Monterey Select Board
Minutes of the meeting of 1/12/15
Meeting Opened at: 4pm
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, Winston Wilson, John Fields, Ray Tryon, Kelly Funk, Bethany Mielke, Shawn Tryon, Michael Johnson, Rudy Gero, Stephanie Fredsall, Sam Hungate, John Mullen, Roger Tryon and Jessie Baez
Miscellaneous Select Board Items Reviewed:
1. Bethany Mielke, Treasurer came in to update the Board on the following:
a. End of year payroll items are being handled right now (W2’s, 1099’s).
b. 2015 tax tables are being implemented.
c. Working with Berenson & Bloom regarding a delinquent tax property.
d. Kenn inquired in the FY14 books have been closed and Bethany confirmed that they have been.
e. Kenn informed Bethany that there may be several bond and loan issues coming up and it would be helpful if Bethany could find out what the current interest rates are and what our town is currently rated at.
2. Kelly Funk, Chair of the Parks Commission came in to speak with the Board regarding the following:
a. Kelly and Shawn Tryon met and determined that the total cost to finish Jamie’s Court will come in at $23,175 this includes $1,000 added in for any unexpected costs. Breakdown is as follows: $11,000 paving, $2,200 construction material cost (manual labor being donated by Tryon Construction), $4,995 fencing and $3,980 reimbursement to parks. This will be on the upcoming special town meeting as 2 separate articles one for the reimbursement and one to complete the project.
b. The Parks Department decided that fencing was the best solution to protect the court which was voted on 3-2 in favor by the parks department. If the Board is opposed to fencing the Parks Department is requesting a letter from the Board stating this. The Board agreed with the proposal brought forward.
c. Kelly informed the Board that at the upcoming town elections there will be 3 vacant seats on the Parks Commission.
3. Mail was reviewed which included:
a. Email from SBRSD that there will not be a need for a special town meeting for the approval of the bond for the roof and boiler project; the school will be doing this under another section which allows it to be approved by election only. (attached)
b. Letter from Berkshire Housing Development requesting permission to continue to act as signatory for any subordinations, discharges and insurance settlement checks as a direct result of borrowing funds from one of the programs they have operated in our town. A motion was made to approve the request, seconded and unanimously approved.
c. Dock replacement notification for the Seven Arts Condominium. Scott recused himself from anything with regards to this matter.
d. Letter from the Governor informing Monterey that our FY15 Chapter 90 apportionment has been increased from $198,152 to $297,229.
e. Fact sheet on Lake Garfield from Michael Germain. (attached)
f. A request from Michael Germain to place an article on the annual town meeting warrant to consider adopting the CPA (Community Preservation Act).
g. Letter from the Town of Colrain to Senator Rosenberg expressing concerns with the recent proposal by the Mass Broadband Institute and Wired West. (attached)
h. New dock notification for 16 Point Rd.
i. Email from Rudy Gero with regards to a statement made that he has been informed was a violation of the sexual harassment policy. (attached)
j. Letter from Carolee Jervas regarding December’s question of the month. (attached)
4. Administrative Assistant’s weekly reports were reviewed.
5. Mike Johnson former member of the Council on Aging came in to discuss the status of the remainder of the coins that were passed out at Memorial Day. Mike confirmed that he will be giving the remainder of the coins to the current COA at their meeting this Wednesday and there aren’t any outstanding bills.
6. Police Chief’s weekly report was reviewed.
7. Warrants were signed.
8. The minutes from last week were approved with one amendment.
9. The Board decided to hold a meeting on Wednesday, January 21st at 4pm to discuss the FY16 budget and to meet with Shawn regarding the beaver solution for the dam since there is no meeting on Monday the 19th due to the holiday.
10. The Board gave M. Noe a list of topics to bring to Senator Downing’s local aid who will be at tomorrow’s Berkshire Manager’s meeting she will be attending.
Former and present members of the Police Department were present to further discuss the statements made by the Chief at the 12/15/14 Select Board meeting. Rudy confirmed that all of the issues that he is here to speak to the Board about are all issues that were brought to the Chief before coming to the Board.
Those present confirmed that the holiday schedule rotation is not equally dispersed amongst the officers. The part timers also felt that the reason given for having the full timer work details (so they could respond in an emergency) was not a valid reason because any part timer working a detail could also respond to an emergency if need be but it was noted that an officer shouldn’t be pulled of a detail because we do have mutual aid agreements with other towns that could respond.
John Mullen, a former Monterey officer was present to dispute that he did not leave Monterey because boundaries were set for him that he did not agree with as the Chief had told the Board. John confirmed that the Chief never had any conversation with him about boundaries and only met with him when he was hired and when he submitted his resignation.
With regards to field training, a letter was submitted from Jordan Sills an officer that was recently hired but left when he was told that he would not be paid for 14 weeks of training (attached). When Sergeant Johnson was asked to confirm if new officers were in fact not paid for training Sergeant Johnson stated that he was not at liberty to answer any questions the Board had until his Chief instructs him to do so. When the Board asked if he was aware that he works for the Board, Johnson confirmed that he was aware but was still not at liberty to answer any of the questions.
Kenn informed the other Board members after the officers left the meeting that he followed them all out and let them know that the Board is aware that there are issues in the police department and that town counsel is investigating the matter(s) and is expected to report back to the Board soon with his findings for the Board to determine how they will handle the situation.
The board met with Tree Warden, Winston Wilson to review the following:
1. Winston reported that he and John Fields drove around town to inspect all the trees. Surprisingly RT 23 is in pretty good shape; maybe 12 or so that need to be removed and RT 57 is in even better shape. There are several maintenance items to be address. With regards to immediate removals there are 17 that John and Winston felt obviously needed to be removed. John is recommending a 5 year plan, 10 days a year which would deal with the problems rather than trying to play catch up. This plan would require the tree warden’s budget to be increased but not dramatically. To hire John for 10 days would be $20,000 plus details and disposal of the non-burnable wood.
The board met with Director of Operations, Shawn Tryon to review the following:
1. Shawn provided an update on the status of the new truck.
2. Shawn also provided an update on new figures he’s received on repairing the truck that he informed the Board of last week that has several issues.
A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 5:45pm
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Administrative Assistant
Approved by:
Monterey Select Board
Select Board Members
Minutes Book
Town Clerk
| 
