given the information on the public boat ramp proposal that was brought to the board and he will research this.
5. J. Scully is currently researching the Monterey School House deed and asked who the Town Historian is. The board said that Barbara Tryon would be able to tell J. Scully where all the schools were located that were in Monterey.
10:15am – 12:04pm Budget Requests Reviewed
Also present: D. Mielke, Finance Committee Chair, B. Gauthier, Town Accountant
1. The moderator’s salary was increased by $97.00 to $200.00
2. The Select Board elected was increased to $13.500 ($4,500/pp) an increase of $1,512
3. The Select Board Secretary (122) and Building Department Clerk (240) are going to deleted as line items and be combined into the Inter-Departmental Secretary position as one job/one person and it will be $37,340 a net decrease of $7,160 to the Town for the combined positions.
4. The ZBA Clerk position will be reduced from $4500 to $500 and will become an hourly position.
5. The Tax Collector will be given a 3% COLA increase.
6. The Town Clerk and Assistant Town Clerk will be given a 3% COLA increase.
7. The FY08 general government total budget request is down $2,120 from FY07.
8. The Police Chief’s salary was increased by 10% to $49,500 to have his pay in line with surrounding towns. The full-time officer was given a 3% COLA increase.
9. The Building Inspector was given a 3% COLA increase to $22,495 and his expenses are $1,900 down $2,650. The Building Inspector would like to see the Plumbing and Gas Inspector line item changed to 2 separate items, in the future there could be a possibility of those being separate people. B. Gauthier stated she doesn’t feel that the mileage reimbursements are working and she’d like to make it a flat fee and add it into their salaries. The Plumbing and Gas Inspector was increased from $3,400 to $3,502 and the expenses were increased to $720. New construction in Monterey has gone done 90% and this budget item should be
revisited. The Wiring Inspector was left at $2,060, which was what the Wiring Inspector requested.
10. The FY08 persons, protection and property total budget request increased by $7,555 to $279,869
11. The FY08 human services total budget request increased by $643 to $31,927.
12. The FY08 culture & recreation budget request increased by $3202 to $81,855.
13. D. Mielke will email and updated budget proposal later today.
14. D. Mielke will return next Monday at 9:30 to finish the budget review.
Miscellaneous Select Board Items Reviewed:
1. Rodney Palmer came in to discuss with the board future options for a public boat ramp, including a piece of property located near the current beach parking lot. The Select Board is going to ask Town Counsel to research the deed for that particular piece of property.
2. The board discussed potential nominees for the Unsung Heroine program.
3. M. Storch informed the board of his recent request to the Clerk’s office to view several of the books recently archived that were donated and moved to the Historical Society. When M. Storch asked to move these books to the Monterey Library, his request was denied and the reason given was that they were town property. During this request it was also found out that they were not moved to the Historical Society as they were supposed to be and instead were put into the archives room at the town hall. These books were part of the books that the Secretary of the Commonwealth, Archives Division gave the town permission to destroy. The
Select Board is going to formally request that certain books pertaining to the Plymouth Colony, be moved to the Monterey Library so that all residents would have access
4. D. Torrico asked for guidance from the Select Board regarding the new Building Department software and having the Assessors on the same database. D. Clawson was asked to go to Gt. Barrington to review how it is working for them but to date has not. The Select Board will speak with the elected board members in the Assessor office. S. Ross, Board of Assessors Chairperson was asked about the board putting their information back on the main town server as a read only file. Practical Solutions will be asked to network the assessor’s public access terminal with the Building Department computer and the server.
5. M. Leonard announced that after much consideration she has decided to run for the Planning Board again because of all the projects currently on the board’s plate but will not act as Chair if she is re-elected.
The meeting adjourned at: 12:19pm
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe
Inter-Departmental Secretary
Town of Monterey
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