Monterey Select Board
Minutes of the meeting of 3/30/15
Meeting Opened at: 8:35am
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, Stanley Ross, Shawn Tryon, Larry Klein, Donald Clawson and Ray Tryon
Miscellaneous Select Board Items Reviewed:
1. Mail was reviewed which included:
a. Email from WiredWest with a small change to the warrant article that now reflects the regional aspect of the proposal. It also included a reminder about an upcoming meeting which will go over bonds; Kenn is going to try and make sure the Treasurer attends this meeting.
b. Letter from New Marlborough inviting Monterey Select Board members and the Director of Operations to a shared services meeting in May.
c. Letter from the Council on Aging noting that they will no longer pay for the coffee in the meeting room nor will they fund any events associated with Memorial Day. A motion was made for the coffee expenses to come out of Select Board expenses. The motion was seconded and unanimously approved. Donations will still be requested.
d. Request from Berkshire South for $1,500 for FY16 up $500 from last year. This raised discussion on how much the Monterey Community Center will cost the taxpayers to run each year. A motion was made to raise this line item to $1,500; the motion was seconded and unanimously approved.
e. The Board discussed an email they received (not provided during meeting) regarding a property that is in tax taking and how the Board would like to proceed. Later in the meeting a copy of a newer email was provided that stated this property had a final judgement issued on March 4th and that Monterey can now take absolute title to the parcel.
2. The Board signed the petition for Colonial Power Group which has submitted our aggregation plan to the Department of Energy Resources for review and consultation. This petition will accompany the full municipal aggregation filing.
3. The Board agreed to hold a special town meeting on Friday, May 8th at 7pm this will be to solely discuss and vote on the WiredWest bond article.
4. The Board signed the Special Town Meeting Warrants for May 2nd at 9am and May 8th at 7pm.
5. Police Chief’s weekly report was reviewed.
6. Kenn reported on the Planning Board: At their last meeting the members received a letter from Maggie Leonard the Co-Chair that due to family obligations she would be resigning. After checking with Town Counsel it was confirmed that instead of resigning Maggie could take a 3-6 month leave of absence which she is considering. Scott has resigned as the alternate planning board member. A motion was made to appoint Pat Salomon as the alternate planning board. The motion was seconded and unanimously approved.
7. The Board reviewed the draft annual town meeting warrant.
8. Stan stated that he spent quite a bit of time at the transfer station on Sunday and still stand by his decision that an upgrade isn’t needed but does feel that some improvements could be made such as moving the swap shack, painting parking lines, putting a fence near some of the compactors, etc.
9. Larry Klein came in and provided a copy of the WiredWest annual report. He also has an issue with the way that the Assessor’s are measuring residences with regards to the WiredWest count. There was also discussion about the proposed ADU bylaw that the Planning Board has been holding hearings for.
10. Proposal from MIIA for the FY16 health insurance rates was signed and will be submitted today.
11. Administrative Assistant’s weekly report was reviewed.
12. Warrants were signed.
13. The minutes from last week were approved with amendments. Kenn commented that in the last few weeks the minutes have really improved.
The board met with Director of Operations/Fire Chief, Shawn Tryon to review the following:
1. Shawn stated that the proposed transfer station design is still being worked on. He noted that refurbishing what is currently there will be almost as costly as the proposal to relocate it as there are several issues with the current location that would need to be completely redesigned.
2. Discussion ensued about Monterey hiring their own employee to handle the daily operations of the transfer station. Shawn feels this is a positive move but is concerned how sick and vacation time would be covered without another part time person. It was noted that the current contract with the Master Garbologist states that the attendant there is supposed to be handling certain responsibilities that he isn’t currently. The current contract with Master Garbologist is a year out of date and Scott felt that the question really needed to be posed to them what they would do if Monterey decides to go in the direction of hiring their own employee. Shawn felt that if the town was going to reinstitute fees for bulky waste; it really should be handled by a town employee.
3. Discussion ensued about an idea given to Stan that besides regular garbage all other collections should be turned over to a contractor who would collect and keep the fees for bulky waste eliminating tipping fees to the Town.
4. Members of the Finance Committee confirmed that they now support the request for Bally Gally repairs which was lowered to $1,500 from the requested $3,700. Shawn noted that there is a pest control contract that needs to be paid for and then suggests that there should be some additional funds placed aside for anything unexpected occurred. The Finance Committee stated that if an unexpected event occurs up there that the $1,500 can’t cover the Finance Committee will find the money to cover it.
5. Town Hall roof: Shawn has gotten an estimate of $20,300 for repair of the grange roof plus parts of the atrium; this does not include if any plywood needs to be replaced. Shawn feels that $20,000 isn’t that far from his originally proposed $60,000 to do the whole roof and would recommend doing it all instead of in pieces. This estimate was from M.D. Amstead and Scott suggested that we should get an estimate from a company that solely does roofs instead of getting a quote from a General Contractor. Scott was also concerned with any appearance of a conflict of interest in contacting anyone for estimates associated with himself or Shawn. It was noted that with the budget as proposed we do not have the room in our levy limit and that free cash might have to be used.
6. The town has received $29,000 from the state to repair potholes.
7. Shawn plans on spending some of his Chapter 90 funds to improve River Rd and Corashire Rd as well as a bridge design for the Curtis Rd bridge decking.
8. Paperwork has been submitted to the state from the contractor with regards to replacing the culverts on Main Rd. The state is going to pick up the cost of some of these and Shawn is putting aside $100,000 of his Chapter 90 money to cover the ones they won’t.
9. Fire department use agreement: Shawn provided a summary of bills paid to date and wanted to review the agreement going forward.
10. Shawn believes that the last of the salt bills has been submitted today and we only need to order a little more sand.
A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 11:18am
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Administrative Assistant
Approved by:
Monterey Select Board
Select Board Members
Minutes Book
Town Clerk
Documents received at this meeting:
1. WiredWestemail
2. NMletter
3. COAletter
4. BSRCCltr
5. taxtitleemail
These are attached to the hard copy of the minutes located at town hall.
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