Monterey Select Board
Minutes of the meeting of 11/5/12
Meeting Opened at: 9am
Select Board Members Present: Scott Jenssen, Chairperson, Muriel Lazzarini and Wayne Burkhart
Also in attendance for parts of the meeting: Susan Gallant for the Monterey News, Stanley Ross and Emily Kramer Berkshire Record Reporter
Miscellaneous Select Board Items Reviewed:
1. Stanley Ross came in to inform the Board that the Finance Committee has sent out the FY14 budget requests and they plan to meet with the Fire Dept. and Highway Dept. to discuss their capital expenditures. After this Stan will run amortization schedules after these meetings.
2. The minutes from 10.29.12 were approved as written.
3. Mail was reviewed which included:
a. Request to attend the 6th grade essay contest at Undermountain Elementary. Wayne will try to attend.
b. MassDOT Chapter 90 Reimbursement Request for the Beartown Mtn paving project was signed and will be returned to Maynard Forbes.
c. A request from Pat Mielke to permanently appoint Bethany Mielke as the Assistant Town Treasurer. A motion was made to appoint Bethany which was seconded and unanimously approved. Pat also noted that Bethany’s wages will be paid from the Treasurer’s Salary account when a replacement is necessary during Pat’s absence.
d. An email from Otis regarding excess wind turbine energy they are projecting to have. They are inquiring if other towns are interested in purchasing this. The Board is interested in learning more about what the costs and obligations will be.
e. An email from Wendy Jensen complimenting the amazing job M. Noe does with the town website and sending out emails with information and resources.
4. Warrants were signed.
5. Inter-Departmental Secretary’s weekly report reviewed.
6. Muriel noted that based on the expense reports provided by the Accountant the Select Board has spent over ½ of their expense budget after only ¼ of the way through the year; she suggests that this line item should be raised for next year. She also questioned the overage shown on this report from the Fire Department for thermal imaging equipment which was approved at town meeting for $6,500 yet it appears that $12,000 was spent.
7. Muriel stated that the old compensation of tax abatements for firefighters needs to be removed from the Town Bylaws at town meeting seeing as the firefighters are now paid an hourly stipend.
8. The Board stated that the policy for carcasses is to move them to an unoccupied space on town land if no one else has claimed it for other purposes.
At 9:30am the Board had a conference call with Rich Zingarelli of DCR, Bob Levy of Hebert’s Cove, Representative Pignatelli, Kerry Sullivan from Representative Pignatelli’s office, Senator Downing Todd Moriarity and Dan Moriarity of Hebert’s Cove regarding mitigation of Lake Buel.
Our Board explained that this call was requested to find out what kind of legislation has been sought and how it is coming along since the meeting held last December. Rich Zingarelli stated they would not be seeking any legislation but he has offered the Hazard Mitigation Program which would not cover the types of activities we would be seeking assistance for (dredging, etc.) Dan noted that in September of 2008 the Towns of New Marlborough and Monterey raised $20,000 towards an engineering study which was turned down by the Hazard Mitigation Program (submitted by Melissa Provencer of BRPC). Senator Downing will follow up on this as will Rich Zingarelli of DCR as he was not familiar with this application. Rich noted that engineering studies are also not covered under the grant program.
Rich stated that the challenge is the regulations set by the Feds that do not allow this type of problem to receive help. A new program would need to be created which DCR has not been able to convince its colleagues to do.
Muriel asked if funding were not an issue what the Town would be allowed to do to “unclog this drain” so to speak. Rich stated that there are limitations to the types of work allowed in a stream but the Town would need permission from DEP. Smitty asked who should be initiating the engineering and permission to get this all started as well as what kind of technical parameters can be offered to the Town to get this started regardless of the money so the Town doesn’t do something haphazardly and make the wrong decision.
Rich did not feel comfortable speaking for any other agencies and did not feel they were qualified to lay out parameters for DEP and the Army Core of Engineers.
At the end of the call it was determined that the next steps will be:
- The Town of Monterey will coordinate with Smitty’s staff to arrange a meeting with New Marlborough, BRPC, Representative Pignatelli, Senator Downing, the Con Comm and DEP to determine the next step(s)/direction and or permit process. Senator Downing suggested inviting the congressmen as well.
A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 10:45am
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Inter-Departmental Secretary
Approved by:
Monterey Select Board
Select Board Members
Minutes Book
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