Monterey Select Board
Minutes of the meeting of 9/29/08
Meeting Opened at: 4:00pm
Select Board Members Present: Wayne Burkhart, Chairperson, Scott Jenssen and Jon Sylbert
The board met with the Director of Highways, Maynard Forbes and reviewed the following items:
1. Weekly report was reviewed.
2. The response from the Montgomery’s on Fairview Rd. was reviewed and discussed. Mr. Montgomery suggested using an airport mix or better grade of gravel but M. Forbes has spoken with the highway crew about measures taken in the past (prior to M. Forbes being hired) and all of these options have been tried and have all failed, albeit some took a little longer before failing. M. Forbes was asked for an approximate number of truckloads of gravel that has been brought over to Fairview Rd in the last year, he estimated between 200-300 yards. The Board threw around ideas of where the money would come from to upgrade the road. No decisions
were made on the solution. The Board has decided to hold a Public Meeting on Monday, October 27th from 5:30-6:30pm which will be an update on Fairview Rd and would cover the amount spent on Fairview Rd so far, the anticipated costs to repair it as is, the problems being caused by insufficient drainage along the road, and potential solutions so that the public can decide what the best fix is. M. Forbes is going to get figures on the costs incurred to date and the estimates costs to be incurred.
3. DSL is working its way down Gould Rd but it has yet to reach the Town Highway Garage. M. Forbes is in touch with Verizon on a regular basis.
4. S. Jenssen asked if Monterey was set with a supply of salt for this winter. M. Forbes felt that there was going to be a shortage if we have an extreme winter (but this would likely happen to all Berkshire County towns). The Town of Monterey has entered into the purchasing agreement with the county bid and has confidence that if there is a shortage that Monterey shouldn’t suffer too badly.
5. S. Jenssen gave an overview of the Salt & Sand/Winter Maintenance seminar he attended last week.
6. Transfer Station:
a. W. Burkhart asked about billing for this year as he hasn’t seen anything. M. Forbes stated that he should ask B. Gauthier for those figures.
b. S. Jenssen mentioned that he had a woman complain to him that while throwing her trash away the other day she thought the Transfer Station Attendant was going to hit her because he became so irate that she didn’t have a new sticker on her newly purchased car (the old one was traded in), the woman stated she was brought to tears and had to leave. M. Forbes feels that there have been enough complaints recently about the attendant that he is now going to speak with Don from the Master Garbologist.
7. The Board discussed Town Counsel’s response regarding having an employee be appointed to the Employee Compensation Committee. M. Forbes feels that an employee would be covered if the steps given by the Ethics Commission to the employee were followed in the disclosure process. All employees not appointed as an “official” member of the committee (and the public) would still be allowed to attend the committee meetings and answer questions and advise without putting themselves at a risk of having a perceived or real conflict of interest. M. Forbes agreed to give it a try.
8. A new plow for the 4500 was swapped for the old one that had come with the truck (no cost).
9. The Kenworth truck was brought to NH to have the dump body installed.
The board met with Inter-Departmental Secretary, Melissa Noe to review the following items:
1. D. Torrico asked M. Noe to let the Board know that he contacted the owners of the sign that is hanging from a Town sign across from the Town Hall and has informed them that it needs to be removed and that they will need to file with the Building Department for a sign permit. The owners stated that they were given permission from Maynard Forbes. M. Forbes stated to M. Noe that he was asked about this 2 years ago and he told the Grenadier’s they could hang it there where the Bidwell House sign was as long as the size matched the Town sign and as long as they went through the proper sign approval process with the Building Department.
2. There will be a user training for our website operations in October that M. Noe would like to attend, the cost is $89.00; the request was approved unanimously by the Board.
3. M. Noe informed the Board of a doctor appointment she has on Thursday morning (10/2); this also was approved by the Board.
Miscellaneous Select Board Items Reviewed:
1. Warrants were signed.
2. The minutes from 9/22/08 were approved as written.
3. Mail was reviewed.
4. The Planning Board requested (not formally) that the Select Board appoint Bridget Krans, their paid secretary to fill a vacancy on the Board created by John Sellew. The Board discussed this with Town Counsel and determined that the Planning Board first needs to receive in writing notification of John Sellew’s resignation (according to Bridget this was given to the Planning Board and a copy will be provided to the Select Board). Bridget Krans could have been appointed if the town had accepted MGL Chapter 41 Section 4A which is supposed to be on the warrant every year but was not on the 2008 warrant. The Board suggested that Bridget call
the Ethics Commission to determine if filing the Special Employee disclosure would cover her or not.
5. The Board discussed the request that came from Paul Catanzaro of the UMASS Extension program to use our Town Hall meeting room for an educational program that he does with a group of forest landowners and community leaders that have been trained through a UMASS extension program called Keystone. The Board had concerns with the time they requested and who would be responsible for opening and closing the Town Hall but W. Burkhart offered to be responsible for that. The Board did not feel that charging the organization for the use of the room was necessary.
6. The Select Board meeting for November 10th has been cancelled due to two members being unable to attend.
A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 5:45pm
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Inter-Departmental Secretary
Approved by:
Monterey Select Board
Select Board Members
Minutes Book
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