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Select Board
Minutes of the meeting of 3/22/17
Meeting Opened at: 9am
Select Board Members Present: Kenn Basler, Chairperson, Steve Weisz and Carol Edelman
Also in attendance: Terry Walker, Dennis Lynch, Shawn Tryon, Peter Chait, Mark Makuc, Mickey Jervas, Terry Spohnholz, Dan Pilotta, Clark Rowell, Christy Jenko, BJ Johnson, Don Clawson,
Miscellaneous Items Reviewed:
- The Board reviewed a letter from Town Counsel responding to a question from Egremont about the district’s vote to suspend operations at the Egremont School. Counsel states that the vote was illegal.
- Kenn and Steve reported on the Finance Committee meeting they attended on Monday:
a. The Finance Committee has decided to vote against the school budget for FY18. A letter will be sent from the Board and Finance Committee to the school committee requesting they amend their budget as Monterey will not be supporting approval of the current proposed budget and are questioning their procedural vote to suspend operations in Egremont.
- A motion was made to declare a snow emergency to allow the Accountant to overspend in the winter overtime and salt and sand accounts. The motion was seconded and approved unanimously.
- Town Accountant: Kenn participated in a conference call with a municipal accounting firm along with M. Noe and Terry Spohnholz, Treasurer. This firm can customize the services we need and the cost would reflect that. Kenn is proposing at the recommendation of M. Noe and the Treasurer that we hire them for 1 – 3 months to help with end of year reporting and any other tasks as required. In the meantime we will continue to review resumes and set up interviews. The firm could also be used to help a new Accountant transition into the position.
- The Board discussed having the new transfer station grand opening on April 22nd which also happens to be Earth Day.
- The Board met with grant writer Terry Walker to discuss her progress on the MassWorks grant she is working on for the highway department. The Board asked for more information on the complete streets program. Terry is also working on a grant for the Fire Department, and a tire collection grant for the transfer station. As agreed upon, Terry has been working a maximum of 6 hours per week.
- The Board met with grant writer Dennis Lynch to discuss his progress on funding to rebuild the dam behind the library; our situation isn’t competitive enough for state grants, however he is working on submitting an application to the USDA for the end of April. Estimates right now to fix the dam are in the area of $1million, and the town may need to spend approximately $40,000 to have an engineering study done to determine what work will need to be done to properly rebuild it. There are other options the Town could look at which would include expanding the current storage for drinking water in Town. Dennis also suggested applying for smaller grants.
- Steve and Carol reported on the Hume site visit yesterday. It was noted that stop signs would be helpful at key intersections and Shawn was asked to post some. Shawn can do that once the ground thaws; however he said that in order to make it legally binding, a study would have to be performed by DOT.
- Police Chief’s weekly report was reviewed.
The Board met with UniBank to discuss the following with regards to the upcoming town meeting and funding for the library renovation proposal:
- The grant applied for is a 5 year grant over fiscal years and monies are given in 20% increments.
- Clark Rowell reviewed the town’s options for proposing the funds at town meeting.
- Clark Rowell estimates that if approved this will add approximately $0.25 to the tax rate.
- Clark Rowell will forward the wording to go on the warrant.
The Board met with Barbara Gauthier, Financial Consultant to discuss the following with regards to the proposed FY18 budget:
- The Finance Committee is recommending $1 for the grant writer line item until the Select Board makes their recommendation. Because the grants applied for are in progress the Board recommends continuing the program for another year for 2 grant writers at $25/hr for up to 6 hours a week each for one year.
- The Finance Committee is recommending level funding Highway Operations (line 422). The Board concurred.
- Cemetery maintenance: Carol inquired as to why only 15% of their budget has been spent so far. It was explained that the bulk of the work done is performed in May and June.
- The Finance Committee is recommending subtracting $10k from Transfer Station Operations (line 433). The Board concurred.
- Line 543 Veteran’s benefits: M. Noe will call the veteran’s agent to find out FY18’s budget.
- The Board agreed to raise the Memorial Day line item (692) by $300.
- Line 122 Select Board expenses – this will be lowered to $6,000.
- Line 197 Computer software and supplies the Board cut this in half as a computer should only run up to $1000, and 3 are to be replaced each year, leaving another $1,000 for printers.
- The Finance Committee is recommending using free cash to fund the 2 stabilization accounts ($180k) and the special articles for the fire and highway departments.
- Line 197 Broadband services – this amount may come off or be lowered at town meeting once a broadband provider is chosen.
- Fire Inspector – Shawn is looking to find someone from the Gt. Barrington Fire Department to take over this position and is against making it a revolving fund.
- The Finance Committee has told the Select Board that it is illegal to carry forward and/or transfer the monies of special articles at a special town meeting for a different purpose. M. Noe has spoken to DOR and has confirmed that this is incorrect. In fact the town can transfer the use with town meeting approval for any unexpended funds, and the accountant has the authority to carry forward funds from year to year.
- The Board is recommending that we request only $5k for the annual audit this year as there are funds leftover from 2 previous years that can be used to pay for the current year’s audit and have monies left over for the FY18 audit.
- It was suggested that the amount being put into the retiree group health/life stabilization fund appropriation should be raised to $40k to begin accurately saving for the projected retiree liabilities.
- The Finance Committee recommends adding $10k to the Broadband Consultant, and level funding the matching grant. This money will be carried forward at the end of the year.
- The Finance Committee does not support approving the special articles for the Lake Garfield Weed Harvesting or Community Center Operations. Kenn Basler , Shawn Tryon and M. Noe will be meeting with members of the community center to discuss their current proposed budget, areas that have been overlooked and creating an agreement to have clear guidelines for the operations going forward.
A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 1pm
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Administrative Assistant
Approved by:
Monterey Select Board
Select Board Members
Minutes Book
Town Clerk
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