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06/16/2015 BOS Meeting Minutes
Town Of Sutton
Board of Selectmen
     
                                                        Meeting Minutes
  
                                           Minutes Accepted and filed with the Town Clerk on  7/7/2015  by a vote of   5-0
                                                               
7:00 p.m. – June 16, 2015
                                       Sutton Town Hall, Selectmen’s Meeting Room
Members in Attendance:                           
        Chairman David Hall, Vice-Chair John Hebert, Selectmen Paul Maynard, Jesse Limanek & Michael Kenney
       Town Administrator James Smith & Debbie Jacques, secretary   

Vice-Chair Hall calls the meeting to order at 7:00pm followed by the Pledge of Allegiance
Public Forum: No comments

Vice-Chair Hebert motions to accept as presented minutes from the 6/02/2015 BOS meeting; Selectman Maynard seconds passes 5-0  

Street Light acquisition & LED Conversion: TA Smith says our consultant, George Woodbury, was at the May town Meeting where the Town voted to appropriate $109,000. for this project.  This was a project mentioned at the 2014 BOS Goals & Objectives meeting by Mike Chizy. Jim introduces Doreen Dafazio as our Energy Manager. Doreen works between Millbury and Sutton and has taken over a lot of our Green Community paperwork and filings. Doreen states that Sutton is the 1st community in this area with this program.  At this time Doreen provides a power point which begins with advantages of this project which will be a decrease of energy consumption meaning additional revenue in our budget. Currently we pay $27,000. a year for street lights,  after this is complete we will see a savings of 68% and a payback period of 5 years. Visually this shows a commitment of energy efficiency to residents and offers improved safety with LED bulbs providing enhanced visibility.  LED bulbs have a life of 100,000 hours or 24 years which means reduced maintenance costs.  The purchase price for the 217 poles in Sutton is $34,064.75. NGrid has 60 days to reply at which point we will have a maintenance contract with Paxton Municipal Light for installation and maintenance. The financing has been secured using capital funds which were approved at the May Town Meeting as well as Chapter 90 funds and reallocated grant funds. The anticipated implementation is for fall 2015 (October). We are working with Fred Davis Corp, a wholesaler and we were able to get bulk pricing as we went in with Providence RI and Westwood for the materials.  We will see immediate savings.   Chairman Hall begins by saying this is a win for the town. TA Smith replies that the long term benefits after this is paid off are significantly beneficial.  Vice Chair Hebert says this is a win win for the town. This is so positive, how will we handle if we get calls from residents to add lights. TA Smith replies that the BOS will have to establish a policy how to deal with the calls; this policy will have to be consistent and productive.  If we add street lights it will continue to be a budgetary issue. Selectman Maynard says Jim, Jen, Doreen; super job. The savings look nice. Who does the resident call if there is a light out? TA Smith replies there will be contact information on our website but the call will go to Paxton Municipal Light, they will have a dedicated line for these calls. Selectman Limanek asks if we have someone in town that could be certified to replace the lights. TA Smith says we are not considering at this time as you have to be trained.  We will have a contract with Paxton Municipal Light and they will have so many days to respond to an outage.  Selectman Limanek asks if the existing poles will have the correct wattage for this conversion. TA Smith replies that about 6 years ago NGrid came in and replaced the mercury vapor bulbs with high pressure sodium bulbs, at that time there was a lot of new wiring installed. Selectman Kenney says this is a great idea saving money and moving into the future. Selectman Kenney asks if we are replacing 217 fixtures, should we order a few extra now to get the better price. TA Smith and Doreen both think this is a great idea and will check in to it. Selectman Kenney asks what is stopping other towns from doing this same thing. Doreen says the popularity is gaining but for many years towns were not allowed to purchase the lights from NGrid, Sutton is 1 step ahead of all the surrounding towns. Chairman Hall mentions the maintenance of the existing light fixtures and goes on to say he continues to be a great supporter of the Green Community and the legacy of Mike Chizy carries on.  Chairman Hall says nice presentation.

Town Administrator Reappointments: TA Smith reads the list of his reappointments. Selectman Limanek asks if Animal Control is shared, TA Smith replies yes, we have an IMA with Northbridge & Millbury. Hearing no other comments, Selectman Limanek motions to approve as read the Town Administrators reappointments, Selectman Hebert seconds passes 4-0-1 (Maynard abstains as he is on list)

Board Reappointments: Selectman Maynard motions to approve as read the reappointments made by the BOS, Selectman Kenney asks about the recent appointment to Recreation. That was for an existing vacancy, there will now be an additional vacancy as that individual did not go for reappointment. Selectman Kenney seconds passes 5-0 Chairman Hall thanks all for their public service

Villas @ Pleasant Valley Bond Expenditure: TA smith updates the new board members on this type of request. Chairman Hall states this is a procedural issue, the statue requires the BOS to vote. Selectman Hebert motions to approve payment out of the Bond Expenditure Fund for the Villa’s at Pleasant Valley in the amount of $1,068.26 to replace a missing street light pole, Selectman Limanek seconds passes 5-0

Signing of the Teamsters Contract: TA Smith says this was a lengthy process but what is presented is a 3 year contract with; 2% plus steps in year 1, 2% plus steps in years 2 and 2 1/2% plus steps year 3.  TA Smith reviews with the BOS that last contract steps were reduced from 10 steps to 5 as this was a sustainability issue. Most employees will max out steps in 5 years so they will only receive the cost of living increase. Vice-Chair Hebert says this is a great win for the union and the town. Thank you Jim for your hard work and thank you for keeping us included in the negotiations. Selectman Maynard says the contract is well laid out; a 2% raise is fair. Selectman Limanek says union negotiations are not an easy task, thank you for the work you have done in making this economically sustainable, we can’t spend more than we take in. Selectman Kenney says great job and agrees with reducing the step process. Chairman Hall says congratulations. This is a grueling process going back and forth. Dave offers thanks to the union for a fairly negotiated contract.  Selectman Kenney motions to approve as presented the Agreement between Teamsters Union Local #170 and the Town of Sutton for the period of July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2018 Selectman Maynard seconds passes 5-0

TA Update:
  • Annual Goal & Objective meeting: Usually held in July, would Tuesday, July 28th work? All agree to date
  • Vice-Chair Hebert says we have had great success with these meetings; it gives us chance to have conversation with an open dialog. It is important to keep the list short (2-5)
  • Selectman Maynard would like copies of the last 5 years of G&O
  • MIT Cycling: after issues in March with the misuse of school property (riding bikes in halls, washing soaks in bubblers, IPad missing. TA Smith spoke to Sam Nicaise; he agreed to find another community to hold this race next year.
  • Vice-Chair Hebert is glad they are not coming back we set guidelines in town and they disrespected them. MIT should have sent a letter of apology for this. We have a great relationship with Alex (MRA Sport) when he leaves this town it is like he was never here.
  • Selectman Maynard says this is unacceptable behavior
  • Selectman Limanek asks if MIT had access of the school before it was turned over to the school, would they have been required to pull a bond or sign a waiver. TA  Smith replies it is town owned but it falls under the purview of the school/school committee
  • Selectman Kenney thinks we should request the group come back and clean up an area to provide community service for how they acted.
  • Chairman Hall says this is the type of group we do not want in town. Alex and his group do all we ask He worked hard at building a relationship with the Lake Association and also has good communication with Police & Fire. He brings spirit and culture to our community. We ask residents to be inconvenienced and this is how MIT repays us.
  • Summer Solstice Triathlon: Friday, June 19th 6:30pm-9pm -3rd annual event.
  • School Committee vacancy: seat left vacant by Jesse Limanek winning BOS seat. The school committee will hold a joint meeting on July 7th to fill vacancy. This is per town charter.
  • Employee Appreciation Picnic-held on Friday, June 5th. Thank you to Paul Maynard, Jesse Limanek and Mike Kenney for attending.
  • Selectman Limanek attended the picnic- it was a beautiful day, an excellent event.
  • Chairman Hall says this is the right thing to do for good employees, thank you to Jim as well.
Announcements:   
  • Vice-Chair Hebert – M Route, 1st phase of paving done, they will now fix the structures and then do a second coat. John goes on to say Touch a Truck held this past week end brings in a lot of people. Parking is a safety issue, next year we should limit parking to one side of the road.
  • Selectman Maynard - last Sat. we dedicated the bandstand pillar to John Parker Annis, his family appreciated it. This was attended by 100+ people. The Food Pantry fed 54 people in 17 days; they are currently in need of peanut butter & jelly and syrup and pancake mix.
  • Selectman Limanek offers congratulations to the graduating class of 2015. It was an excellent event at a beautiful venue.
  • Selectman Kenney offers congratulations to the Class of 2015, Mike attended the 5th grade graduation held at Whitins Community Center, it was very nice.
Roundtable:
Chairman Hall states the paving on Singletary was an inconvenience but it was needed. Thank you to John and all that got this done   
Correspondence from Chris Gramstorf of Barnett Road and James Dwyer of Ariel Circle.

8:20 pm            Selectman Maynard motions to adjourn, Vice-Chair Hebert 2nds passes 5-0
Meeting Adjourned