Monterey Select Board
Minutes of the meeting of 11/1/10
Meeting Opened at: 7:05pm
Select Board Members Present: Jonathan Sylbert, Chairperson, Wayne Burkhart, and Scott Jenssen
Also in attendance for parts of the meeting: Sue Protheroe for the Monterey News, Anna and Peter Poirier (Bally Gally tenants), Charles Ferris and Dennis Downing (proposed dog park proponents) and Maynard Forbes, Director of Operations
The board reviewed Director of Operations, Maynard Forbes’ weekly report for the week ending 10/30/10 which included:
1. Checking beaver ponds, culverts
2. Blowing off leaves on Brett, Mt Hunger Roads and Chestnut Hill, grade
3. Marking culverts, drainage, whips
4. Put up snow fence on Chestnut Hill, Beartown Mtn Road and the cemetery on Blue Hill Road
5. Remove stumps and trees on Mt Hunger Road, fill in holes with gravel
6. Add culvert and line ditch on New Marlboro Road with stone
7. Have 4500 inspected, Pick up loader bucket in E. Longmeadow, repair lights on Oshkosh and pick up Kenworth batteries in Conn.
8. Patch pot holes on Gould Road
9. Checking water level at Lake Garfield
10. Meeting with contractors at Bally Gally
11. Main Rd project, driveway permits, GPS requests, new pole requests from National Grid
Miscellaneous Select Board Items Reviewed:
1. The minutes from 10.25.10 were approved as written with one minor correction.
2. Warrants were signed.
3. Inter-Departmental Secretary’s weekly report reviewed.
4. Anna and Peter Poirier, tenants at Bally Gally came in as they are still concerned about the progress of construction at Bally Gally. They submitted a copy of “Tenant’s Rights” found on mass.gov to the Board. Scott stated that Bob MacDonald backed out of the project and no other contractor has been found to replace him. Scott’s professional opinion on what needs to happen there is that the ceiling and insulation needs to come down and anything rotted should be removed, proper vent needs to be installed from the top to bottom, it should be reinsulated and sealed. He noted that while this construction takes place the tenants should not stay in the apartment as the entire area (kitchen and part of the living room) will be unusable. Scott reiterated that tenant’s shouldn’t be dictating how or when the work will be done.
The Board discussed the scope of work they all agreed on but understood that finding a contractor was proving to be difficult. The Board questioned why the Highway Department couldn’t do this project and Wayne noted that the person should have a CSL license. Wayne stated he knew someone that might be able to do it and would have them contact Scott. Everyone agreed that the entire project would take approximately 2 weeks from start to finish. Scott questioned what the Town’s liabilities would be regarding clean up and protecting the items in the house, Wayne felt that this would be the responsibility of the contractor not the landlord. All agreed that the tenants shouldn’t be there while the sheetrock and insulation were being replaced, they could return when the taping and
painting were left.
The tenants felt it would be difficult to leave as they both have home businesses and an animal but wanted to discuss this amongst themselves before making any decisions.
The Board and tenants discussed the option of resigning the lease which ended on 10/31/10. Jon suggested doing a one month lease and waiving the rent for the month of November during the construction time with the option to extend it for a year beginning December 1. This is with the understanding that the kitchen will be unavailable to use for approximately one week. Scott did not feel that he could guarantee that the work would be done in November and wouldn’t want that in writing.
Maynard showed up at the meeting and informed the board that some of the rafters around the chimney also needed to be replaced. Maynard stated that nothing in the scope of work would be able to be done by his crew. Scott will get together with the Building Commissioner to find out the permit requirements.
5. Mail was reviewed which included:
a. Quarterly report from the Friends of Wilson McLaughlin House. They had a concern about the status of the driveway, since Maynard was present he informed the Board that by the time he found out the approved location it was too late to begin any work and it will be done in the spring.
b. Request from the Bidwell House Museum for a one day special permit to serve alcohol on 11/27 from 4 – 7pm. The request was approved.
6. Charles Ferris and Dennis Downing, proponents of the proposed dog park were present to discuss the application they have prepared that the town will need to submit to the ZBA to request a special permit to have a dog park on the Edith Wilson property. This is the final step necessary as the Parks Department has amended their regulation allowing dogs on this property; this will also need to be corrected at town meeting in the bylaws. The current special permit was only issued for a Community Center and community garden; no other municipal uses were approved. The Select Board would be the applicant for the permit. The Board questioned the slope and how it appears that owners would be dragged down by the animals. This also brought up handicap accessibility questions (regulations say you
can’t have more than a 2% grade). The Board wanted to town counsel to review it before they signed and submitted the application to the ZBA. The Board agreed that the filing fee would be waived.
7. The Board will review the information received from surrounding towns regarding creating a noise ordinance until next week.
8. Wayne updated the Board on the Regional Planning meeting he attended last Thursday.
9. The Board requested the total compensation paid from July 1 – most recent payroll for the Fire Department from the Accountant to review at next week’s meeting.
10. Jon informed the other Board members that he received a call last week from Ellen Cummings, Director of External Affairs at Verizon. Jon also spoke to town counsel about this and gave a summary of the conversation but didn’t have those notes with him to provide exact details. He stated that we are already involved in a complaint against Verizon and that allows us to demand equal service as a town like Leominster receives and until that happens Monterey would be allowed to withhold permits. Ellen told Jon that the poles requested are to connect the stations not for cell towers which conflicts with what the Verizon rep who attended the meeting last week stated. An article in the Berkshire Eagle on Friday, October 29th was submitted into record which had a comment from Kate
MacKinnon, a spokeswoman for AT&T who stated that the high speed network was launching on 33 towers in the Berkshires. Ellen then stated to Jon that in no uncertain terms does Verizon want this to get ugly.
A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 8:45pm
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Inter-Departmental Secretary via audio recording
Approved by:
Monterey Select Board
Select Board Members
Minutes Book
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