Monterey Select Board
Minutes of the meeting of 3/28/16
Meeting Opened at: 8:30am
Select Board Members Present: Scott Jenssen (arrived at 8:47am), Chairperson, Kenn Basler and Steve Weisz
Also in attendance for parts of the meeting: Stephen Moore for the Monterey News, Chris Tryon, Shawn Tryon, Carol Edelman, Larry Klein, Don Clawson, Stanley Ross, Barbara Gauthier, Ray Tryon and John Makuc
At 9am the Board opened bids for the transfer station, Phase I – Concrete in Place:
- Tryon Construction – $164,460 deduct $5,760 if payment bond not needed ($158,700)
- Northern Foundations – $188,890
- LB Corporation – $147,500
- ADW Concrete Construction Inc- $194,500
At 9:15am the Board opened bids for the transfer station, Phase II – Construction of an attendant’s shed and compactor cover:
- Tryon Construction – $61,356
- MD Amstead – $58,000
- A&D Framing Company - $67,700
The Director of Operations will review all the bids and make his recommendation to the Board within the next 2 weeks.
The board met with Director of Operations/Fire Chief, Shawn Tryon to review the following:
1. Revised draft of the firehouse lease agreement was reviewed. Kenn would like town counsel to review and also suggested that an addendum should be made specifying that the town will procure and pay for the equipment insurance and the fire company will procure and pay for the building insurance.
2. Kenn suggested that there should be an inventory made over a period of time of all the equipment the town owns that is stored at the firehouse.
3. Chris requested that the Board be as clear as possible at town meeting explaining that the firemen have donated their training pay to pay for the building addition and that’s why the training and education line item has been zeroed out and the facilities rental has increased by $30,000.
4. Fire Inspector Fees: Shawn was under the impression that the Board was not going to change his stipend to a revolving fund for at least one year since it was unclear how many inspections he does but the Board felt that it should go to a revolving fund to be consistent with the other similar inspector positions. Shawn questioned whether this meant they would also be changing the Building Inspector’s form of payment to only fees. Kenn explained that the reason the Board is going this route is so that the pay actually reflects how many inspections are being done and that the Building Commissioner’s salary actually reflects many other responsibilities besides inspections. Shawn felt that he would have to reconsider performing inspections (and they’d have to find someone else) if
they went to this payment system. It was suggested to go to a stipend plus fees; Shawn agreed to remain as the Inspector if they did this. Kenn will meet with Shawn during the week to come up with a general number.
At 9:30am the Board discussed the need to go into Executive Session to discuss potential litigation with Counsel. After much discussion it was decided to postpone the call, Steve spoke briefly with Attorney Dupere and will have a call with him later this evening and will report back to the Board next Monday.
Miscellaneous Select Board Items Reviewed:
1. Scott and Steve reviewed the 5 town select board meeting held last week in Sheffield. There are concerns that the administration isn’t willing to make changes to their budgets that at least 3 towns are requesting unless a mistake is found or a town threatens to leave the district.
2. The Board discussed what they feel are the 3 top breaches of contract by the district.
a. Failure to maintain the facility under the district agreement.
b. They are not properly managing the money (business affairs) of the district.
c. Not providing a program for our school and overcrowding New Marlborough School.
3. The Board met with members of the Finance Committee to continue discussions on the FY17 proposed budget:
a. Southern Berkshire Waste District (line 431) – Kenn provided an updated figure of $3,460.
b. Stan stated that there will be a Finance Committee meeting next Saturday to review and make recommendations for on the town meeting warrant with regards to monetary articles. He stated that they spoke this weekend and in reviewing the budget from last year and this year there are some line items that aren’t clear (some are new and have $0 for last year and some the money has been shifted from one line to another).
c. Kenn feels that the money for the Community Center should be a citizen’s petition rather than the Board putting the money on as a special article. Stan and Kenn both have issues with the FWMH requesting any more money from the town as the last time they received monies at town meeting they (FWMH) stated it would be the last time they would request any town funds. Scott wants an estimate from a contractor as he feels that the $40,000 isn’t an accurate estimate. M. Noe will contact Joe Baker.
d. John Makuc, Chair of the Board of Health came in at the Board’s request to discuss the BOH budget and the changes suggested by Kenn last week. Kenn proposes that the Sanitary Inspector be dropped to a $5,000 stipend and paid all of the inspection fees and to zero out the Clerk’s salary. John stated that we get a lot of expertise and experience from our current Sanitary Inspector that is hard to measure and he is the reason that the BOH has done as well as they have with the issues they’ve had to deal with and Peter has influenced the Board to be more proactive than surrounding towns. John agreed that the work has lessened and there may be justification to lower the Sanitary Inspector’s salary but would hate to see it made so low that we lose our current
Inspector and emphasized the Board has tried over the years to keep their budget low or level funded. He has spoken with Peter and he would be willing to take a 20% pay reduction. The Board will check surrounding towns to make sure we are in line with the fees we are charging. Kenn suggested that the fees be reviewed over the year and possibly institute paying a portion of the fees to the Inspector with a lower stipend next year. The Sanitary Inspector was lowered to $19,000. With regards to the BOH Clerk John felt it was difficult to quantify the amount of work so it’s unclear if the Clerk’s amount of time spent has decreased as one might think it has. It was suggested that M. Noe begin tracking all her time and how it’s allocated for each department. It was also suggested that the salary for the Clerk should be shifted to the Administrative Assistant’s salary line item as it used to be prior to M. Noe being hired
and the position being broken out. It was agreed to leave the BOH Clerk’s salary alone as her position may be changing over the next year with the hiring of a Town Administrator and support staff duties that may need to be done for that position
e. The number for the transfer station attendant salary includes cutting 3 hours/week off the open times. The new hours of the transfer station beginning Saturday, April 9th will be Wed & Sat 9 – 1 and Sundays in the summer 11 – 6.
f. The number for the fire truck is going to come in around $650,000. It is proposed to borrow $450,000 and use $200,000 of stabilization.
g. Stan noted that our annual debt service right now is approximately $240,000.
4. Larry Klein came in to give an overview of last week’s WiredWest meeting. Scott raised concerns over whether such deep deliberations should be had since this was not on the agenda and the public wasn’t aware of it to attend and participate if they wished. Larry implored that the Board attend the meeting that will be this Saturday; Steve will. The Board voted unanimously to allow Steve to draft the necessary letter from the Board.
5. Kenn provided a draft suggested social media networks policy to be accepted for the town.
6. Kenn will be meeting with the Clerk tomorrow to discuss the amount to raise the salary so that fees will no longer be kept and will all be turned over to the town.
7. Administrative Assistant’s weekly report was reviewed.
8. Steve reported that he will be attending a second meeting with New Marlborough & a few other towns regarding broadband.
9. Police Chief’s weekly report was reviewed.
10. Warrants were signed.
The board met with Chief Backhaus to review the following:
1. Officer Hungate has resigned, due to the timing and the Board’s schedule, Chief Backhaus asked the Board to review a resume of an individual he has already interviewed and would like to hire/have the Board appoint. Officer Kennedy has also left. A motion was made to appoint Theodore Crosby. The motion was seconded and approved unanimously. The Chief will bring him in to meet the Board at a later date.
A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 12:44pm
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Administrative Assistant
Approved by:
Monterey Select Board
Select Board Members
Minutes Book
Town Clerk
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