Monterey, MA - Select Board Meeting Minutes 1/11/10

Also in attendance for parts of the meeting: Laurily Epstein for the Monterey News, Stanley Ross, Michael Storch (Finance Committee) and Daniel Moriarity (Finance Committee)

3. Tree work is being done this week. There was a tree taken down near 99 Hupi Rd by the electric company last week that involved taking down all the power and phone lines due to how dangerous it was. It took the power company 2 days to remove this tree.

4. The clean energy grant funds available to the Town will not be used by the Highway Department because the $5,000 available isn’t enough to get the solar panels Maynard would like. The money will be transferred to the SBRSD to use on their project. M. Noe will contact Chris Regan, Business Administrator of SBRSD tomorrow on how to transfer it.

6. Structures in the right of way: the Board and M. Forbes reviewed the opinion received from Town Counsel about a policy that the Board would like to put into effect. Town Counsel was not in favor of the proposed policy and offered the following opinion regarding the ability to remove structures in the right of way. He is of the opinion that the Town may do so in any event.~ If the concern is that there are unsafe structures currently located in the right-of-way, in the past~we have notified property owners concerning their removal, with the proviso that the Town will remove the obstruction or seek an order failing compliance.

7. Two years ago M. Forbes applied for a STRAP grant to prepare RT 23 for paving. Money was authorized to borrow in 2007 but no grants funds have been given out yet. M. Forbes received word the other day that Monterey will not be receiving any of the funds. One of the reasons given was that we were going to be receiving funds from other sources. The Select Board noted that at the time we applied for the grant we hadn’t applied for any other monies from any other sources. M. Forbes has requested that Senator Ben Downing set up a meeting with the Mass Highway Commission, the Select Board and himself regarding the matter.

2. M. Noe updated the Board on her conversations with several people at Verizon and because we were able to prove a hardship (no cable or cell phone service) Verizon will be reinstalling the payphone at the General Store at no cost to the Town or the General Store.

3. Compliment received via email from a resident commending the town on offering the ability to pay your taxes online and for “pulling the town into the 21^st century with both an excellent and constantly improving website”. The resident also commented that he wished that NYC was run with half the intelligence and efficiency as Monterey is.

3. Scott Jenssen read an email that was received from a resident questioning why Monterey did not have their own ambulance for medical calls and other services such as the ability to administer drugs or obtain EKGs that could be transmitted to the hospital en route. Discussion ensued and it was noted that the Southern Berkshire Ambulance Squad is not a paramedic squad and can not administer meds and this would need to be a change made within the squad’s organization and would probably mean a larger cost to each of the town’s that use this ambulance service. It was also noted that we are located in a more rural area and unfortunately do not have access to the services that larger cities do and the weather conditions here often hamper the response time of ambulances and the Lifestar helicopter.

4. A motion was made to appoint Stanley Ross as a temporary replacement on the Finance Committee due to Maryellen Brown resigning effective January 4, 2010. The motion was seconded and unanimously approved. Stanley will assist with the FY11 budget process. The Board did review the section of the Finance Committee handbook that states, “If a member resigns prior to completing his or her term of office, a replacement is made by the appointing authority, or in some towns may be chosen by the finance committee itself.” The Select Board thanked Maryellen for her services and wished her well.

5. Jon noted that it seems that the Finance Committee has been set back by about 2 weeks but if all the members were to work together, they could probably get the budget requests out this week; Michael and Stanley concurred but noted that as of right now all of last year’s budget forms and information are located on Dan’s home computer. It was agreed by all present that any Finance Committee forms, documents and files should be stored at the Town Hall on a computer accessible to the Finance Committee members.

6. The Board met with Daniel Moriarity, Michael Storch and Stanley Ross of the Finance Committee to discuss the following (the meeting was at the request of Dan Moriarity):

a. The recent vacancy created by Maryellen’s resignation. (Dan was late to the scheduled Finance Committee/Select Board meeting and was not present when Stanley was appointed but he did not object to the appointment)

b. Concerns about a central location/computer to store the Finance Committee budget request forms, previous year’s budgets and the process for sharing the information. Stan suggested holding a meeting this week to start the process. Dan stated that there wasn’t enough time as you needed 72 hours to post a meeting; he was corrected by M. Noe that you need 48 hours advance notice to post a meeting.

c. Jon asked the Finance Committee to begin discussions to determine if the town can afford to construct the salt shed this year ($320,000 was approved by the voters at a previous town meeting). M. Forbes and the Select Board both agree that all options have been exhausted in trying to get monetary assistance from any state agencies. It was unclear when the first payment would be due. M. Forbes would like to go out to bid in March so that the project can start in April. Two trucks were paid off this year that totaled $62,000.

d. Jon asked that the deadline for budget request forms to be returned to the Finance Committee be moved up to February 1^st instead of the 8^th and anyone that doesn’t get them in by that time frame; we’ll use last year’s numbers. It was decided that the deadline will be the 7^th and the Finance Committee will meet with the Select Board on the 8^th from 4:15pm – 6pm to begin budget discussions.

f. Dan became frustrated with the request of his fellow committee members to hold a meeting at a time convenient for everyone not just for Dan to get the budget requests sent out immediately and stated that he was resigning from the Finance Committee effective immediately and would submit his official resignation in writing tomorrow.

7. Laurily Epstein recused herself as the Monterey News reporter and summarized about an Agricultural meeting that she attended where she learned that Monterey is not alone in having an inactive Agricultural Commission. Laurily has asked one of the new farmers that has moved to town to join the Commission and is awaiting an answer. W. Burkhart suggested a few other residents that might be interested. There have also been discussions about a possible farmer’s market and as soon as Laurily has determined the amount of interest she’ll return to the Board with more information.