Monterey Select Board
Minutes of the working meeting of 2/25/16
Meeting Opened at: 4:15pm
Select Board Members Present: Scott Jenssen, Chairperson, Kenn Basler and Steve Weisz
Miscellaneous Select Board Items Reviewed:
1. The minutes from 2/16 & 2/22/16 were approved as written.
2. The DEP drop off grant paperwork was signed.
3. The Nexamp paperwork to save 15% on our electric bills was signed.
4. At the request of the Building Inspector Rick Chase and Jim Kern were appointed as the wiring inspector alternates. The Board would like to speak to Don Torrico about appointing Nick Fredsall.
5. The Board approved moving ahead with Scanlon to perform a cash audit for $5,500. The Board would like confirmation that the remainder of the audit that needs to be performed will not exceed the $18,000 allocated.
6. The Board discussed last night’s community meeting and agreed to write a letter to the Superintendent requesting the $10,000 allocated for repairs at the building and to express our anticipation that the kindergarten program be reinstated in its entirety for the 2016-17 academic year.
7. The Board discussed the following with regards to the FY17 proposed budget:
a. After speaking with the Town Accountant and Director of Operations it was decided that rather than combining Highway Maintenance and Highway Capital as was suggested by the Finance Committee that lines 422 Highway Maintenance, 423 Supplies and 429 Town Garage will be combined and renamed Highway Operations. Combining Maintenance and Capital would present reporting issues on the Schedule A.
b. The Town Accountant confirmed that winter OT and the newly created line item OT (not winter) cannot be combined as suggested by the Finance Committee as winter OT is required by DOR to be separate as it is one account that may be overspent legally. The Board considered the Accountant’s request to raise the amount in non-winter OT but decided to keep it at $2,500.
c. The Accountant has confirmed that if the Board wants to save money for bridge and culvert work that this would need to be done via a stabilization account. It was considered to raise the proposed amount of $100,000 to stabilization to $150,000 of which $35,000 is intended for bridges and culvert work.
d. Bank Charges was lowered to $1.
e. At the recommendation of the Town Accountant, since the Town Clerk is collecting the $2,000 allocated in line 164 Street List/Census as salary that this line item be deleted and added to line 161 Town Clerk Salary.
f. The Board agreed but also noted that since this position was voted a few years back to be a 20 hour per week position that they would speak with the Clerk about increasing her posted office hours to 20/week.
g. The Board agreed they would not be adding a line item for an Assistant Treasurer as was recommended by the current Treasurer and decided that if the new Treasurer elected in May needs assistance that the temporary employee line item will be used for temporary help. It was also agreed to level fund the Treasurer salary since it is likely that a new person will be in the position after the May elections.
h. The Board considered lowering the requested amount by the Town Clerk for an Assistant Town Clerk to the $1800 it was back in FY12; reason being the $10,400 allocated for FY13 was for temporary expert help to assist the then Clerk who was going to resign due to the conditions of the office. The Select Board at the time never intended for this position to become a permanent one, the salary was lowered in FY14 to $5,000 to reflect less assistance needed in learning the job. The Board understands that the current Clerk was in need of assistance during her 1st year in office but feels that she should be progressing along and not need as much assistance going forward.
i. The Board still has concerns with the Police Expenses budget only be lowered by $7,500 after moving his fuel expenses to one combined account when his allocated fuel budget request was $12,000. The Board will speak more on this subject with the Finance Committee on Monday.
j. Health Insurance: The town was assessed a 4.5% increase however our total will actually be going down due to the fact that a previous employee that left was on a family plan and the person replacing him is on a couples plan. The Board signed the renewal proposal.
k. Transfer Station: The suggestion made to fund the entire operations of the transfer station through sticker and bulky waste fees via an enterprise fund was discussed. Doing this would take approximately $140,000 out of the budget that the entire town is taxed on regardless if they use the transfer station or not. This would require raising the sticker fee for FY17 from $60 to somewhere in the neighborhood of $160 per household however only people that utilize the transfer station would be paying for it. After lengthy discussions on the pros and cons it was decided that in the long run this is the most sensible solution. The Board will remove this from the budget and in future weeks will begin getting information out to the public on the proposed change as well as proposed
new policies and procedures.
8. M. Noe was instructed to post the available grant writer position in the MMA, Berkshire Eagle and Shopper’s Guide.
9. March Select Board Corner: Steve will write this up with regards to the newly created grant writer position. It will also be noted that the Select Board is working on the budget and we encourage anyone interested or with concerns to come to a Select Board meeting.
10. There is a matching grant available to upgrade the playground equipment, deal with invasive species and possibly apply toward fixing the dam behind the library. Kenn is working on the paperwork now. Kenn is also working on an additional $7500 grant to be used at the transfer station.
11. There is a legislative breakfast tomorrow in Lee, Kenn will be attending.
12. There will be a shared services meeting here next week to discuss individuals and equipment.
A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 5:50pm
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Administrative Assistant
Approved by:
Monterey Select Board
Select Board Members
Minutes Book
Town Clerk
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