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Select Board
Minutes of the meeting of 4/19/17
Meeting Opened at: 9:04am
Select Board Members Present: Kenn Basler, Chairperson, Steve Weisz and Carol Edelman
Also in attendance: Donald Coburn, Julio Rodriguez, Shawn Tryon, Ray Tryon
Miscellaneous Items Reviewed:
- Chapter 90 contract paperwork was signed.
- The Board will set aside 1 hour at the May 3rd meeting to review the warrant and assign who will be responsible for answering questions on specific articles.
- Procedure for hiring Town Clerk and Treasurer if approved to appointed positions instead of elected. Kenn suggested that there should be an open hiring procedure and the people appointed to the positions currently until the town elections could apply for them. Steve wanted to recognize that we currently have 2 people in both positions that are performing the job well. A letter will be sent to both people in the positions informing them of the Board’s intentions. Discussion ensued about what may happen if one or both remain elected and potentially hiring assistance for the people running that lack experience.
- Carol read into record a letter withdrawing from participation, effective immediately, from any discussions, negotiations or decisions with regards to Broadband due to a potential conflict of interest. Copies will be provided to the Town Clerk and one kept for the Select Board files.
- Steve reported on his conversation with the Town Clerk regarding moving/organizing the town records to make room for the new Town Administrator’s office. Steve also spoke with her regarding the shelves taken down that will be put back up and the filing cabinets to be moved from the records room back into the office. Steve reported that the conversation went well and she was on board; the highway crew will be doing the work this Thursday.
- Transfer station grand opening: There will be an open house this Saturday from 11-12:30. The Board will contact the Eagle, Record and the Edge. The Board will attend the Community Center, Library and Transfer Station open houses.
- The Board approved the May Select Board Corner.
- Memorial Day: M .Noe has booked the bagpiper for the memorial ceremony at Veteran’s Park. Julio provided an itinerary for the morning ceremony. The Board (Steve) will ask Hume about using their sound equipment and sound person if possible.
- May 31st – Carol will be unavailable in the morning but requested to have the meeting start in the afternoon. Kenn suggested having a 4 – 6pm or 3 – 5pm meeting once a month; it was agreed beginning in May to have a meeting at 3pm on the last Wednesday of each month.
- April 26th – Next week’s meeting will begin at 10am to accommodate a meeting at 12:30 with members of the Hampshire Council of Governments.
- The Board discussed the lawsuit filed by the Town of Egremont against the school district. The Board will review the lawsuit filing and discuss this further next week.
- The Board discussed the Planning Board’s decision with regards to the Hume site plan review.
- Kenn reported that he and Shawn had a very discouraging meeting with state officials with regards to the work to be done on the Curtis Rd Bridge.
- Steve provided an update on the Broadband items he has been charged with.
- Cell tower – Verizon has agreed to put up a repeater; things appear to be moving forward. We should be receiving a letter from Verizon notifying us of the procedure.
- Accounting update:
a. It was suggested to have a helpful meeting to assist town departments with revised procedures for submitting bills.
b. Offer from Adams – it was agreed for now to postpone making any decisions on hiring an accountant until we can see how the accounting firm is working out, the audit, etc.
c. M .Noe was asked to report on how much time she is spending on creating the vendor warrants – about 1 hour/week. This will eventually be turned over to the accounting firm.
- FY18 sticker fee – Kenn recommended keeping the fee at $70 because operations have been running smoothly and costs this year are down from last year. Steve recommended raising it by $10/yr to get in line with surrounding towns, rising costs and ultimately getting the fee around $100/yr (Steve recalls the Board discussing and agreeing last year to make these changes this year). Discussion ensued. It was agreed (2 – 1) to keep it at $70 and review again next year.
- Town Administrator – help wanted ad has been placed. Aan email was sent to the 5 people interested in remaining on the resume review committee requesting their suggested changes to the job description, as well as recommending a few people that may be interested in joining the committee. A motion was made to reappoint Roy Carwile, Ray Tryon, Chris Blair, Jon Sylbert and Rob Hoogs to the Town Administrator Resume Review Committee, and the Board is also reaching out to several individuals to diversify the group. The motion was seconded and approved unanimously. We have heard that one retired Town Administrator with years of experience may be interested; Kenn suggested that the Board should meet with him right away to get going on this. The Board agreed.
- Warrants were signed.
- Minutes from 4/12 & 4/14/17 were approved.
- Administrative Assistant’s weekly report was reviewed.
- Police Chief’s weekly report was reviewed.
The Board met with Shawn Tryon, Director of Operations regarding the following:
- Status of swap shack building permit. Kenn has requested that MD Amstead pull the necessary permit with the building department for the swap shed.
- Update on the new transfer station progress.
- The crew is doing some clean up at the Community Center and reported that it is already ready to be mowed.
- Shawn reminded the Board of his upcoming vacation and that if any issues arise to contact Kevin.
- Shawn reported that he and M. Noe worked together and have posted the invitation for bids for the repair work that needs to be done at the Monterey School.
A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 10:38am
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Administrative Assistant
Approved by:
Monterey Select Board
Select Board Members
Minutes Book
Town Clerk
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