Monterey Select Board
Minutes of the meeting of 1/19/16
Meeting Opened at: 8:05am
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, Shawn Tryon, Chris Tryon, Maria Rundle, David Hastings and Sandi Hubbard
The board met with Fire Chief, Shawn Tryon and Deputy Chief, Chris Tryon to discuss the following:
1. Education/Training compensation and the renovation of the firehouse.
a. The problem we have run into is that we can not “switch” the funds from compensation to renovation funds mid-year. The compensation account can be deleted and we can ask for separate funds for the renovation at the annual town meeting or the firemen can continue to get their paycheck and make a donation to the firehouse personally if they want. Shawn stated that the firemen have done their own research and found that they cannot donate back to an organization they work for.
b. The Fire Company’s 15 year mortgage for the reconstruction is $350,000 and the $30,000 the firemen receive in compensation was a planned contribution to the mortgage; now that taxes are taken out that amount is approximately 30% less (we will confirm this number with the Acct/Treas). The Fire Company would prefer that the Town write the check to the Fire Company directly. Scott felt that it was premature to go out for a mortgage without confirming all the legalities involved in where funds may be coming from.
c. It was suggested that an article be placed on the special town meeting warrant in February for $5-10k and then a larger amount at the annual. Finance will be consulted to find out how adding these funds to a special meeting will affect the current budget.
d. It was noted that if the grant writer position is approved at the February special meeting there may be funds out there for the renovations.
e. Fire station rental currently comes out of the general Fire Department expenses and Shawn & Chris would like to separate that out into another line item. Shawn or Chris will break out the current expenses and provide new numbers for the proposed budget.
f. A suggestion was made to lower the training and education to $15k and ask for the other $15k in a special article for the renovations. Another suggestion was also made to have the $30k be allocated for building utilities/rental (instead of compensation) and that if the firemen still wanted to receive education/training compensation that the fire company should do so directly. The Board felt this is an opportune time to reevaluate the current agreement between the Fire Company and the Town and have something in writing filed at town hall.
g. Shawn & Chris stated that the donations the fire company currently receives barely covers running the building.
The board met with David Hastings, Superintendent, Maria Rundle, School Committee Rep and Sandi Hubbard, Director of Student Services to review the following with regards to the future of the Monterey School:
1. The attached documents were provided by David and Sandi and were reviewed during the meeting.
2. Feb 1 deadline for program proposals at the Monterey School from the School Committee. The projections for next year are 6 – 7 children for Monterey of which 3 – 4 are currently attending other programs in other districts. Maria stated that the parents have not voiced a preference of locations (but would prefer not bussing to Undermountain) but all were in agreement that they wanted Miss Lynnie as the teacher. Currently Monterey students are given preference at New Marlborough.
3. The Board has $10k to put toward repairs of the building with the $10k in matching funds (which is still extended even if there won’t be a program) from the district if a program is going to be in Monterey.
4. The Board feels that the movement made last year by the district created over-crowding in New Marlborough. The reality is that this needs to be looked at as a district as a whole and not town by town.
5. The Board felt that if the School Committee decides not to continue a program in Monterey they would have a very difficult time continuing to ask for support from their voters for the district.
6. The Finance Sub-Committee has requested that the school cut $1million from the budget for FY17 which they are currently working on trying to do.
7. David confirmed that the district will not hire a teacher for the Monterey School for FY17 and it will be suspending the program there for another year. A letter will be sent to this effect.
Miscellaneous Select Board Items Reviewed:
1. Mail was reviewed which included:
a. Letter from the Town of New Marlborough to David Hastings regarding the FY17 school budget.
b. Letter from the Town of New Marlborough to Representative Pignatelli regarding the RT 57 corridor.
2. Administrative Assistant’s weekly report was reviewed.
3. M. Noe updated the Board on the Berkshire Managers Meeting last week; Sheila from Berkshire County Retirement was present to answer questions about sharing employees. Towns may do this however in order to receive retirement benefits (if the job does not require 20 hours in one town) would require that one town be the employer for benefits and retirement purposes and that the towns involved enter into an inter-municipal agreement.
4. Warrants were signed.
A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 9:52am
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Administrative Assistant
Approved by:
Monterey Select Board
Select Board Members
Minutes Book
Town Clerk
Documents received at this meeting:
- Earlychildhoodcommdocs
- NMltrDhastings
- NMltrPignatelli
These are attached to the hard copy of the minutes located at town hall.
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