Monterey Select Board
Minutes of the meeting of 3/16/15
Meeting Opened at: 8:40am
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, Larry Klein, Ray Tryon, Jim Drawe, Chair of the WiredWest Finance Committee, Joe Markarian, of Franklin Regional Council of Government, Richard Tryon, Barbara Gauthier, Donald Clawson and Julio Rodriguez
Miscellaneous Select Board Items Reviewed:
1. Mail was reviewed which included:
a. Email from Bruce Regenstreich requesting the Board support the WiredWest bond article.
b. Email from Barbara Cohen urging the Board to support WiredWest.
c. Information from Mary Makuc on CART services which provide instantaneous translation of what is being said into visual print display to consider for town meeting. The Board was made aware from Julio Rodriguez that the Council on Aging is looking into a device that will help those that are hard of hearing. With that in mind the Board will wait to see what the COA comes up with.
d. Letter from Sheffield inquiring about Monterey’s interest/participation in a shared mower. Kenn has informed New Marlborough and Sheffield that Monterey will not be participating this year.
2. The Town Accountant has confirmed that the current balance of the stabilization account is $666,821.44, this includes all debits and credits from the May 2014 town meeting.
3. The Board began discussions about the FY16 transfer station fees. Kenn feels that the Board needs to reinstitute fees for bulky waste as most towns around here do and Monterey used to. The largest cost and biggest problem for Monterey right now concerns the disposal of metal, tires and construction waste. Wayne stated that in the past the difficulty was having a 3rd party collect the fees. Kenn feels that it costs us more right now to operate the transfer station as there isn’t any control or limitation on what is dumped there (recently there have been large amounts of construction debris and even a 16ft boat left there). Kenn thought that it would be worth giving the proposed transfer station attendant another look but starting off with a part time person
(18-19hours) instead of a full time person. Kenn will bring in an analysis of the last 2 years compared to surrounding towns along with a proposal for FY16 to next week’s meeting for further consideration.
4. Administrative Assistant’s weekly report was reviewed.
5. Police Chief’s weekly report was reviewed.
6. Opinions from Town Counsel and the Department of Revenue were reviewed with regards to the request from the Monterey Church for $10,000. A response will be sent informing the church that the anti-aid amendment of the Massachusetts constitution prohibits appropriations to a “religious undertaking which is not publicly owned and under the exclusive control, order and supervision of public officers or public agents.” An appropriation to repair a church owned by a religious organization would be a direct violation of the anti-aid amendment, Art. 18, 46 and 103.
7. Julio Rodriguez came in to let the Board know that Lakefest is potentially scheduled for August 22nd. Julio also offered for the Friends of Lake Garfield to send out a letter of support to pre-register for the WiredWest services to the 2nd homeowners around the lake.
8. Julio requested permission to hang one of the projection screens that the COA purchased here at the town hall in the meeting room (the 2nd one will be hung at the firehouse). The Board gave permission.
9. Julio reported that the COA is also looking into a device that will help the hard of hearing at the town meeting.
10. Changing Clerk and Treasurer positions from elected to appointed: Kenn stated that he has spoken to the Clerk and she has no objections to this but he has received no response from the Treasurer on the matter but the Board feels from previous conversations on this matter that she is not in favor of it. Kenn strongly feels that making these two positions appointed would be a benefit to the town as it would open up the pool of applicants to qualified individuals and would solve some of the difficulties that have arisen in town hall due to limited availability and knowledge. Barbara Gauthier suggested that the Tax Collector position should also be added to the list. Discussion ensued. Should this be accepted by the Town it would go into effect at the end of the current elected
official’s term. Wayne is not in favor of this as it does not support his vision of town government; he would like to keep as vibrant a local government as possible. Wayne would rather find ways to keep as many of the town jobs as possible available to our townspeople. It was noted that 80% of the towns in MA have appointed Treasurers and 60% have appointed Clerks. Scott agreed that changing the positions to appointed would certainly present the town with more applicants. This will be discussed further next week.
11. Ongoing Police Department situation: Kenn and the Chief of Police have created a draft of a statement they feel should be released to the Monterey News which will provide a summary/closure on how the situation is being handled as the public is still inquiring about how the Board is moving forward. Wayne and Scott will review this and make any edits if necessary and next week the Board will vote on whether or not to release it. A copy for review has also been given to the Chief. Kenn will also send a copy to town counsel for his opinion on the statement.
12. In reviewing the budget Barbara noted that we could possibly lower the library dam special article amount by $12,000 as we still have this amount left from a FEMA grant. Kenn is currently working with the Treasurer, Accountant and Director of Operations to determine what monies have been received from FEMA and spent. Kenn is also working with the state to try and get more monies to repair the dam. It was agreed to keep this as a reserve as it isn’t clear if $40,000 is still an accurate figure to repair the dam and the additional $12,000 may be necessary. Scott felt that the estimated $40,000 wouldn’t cover repairing the entire dam. Kenn is going to call the Army Corp of Engineers to see if they would be able to provide an engineering study for the $12,000 we have which
would give the town a better sense of how much the repairs would cost.
13. Barbara stated that the budget as it currently stands is a little scary; if the state lowers our aid at all and/or if anything is raised on the town meeting floor it could dramatically cut into the $19,000 we have to “play” with in the budget as it is proposed right now.
The board met with members of WiredWest to review the following:
1. The sequence of events that will need to happen if the Board decides to go forward with the project. The bonding article will require a 2/3 vote and the debt exclusion request would be at the elections and would be a majority.
2. Estimated cost to the Town for 100% coverage is $1.96million (3-4 years to be fully connected). Project debt service calculations were distributed.
3. A town will need to have a committed 40% subscription base before any build out will begin.
4. The financial model was discussed.
5. Ray Tryon suggested that a separate meeting should be held for the WiredWest article that would be specifically designated for an informational on the bond and then to vote and not be sidetracked by all the other town meeting items and to be able to devote the proper amount of time to the discussion. Wayne argued that there is a large part of the population that do not agree with large items like this at a special town meeting. The Board will decide next week whether or not a separate special town meeting will be held to discuss just the WiredWest article.
A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 12:00pm
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Administrative Assistant
Approved by:
Monterey Select Board
Select Board Members
Minutes Book
Town Clerk
Documents received at this meeting:
1. Regenstreichemail
2. Cohenemail
3. CARTdocumentation
4. Sheffieldltr
5. ProjDebtSerWW
These are attached to the hard copy of the minutes located at town hall.
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