Monterey Select Board
Minutes of the meeting of 1/11/16
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: Jill Pajka for the Monterey News, Roger Tryon, Rick Mielke, Ronnie Leonard, Shawn Tryon, Joe Curry, Larry Klein, Stanley Ross, Paul Lisi, Todd Cellura and Sue Funk
Miscellaneous Select Board Items Reviewed:
4:15pm: Bid Opening for the 2005 Ford F550 – bids received from:
- Roger Tryon: $7,151
- Charleton Landscaping: $3,100
- Mt Everett: $3,102
- Gary O’Brien Property Services (required 10% deposit not included): $5,335
It was agreed that Roger Tryon won with the high bid. The checks from the other bidders were returned.
4:30pm: Bid Opening for the 2007 Chevy Kodiak – bids received from:
- Roger Tryon: $15,151
- Charleton Landscaping: $11,200
- Mt Everett: $13,502
- Gary O’Brien Property Services (required 10% deposit not included): $6,335
- Sovereign Builders $16,100
It was agreed that Sovereign Builders won with the high bid. The checks from the other bidders were returned.
1. Larry Klein as a representative of WiredWest came in to request that the Board write a letter to MTC stating their objection to what MBI is doing. The Board agreed to send the requested letter which Larry will draft.
2. Scott informed the Board that he was asked to chair a 5 town multi select board meeting regarding the Monterey School by Nadine Hawver and Charlie Flynn – he has stated that at this point there has been a lot of meetings and he would need to discuss it with the rest of the Board. The Board agreed that they shouldn’t move forward with a 5 town meeting until they hear back from the school committee on the FY17 program.
3. There is a shared services meeting scheduled in Gt. Barrington on Feb 4th with Smitty Pignatelli. Scott will be attending but suggested that Kenn and Steve should attend as well as they will be carrying this on once Scott’s term is up.
4. Steve will be attending the MMA (Massachusetts Municipal Association) annual meeting and trade show.
5. The Board reviewed the draft February special town meeting warrant; it was suggested to find out if the Planning Board will have anything to add and then it can be sent to town counsel for review. The February Select Board corner will review and explain all of the articles.
6. The Board reviewed Counsel’s opinion regarding the firemen education and training compensation going instead toward the building renovation mortgage. Counsel has advised not to take the stipend away and put it to another use as that could open the board up to potential litigation. If the firemen want to make a donation they should write a personal check. Counsel did say it would be ok to put an additional article on the warrant asking for funds for the renovation mortgage.
7. Mail was reviewed which included:
a. Updated FY16 school budget.
b. Quarterly report from the WMH.
8. Steve reported that the Board of Directors at Hume has approved the signing of the lease with the cell tower company.
9. Administrative Assistant’s weekly report was reviewed.
10. Police Chief’s weekly report was reviewed.
11. Warrants were signed.
The board met with Town Accountant, Paul Lisi and Town Treasurer Sue Funk to review the following:
1. Updated expenditure reports were provided:
a. Town Accountant expenses will require a reserve fund transfer of $294.23.
b. Treasurer expenses are overspent by $2367.36 due to an IRS tax bill that needed to be paid from last year and the Harper’s payroll expense was also not accounted for. A transfer of $3,500 total will be necessary.
c. New Marlboro Rd bridge – an excess of $54,669.53 was spent from what was appropriated/carried forward and Paul will need to know where this money will be coming from. Kenn stated that there was no overage, we knew that the cost would be more than what was carried forward last year; Shawn will just need to direct Paul which highway accounts should be used to pay the “excess”.
2. It has been brought to Paul’s attention that the $25,000 fine received by the Conservation Commission was never properly carried forward and put into the special fund as was voted at the 2011 annual town meeting – Paul is going to need to do some additional research with Jim Podolak at the DOR about this.
3. Paul is recommending that several accounts be converted to revolving accounts. One item that was discussed was that the ZBA fee collected doesn’t always cover the advertising fees and Paul suggests that this should also be a revolving account and that applicants should pay separately for advertising in addition to the application fee. It will be looked into whether this can be done at the upcoming special town meeting or if it must wait until the annual.
4. Paul noted that CET is changing up the program for composting bins where the town will now need to pay for them and a fee should be charged to the residents to purchase them (again a new revolving account).
5. The library has a planning and design grant that requires an interest bearing savings account which will require more information from Mark Makuc as the norm is that any interest would go back to the general fund not to the library. Kenn was under the impression that this account had already been set up by the previous Treasurer.
6. Paul asked permission to send out a letter to all departments with directions about the procedures, timeframes and processes with regards to submitting items to the Accountant and Treasurer. The Board agreed unanimously and it was suggested that a meeting with all the departments may also be useful. A list of the new account numbers to use when submitting bills is available and will be distributed by M. Noe.
7. Paul has spoken to Adelson and their letter should be coming this week. A meeting with Scanlon will be scheduled once the Adelson letter has been received.
8. Principal Assessor position: Paul recommended this position be re-evaluated. The Board did state that this position is a part time position requiring only 19 hours and therefore does not receive benefits. They thanked Paul for his recommendations and will consider that as they are preparing the FY17 budget.
The board met with Director of Operations, Shawn Tryon to review the following:
1. Shawn reported that things are slow at the moment.
2. Brush cutting was done on Griswald Rd.
3. There has been a few issues with the new truck which have been corrected.
4. The drawdown is scheduled to be closed February 15th.
5. The crew has been cleaning up the garage and working on maintenance items.
6. Shawn is going to start working on the bid package (scheduled to be advertised in Feb) for the transfer station construction.
7. Shawn will make arrangements to get more recycling bins as residents have been requesting them. Kenn offered to pick them up.
8. Shawn is working on his FY17 budget requests for both the highway and fire departments.
9. Steve noted that if the town passes the grant writer article at the Feb. special town meeting there is a grant out there that could help with paying for the new truck.
10. RT23 work will begin as soon as the weather breaks.
11. We received the state’s bridge inspection report – we received all 9’s (which is the highest rating). They did not rate the bridge for weight as of yet but the engineer that designed it has a rating.
12. Shawn is working on figuring out how to best use Chapter 90 monies for upcoming spring projects.
A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 6:14pm
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Administrative Assistant
Approved by:
Monterey Select Board
Select Board Members
Minutes Book
Town Clerk
| 
