Monterey Select Board
Minutes of the meeting of 11/19/07
Meeting Opened at: 8:30am
Select Board Members Present: Jonathan Sylbert, Chairperson, Wayne Burkhart and Scott Jenssen
Also in attendance for parts of the meeting: Michael Storch, Jules Dahlman, Stanley Ross (Chair of the Board of Assessors), Peter Murkett, Cynthia Weber (Chair of the ZBA)
The board met with the Director of Highways, Maynard Forbes and reviewed the following items:
1. Weekly report was reviewed.
2. Crew sanded on Saturday morning because the roads froze in a few spots.
3. New regulations that will take effect a year from January that will require a permit for any trench dug deeper than 3 feet deep on private or Town property were discussed. The Town will be responsible for issuing the permits. The Board made a recommendation that the Building Inspector be the issuing authority when this takes effect in January of 2009.
4. Repairs on some of the sanders were made last week and they have been put on the trucks.
5. Beavers are working daily at addressStreetBrett Rd culvert; the highway crew is cleaning them as necessary.
6. There will be blue recycling bins available at the Town Hall; one per household. See Melissa Noe, Interdepartmental Secretary to obtain one.
7. M. Forbes is hoping to go out to bid for the Salt Shed in February.
The board met with Building Inspector, Donald Torrico and reviewed the following items:
1. Town Counsel was given the go ahead by the Board of Selectmen to pursue action against the Art School Rd. Inn.
2. D. Torrico stated that there is still a lot of building going on in Town.
3. S. Jenssen made a motion which was seconded and unanimously approved to officially appoint D. Torrico as the permitting authority for the new trench regulation (520 CMR 14.03) that is to take effect in January of 2009. The Board will need to agree on a fee for the permit. Classes will be given in the spring as it will be regulated by Building Officials.
4. There will be an OSHA 10 class in Lee in the beginning of January (2 days – 5 hours each day). See Don for more details.
The board met with Police Chief, Gareth Backhaus to review the following items:
1. Assisted the Fire Department with a medical call.
2. MVA assistance on addressStreetBlue Hill Rd in Gt. Barrington.
3. Complaint of a loose dog on addressStreetHupi Rd.
4. Structure fire on addressStreetRiver Rd.
5. Disabled MV on addressStreetBrett Rd. – car was left there and the plates were removed.
6. False alarms on addressStreetSylvan Rd., placePlaceNameHeron PlaceNamePond PlaceTypePark
7. Complaint of geese hunters on PlaceTypeplaceLake PlaceNameGarfield.
8. Car – deer accident.
9. Unregistered abandoned vehicle on addressStreetFox Hill Rd which was towed.
The board met with Inter-Departmental Secretary, Melissa Noe to review the following items:
1. M. Noe asked the Board how they’d like to proceed with regards to the 4 residents that have not paid or responded to the false alarm fines they’ve incurred. This will be put on the agenda for next week to discuss with Chief Backhaus.
The board met with Town Accountant, Barbara Gauthier to review the following items:
1. The pothole money was received by the Town.
2. Vendor warrants were signed.
The board met with Fire Chief, Raymond Tryon and reviewed the following items:
1. The Board asked Ray’s opinion on how to handle false alarm fines that haven’t been paid. Ray feels that there aren’t hardly any fire department false alarms. The Board asked how he’d handle them theoretically and he agreed that if the fines were being ignored it should go to court.
2. Ray was also asked his opinion about addressStreetWoodland Drive regarding access and safety. Ray stated that the worst of the problem is on addressStreetElephant Rock Rd and the trees that need to be pruned. He stated that the addressStreetElephant Rock Rd association goes just to the end of the tennis court, no one past there is accepted into their organization and no work is performed beyond that point. Ray doesn’t think you could say that addressStreetWoodland Drive is safe and passable for emergency vehicles and a note should be sent that the Town can’t be held liable if their emergency vehicles can’t access the
property.
3. Ray asked the Board when they will start their budget process; he states he’s never gotten an invitation from the Finance Committee to discuss the budget. Ray stated that he has some special articles to run by the Board which he will formally present to the Board in January;
a. Air packs which are $6500/each and he needs to replace 6 of them.
b. The Fire Department also needs to replace 16 pairs of turnout gear and
c. A fire hose that will need to be changed which runs about $10,000.
Miscellaneous Select Board Items Reviewed:
1. The Thorn property and the Board of Health well contamination issue were discussed. The Board is going to ask Peter Kolodziej, Health Agent to come to next week’s meeting to discuss the issue and help put it to rest.
2. M. Storch mentioned that there is a large hole in the new pavement at Art School Rd and Tyringham Rd. M. Forbes was notified.
3. The Local Cultural Council recommended that the Board appoint Laurily Epstein to their committee to replace Susan Johnson. Jonathan Sylbert made a motion to appoint Laurily Epstein and the motion was seconded and unanimously approved.
4. M. Storch informed the Board of his communications with Verizon representing the Broadband Committee.
5. The Board discussed the request David Steindler of placeSheffield made to meet separately with each town’s Finance and Select Board to discuss the FY09 budget. The Board is going to send a response to Mr. Steindler, carbon copying the 4 other town’s Select Boards and Finance Committees and the School Committee.
6. W. Burkhart attended the BRPC meeting last Thursday and updated the Board on the information provided.
7. The Board discussed the letter written in the November Monterey News in support of Melissa Noe, Interdepartmental Secretary. In the letter it requests “that the Select Board provide a fair, legal venue in which all relevant grievances may be heard, and the situation resolved.” M. Storch and S. Jenssen both felt that it was important to note that the only people to show at the first meeting after the letter’s publication were people in support of Melissa Noe and no one showed in opposition. The Board felt that had two options here: 1. Proceed with an investigation and determine its parameters (if it’s of the Town Clerk’s office or of the Town Clerk, etc) or 2. Investigate the slander issue with an attorney.
The Board reviewed Town Counsel’s newest response to the Select Board on their options available. The point of the investigation would be to inform the voters of all the issues when they go to the polls to vote. The point of seeking legal counsel would be to advise the Board if there was a libel or slander case to pursue regarding Melissa Noe’s character.
W. Burkhart noted that he is not disagreeing that Barbara Swann has not acted appropriately and agrees that she has in fact made slanderous comments about Melissa in his presence, but CityplaceWayne feels that a government entity can not control what people say about others. He does not like the things she has said and has told her so but he does not feel that there is anything more that the Board can do and he doesn’t want it to become a battle of sides.
It was agreed that no one behaves appropriately all the time but this particular situation has gone on for far too long (it began long before Melissa Noe was hired by the Town). The behaviors have been negative, obstructive and persistent and the situation needs to be publicized and investigated.
Town Counsel will be asked to come in to discuss the parameters of the investigation.
The Board agreed that for the purpose of the investigation it should focus on the difficulties between the Town Clerk’s office and the rest of the Town in all it’s manifestations including conduct and operation of the department.
8. Cynthia Weber came in as the Chair of the Zoning Board of Appeals to discuss the recent special permit hearing held on Thursday for WEMSCO to place a communications device on Mt. PlaceNameWilcox. The Bylaws state that in a case such as this a bond be placed and that the Select Board, Planning Board and Conservation Commission consult with a consultant to review the documents. A project similar to this took place in Otis and Cynthia is going to call their Board and get information on the Consultant they used. It was noted that the applicant of the Special Permit would incur the costs for the Consultant. The Consultants report will be
copied to the Board and the Board will need to sign off on it.
9. Cynthia Weber also came in to discuss the recent applications that have come in for addressStreetWoodland Drive and she suggested that it might be in the best interest of the Town to have the Director of Operations to make a site visit to see if the road meets current private road specifications. The Town should determine if it’s passable for Town equipment as it appears that addressStreetWoodland Drive was initially a driveway that has been moved.
10. The Board was reminded about the Conflict of Interest seminar that will be held at the Town Hall tomorrow night by the Town Clerk’s office.
A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 11:57am
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Inter-Departmental Secretary
Approved by:
Monterey Select Board
Select Board Members
Minutes Book
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