Monterey Select Board
Minutes of the meeting of 6/9/14
Meeting Opened at: 9am
Select Board Members Present: Wayne Burkhart, Chairperson, Scott Jenssen and Kenn Basler
Also in attendance for parts of the meeting: Jacob Edelman for the Monterey News, Maynard Forbes, Roger Tryon, Julio & Pat Rodriguez, Representative from Lane Construction, Barbara Gauthier and Ray Tryon
At 9am the Board had a bid opening for heavy equipment rental with operator and the following bids were received:
- Tryon and Virgilio. Equipment prices with an operator were listed separately. Maynard will review the bids and make a recommendation to the Board next Monday on which bid to accept.
At 9:15am the Board had a bid opening for gravel and the following bids were received:
- Tryon, Lane and Tonlino & Sons(?). Gravel prices were listed separately. Maynard will review the bids and make a recommendation to the Board next Monday on which bid to accept.
The board met with Director of Operations, Maynard Forbes to review the following:
1. Rt 23 update: the project went out to bid 3 weeks ago and the bid opening is September 3rd with the work to potentially start in the fall and finish in the spring.
2. Rt 57 work will begin this summer as a Chapter 90 project and should last 15 – 20 years. A motion was made to accept the Chapter 90 project as described in the paperwork from Maynard. The motion was seconded and unanimously approve. The Chair signed the necessary Chapter 90 paperwork.
3. The state gave us $30,000 thru their pothole program (which is reimbursed to the town in November) which we are going to use on approximately 1 mile of Beartown Mtn Rd. The $30,000 will almost cover the full mile and extra costs will come from the Highway Department’s budget. A motion was made to approve the use of the pothole funds on Beartown Mtn Rd. The motion was seconded and unanimously approved. The Chair signed the necessary Chapter 90 paperwork.
4. Sheffield Kiwanis in May had a group of folks pick up garbage on Blue Hill Rd (about 8 large bags). Maynard requested that the Board send a thank you letter to the Kiwanis.
5. Sylvan Rd should be done in the next few weeks (paving of the town portion).
6. Maynard informed the Board that he has sold his home and will be retiring. He doesn’t have an exact date yet (he will give a firm date next week) but it will be sometime in the month of August. He has offered his assistance with any part of the process in the hiring of the next Superintendent. He recommended that a committee should be formed to do the interviewing of the candidates.
7. Painting on the plywood on the salt shed: Maynard was going to put this in the budget for this year but the budget was tight so he would recommend that it be added to the budget for FY16. As requested he will let the Board know approximately how much the job will cost.
8. Poles on state property off Brett Rd: these are located on state land and there isn’t anything the town can do about them.
9. Dam repair behind the library should begin in the end of July.
10. Maynard provided a copy of his weekly reports for the weeks ending May 10, May 17, May 24, May 31 and June 7.
The board met with Barbara Gauthier to review the following:
1. Barbara reported that she has been encouraged by the accountant’s recent work and feels that he is moving in the right direction. She also feels that his attitude towards the job is positive. Barbara reported that Brendan is still spending too much time correcting mistakes originating in the Treasurer’s Office. The Select Board discussed with Barbara the ongoing problems. A number of ideas were put forth including moving the payroll from the Treasurer back to the Accountant. It was decided that Kenn and Barbara would meet that evening with Bethany and Brendan to discuss the issues raised and figure out a plan that would move both the departments forward. It was noted that we are at the end of the fiscal year and need to close out our books while, at the same time,
start the new fiscal year.
2. The overage in the Treasurer’s Salary was discussed. This was originally a request made to the voters on the July 12th special town meeting warrant to give the Treasurer an additional $1,000, this article was tabled however the Select Board approved the additional $1,000 at a Select Board meeting on July 22nd which is something that the Finance Committee should’ve/will need to approve. If the Accountant is going to take over the payroll responsibilities it was suggested that a special town meeting will be needed to give the Accountant an additional $1,000.
3. Barbara is very nervous that we are in the month of June and the books have never been balance. There is a concern that we are going to end up in the same position as we were last year.
4. Kenn and Barbara are meeting with Bethany this evening to talk about the current mistakes that are still being found and to discuss how we are going to pull this all together to close out this years books and not end up in the same situation as last year, there will not be any transfers of responsibilities talked about tonight.
5. Kenn and the rest of the Board thanked Barbara for all of the time and effort she has been putting into trying to get this office back in shape.
Miscellaneous Select Board Items Reviewed:
1. Pat Rodriguez came in to discuss Lakefest: Pat stated that they have enough funds to cover the planning without the funds usually received from the town. There will not be any fireworks this year. August 9th is the projected date. Since the town is no longer providing funds the Association wanted to know if it was still possible to have the town’s insurance cover the liability of the boat rides that are given on Lake Garfield. M. Noe was asked to follow up with our insurance provider.
2. Pat Rodriguez inquired as to when the next annual Select Board/2nd Homeowner’s Meeting will be. Pat would like to combine this meeting with the Lake Association’s meeting and August 2nd was suggested as a date.
3. Thank you letters were written and signed for all those that participated in the Memorial Day festivities.
4. Kenn spoke with Linda Thorpe about the town files that the town is requesting be returned to the town hall. She stated that she doesn’t have any records only copies but agreed to return all of those by the end of this month. Kenn also spoke with a representative of the AG’s office while at a seminar last week and the AG’s opinion right now is that the records need to be kept in a safe location and they are working on new opinions that town records must be kept at town hall. The AG representative recommended that the Town create their own policy regarding where town records are to be kept, Kenn will draft something up for the Board to review and accept if they so decided.
5. Kenn has a meeting set up this week with the Chair of the Sheffield Select Board to discuss their position on the outlying schools. Kenn should have the financial information requested from the school’s Business Manager later this week.
6. Mail was reviewed which included:
a. Letter from Jim Podolak of the Division of Local Services notifying the town that while working on the 6/30/13 E&D submission it was discovered that the 6/30/12 excess amount of $23714 was never applied to reduce the FY13 assessments. Jim notified the Board that it is up to the member towns to pursue this with SBRSD.
b. Resignation from Chris Tryon from the ECAC.
c. Notification from the BRTA that they are looking for who will be the representative from the Town on their advisory board. Wayne agreed to do this.
d. Notification from the Southern Berkshire Household Hazardous Waste Collection Program that it is time to renew. The Board unanimously agreed to renew our contract with CET for the collection of hazardous waste through the multi-town collaborative.
7. The Board discussed and agreed thru a unanimous motion to reappoint Muriel Lazzarini, Melissa Noe, Maynard Forbes, Gareth Backhaus, Dan Moriarity, Mickey Jervas and Larry Klein to the Employee Compensation Advisory Committee for 21 days thru June 30, 2014 at which time the Board will discuss the membership on this committee and who should be appointed for the upcoming year. Muriel has stated that she does not wish to be reappointed past June 30th.
8. A letter will be sent to Pat Mielke affirming that the Assistant Treasurer position will be eliminated and that she will not be reappointed and that help for Bethany will be sought out thru other avenues.
9. The Board discussed how a committee should be formed and who might serve on the committee to help in the search for finding a new Director of Operations. Ray Tryon was present and summarized who was on the previous committee and how it worked. The Board all took copies of surrounding town job descriptions of Highway Superintendents to review this week and we confirmed that the preliminary screening of applicants may be done in Executive Session. The Board will meet at 4pm on Thursday, June 12th to update the current Director of Operations job description, create a help wanted ad and determine whether or not a search committee is necessary.
10. The Board asked M. Noe to arrange for Don Torrico to come in to speak with the Board about the Historical Commission’s suggestions made last week. It was suggested that the Commission should instead write letters directly to the homeowner’s of the homes listed on the sheet he provided to the Board last week and requesting that if they are thinking of doing any work on their home to please first consult with the Historical Commission for suggestions to keep the home historically correct.
11. Executive Secretary’s weekly report was reviewed.
12. Police Chief’s weekly report was reviewed.
13. Community Center: Kenn had a brief discussion with Stefan Grotz who was the original lawyer on the will of Edith Wilson. Kenn is suggesting that Stefan come in and speak with the Board about our options with Bally Gally and possibly selling it and donating the funds to the Community Center. M. Noe did remind the Board of the email she sent last week which stated that Maynard informed her that the last time the scenario of selling Bally Gally and turning the profits over to the Community Center were looked into counsel informed us that as per Edith’s will any proceeds from the sale of Bally Gally would go to the scholarship fund. Kenn would still like to have Stefan Grotz in to a future meeting to discuss.
14. Mark Little, Bettina Schwartz and Richard Tryon were appointed thru June 30, 2014 until the Committee’s makeup can be discussed further in the coming weeks and a full term appointment will be made.
A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 11:49am
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Executive Secretary
Approved by:
Monterey Select Board
Select Board Members
Minutes Book
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