Monterey Select Board
Minutes of the meeting of 11/17/14
Meeting Opened at: 8:30am
Select Board Members Present: Wayne Burkhart, Chairperson, Scott Jenssen (arrived at 9am) and Kenn Basler
Also in attendance for parts of the meeting: David Irland for the Monterey News, Ray Tryon, Mike Germain, Lee Hauge, Franz Forster, Jack Hickey, Ken Wagner, Roger Tryon, Alice Burke, Peter Chait, Pat Salomon, Julio Rodriguez, Monica Webb, Adam Chait, Karen Shreefter, Shawn Tryon and Brendan Fletcher
Miscellaneous Select Board Items Reviewed:
1. Mail was reviewed which included:
a. Equipment rental bid results from a collaborative meeting of surrounding towns was provided by the Town of New Marlborough.
b. Letter from the New Marlborough Select Board to the SBRSD Finance Committee Chair requesting answers to questions regarding the roof and boilers that needs replacing.
c. Request for funding for transportation for FY16 for the Southern Berkshire Elderly Transportation in the amount of $2,375. This will be forwarded to the Finance Committee.
2. Kenn reported that EDM emailed him to let him know that they received a copy of the signed contract and will be in touch this week to set up a site visit.
3. A motion was made to move forward with Colonial Power. The motion was seconded and approved. M. Noe will contact Colonial to get the next steps in motion which will require a town meeting vote. Scott was not present for this vote.
4. M. Noe will send the total kilowatt usage for the entire town of Monterey to the Solar Guild which was requested at a previous meeting (4,900,000 as of 2011).
5. The Board reviewed the December Select Board Corner and approved the final version.
6. Mike Germain of the Friends of Lake Garfield (FLG), Ken Wagner and members of the Western Massachusetts Lake Association came in to continue the discussions on the milfoil issue in Lake Garfield. Mike has had conversations with DEP and Representative Pignatelli. It seems as though the only place where funds may be available would be through DEP. Mike proposes that $30,000 would be needed from the Town for next year to begin on the projects (but could manage with $10,000). The FLG and Ken Wagner will begin writing grants and putting pressure on the State to assist with the cost of solving the current issues in these state resources (Lake Garfield is a Great Pond). Pat added that she feels that systematic visits need to be made with our current state representatives in order to
convince them to put state monies into their great ponds. Mike will provide wording for the warrant within the week.
7. Alice Burke came in to request that the Town apply for the grant monies available to humanely trap the beavers at Heron Pond. She suggested that the beavers should be trapped with a device called the Beaver Deceiver. It was suggested that the trapper and the Director of Operations should be called in to discuss the policies with regards to our beaver trapping policies. Alice asked if a moratorium could be placed on any future trapping until the policy could be discussed further and the Board stated that this was not an option at this time.
8. Adam Chait came in with a proposal for a privately funded venture (Private Connect) which would build out a broadband infrastructure. Initially he has about 55k feet of cable they would like to lay underground. Because they would like to go underground (for most of the project) it would require utility easements as this would be done in the town right of way. He has agreements with the utilities to use the existing poles. His proposal would hook up 750 residences through Monterey, Hartsville and New Marlborough. Monterey has 812 residences. Laying the fiber would not hook up all the homes in Monterey there would be additional costs to the homeowner to connect to the main line. Adam stated that he could not guarantee that his private company could cover 100% of the Town as
WiredWest is proposing to do. Adam stated that the difference is that his proposal will not cost the town any money as it would be paid for privately. Monica stated that in WiredWest’s research it has already been determined that Monterey would never be 100% covered by a privately owned company. Supporting a private project like this will split the Town into haves and have nots and will make it so that the Town cannot join WiredWest as the Town will no longer be feasible. Scott felt that the Town has been a partner with and has worked with WiredWest from the beginning and feels that granting any easements to a private company which would take away from the feasibility of WiredWest’s plan would be irresponsible. Wayne also feels that he wants the Town to take on the opportunity of accepting what WiredWest is proposing. Kenn made a motion that the Board hold off on making any decisions on granting any easments to Private Connect until
WiredWest has presented all of their finalized numbers (meetings will begin on December 11th). The motion was seconded and approved unanimously. Ray Tryon added that supporting WiredWest is an investment in the Town.
9. Don Torrico & Shawn Tryon came in to advise the Board of an incident that occurred over the weekend with regards to homes in Monterey being rented out without the proper fire/co2 safety equipment. It was determined that a letter will be sent out to the homes we are aware of that are renting them out regarding the liabilities that are involved with renting out a home not designated and inspected as a B&B.
10. Administrative Assistant’s weekly report was reviewed.
a. M. Noe informed the Board that in order to get the full report on the Town Hall Services Survey we will need to upgrade from the free service for one month as we have received more than the 100 that we are allowed under the free service. The Board approved the expense.
b. M. Noe provided the Board with copies of her personal files that she has kept over the years which detail the events that occurred several years ago with the previous Town Clerk’s office. She noted that she was asked to prepare this packet by a previous Select Board however it never made it into the minutes or files at that time (available at town hall).
- c. M. Noe notified the Board that she has been made aware of 2 other groups that have performed studies for other towns with regards to the structures of town hall, Bill Tighe and Government Consulting Group and she hopes to have copies of reports they have done for tonight’s meeting.
11. The Board agreed that the best time to meet with CET as requested would be at noon on a Monday or 4pm on a Wednesday; M. Noe will contact Jamie Cahillane to schedule the meeting.
12. The Board asked M. Noe to investigate and/or confirm with Town Counsel if the Constable is present at elections is a uniformed officer also required and if so at a detail rate or at their normal pay rate.
13. The Board discussed the goals for tonight’s meeting. Items to discuss will be the possibility of increasing the size of the committee and how to go about doing that and/or to discuss the possibility of bringing in an outside consultant which is the favored positive option. The Board all agreed that the sample report provided by the Collins Group would be the ideal situation to look at the structure of the Monterey Town Hall.
14. Warrants were signed.
The board met with Town Accountant, Brendan Fletcher to review the following:
1. Brendan came in to let the Board know that the reason for the change in his office hours was due to a difficulty in finding full time employment around the office hours required here. The Board agreed that as long as he was available for employees at least one morning a week, changing the other morning to an evening would be acceptable.
A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 11:44am
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Administrative Assistant
Approved by:
Monterey Select Board
Select Board Members
Minutes Book
Town Clerk
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