Monterey Select Board
Minutes of the meeting of 7/30/07
Meeting Opened at: 8:30am
Select Board Members Present: Jonathan Sylbert, Chairperson, Wayne Burkhart and Scott Jenssen
Also in attendance: Deborah Mielke of the Monterey News, Reporter from Berkshire Record for the meeting with Senator Downing and Representative Pignatelli, R. Palmer for part of the meeting, Dan Moriarity for part of the meeting
The board met with the Director of Highways, Maynard Forbes and reviewed the following items:
1. Light for the ballpark has been ordered. This will be coming out of the Town Hall budget and leftover money from last year’s Parks Commission budget (since the project is an ongoing project).
2. Work will start next Tuesday on Sandisfield Rd . The following Tuesday paving will begin.
3. Injured animal on Main Rd. ACO was paged and called on Thursday after a complaint came into Town Hall; residents came in again on Friday to say that the animal was still there. Friday an email was sent to Highway Department, Police Department and ACO; M. Forbes and G. Backhaus responded and determined it was an injured coyote, which was taken care of. M. Forbes wanted to voice his concern with the ACO non-response. The Select Board will ask the ACO to come in and discuss this with the board.
4. Wednesday the dam will be inspected.
5. Ash tree by Mr. Vorck’s property is dead and he would like it removed. M. Forbes stated that it is on the electric company’s list to be removed.
The board met with Building Inspector, Donald Torrico and reviewed the following items:
1. Recent correspondence from Town Counsel regarding educational and residential uses was reviewed. Future change of use for these types of properties was discussed.
2. Correspondence from Town Counsel regarding the antennae proposal on Mt Wilcox was reviewed. Town Counsel stated that if it’s on state land the town couldn’t regulate it.
The board met with Police Chief, Gareth Backhaus to review the following items:
1. MVA accident on Main Rd.
2. More complaints about 4 wheelers on Beartown Mtn Rd.
3. Complaint of speeding near the beach (lifeguard wrote down the plate number and the person was spoken to)
4. Illegal dumping on Cronk Rd. Person was found and the items were picked up and disposed of properly.
5. Disabled MV on Hupi Rd.
6. New pagers were ordered as the old ones were not working (when the company was called they stated that a tower may have been removed due to low usage but the Town was never notified of this)
The board met with Inter-Departmental Secretary, Melissa Noe to review the following items:
1. M. Noe inquired as to why all employees (full time, part time, fire, police etc) are appointed each year except for the 3 highway department members. Select Board will follow up with Town Counsel to find out if this has been an oversight or if what has been done to date is correct.
2. M. Noe and the Board discussed the recent issued that has come up with the Clerk’s office and residents requests for Public Documents that may be located in the archives room. M. Noe had been referring residents looking for Board of Health records that predate her accessible files. The residents have been told that the documents they are looking for may be in the archives room in the Select Board files because the Board of Health and Select Board used to be the same board. M. Noe has seen Board of Health files in the archives room (when in there with the Chief of Police and Health agent for the Town audit) and that is why she is referring
them to the Clerk’s office. The Clerk however is sending the residents back to M. Noe which is frustrating to the resident and M. Noe.
3. The Board and M. Noe discussed the recent email communication sent to the Clerk’s office (and cc’d to the Board) on Friday to correct some of the misinformation that the Clerk was giving to residents regarding transfer station stickers.
9:30am – 10:30am Senator Downing and Representative Pignatelli
Items Discussed:
1. The Town is having trouble locating county maps and road surveys for Monterey and asked for Representative Pignatelli’s assistance or thoughts on the matter. He thought they might be at the Registry of Deeds office in Pittsfield, he also suggested contacting Gene Galvoni first (he was the county surveyor for 30 years).
2. J. Sylbert asked if there were any statistics on the amount of money leaving for income taxes and coming back in from federal taxes/aid. Senator Downing stated that it is done on transportation funding and thought it shouldn’t be any problem getting it from the DOR.
3. Salt Shed; The Board asked about the possibility of state funding to help build the state mandated salt sheds. Representative Pignatelli suggested speaking with Mass Highway and revisit instituting the program they had 10 years ago that helped several towns build salt sheds.
4. Public Access for Lake Garfield; Kinne’s Grove (which was a private boat ramp that the residents allowed boater’s to use for a fee) is no longer available. A committee has been formed that is evaluating the parcels surrounding the lake. The boat ramp near the beach is the beach and it’s causing safety problems to swimmers when boaters are using it after hours. Terry Smith of the Office of Boating and Fishing Access will be at the Select Board meeting next week to start discussions.
5. Broadband access; The Board asked why MA doesn’t simply mandate access. Cable is also not available and satellite is sketchy. The Board would like to see an incentive to these companies to want to provide these services in these rural areas. Representative Pignatelli encouraged Monterey to start a Broadband Committee and do the research for the need in the area.
6. Department of Education and the district agreement that recently changed when Sheffield did not approve the alternate assessment method at their town meeting. J. Sylbert wants the DOE to either honor the agreement or disapprove it so that it can be rewritten. Representative Pignatelli stated that all the towns that feel this way should express their concerns/requests in writing to the DOE, ccing Senator Downing and Representative Pignatelli.
10:38am: The Chair took Roll call. All Select Board members were present. A motion was made by J. Sylbert to go into executive session, seconded by S. Jenssen, and approved unanimously. The Board returned to an open meeting at 11:28am.
Miscellaneous Select Board Items Reviewed:
1. A letter received from resident Mark Makuc was read and reviewed. Mark is concerned with the amount of boaters using the access near the beach to put their boats in; he has been there swimming with his family and has been a witness to several near accidents to swimmers. Leroy Thorpe, (Parks Department Chairperson) also received a copy of this letter and as far as he’s concerned prior to 10am and after 6pm (when the lifeguards are on duty) the swimming area is closed and it’s swim at your own risk.
2. J. Sylbert gave a brief overview of his discussion with Wendy Sweetzer regarding stonewalls and the Community Preservation Act, he has an email that he will forward to the rest of the board.
3. Dan Moriarity and Pete Hagan of New Marlborough and a resident on Lake Buel came in to discuss their accomplishments to this point in trying to remedy the flooding issues. Dan Moriairity would like the Select Board to meet with all the committees involved to hammer out a solution.
4. School budget issue; the Board and Finance Committee are going to need to meet to discuss this issue and the direction Monterey wants to take.
5. A letter was written to the Town Clerk requesting an electronic copy of the final town meeting warrant (with votes) to put on the town website.
6. A response was written to the residents behind the town hall that abuts the park; the residents were requesting assistance in determining the boundary line so that they can plant some trees. The Select Board responded that the only way to determine this would be for the homeowner’s to get a survey of their property.
The meeting adjourned at: 12:21pm
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Inter-Departmental Secretary
Select Board Members
Minutes Book
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