Monterey Select Board
Minutes of the meeting of 9/12/11
Meeting Opened at: 6:00pm
Select Board Members Present: Wayne Burkhart, Chairperson, Scott Jenssen and Jonathan Sylbert
Also in attendance for parts of the meeting: Steve Pullen, Sarah Hudson and Dan Moriarity
The board reviewed Director of Operations, Maynard Forbes’ weekly report for the weeks ending 8/27, 9/3 & 9/10/11 which included:
1. Checking roads and beaver ponds
2. Filling in cut on Main Rd with gravel
3. Main Rd reclamation
4. Replacing tracks on the excavator
5. Cleaning out ditches:
a. repair shoulder on Hupi, dig out culverts
b. in preparation for hurricane Irene
6. Tree on Swann Rd
7. Clean out culvert under RT 23 by Fairview.
8. Open dam on Friday 8/26 and close Saturday 8/27
9. Emergency meeting held at the firehouse on Sunday
10. Fix toilet at town hall
11. Inspection of Monterey School with Don Torrico and Fred Finkle
12. Open bids for paving
13. Highway Superintendents meeting in Lanesborough
14. Hurricane Irene:
a. Crew called in on Sunday for flooding and trees
b. Monday began repairing roads: New Marlboro, Harm, Main, Beartown, Fairview, Brett, Swann, Carrington-Battelle, Royal Hemlock, Mt Hunger & Hupi, all roads partially open by Tuesday
c. Fill in potholes on Main Rd
d. Met with school officials about open roads for buses
15. Pick up stone in Otis
16. Fill washouts along Main Rd flats
17. Grade reclaimed sections of Main Rd
18. FEMA meeting: assistance to homeowners
19. Show surplus vehicles to prospective buyers
20. Winter sand bids awarded to JDonovan for $13.70 per ton
The board reviewed Police Chief, Gareth Backhaus’ weekly report for 8/30 – 9/11/11 which included:
Calls:
1. Investigated an abandoned MV on Cronk Rd.
2. Tree across the road on Hupi
3. Assisted with a sunken boat on Buckingham.
4. Fireworks reported near Hupi Rd; police investigated but couldn’t find the culprit
5. Missing dog reported on Cronk Rd; later found.
6. Assisted with a medical on Sylvan
7. Assisted with reigning in the loose weedeater on Lake Buel.
8. Complaint on Mt Laurel Way of neighbors firing paintball guns at their property.
9. Report of a found canoe tied to a boat (not the canoe owner’s boat), referred to Dean Amidon, Deputy Harbormaster.
10. Assisted a citizen on Seven Arts.
11. Assisted on Laurel Banks
False Alarms:
- Brett Rd
- Seven Arts Rd
- Main Rd
The board met with Town Accountant, Steven Pullen to review the following items:
1. Warrants were signed.
2. Review: Report of encumbrances which are budget amounts which can be carried forward to the next year. Questions were asked about the following:
a. Wilson House driveway: Amount appropriated was $25k and the amount expended to date is $19,402.03. Wayne noted that this was $4,000 under budget to which Jon stated that it really isn’t since the parking area was removed from the plans.
b. Jon wanted to know if all these items should continue to be carried over. Steve agreed and stated this was why he detailed it out for the Board.
c. The money appropriated for the dog park was discussed ($10,500). Jon stated that it is not going to be spent since the article approved was for a specific location (on the Wilson McLaughlin property) which can’t happen, therefore the money should be put back into free cash until a new article is brought to the voters for approval for the dog park fencing at a different location. Wayne didn’t agree and felt Jon’s comments were premature. Since it wasn’t going to make a difference to this years tax rate, Scott agreed that we should leave the money as is for now until we can figure out if and where the dog park should be.
d. There were also questions on the $1,500 for emergency management money – Chief Backhaus needs to be asked about this.
e. Jon asked how much money from last year’s budgets was not expended and therefore put back into free cash: Steve didn’t have this report readily available.
3. Steve stated he spoke with Jim Podolak our representative from the Department of Revenue regarding the funding for hurricane damage incurred. Jim stated that the voters need to give us authorization to spend the money to fix the damage which would require a special town meeting or we could send a letter to his director with the estimated amount of unexpected expenditures to get authority from the state to spend the money. The procedure to follow was reviewed. The Board asked Steve to provide them with a letter to be signed; he stated that M. Noe had the letter and if she didn’t a sample would be requested from Jim.
Miscellaneous Select Board Items Reviewed:
1. The minutes from 8.29.11 were approved as amended.
2. Mail was reviewed which included:
a. Letter from United Nations Association of Greater Boston regarding a proclamation for UN Day 2011. A motion was made to sign the proclamation which was seconded and approved unanimously.
b. A letter from the Tri-Town Health Department regarding a regional tobacco, alcohol and related health policy grant, RFR 200218. The intent of the letter was to introduce the town to the program and partners in an effort to collaborate to promote evidence based policy changes to reduce underage access to alcohol.
3. Sarah Hudson came in to inquire about who was the contact on the Affordable Housing Committee at the request of the Tyringham Affordable Housing Committee. The Board suggested she speak to Maggie Leonard or someone on the Planning Board.
4. Inter-Departmental Secretary’s weekly report reviewed:
a. Misc bylaws approved at 2011, 2010 & 2009 town meetings not received in AG’s office; M. Noe asked the Board how to proceed. Wayne took the documents and plans to speak to Linda Thorpe, Town Clerk about this as last time she stated that the AG’s office responds when they want to but the question is now, were they sent it at all.
b. Public Records Request complaint: Wayne took the emails from the complainant about multiple unanswered requests for public documents from the Town Clerk’s office and will speak to Linda Thorpe about this.
c. Updated benefits comparison was provided to the Board to include dental premiums, splits and other information from surrounding towns as well as information from the Town of Alford. The Board reviewed it and felt that the next step is to find out the cost to the town and employee to go from 90/10 on health to 75/25 but add dental insurance at 75/25. The 7 full time employees currently working for Monterey were surveyed and one is interested in dental, one is not and the other five were possibly interested depending on the cost but were not interested if it meant going from 90/10 to 75/25 on the health insurance to gain dental. Health insurance currently costs the town $1409/month and employees $157/month at 90/10; if we were to go to a 75/25 split it would cost the employees
$234 more a month $2,808/year) which is a 2-5% increase depending on the person’s salary. Scott suggested that any new employees should be at 75/25 for health insurance but keep the current employees at 90/10. Scott also noted that we don’t have to “get in line” with the surrounding towns. Jon stated that no changes would be made to the split if a raise at town meeting weren’t approved to offset the additional cost to the employee. Wayne hesitated to make any changes when comparing to other towns that may not be as financially well off as Monterey is. He also felt that since the employees aren’t asking for dental it seems like the wrong time to make changes such as are being suggested. It was also suggested that the reducing the split could be gradual say 90/10 to 85/15 and so on. The Board asked M. Noe to work out several scenarios and provide it to the Board to review next week and double check
the calculations.
d. Follow up on the ongoing issue with the Town Treasurer’s non-responsiveness to several issues. Wayne will speak to Pat.
5. Jon gave a summary of the school committee meeting last week that took place in New Marlborough. It was decided to bring the following plan back to each towns’ respective Boards:
a. Originally there was a $3million bond which had capital and technology improvements for the main campus and capital improvements for the 3 outlying schools; this proposal failed in 2 towns. Then there were talks about a $1.5million dollar bond (about ½ of this was for capital improvements at the main campus) which took the outlying schools off the table and some people hedged at that. In theory they’d like everyone to agree to approved a $750,000 technology bond but need a long term capital plan (20 year) for the main campus before discussing any of the other capital expenses. There was some concerns raised about the Business Manager of SBRSD to be the department to manage the Building & Grounds and it should be the Superintendent. All were happy with
approving the $750,000 technology bond and requesting a long term capital expense plan on the remaining items.
6. Dan Moriarity came in to speak with the Board about his recent discussions with the Town of New Marlborough regarding the issues with Lake Buel causing flooding issues in Monterey. Dan brought in several pictures last week taken while on a walk through the Konkapot prior to Hurricane Irene which depict several spots with downed trees and debris preventing the flow of water. All of the issues are located in New Marlborough. He suggested having a coordinated effort between the two town’s emergency services to remedy the problem. He asked the Board to make some phone calls to the New Marlborough Select Board on his behalf.
7. The Board revisited the Verizon pole request (job #1AABL6). When the hearing was held in 2010 the Board did not approve the request but the Board has learned that the wire is connected and working and currently hanging in the trees. Scott stated he is willing to sign off on the request since the wires are connected. Jon & Wayne also had no objections. The Board felt another hearing should be held and asked M. Noe to consult with Town Counsel on the matter prior to them signing it.
A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 8:15pm
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Inter-Departmental Secretary via audio recording
Approved by:
Monterey Select Board
Select Board Members
Minutes Book
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