Monterey Select Board
Minutes of the meeting of 5/7/12
Meeting Opened at: 9am
Select Board Members Present: Wayne Burkhart, Chairperson and Scott Jenssen
Also in attendance for parts of the meeting: Maggie Leonard for the Monterey News, Muriel Lazzarini, Maynard Forbes and Steve Pullen
The board met with Director of Operations, Maynard Forbes’ to review the following:
1. MassBroadband wired the Town Hall and Fire House out to the poles. There will still be additional work necessary for completion of the project.
2. All but 2 roads in town have been graded; Wallace Hall and Brett are currently being worked on.
3. Next week a culvert on Brett Rd will be replaced (damage from Hurricane Irene). The only other project left from Hurricane Irene to be fixed is some damage to the dam.
4. Beartown Mtn Rd work will start in approximately 2 weeks
5. Rotten maple trees on Curtis Rd – M. Forbes suggested that the Tree Warden be involved in this.
6. Roads and beaver ponds were checked. Ponds on Fairview and Harmon needed to be cleaned out.
7. Area around wooden bridge on Gould Rd was cleaned.
8. Ditches were cleaned on Fairview, New Marlboro, Harmon and Gould Roads.
9. Snow plows were put away for the summer.
10. Kenworth was sandblasted and painted.
11. Light bulbs changed at town hall, Assessors desk repaired.
12. Intersections mowed.
The board met with Town Accountant, Steven Pullen to review the following items:
1. Discussion ensued on whether or not an actuarial study is necessary to fund the retiree health insurance benefits.
Miscellaneous Select Board Items Reviewed:
1. The Board signed the RDA for the Jamie’s Court proposal. M. Noe updated the Board that no town meeting approvals will be necessary for the project, an account will need to be set up by the Treasurer under MGL c.44 s. 53A to have the donations collected transferred to the Town, the project with the exception of the excavation and site work will need to follow all procurement laws and pay prevailing wages (the town has an excavation and site work contract with Tryon Construction per M. Forbes) and finally the Treasurer, Parks and Jamie’s Court proponents have all been made aware of this. Wayne noted that he spoke to the Treasurer and she can accept the funds from Berkshire Taconic foundation any time and then the Accountant will need to set up the proper account.
2. Update on the debit card; Wayne spoke with the Treasurer and she is not in favor of that option and suggested raising the petty cash amount to $150 from $50 instead. M. Noe is not in favor of this option as Town Counsel has stated that petty cash accounts aren’t legal for municipalities. It was suggested the M. Noe or S. Pullen contact the auditors and get their financial opinion on the matter.
3. The Board reviewed the food order for Memorial Day and approved it, instructing Melissa to place the order.
4. The minutes from 4.30.12 were approved as written.
5. The Board discussed how well the Annual Town Meeting went and they discussed the option of having the voting start at noon on Saturday so it would be on the same day but not interrupt the town meeting conversations.
6. Mail was reviewed which included:
a. Contract from Melanson Heath & Company, PC for the upcoming audit. It was questioned whether this should be bid on first. Steve Pullen was asked to come in regarding this and he explained that it’s under $25k and they were the same company we used the last 2 times and they’ve agreed to perform this one for the same price. He did suggest that the next audit should be put out to bid to get a fresh pair of eyes. This audit will be for FY12 (the last one was for FY09) and these are supposed to be done every 3 years. The Board signed it and M. Noe will put them in the mail.
b. Baystate Road Scholar programs brochure.
c. Letter from the Tennessee Gas Pipeline notifying us of their intentions to selectively apply herbicides along the gas pipeline in the rights of way.
7. Last week two names were submitted to the School Committee for the ad hoc committee; David Micklewright and Eric Martin.
8. The local committee the Board would like to create to investigate the viability and possible uses for the Monterey School was discussed. There are several people the Board has heard are interested and they will ask them to attend a future meeting.
9. Warrants were signed.
10. Inter-Departmental Secretary’s weekly report reviewed.
A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 10:20am
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Inter-Departmental Secretary
Approved by:
Monterey Select Board
Select Board Members
Minutes Book
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