Select Board
Minutes of the meeting of 8/22/16
Meeting Opened at: 9am
Select Board Members Present: Kenn Basler, Chairperson, Steve Weisz and Carol Edelman
Also in attendance: Dennis Lynch, Emily Johnson, Shawn Tryon, Don Clawson, Cliff Weiss, BJ Johnson, Richard Jaffe, Elliott Small, Hy Rosen, Alice Berke, Raymond Tryon, Kay Purcell
Miscellaneous Items Reviewed:
1. The Board met with Dennis Lynch regarding his new position as a grant writer for the Town of Monterey and his ideas for that position. With regards to pay, Dennis suggested a flat stipend either annually or per project as decided on by the Board.
2. The Board discussed an upcoming energy seminar they plan to attend.
3. Shawn stated that the fire truck will be delivered at 5pm tonight. The Board discussed the issues with the former Treasurer Jennifer Brown improperly sending the check to KME prior to delivery instead of giving it to a Select Board member or the Fire Chief as was requested.
4. The Board worked on the articles for the September special town meeting warrant along with members of the Broadband and Finance Committees.
a. The Assessors need to put a FY16 bill on the special town meeting warrant for $1,650. This will be in addition to a few other bills for various departments which will be provided by the Accountant.
b. The Broadband Committee needs an article to authorize the town to seek financing for the project. The Committee will provide the specific language. It is believed and will be confirmed with council, that we already have approved this language on our annual town meeting warrant as well as when the borrowing for broadband was approved.
c. The Town will need approximately $137,752 to apply for a pole survey with National Grid or Verizon to move forward with a Broadband network There may also be additional fees needed after the survey if any poles need to be replaced. It was later confirmed that the total project will be $3.1 million and Monterey will be responsible for $1.96 million (which was approved at the May 8, 2015 meeting) and 30% of that ($650,000) will be needed by mid-January (should we decide to build our own network). One other sticking point is that we need the management letter from the audit which we are not expecting until the end of September. Counsel will be consulted on the matter.
d. The Broadband Committee will need consulting fees in the amount of $40,000 to create an RFP, design the network, and engage council specific to utility/network work.
e. Grant writer monies: The Board discussed whether or not the grant writers should be paid hourly or a stipend. After discussion it was suggested to pay each of them a stipend of $9,000 with the expectation that we are expecting a minimum of 10 times return-on-investment in grant monies from each of them for that stipend. The Board agreed unanimously to the $18,000 figure ($9,000 each).
f. Consulting fees for the Lake Garfield Working Group: Steve will get a final figure for a lake consultant.
g. Matching grant funds for the Lake Garfield grant. Steve will follow up with the FLG for the specific amount.
h. Additional funds for new election laws – Terry will be asked to look into this and get back to us.
i. The deadline for any potential citizen petitions to be submitted will be Thursday, September 1st and the Board will sign and finalize the special town meeting warrant at a special 9am meeting on Friday, September 2nd.
5. Members of the Friends of Lake Garfield were present to hear who was going to be appointed to the Lake Garfield Working Group which they were notified is being postponed to next Monday at 4:15pm. Elliott Small was present and threatened legal action for the violation of several “constitutional issues” if he is not chosen as an appointee, because he is also a member of the FLG (the mission statement states that membership will include 2 FLG members and 4 community members at large that are not current members of the FLG). Steve explained that the mission statement was crafted with the assistance of the FLG, and was done so to be “fair” to everyone. The Board will follow up with Town Counsel this week for next Monday.
6. Kay Purcell came in for the Board’s signature on a report for Elder Affairs.
7. Mail was reviewed which included:
a. Another letter from the SBRSD Superintendent requesting a meeting to discuss the $10,000 allocated for the Monterey School. Carol will respond letting them know that the $10,000 should be held as we are continuing to look into the repairs to be made and preparing to begin work a.s.a.p. A motion was made to begin the work to bring the building up to working condition for future programs. The motion was seconded and approved unanimously.
b. Letters of interest to be on the Lake Garfield Working Group were received from Eric Danforth, Steve Snyder, Christine Goldfinger and Elliott Small. The FLG will be asked to submit their 2 names to serve on the committee.
8. Carol inquired about the progress made with the requests from the Town Administrator Resume Review Committee; M. Noe provided all the members with copies of the resumes received to date.
9. Steve and Carol reported on the 2nd homeowner’s meeting held on Saturday (Kenn was absent). The main topics discussed were broadband, cell service, transfer station and availability of new clerk.
10. Police issues – The Chief will be asked to come in at 4:30pm on the 29th.
11. Kenn inquired about M. Noe’s decision to not renew the lease on the postage machine. M. Noe explained that she is the only department that has been using it since May and the lease was up in June and did not see the sense in paying $700/year for this when the Accountant and Treasurer are here regularly and checks for postage can be walked over to the post office at no cost to the town.
12. Kenn noted that he felt it was inappropriate for Steve and M. Noe to go in and organize the archives room. Steve explained that he informed and had the blessings of several of the Town’s departments to go in and review specific documents stored and was directed by these department heads, as to which of their files no longer needed to be kept (This included the Tax Collector in which 2 boxes of documents were removed). He further noted that nothing of the Clerk’s was touched and it was mostly just organization of the considerable mess that was left in there. Steve suggested that in light of the mess that he witnessed, the Board should request the assistance of the Secretary of State’s office to go through the stored records to determine what no longer needs to be stored (this was done in
Monterey before). The Board agreed.
13. The Town Clerk is officially starting on Tuesday afternoon. Nadine has offered her assistance in helping to organize or assist during the month of September.
14. Warrants were signed.
15. Minutes from 8/15, 8/16 and 8/17/16 were approved.
16. Administrative Assistant’s weekly report was reviewed.
17. Police Chief’s weekly report was reviewed and time off request was approved.
A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 11:56am
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Administrative Assistant
Approved by:
Monterey Select Board
Select Board Members
Minutes Book
Town Clerk
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