Monterey Select Board
Minutes of the meeting of 10/20/14
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 Irland for the Monterey News, Michael Germain, Pat Rodriguez, Julio Rodriguez, Ken Wagner, Mark Guilds, Raymond Tryon, Richard Tryon and Emily Johnson
The board met with Chief of Police, Gareth Backhaus to review the following:
1. Introduce Jack Elliott, the part time officer appointed at the last meeting.
2. Introduce Jordan Sills as a potential part time officer for Monterey. Chief Backhaus recommends appointing Jordan as a part time officer for a 6 month probationary period. A motion was made to appoint Jordan Sills for a 6 month probationary period. The motion was seconded and unanimously approved.
3. Weekly report was reviewed.
The board met with Director of Operations, Shawn Tryon to review the following:
1. Shawn came in for some necessary signatures on some Chapter 90 reimbursement paperwork.
Miscellaneous Select Board Items Reviewed:
1. Michael Germain and other members of the Friends of Lake Garfield as well as Dr. Ken Wagner came in to present a five year plan with budget for management of the weeds in Lake Garfield (attached). The Friends of Lake Garfield do raise money to manage the lake but this plan will require more funds than they have and the FLG is hoping that the town can contribute to the management for the next five years. Any town funds would require approval of town meeting. The FLG is also requesting a police presence in monitoring the boats that are entering the lake. Kenn felt that when looking at Monterey and the large amount of state owned land which we do not receive taxes for that the state should play a role in helping to manage the issues proposing that it be 1/3 paid by the town, state and FLG. The cost will be approximately $38,000 a year and the FLG feels that they could raise about $15,000 a year toward that. Scott is in full support of the town and state handling all of the
costs since it is a town lake and not a private lake. Kenn did not agree with this and felt it should be a 3 way split. Discussions will continue at next week’s meeting; FLG asked that the Harbormaster also be present for the discussions. FLG will begin contacting our State Representatives, DCR and LAPA.
2. Mark Guilds of the Solar Guild came in at the Board’s request to discuss opportunities available to Monterey. Solar Guild is a complete turnkey solar installation operator. Monterey could look into creating a solar farm on town land to create an almost profit generating solution for our tomorrows generations.
3. Emily Johnson came in with the warrants for the upcoming election for the Board to sign.
4. Emily Johnson inquired if all events like the one her son put on this past weekend require the same permit that they were required to get. The Board explained that this particular case (theatrical event that charged admission and did not serve alcohol or food) was new territory for the Board and the Board is going to look at making our application process clearer to know what types of activities trigger requiring a permit. This particular event was not singled out, it happened because of the lack of information about the event’s details that were initially provided to the town.
5. The Board reviewed the text for the November Select Board Corner and approved it to be released.
6. Ray Tryon stated that it is illegal to sell or consume alcohol on a public property. The Board stated that this is incorrect but will double check with town counsel.
7. Kenn spoke with the Finance Committee which felt it was appropriate to use the temporary employee line item to hire Beth Parks at $200/month to organize and maintain the swap shack at the Transfer Station. M. Noe reminded the Board that this account is already being used to pay Barbara Gauthier who is assisting the financial offices right now and this will cause it to go over. Wayne felt that there should be set hours associated with this position to avoid any conflicts. A motion was made to appoint Beth Parks as the Swap Shack Attendant for a 5 month term to be paid a stipend of $200/month providing the Accountant approves the expenditure. The motion was seconded and unanimously approved. The Board will discuss the required hours for the position at next week’s
meeting.
8. Kenn mentioned that a company called “Big Hearted Books” provides containers for transfer stations where people can drop books which will be donated or sold and the town will receive a portion of the money from the sale. There is no cost to the town to have this container located at the Transfer Station. A motion was made to install the Big Hearted Books container at the transfer station. The motion was seconded and unanimously approved.
9. Kenn has spoken with the engineer (EDM) that has already done reports on the Monterey School Building; they are going to update and combine the reports for the Board to review.
10. Kenn reported that he and Shawn attended a meeting in Sheffield on Friday with the surrounding towns to discuss how the towns could share equipment and resources. Right now the towns that met are discussing purchasing salt as a group as there have been several issues with the County Bid right now. Shawn and Kenn will be attending a follow up meeting in 2 weeks. There was also talk about purchasing and using a mower that mows the sides of the roads. Scott and Wayne were concerned about this proposal as there is a gentleman that currently does the mowing for several of the towns and coordinates it very well.
11. Jamie’s Court: The Board received a copy of the bill that was submitted for the work to date which has depleted the $19,000 that the private organization raised plus $4,500 put in by the Parks Department which was initially agreed upon as they ran into some unforeseen issues. To finish the court it will require another $10,000 which will either have to be privately raised or brought to a town meeting vote.
12. Kenn attended a recent school meeting where it was stated that SBRSD will be requesting that an article be placed on each towns meeting warrants for a $50,000 bond to repair the roof and boiler at the high school. An official request has yet to be received. The Board is concerned that this request will only address the high school and not the issues with the outlying school buildings.
13. It was noted that the Board needs to discuss the recent issues in the Treasurer’s Office and that our vendor account has been overdrawn twice in the last two weeks due to the necessary transfers of funds not being made. The Board will address this further at next week’s meeting.
14. Mail was reviewed which included:
a. Monterey Community Center’s quarterly report.
b. Letter from David Hastings, Superintendent of SBRSD notifying the Board that the school committee would like to adhere to the wishes of Alford, New Marlborough and Sheffield and would like to know if these towns would like to rescind their earlier letters requesting closure of the Egremont and Monterey schools or if they would like them to be acted upon in accordance with the provisions of the Restated Regional Agreement. He is requesting a response from the 3 towns by October 30th.
15. Warrants were signed.
16. Administrative Assistant’s weekly report was reviewed.
a. Time off request was approved.
A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 11:30am
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Administrative Assistant
Approved by:
Monterey Select Board
Select Board Members
Minutes Book
Town Clerk
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