Monterey Select Board
Minutes of the meeting of 6/22/15
Meeting Opened at: 4:15pm
Select Board Members Present: Scott Jenssen, Chairperson, Kenn Basler and Steve Weisz
Also in attendance for parts of the meeting: Jacob Edelman for the Monterey News, Maryellen Brown, Barbara Gauthier, Brendan Fletcher, Sue Kelly, Bethany Mielke and Chris Blair
Miscellaneous Select Board Items Reviewed:
1. Mail was reviewed which included:
a. Letter from Hume stating that they would like to participate in any further discussions with regards to construction of a cell tower on their property.
b. List of current salaries of all SBRSD employees as requested by Nadine Hawver, Chair of the Sheffield Select Board.
c. Letter along with petition and supporting documents from Department of Energy Resources and Colonial Power Group. Our consultation has been completed pursuant to G.L. c.164, Section 134(a) in the development of its Municipal Load Aggregation Plan.
2. Kenn reported that a temporary bridge will be installed at New Marlboro Rd on July 8th. The cost of the temporary bridge is $1,650/month plus a $2,500 delivery fee. Test borings will be performed later this week.
3. The Board approved a letter with updates on the New Marlboro Rd bridge, RT 23 construction and the transfer station which will be included with the special town meeting warrant to be mailed out this week.
4. Administrative Assistant’s weekly report was reviewed.
5. Sue Kelly of Unibank was asked to come in to present a credit card acceptance system for transfer station bulky fees and sticker purchases. Unibank has a municipal division set up specifically to deal with the unique issues presented with municipalities. There was legislation passed for municipalities only that allows the credit card fees to be passed to the user as municipalities cannot pay these fees. The options available to the town were reviewed and discussed. Implementation time would be about 6 weeks. The Board is going to continue their discussion and review their options at a later meeting.
6. Chris Blair, Chair of the Conservation Commission came in to discuss the following with the Board:
a. His resignation from the Conservation Commission. The Board thanked him for his 22 years on the board as well as his level of professionalism and dedication he provided.
b. Chris gave the Board a head’s up that 2 other members are looking at retiring soon as well. Chris suggested that the Board may want to consider hiring an agent and sharing it with another town such as Gt. Barrington.
c. The Board informed Chris that the enforcement order issue on Beartown Mtn Road will be finished up at the July Con Comm meeting.
d. The filings that will be required with regards to replacing the New Marlboro bridge. Chris stated that since the Board has declared an emergency an Emergency Order can be issued which would allow them 60 days to place the temporary bridge and then additional filing will be required when the permanent fix is designed.
7. Warrants were signed.
8. The July Select Board Corner was approved and will be sent to the Monterey News tomorrow.
9. Maryellen Brown, Chair of the Council on Aging came in to let the Board know about the Flexpass. This flexpass will give 6 tickets to events at 2 venues; interested parties will need to sign up for tickets with Maryellen Brown and can pick them up from M. Noe at the town hall. On June 24th the group is going to the Brewery for lunch, on July 19th there will be a trip to the Pittsfield Suns baseball game (this event is open to everyone) and will be $10 per person. In August they will be going to Chesterwood followed by lunch at Michael’s. There is a tentative trip planned to the Erie Canal in September. The COA is planning a health fair in October which will have various stations for screenings and information. The COA will be donating a sound system
similar to what was installed at the firehouse for town meetings. The COA will be acquiring more headsets for town meeting. The Board commended the COA on what a fabulous job they are doing at getting the community more active.
10. The Board discussed the details for the 1st teambuilding event which will be for department heads and the Select Board. Invitations will be handed out tomorrow for the event which will be on July 15th. Spouses will be allowed to attend.
11. The Board approved the special event permit request for Township Number 1 Day.
12. The Board approved the one day alcohol (beer & wine) permit request for the Sequoia Group for Township Number 1 Day.
13. Barbara and Kenn, members of the Auditor Selection Committee reported that they have performed their interviews and have decided to hire Adelson for the upcoming audit. This firm can start in December. A motion was made to accept this proposal, which was seconded and unanimously approved.
The board met with Chief of Police, Gareth Backhaus to review the following:
1. The Chief was asked to place additional speed signs and have additional patrols for speeding on Chestnut Hill and Tyringham Rds. The Chief will also look into if there is a safe spot to put the speed trailer for a period of time.
2. The Police Chief submitted his weekly report and a slightly modified/updated Special Intermittent Officer policy. The modified policy now states that any and all training required for the special police officer to maintain minimum training standards will be at the expense of the officer and that placement on the detail call-in chart will be at the discretion of the Chief; this was approved and accepted.
3. Kenn commended the Chief and Sergeant on the extra training classes they have been attending.
4. Weekly report was reviewed.
The board met with Town Accountant, Brendan Fletcher to review the following:
1. Brendan provided the Board with updated trial balance, expense and revenue reports. The Board requested that these reports be distributed more frequently to any departments that spend money.
2. Money that has been floating and carried over for years will be researched.
3. Brendan is working with Softright to internally fix the payroll issues within the software that occurred recently (even though the Treasurer handles payroll, once an error occurs it has to be fixed on the Accountant’s side).
4. Fully reconciled thru April with the Treasurer and they are working on May and June.
5. Brendan has been working with Don Clawson keeping him informed about the accounts that are going to over their budgets.
6. It was questioned why the amounts approved at the special town meetings have not been added in, specifically the health insurance approved in May.
7. The purpose of the special town meeting next Monday was discussed and if it is wise to move $100,000 as planned if some of the highway budgets are going to go over. It was decided that the $100,000 was ok to move and there would still be enough to transfer between accounts to cover any overages.
8. It was decided that the money left over for the fuel cover (special article) is going to be returned to free cash as this project will no longer be going forward.
9. Departments shouldn’t be going over without permission to do so from the Finance Committee.
10. Brendan will be back before July 15th to handle any transfers between accounts and will be meeting with the Finance Committee to handle any necessary reserve fund transfers.
11. Brendan thanked Barbara for the timeline she created and distributed last week and said it will prove very helpful.
A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 6:55pm
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Administrative Assistant
Approved by:
Monterey Select Board
Select Board Members
Minutes Book
Town Clerk
Documents received at this meeting:
1. Humeltr
2. UpdatedPolicePolicy
3. SBRSDsalaries
These are attached to the hard copy of the minutes located at town hall.
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