Monterey Select Board
Minutes of the meeting of 10/26/15
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: Donald Clawson and Stanley Ross
Miscellaneous Select Board Items Reviewed:
1. Kenn reported that he received a call from the Town of Tolland inquiring about our interest to a letter they sent approximately 2 years ago regarding asking that the state take over maintenance of RT 57 through Monterey, Tolland, Sandisfield and Agawam (no one recalled receiving this letter). The Board is interested in hearing more.
2. The Assessors held a classification hearing and recommended continuing a single tax allocation for all concerned. The tax rate should be set by mid December. The Board approved the one tax rate and signed the necessary paperwork.
3. The Board discussed with Stan and Don the schedule for starting work on the FY17 budget. The Finance Committee is hoping to start right after Thanksgiving. It was reported that the Cemetery Commission may be seeking more money this year to repair broken headstones. Discussion also ensued about the fiber project and some of the towns around us that are no longer going with WiredWest and how that affects Monterey. A fact-finding meeting will be set up with Otis to discuss why they dropped from WiredWest and how they are planning to connect Otis to fiber on their own. A proposal was made that when the Board begins working on the budget that 2-3 of the meetings be held in the morning instead of night so that we aren’t working into the night.
4. The Board approved the November edition of the Select Board corner.
5. The Accountant and Treasurer have asked that an email be sent out to all departments letting them know that due to the current state of the books and the time necessary to get them in proper order; reports will not be available until after Thanksgiving.
6. The Accountant and Treasurer will be coming in next week to review some issues they have found with the way that the firemen are being paid for training and education as well as other positions that may be being paid incorrectly.
7. Discussion ensued about the monies needed by the Fire Company to finish their building and how the firemen are currently donating their education/training pay back to the Fire Company to finish the addition. When this came up last year Town Counsel stated that stipends for service could not be waived as it would open the town to claims that are not releasable, namely, remuneration claims, so it was agreed that if a fireman wanted to donate it to the Fire Company they could do so directly. Discussion ensued about placing an article on the warrant for monies to finish the building however it was noted that this issue came up before and it isn’t legal for a town to pay for repairs to property they do not own. The Board will discuss this all further with Counsel and the Fire Chief on November 9th.
8. Kenn reported that the Planning Board has finalized the ADU bylaw to be proposed for town approval and will be holding the necessary public hearing on December 10th.
9. There will be a service for Veteran’s Day on November 11th on the library lawn.
10. Mail was reviewed which included:
a. WMH Community Center quarterly report.
b. The necessary power of attorney forms were signed for the payroll company.
c. The Board was provided with options for the truck loan; they will review this further at a future meeting.
d. Draft of the proposed WiredWest operating agreement after its conversion to a Limited Liability Company. A final agreement should be ready for signing by early January.
e. A draft copy of the tax district documents for the proposed district on Lake Garfield were provided. There will be a meeting in December at the firehouse put on by the Friends of Lake Garfield to review this and the proposed district.
f. A request for the Board to send a letter to Representative Peter Kocot, Chair of the Joint Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight asking that the Hingham legislation be amended to include the 31 WiredWest towns eligible to participate in the regional network. The Board asked that these documents be forwarded to the Finance Committee for their meeting with WiredWest this coming Monday.
11. There is a meeting this Thursday to continue the discussions on the assessment issue at the school. Dave Hastings has informed the Board that he does not have any written opinions from DOR or DESE as was requested last week for this meeting. Kenn cannot attend the meeting and Scott is not in favor of going to continue to rehash the same stuff if legal opinions have not yet been put in writing for everyone to review. The Board is still unanimous in their opinion that the amount we have been over-assessed should come back to Monterey.
12. Town Counsel has a copy of the proposed letter to the Taconic Foundation to discuss the selling of Bally Gally; he is reviewing our proposal with other attorneys and will get back to us with his final opinion sometime this week.
13. It was suggested that the Bally Gally property and the Monterey School building should both be appraised and asking Tim Lovett if he would do it gratis was suggested. If the school building could be sold and the program run out of the Community Center the money from the sale of the school could be put towards finishing the Community Center.
14. Steve has requested that the Chief get an estimate for cameras on the town hall entrance and possibly one in the meeting room and another on the playground/back of the property (the Chief supports this proposal); the Chief is also going to look into any grant monies that may be available. Kenn thought this was a great idea but felt that it should be expanded to cameras in the cruisers.
15. The Board commended the work the highway crew has done in 2 weeks on the culvert project on RT23 which the state estimated would be a 3 – 6 month job.
16. Steve requested a copy of the WMH lease for review before next week’s meeting with Joe Baker.
17. Kenn requested that the discussion concerning creating a job description and whether or not to hire a Town Administrator be added to an upcoming agenda. M. Noe replied that it is on the agenda and has been on for some time; the last discussions the Board had since Joe Kellogg’s services were no longer available was to discuss hiring the Collins Group to perform the same town hall study he was to assist in determining if a Town Administrator was needed and if so for what duties. Steve commented that none of this was necessary as the town already has a capable person in the office (M. Noe) that doesn’t have any decision making capabilities and is doing a very good job at it, Scott concurred. Scott also felt that he should not be a part of the creation of a potential job description as
he may apply for the position when/if it becomes one.
18. Administrative Assistant’s weekly report was reviewed.
19. Police Chief’s weekly report was reviewed.
20. Warrants were signed.
A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 6:20pm
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Administrative Assistant
Approved by:
Monterey Select Board
Select Board Members
Minutes Book
Town Clerk
Documents received at this meeting:
1. WMHqtlyrep
These are attached to the hard copy of the minutes located at town hall.
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