Monterey Select Board
Minutes of the meeting of 2/22/10
Meeting Opened at: 4:00pm
Select Board Members Present: Scott Jenssen, Chairperson and Jon Sylbert
Also in attendance for parts of the meeting: Sue Protheroe for the Monterey News, Michael Storch (Finance Committee), Stanley Ross (Finance Committee), Tom Smith of National Grid, Dean and Fran Amidon, Tim O’Donnell of Infinity Engineering, Pat Mielke (Treasurer), Mick Garrold of MIIA, Eugene Bernous, Daniel Moriarity (Finance Committee) and Steven Pullen
The board met with Police Chief, Gareth Backhaus to review the following items:
1. Report back to January 7th:
a. Assisted the Fire Department with a CO2 detector alarm.
b. Well being check; the gentleman was found DOA.
c. False alarms on: Worth Lane, Wellman Rd., Main Rd. (2), Tyringham Rd and Hupi Rd.
d. Report of a suspicious vehicle; call came in one day after the incident.
e. Assisted Gould Farm with a missing person.
f. Disabled school bus; highway department assisted.
g. Disabled box truck on Hupi Rd; truck was given a ticket for traveling with bald tires.
h. Summons served on Beartown Mtn Rd.
i. Followed up on a complaint of someone running through the school bus stop light. The person was given a ticket.
j. Abandoned 911 call on Harmon Rd.; phone trouble.
k. Abandoned 911 calls on Hupi Rd (2); one was a misdial
l. Wire down on Hupi Rd.; upon arrival no wire was found.
m. Abandoned 911 call on Laurel Banks; son was testing the phone.
n. Lockouts at the Transfer Station and on Main Rd.
2. The new full time officer is working out very well.
3. For those that may have read the article in the Berkshire Eagle last Tuesday about Otis purchasing 2 cruisers with Community Policing money; G. Backhaus stated for the record and to ward off any problems at town meeting, that one of the conditions of that grant is that it couldn’t be used to purchase a cruiser and any funds not used by July 31st had to be sent back each year. Otis apparently accumulated the funds over the years and spent it this year on the cruisers. G. Backhaus has a call in to the grant coordinator/programs director to find out how this happened when the restrictions clearly state that this isn’t allowed. It was also noted that last year was the last year for the Community Policing Grant.
4. Jon asked the Chief’s opinion on the cell phone ban bill before the house (the bill is to ban cell phone use in automobiles while driving). He thinks it’s a good idea. Jon is in discussions with Senator Downing about supporting it.
The board met with Director of Operations, Maynard Forbes to review the following items:
1. We haven’t gone over in our snow and ice budget yet, but we’re close.
2. Request from Barbara Palmer, Executive Director of the Bidwell House was reviewed. It asks for the town to install a directional sign at the intersection of Main Rd and Tyringham Rd for visitors and tourists to the Bidwell House. Jon stated that the Planning Board and Building Inspector are the people who need to approve the installation of a sign. M. Noe will forward the letter to the Building Commission and Planning Board and send Barbara the sign permit application.
3. The 2007 Chevy 4500’s front end (4WD axles, hubs and u-joints) is shot. The truck has 15k miles on it and is no longer under warranty (over 3 years old). Parts are $4,500 and the reason given by the dealer for the ruined axle is because the hubs are left locked in. M. Forbes is pursuing this with Chevy.
4. The Wilson House; M. Forbes was not aware of an approved community garden which has been staked out where the driveway is supposed to go through. J. Sylbert stated that the driveway is not being done yet. This also brought up concerns about the dog park that there has been rumors about. Charles Ferris is scheduled to come in next week to speak to the Board about getting this on the town meeting warrant. The Board asked M. Noe to contact Mr. Ferris to be sure that he has the answers regarding insurance liabilities, permission from WMH, location of the dog park, ADA requirements being met (521 CMR requires that any recreational facility has to have wheelchair accessibility), who will be maintaining the park and pay for maintenance and what their plans are for parking. If these items
have not been looked into the dog park should be tabled until a solidified plan can be presented.
5. Salt Shed: At the Finance Committee’s recommendation a motion was made to allow M. Forbes to solicit bids for the construction of a salt shed; the motion was seconded and approved unanimously.
6. The specs for the F550 special article were reviewed.
The board met with Inter-Departmental Secretary, Melissa Noe to review the following items:
1. Weekly report was reviewed for last 2 weeks.
2. Vacation request was approved. Scott had a concern about there being no one in the office. Jon and Melissa both stated that in the last 5 years when M. Noe has taken a vacation there haven’t been any issues and the sign posted with all the appropriate numbers/contacts for each department that’s left on the door, on the website, on the email vacation response and on the voicemail has been sufficient. It was noted that a part time person in the office would cost the town money and would achieve the same effect as the sign since the part time person wouldn’t have the knowledge on how to answer a lot of the questions or access to the files and computer.
Miscellaneous Select Board Items Reviewed:
1. The minutes from 2.8.10 were approved as amended.
2. Warrants were signed for 2 weeks.
3. Mail was reviewed which included:
a. Janet Cathcart’s resignation as the citizen representative on the Employee Compensation Committee effective February 10, 2010.
b. Request from the Library Trustees to appoint Kenneth Basler to fill the vacancy created by Linda Thorpe’s resignation on February 7, 2010. A motion was made to appoint Kenneth Basler as a Library Trustee until the election in May. The motion was seconded and approved unanimously.
4. Tom Smith of National Grid provided the Board with new updates, new contact info and programs available. The Board asked why the response time to power outages seems to be taking longer. Tom stated that the last incident was underground and it took time to find the problem. Chief Backhaus noted that the new way National Grid is responding to outages doesn’t seem to work as well as the way it was done previously. Approval from Boston is necessary now before the truck on the site can do anything. It was questioned as to why the approval isn’t local and why it’s coming from the eastern part of the state. Tom stated that there are local people that have input with the dispatch center.
5. The Board asked M. Noe to research the laws on the “closing” of a warrant. According to the Handbook for Massachusetts Selectmen, “The selectmen are in charge of “opening” and “closing” the warrant. When a town meeting is called, the warrant is considered to be “open”. To allow for the warrant to be printed or typed, the selectmen may vote to refuse to accept articles after a certain date, and the warrant is “closed” as of that date.”
6. Tim O’Donnell of Infinity Engineering came in to follow up with the Board on the following:
a. A plan is still being worked on and different properties in town are still being looked at. There are a few properties in the east part of town and one in the southern part of town. They do know for sure that unless there is relief from the Mt Wilcox zoning bylaw, the current plans won’t work. Right now Infinity is thinking that to cover the entire Town of Monterey would require 3 towers. Once the land options have been locked up he will present maps and plans to the Board to review and then the Select Board will be able to make recommendations to the Planning Board on amending the current bylaws. Dean Amidon asked the Board to confirm that there are currently bylaws that prevent cell towers; they did. Dean also asked the Board to confirm that the
Planning Board would need to make any changes to the bylaws; this is also correct. Dean then stated that you can make a 911 call on a cell phone in Monterey and it will get to dispatch; this was not correct. A 911 call (or any call) on a cell phone will only work when in range of a cell tower. Dean noted that when a recent gentleman got lost on RT 23 he called 911 from his cell phone. Chief Backhaus and M. Forbes both confirmed that this gentleman was lost near the Otis town line and was able to receive service from their cell tower and that this call went to the 911 dispatch near Springfield.
b. Chief Backhaus spoke with someone from Verizon and he mentioned that he was told that cell towers are dependant on land lines. Tim confirmed that when a cell tower is installed fiber lines would need to be run to it by the phone company.
c. Tim plans to return in 30-45 days with more maps and information.
7. The Town Treasurer, MIIA representative, Mick Garrold, Finance Committee and Select Board members reviewed the following with regards to Health and Liability Insurance:
a. Health Insurance: Currently the plan that Monterey offers its employees is an HMO. The rate increase for the current plan will be 9.1%.
b. Mick presented other health care plan options available that would cost the town less but the employee more. Based on the figures that Mick provided the Board the savings to the town would not be that large if the plan were to be changed and it would be more costly to the employees. The Board did request to see a breakdown of savings for the various plans compared to the current plan but also stated that in the interest of not burdening the employees with a more costly plan that the small amount that would be saved would do more harm than good.
c. Dan asked what the surrounding towns use for plan options and Mick stated that it varies.
d. Correspondence between the Employee Compensation Committee, Select Board and Treasurer was reviewed from November of 2009 which noted that any proposed changes to plans that would affect how much the employee was going to have to pay was supposed to be presented to the Employee Compensation Committee first before any decisions were made.
e. Scott asked how a proposed dog park would affect the town. MIIA covers it and there wouldn’t be any additional cost to the town and additional coverage would not be necessary.
f. The Board asked M. Noe to send Mick a letter thanking him for his time and to also inquire as to why we weren’t offered a 2 year contract with no rate increases as we have heard other towns have been offered.
8. Dan Moriarity stated that there is an engineering firm involved to handle to water issues at Lake Buel. He’s asking for $7,500 for maintenance. He doesn’t have a solidified plan to present to the Board yet. The Board stated it would be a special article and the wording should include that it is contingent on New Marlborough approving the same amount.
9. The Board wrote a letter of support to the MBI for their application regarding the Comprehensive Community Infrastructure Grant Program.
A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 6:10pm
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Inter-Departmental Secretary
Approved by:
Monterey Select Board
Select Board Members
Minutes Book
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