Monterey Select Board
Minutes of the meeting of 7/21/14
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, Dustin Collins, Bob Phillips and Craig Samuelson of Hume and Stanley Ross
The board met with Director of Operations, Maynard Forbes to review the following:
1. Weekly reports were reviewed.
2. Maynard gave an update on the bid put out for RT 57; the bid opening will be on August 11th.
3. Maynard should have more information on the timeframe for Jaime’s Court today.
Miscellaneous Select Board Items Reviewed:
1. Dustin Collins, Bob Phillips and Craig Samuelson of Hume came in to discuss the following with the Board:
a. The Board thanked Hume again for helping out with the food at the Memorial Day festivities and thought this might be a good time to open a dialogue to begin involving Hume more in town affairs.
b. Bob provided a history of the Hume organization and how their east and west coast operations differ.
c. Currently they are building a 60 person dormitory with a meeting hall. A maintenance building is the next project and then they will focus on building a gymnasium which will also double as a chapel/meeting area. They hope to have all these projects done by 2015. They are hoping to get the property back up to a sustainable level. Currently the camping operations here are being subsidized by donations from the west coast Hume.
d. Stanley Ross, Assessor asked about the future of PILOT payments being made to the town since they are a non-profit that doesn’t pay taxes but they do receive services from the town. Bob stated that last year they gave $600 to the fire department. Stan noted that Gould Farm another non-profit in town pays about $12,000/year.
e. Bob stated that when their facility isn’t being used by campers it would be open to the community of Monterey for use.
f. Kenn mentioned rumors he had heard about Hume expanding to upwards of 500 campers a year (double what Keswick was permitted for) and suggested it would be good to get a head start on the impact this will have on the neighborhood and how we can address these issues ahead of time. Upgrades and or changes to Cronk and/or Chestnut Hill would need to be coordinated with the town as they are town roads.
g. Bob noted that the previous tower company that had proposed a cell tower on the Hume property has dropped out and they are negotiating with other tower companies so a new tower company will be applying for a new special permit at some point.
2. Mail was reviewed which included:
a. Message from Maryellen Brown suggested that the Board follow up further on the Social Security notice we received last week as the town doesn’t pay into Social Security. The Board felt it appropriate for M. Noe to call the SS Administration to learn more about what the notice is for.
3. The Board met with Executive Secretary, Melissa Noe to discuss entering into an employment contract. The Board discussed the items M. Noe is requesting and had questions on a few of them. Scott stated he is and has been in favor of entering into a contract with M. Noe. Wayne felt more positive about doing this after seeing the proposal and learning that there are 2 other employment contracts in town. Wayne inquired as to how Kenn felt and he stated it didn’t matter as there were already the 2 votes in favor of it. Discussion ensued and Wayne asked what the difference would be in offering this contract to Melissa than offering a contract to the Library Director and Kenn stated that they are an elected Board offering their employee a contract with the terms of his employment
which Scott and Wayne both noted is the exact same situation here. The Board asked that an actual contract with the proper verbiage be drawn up for them to compare with the Police Chief and Library Director’s contracts as well as surrounding town administrator contracts.
4. The Board signed thank you letters to the applicants that applied and interviewed for the Director of Operations position.
5. An offer of employment letter was signed and will be sent to Shawn Tryon.
6. Kenn stated that it has come to the attention to the Postmaster that the parking in front of the post office is abysmal. She would like to open a discussion about adding a no parking sign to the problem spot for safety reasons. Scott was not in favor of this as parking spots have already been lost due to their new loading dock. Kenn will speak with the Chief and Maynard as well.
7. Kenn would like to restart the subcommittee for the Monterey School. Scott said he would help but he didn’t hold out much hope that the previous members would want to be on it again. Wayne did not oppose Kenn trying to restart this committee but wanted it to be clear that this decision as well as all decisions made by the Board should be all inclusive conversations amongst the members. Wayne felt that we should first know what we would want the committee to be responsible for and in what time frame they will have to work within. It was agreed that a ½ hour of next week’s meeting will be devoted to further discussing the need for revitalizing the committee, what they would be charged with, who might be on it and how to proceed.
8. The Chief’s weekly report was reviewed.
9. Executive Secretary’s weekly report was reviewed.
10. The Board further discussed a suggestion made last week about hiring a payroll service as is done in West Stockbridge. It was suggested that we wait to follow up on this until after the year end items have been completed. At that time the Board will discuss how the Accountant and Treasurer feel about this as an option, possibly at the September evening meeting.
11. Kenn provided copies of the recent City & Town newsletter which contained an article (which can be found digitally here: http://www.mass.gov/dor/docs/dls/city-town/2014/ctown-july3.pdf ) from the Department of Revenue regarding the number of cities and towns in Massachusetts that have appointed versus elected Treasurers and Tax Collectors. Kenn asked that the other Board members review to be discussed at a later date.
A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 11:27am
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Executive Secretary
Approved by:
Monterey Select Board
Select Board Members
Minutes Book
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