Monterey Select Board
Minutes of the meeting of 8/5/13
Meeting Opened at: 9am
Select Board Members Present: Muriel Lazzarini, Chairperson, Wayne Burkhart and Scott Jenssen
Also in attendance for parts of the meeting: Susan Gallant for the Monterey News, Jeff Purvis, Maryellen Brown and Maynard Forbes
9am Bid Opening – Paving of New Marlboro Rd
- Tri Town Paving - $68.40 per ton, no project total given
- Lane Construction: $163,612.50
- Del Signore: $138,788.20
- LB Corp: $69.25 per ton, $148,012.50
Maynard will review the bids and make a recommendation next week on which to accept.
The board met with Director of Operations, Maynard Forbes’ to review the following:
1. Maynard reported that the ECAC met last week and one item discussed was setting a starting wage for the new hire for the highway position to become vacant at the end of September. Maynard stated that this position will require a CDL license and Hoisting license and experience driving a large truck (this person will be driving the OshKosh). It was agreed to recommend that the position with all necessary licensing and experience start at $19.50/hour with a 6 month probationary period and after 6 months, if the review is satisfactory, a $0.50/hr raise will be given. This new hire will come on at the new hire 80/20 insurance split (which works out to about $1/hr). Maynard also provided an updated job description for this position (which will be more than a laborer position). The Board
concurred with Maynard’s starting hourly rate. The job will be posted later this week in the paper and on our website.
2. Weekly reports were reviewed.
3. Bonner McAllister thru Wayne inquired as to why the Highway Department didn’t apply for any grants that were available to remove beavers on town property. Maynard spoke with Bonner and explained that the issues we are experiencing are the beavers plugging up the culverts and the grant available is for the “beaver deceiver” which wouldn’t work in this scenario nor would it solve the problem.
4. Items from the 2nd homeowner’s meeting held on Saturday:
a. Transfer Station stickers and extended families that share a home. They feel it is expensive to purchase stickers with license plates for each person that uses it and would prefer that the stickers go to addresses, not license #’s. The requirement right now is that the sticker must be affixed to the car and that is why it needs to match the license plate of the car. The attendant can see the sticker when it is properly affixed to the car. Our sticker is one of the cheapest around and we allow families to dispose of most anything for no additional cost. Several scenarios and options were discussed to try next year. Discussions will continue on this. Chief Backhaus will also be asked for his opinion.
b. Sylvan Rd – portion that the town owns, can the highway department fill in some of the holes? Maynard stated that they looked at it in the spring and should be patching it up soon. Residents inquired about hiring the town to plow the private road versus hiring an outside contractor. Maynard stated he wouldn’t do this as most of the private roads are way too narrow and our plows are too big, also it would take away from plowing the town roads as there are more privately owned roads than town roads and how would you determine which ones the town would do and not do.
c. Inquiries were made about what the red markers on Tyringham Road were for? Maynard thinks they are benchmarks for surveying regarding the several private homes for sale up there.
5. Mowing immediately across the boat ramp – Maynard stated it is mowed. Maynard was asked to mow a little more near Brewer Pond for storage of kayaks. Maynard asked about the status of it being open to all? Town Counsel has stated that it is indeed public, the Board would like to know if there are any MGL’s regarding beaches and how much frontage the state requires for their boat launch so it is clear how much is for the ramp access and how much is the beach. Maynard stated that there isn’t anything that states that the beach has too be open to the public and doesn’t understand why Monterey would want to pay for extra lifeguards, parking, etc for people that aren’t residents of Monterey. The Board asked M. Noe to ask Counsel why our beach has to be open to
the public and if the Public Access Board has any jurisdiction over our beach.
The board met with Town Accountant, Maryellen Brown to review the following items:
1. Maryellen inquired about the special article to purchase the rescue vehicle a few years ago. Maryellen stated that there wasn’t a line item created by the previous Accountant in the Accounting Software for this purchase. Maynard was called to find out the name of the company (KME) and explained that he was told when Steve was the accountant he never created a line item for the loan for the Rescue Vehicle & Tools and instead put it under the hoses line item from quite a few years back. The Board instructed Maryellen to do whatever was necessary to fix the problem. Stanley Ross came in later in the meeting and stated that he helped Maryellen straighten this all out.
Miscellaneous Select Board Items Reviewed:
1. The minutes from 7/29/13 were approved as written.
2. The Board discussed their list of questions for the Fire Chief:
a. Clarification of (with a detailed, written document) of all general expenses.
b. What exactly the rent covers paid by the town, does this include set up fees for meetings and elections.
c. The Board would like the entire phone bill submitted if we are paying that utility.
d. Discuss training and calls being separated out and no longer being one line item. Calls will be a floating number but training is a specific amount and should not go over. The Board would like to request that training be dialed back on if it seems like the calls budget is going to go over. The Board would like an average of calls (and their types) for the last 4 years and the average cost of a call for the last year.
e. Discuss the real estate exemption for retired firemen and amending it. Town Counsel recommends cleaning it up to reflect the change made to pay active firemen in lieu of a tax abatement. Muriel felt that continuing the retired firemen property tax abatement is worth discussing.
f. The Board reviewed the comments in the ATM minutes (article 14) it was noted that the town wanted the Board and Fire Company to write a clear policy/bylaw regarding out of control, unpermitted brush fires. The Board was unclear on what action should be followed up here and that it was most likely moot.
3. 2nd Homeowner’s Meeting:
a. Muriel ran down all the names and positions in the town hall and also recommended that everyone check out the town’s website for most information.
b. Inquiries about the regulations on discharging firearms near the lake.
c. Inquiries about the status of a dog park and WiredWest were made.
d. 2nd Homeowner’s inquired about whether or not they can be appointed to committees.
4. Mail was reviewed which included:
a. Letter of Commendation for Officer Fredsall for a situation she handled recently. The Board will send a thank you as well to Stephanie.
b. Kay Purcell is interested in joining the Historical Commission. A motion was made to appoint Kay to the Historical Commission for a 3 year term which was seconded and approved unanimously.
c. Letter from MassDOT announcing the release of $200 million in Chapter 90 funding for FY14. Monterey is scheduled to receive $198,602.
d. Letter from the State Treasurer (cc’d to the Accountant and Treasurer here) announcing that starting this month, many local aid payments and assessments will be paid to communities on a monthly basis on the last business day to help cities and towns better manage their financial affairs through more regular infusions of aid.
5. Muriel would like to schedule the Finance Committee to come in to explain and review the OPEB report/actuarial study we received from the Treasurer.
6. Jeff Purvis of Chestnut Hill Rd came in to state that he is very upset with the Highway Department for their non-maintenance of Chestnut Hill Rd. He states that they haven’t touched it once this year and it’s completely washed out. He has left several unanswered messages for the highway department trying to find out why it is being ignored. The Board will pass this along to Maynard and ask him to get someone up there to grade right away. Jeff also wanted to know why the road isn’t paved.
7. Wayne reported on the Tuesday, Solid Waste Committee meeting and upcoming solid waste collections (which are posted on the Town’s meeting calendar). We have 12 composting bins available that we still need to determine how to distribute. Maynard is working on this.
8. Wayne reported on the Wednesday, School Committee Meeting (Bldg, Grounds Technology Subcommittee). Wayne personally felt there wasn’t a lot of forward thinking at the meeting. Overall the gist of the meeting produced that if all 3 outlying schools were closed and the children were moved to Undermountain it would only be a savings of $300k. Attached73113meetingdocs.pdf.
9. Emily Johnson, Town Clerk came in to let the Board know that neither Linda Thorpe or Barbara Swann have responded to her request (from the Board) to return the software she was reimbursed for, along with any town records associated with it. The Board suggesting waiting one more week before deciding how to proceed with the request.
10. The Board commended Emily and Melissa on the work done with putting the dog licensing items online and in their continued work on organizing the records room.
11. Warrants were signed.
12. Muriel is waiting to hear back from Bethany on the status of the septic loan program.
13. The Board was intrigued by the option of being able to electronically sign the payroll warrants and will test it out at home and discuss this further next week,
14. Inter-Departmental Secretary’s weekly report reviewed.
A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 11am
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Executive Secretary
Approved by:
Monterey Select Board
Select Board Members
Minutes Book
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