Monterey Select Board
Minutes of the meeting of 2/14/11
Meeting Opened at: 7:00pm
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, Stanley Ross (Finance Committee) and Michael Storch (Finance Committee)
The board reviewed Director of Operations, Maynard Forbes’ weekly report for the week ending 2/11/11 which included:
1. Checking roads.
2. Sanding, Salting and plowing on Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
3. Pushing back snow banks at intersections and downtown on Thursday and Friday.
4. Patch pot holes on Main Rd at Brett.
5. Hydraulic hose and lights on Oshkosh repaired.
6. Power line down at the highway garage on Sunday.
7. Plow on the 550 was repaired.
8. Crew ran into problems with Verizon trucks being on the roads that needed to be plowed.
9. Inspection and smoke detector testing at the town hall and on the elevator.
10. DEP annual report for the transfer station.
The board reviewed Police Chief, Gareth Backhaus’ weekly report for 2/6-2/13/11 which included:
1. MVA on West Rd.
2. Suspicious activity on Blue Hill Rd.
3. Disabled MV on Griswold Rd, Verizon Truck stuck, towed out of bank
4. Assisted GBPD with a disturbance.
5. House check for possible collapsed roof and no heat (out of gas)
6. Medical call, assisted with traffic
7. Traffic control/assisted a citizen
8. Disabled MV on Beartown Mtn Rd.
9. House check on Beartown Mtn Rd.
Traffic Stops: 12
Miscellaneous Select Board Items Reviewed:
1. The minutes from 2.7.11 were approved as written.
2. Inter-Departmental Secretary’s weekly report reviewed.
3. The Board talked about the remaining term of Bob Gauthier’s seat on the Board of Assessors. Whoever is appointed will need to run in May to fill the 1 year remainder of his seat.
4. Stanley Ross stated that the re-evalutation started today and they hope to have a tax rate by October 15th.
5. A motion was made to appoint Jonathan Levin as an alternate on the ZBA for a 5 year term. The motion was seconded and unanimously approved.
6. The Board signed the application to the ZBA requesting that they amend special permit #10-01 to allow a proposed dog park to be constructed at 9 New Marlboro Rd, and/or to remove the condition that “no other municipal use is approved”. A motion was made to submit the application to the ZBA which was seconded and unanimously approved.
7. Stanley and Michael reviewed the updated FY12 proposed budget with the Board. Don Torrico has requested an additional $500.00 in his expenses to cover the new building code textbooks he will need to purchase. This was approved. The Finance Committee received an email from Maynard Forbes questioning why the minutes state that no raises are being given to anyone but there is a 10% increase to the Assessor Clerk. Stanley stated that the Board of Assessors has reviewed this very carefully and their clerk has been and still is underpaid for the duties she performs and more duties are being added. There was also a concern that raises aren’t being given but that $2,500 is being put toward Lakefest. Jon asked why there was a 20% increase in the health insurance. Gary Kobran
of Wheeler and Taylor has spoken to the Finance Committee and told them that the health insurance policy that we currently have is a very good one and isn’t offered anymore and if we moved somewhere else there would be a lot of changes to employees and the town. Jon thought that there has already been a redesign for the transfer station within the last 10 years done by Dana Bixby. M. Forbes will be asked about this. Line #945 was increased to $56,000. It was noted that there are a lot of special article requests for large amounts and this makes it difficult to give raises. The Board wanted to know where the difference was in Police Expenses that there is a requested $3,400 increase. The Finance Committee will speak to Gareth on what increased from last year, wages, fuel, etc. The Board and Fin Comm discussed taking all of the Fire Dept special articles and the Police Cruiser out of the stabilization fund rather than borrowing the
money. There is approximately $600,000 in the stabilization fund right now and all felt comfortable with it being around $250,000. The proposal was to take $137,000 from the stabilization to purchase the special article capital items and add $100,000 to stabilization for this year.
A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 8:30pm
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Inter-Departmental Secretary via audio recording
Approved by:
Monterey Select Board
Select Board Members
Minutes Book
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