Monterey Select Board
Minutes of the meeting of 8/4/14
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, Julio Rodriguez, Wendy, and Ray Tryon
The board met with Chief of Police, Gareth Backhaus to review the following:
1. Weekly report was reviewed.
2. Kenn complimented the job that the officer directing traffic on the weekends is doing.
3. Kenn asked what the cutoff was on noise complaints. Chief explained that the town does not have a noise ordinance so the police follow the rule of thumb of any significant amount of noise before 6am or after 10pm will be considered a disturbance of the peace. The Chief has put in a call to Camp Hume requesting that the Director call him about the several noise complaints he’s received but he has not heard anything yet. Kenn reported that several residents in the Hume camp neighborhood have spoken with him and let him know that they will be meeting with the administration at the camp regarding excessive and very loud use of their loudspeaker at all hours as well as the increase in traffic.
Miscellaneous Select Board Items Reviewed:
1. Julio Rodriguez came in as a messenger of the Friends of Lake Garfield to find out what the possibility is of having a lake district to help raise money to keep the lake in shape. Wayne didn’t think it required a town vote but thought it was an act of the legislature. Scott was concerned that doing something like this would make the lake seem more private when it isn’t a private lake. He was completely against this being done and felt that if monies were needed to continue the upkeep of the lake then the Town should raise the monies through the town meeting process. Kenn felt that the Friends of Lake Garfield should come back to the Board with a capital expense five years out to maintain the lake. Wayne asked M. Noe to research this all further (creating a tax district
and the town spending resources to maintain the lake).
2. The Board continued their discussions with the Executive Secretary with regards to entering into an employment contract. M. Noe provided a letter to the Board which included town counsel’s response to their questions last week as well as the research about the surrounding town halls and their office hours (specifically whether or not they are open on Saturdays) as well as a response to the items brought up last week (letter is available at town hall). Additional questions were raised to be asked of town counsel. Contract amendments were discussed and this discussion will be continued next week.
3. Kenn provided examples of sample/suggested evaluations to institute. Discussion ensued on whether or not evaluations if instituted could be tied to raises. Everyone will look over the packets Kenn provided and continue this discussion next week.
4. As requested by the Conservation Commission a motion was made to appoint Dennis Lynch to the Conservation Commission for a 3 year term. The motion was seconded and unanimously approved.
5. A motion was made to appoint Shawn Tryon as the Transfer Station Manager for a 1 year term. The motion was seconded and unanimously approved. A motion was made to appoint Shawn Tryon as the 911 Coordinator for a 1 year term. The motion was seconded and unanimously approved. A motion was made to appoint Shawn as the Emergency Manager Deputy for a 3 year term. Discussion ensued about whether or not this position should be a citizen or fire department member. The Chief was called in to give a summary of what the responsibilities of the Director and Deputy positions are. This position makes sure that our emergency plans are up to date; there are also monthly meetings with the regional REPC. The reason there is a deputy appointed is to act in case the Director is
unavailable. The position is more of a planning thing, if there is an emergency most things will involve Shawn and the Chief working hand in hand. The motion was seconded and unanimously approved.
6. A motion was made to cancel the town’s DSL account due to the fact that we have a fiber connection at the town hall. The motion was seconded and unanimously approved.
7. The Board discussed restarting or starting a new a committee that would handle the research of the Monterey School and where the location of that building should be. Scott doesn’t see the town getting a new building for a school and felt that what needs to be addressed is how to get the current building up to snuff. Kenn suggested that a committee could be multi-functional; providing support to our School Committee Representative to also seriously look at the existing building and come up with a long range plan for it with possible grant proposals. This committee would give regular updates to the Board and School Committee Rep. Wayne disagreed with the committee directly interacting with the School Committee Rep as it is the Select Board that is the liaison to the School Committee
Rep not an outside committee. Kenn suggested that a letter be drafted with the help of Maria Rundle to run in next month’s Monterey News regarding the formation of this committee seeking interested parties. Kenn will start doing the background work for getting this going.
8. Highway Department vehicle use policy and gas reports policy. The Board believed that there was not an existing vehicle use policy and would speak with Shawn about this. Scott also felt that the Board should be given monthly reports on the gas usage by user (how many gallons for each vehicle and how often and the mileage in and out). Scott felt that the truck used by the Director of Operations should only be used for town business. Kenn suggested that Shawn be asked to add to his weekly report any trips the town truck has made outside of Monterey. Wayne felt that this would be micro-managing and that a significant trip to a location outside of town would be included in the Director of Operation’s weekly report. Wayne felt we have enough information to trust and verify and
that this extra reporting wasn’t necessary.
9. Kenn is working on a draft policy that will clarify storage of town records (where they should be kept and how they should be kept). Kenn hopes to have a finished version in the next few weeks. Kenn is still working with the individual that has the town copies of the burial and cemetery records to have them returned to the town hall. The Town Clerk has told Kenn that she feels that she has the majority of the records that should be in her office and has stated that when it appears something may be missing she has a good working relationship with the previous clerk to try and locate them.
10. The Board reviewed the research requested on surrounding towns that use a payroll service. It was agreed that this conversation will be continued until Sept. when an invitation will be extended to one or more payroll companies to make a presentation.
11. Mail was reviewed which included:
- Letter from the Committee for Safer Roads and Bridges requesting the Board’s support in defeating a statewide ballot question (Question 1) on November 4th that would eliminate the gas tax indexing provision included in the Transportation Finance Act of 2013. Discussion ensued and the Board agreed unanimously not to support/respond to the request.
- Update from Maynard via M. Noe on Jamie’s Court and the dam behind the library: *Jaime’s Court will be done sometime in September and the plan is that it will not be paved until the spring allowing the surface to settle.~ The reason this has not been done sooner is because when Maynard, Josh and the organizers of the court met in March and Maynard told them what they were missing the group was unsure how long it was going to take them to get the rest of the funds needed so the job was not scheduled because it wasn’t fully funded (which was a condition from the start).~ When it became fully funded in June Leigh’s schedule was already full and now the soonest he can get it started will be in Sept. *Leigh is going to be doing the work on the dam (for clarification just in case, the dam is not being rebuilt just the
sides are) and Maynard said that this job cannot be done until the water is low flow which is usually sometime in July or August but it is weather dependent.
- Letter from the Hampshire Council of Governments notifying the Board that they have reached out to the legislative delegation representing Western Mass requesting that they coordinate a Fall Regional Legislative Summit to work with communities to create a regional legislative agenda.
- Letter from Senator Downing thanking the Board for their recent letter, dated June 30th, with regards to S.2183.
12. Executive Secretary’s weekly report was reviewed.
A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 11:43am
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Executive Secretary
Approved by:
Monterey Select Board
Select Board Members
Minutes Book
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