Monterey Select Board
Minutes of the meeting of 9/22/14
Meeting Opened at: 9am
Select Board Members Present: Wayne Burkhart, Chairperson, Scott Jenssen and Kenn Basler
Also in attendance for parts of the meeting: David Riland for the Monterey News, Ray Tryon, Shawn Tryon and Stanley Ross
The board met with Director of Operations, Shawn Tryon to review the following:
1. Transfer Station:
- Shawn provided copies of the plan that were drawn up a few years ago to redesign the Transfer Station to meet DEP requirements. Original estimates received from the previous Director of Operations were about $200,000 to do this; all felt that this was an immediate issue to deal with. Shawn will get updated quotes on this.
- Kenn felt that the immediate issue to deal with would be the current situation at the transfer station. The current situation is that 3 years ago we entered into a 1 year contract with the Master Garbologist with an option to extend for 1 year two times. Currently we have already extended 2 years and are now not currently under a contract. Kenn feels that the conditions up there are abominable and we have some issues that need to be dealt with regarding the attendant and whether or not it should be a town employee going forward and the issues with the compactors being down for extended periods of time need to be addressed with Master Garbologist should the Town decide to continue to use their services. Both Wayne and Scott agree to a certain extent with Kenn’s depiction of the problems there. There
is also a serious traffic flow issue. Shawn noted that the current layout was designed for the traffic Monterey had 40 years ago, not today. It was noted that there is a lack of control up there to keep vehicles moving, checking for stickers and making sure that items that aren’t supposed to be left at the dump aren’t.
- Shawn advised that the contract needs to be rebid and provisions need to be added to the new contract stating that equipment that breaks down must be fixed within 48 hours.
- Discussion ensued about whether or not the attendant should be a town employee or contracted thru the contract with the garbage hauling service. The current contracted job description for the attendant was read and it was noted that he isn’t currently doing all of the items that the job description states. Shawn is in full support of the attendant being a town employee (which is how most surrounding towns do it) and would welcome having someone to run the transfer station and then when not working there being able to provide assistance to the Highway Department. The Board wasn’t enthused about adding more to the town’s payroll but in the end felt that it was more important that the town have control over the person attending the dump. Making this position a town employee brings up other issues
to address like who would handle sick and vacation time of this new employee.
- Discussion also ensued about how to address the large amount of bulky waste coming in. All the surrounding towns charge for bulky waste.
- Ray Tryon who was in the audience felt that the town should either own all the equipment and employ the attendant and pay for a hauler or keep it as it.
- It was decided to put out an RFP for a new contract with 2 options, one with an employee and one without. The contract would state that we provide the supervision of the contracted employee and there would be penalties enforced if broken equipment isn’t fixed within 48 hours.
- M. Noe and Shawn will work on a job description for the attendant as well as a revised contract to have the Select Board review prior to it going out to bid.
2. Weekly report was provided.
3. Regarding a fire department report showing the number of calls they went on; Shaw provided a sample of a report he can provide. About 1/3 of the calls are for false alarms. He will start providing this report monthly to the Board.
4. Wayne felt it was important to stress that the Fire Department is a volunteer/on-call fire department versus a full time paid department and that this needs to be kept in perspective when seeing how many firemen respond to a call.
5. Fire dept draft agreement: this agreement addresses how the money is allocated that the Town gives to the Fire Company. Shawn will get another copy to the Board.
6. Shawn confirmed that he has been unable to find the FEMA money the Board thought we had available to use toward fixing the dam behind the library. Shawn spoke with the Library Director and there is some confusion as to what the library Trustees thought was going to be done to the dam versus what Maynard Forbes told Shawn the Highway Department had planned for. Shawn will look into seeing if the State Dam Safety Board can come out an give an opinion on it along with an estimate of how much it will cost with the understanding that the work most like will not being done this year and it may need to be an article on the town meeting warrant. A motion was made to allow Shawn to spend up to $5,000 to determine how much the repair will cost. The motion was seconded and unanimously
approved.
Miscellaneous Select Board Items Reviewed:
1. Kenn updated the Board on an issue that came up last week regarding the Berkshire County Retirement Board having difficulty communicating with our Treasurer to get the necessary information regarding current employees and retirees in a timely fashion. Our Treasurer due to her full time job is unable to speak personally with the Berkshire County Retirement during their working hours and it is proving problematic. Kenn proposed that the Board move ahead with getting information from a payroll service and look at transferring the payroll responsibilities to an outside firm that is available during normal business hours. M. Noe has requested quotes from several companies and is just waiting on the information; once that is received meetings with the payroll companies will be set up with the Board to
hear what they can offer. Kenn also proposed that if the payroll service is not an option then we should consider transferring payroll back to the Accountant. Stanley Ross stated that from experience a payroll service is a very effective tool to the town and should be seriously considered and feels as a finance committee member that it would be well worth the money.
2. A motion was made to appoint Shawn Tryon as the Fire Inspector for a one year term. The motion was seconded and unanimously approved.
3. Shawn Tryon requested that Harry Jennings be appointed as the Assistant Fire Inspector for a one year term. The motion was seconded and unanimously approved.
4. The Board reviewed the changes suggested by the ECAC to the Employee Handbook as a finished product to be distributed to all employees as the final product. A motion was made to accept the revised version as the final product. The motion was seconded and unanimously approved.
5. It was discussed whether or not the first “question of the month” for the October’s Select Board corner should be around something that we are currently working on or something in the future. After discussing it, it was decided to keep the question as is.
6. Discussion ensued about communication Kenn has started with about 10 interested individuals to discuss the future of the Monterey School. Wayne was concerned that Kenn had done this on his own but Scott argued that Kenn had made his intentions known that he was going to start an ad-hoc committee to readdress the outlying school.
7. Administrative Assistant’s weekly report was reviewed.
A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 11:15am
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Administrative Assistant
Approved by:
Monterey Select Board
Select Board Members
Minutes Book
Town Clerk
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