Town of Princeton, Mass. – April 25, 2016 – 4 PM
BOARD OF SELECTMEN – Regular Mtg. Minutes
4 PM Meeting was called to order at the Town Hall Annex. Present were Chairman Edith Morgan, Stan Moss & Jon Fudeman, also T.A. Nina Nazarian. and Advisory Board members arrived intermittently starting with John Shipman, David Cruise, George Handy, Jim O’Coin, Don Shoeney, Bill Lawton and Wayne Adams.
Selectmen went into executive session. Stan moved and Jon seconded to go into executive session: in accordance with M.G.L. c. 30A, §21: Exemption Six - To consider the purchase, exchange, lease or value of real property if the chair declares that an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the negotiating position of the public body. Edith M. called for a vote and in roll call Edith voted “Aye,” Jon voted “Aye” and Stan voted “Aye.” Edith then announced that the Board would enter into executive session to discuss Fieldstone Farm and return to regular session after adjourning.
Fieldstone Farm Group representatives arrived.
See separate Executive Session minutes
5 PM Selectmen returned to regular session with the Advisory Board.
The two boards considered the warrant and selectmen proceeded to vote to place each article on the warrant. They voted all in favor to change the salary for three employees (Ken Chapman, Jr., Jami Deloge, and Mary Barroll) and ratify the decision formerly voted in executive session. There was a lengthy discussion about a $20,000 deficit in the Building Dept., owing to low construction activity and few fees collected. Nina described how accounts were managed to address the issue. They voted all in favor to increase the salary/expenses by $5,000 for (new) town accountant to $48,326 to ensure funding for training in coming year. The also voted for $59,000 in building expenses.
Advisory Board suggested reducing the Reserve Fund in Art. 3; no action taken. After going over the WSRD budget, which Adv. Board noted is not related to COLA as the operations portion is up 63%, the group wanted to send a message and selectmen voted all in favor to support an operating budget of $515,219 instead of the requested $709,563. The rest of the district’s budget is mandated (debt service, etc.). The Adv. Bd. recommended changing the OPEB contribution to be within the budget, raising the funds, as opposed to using Free Cash for FY’18.
6 PM Each subsequent article was considered by both boards, some with further explanations and different opinions expressed, but BOS voted all in favor for all articles, generally as written. They voted to move Art. 13 to the operating budget for FY’18 and reduced the for town records clean-up project to $5,000 from the original suggestion of $10,000, given a proactive proposal by the Town Clerk and Treasurer/Collector. It was noted that Art. 18 for Bagg Hall funding and Art. 23 for Fieldstone Farm could require a ballot vote and selectmen agreed to purchase electronic ballots for ATM.
6:55 PM Selectmen finished voting the warrant and addressed a request from the Friends of Mechanics Hall to hold their annual outdoor clean-up at the site.~ The Friends reminded the Board that they would be adding a garden with the assistance of the Girl Scouts and that the Friends would be responsible for all maintenance of the garden.~ They voted all in favor to allow it.
Selectmen voted all in favor to approve minutes of April 11 w/ exec. session; April 14 and April 19 w/ exec. session.
7 PM Selectmen stayed in session to attend the Advisory Board public hearing for the ATM warrant articles.
8:07 PM BOS voted all in favor to adjourn.
Respectfully submitted, Marie N. Auger, administrative assistant & T.A. Nina Nazarian
BOS Referenced Documents: Budget information; proposed May 10, 2016 ATM Warrant
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