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03/08/2016 BOS Meeting Minutes
         Meeting Minutes
  
                                           Minutes Accepted and filed with the Town Clerk on 3/22/2016 by a vote of 3-1-0    
                                                         (Chairman Hall absent, Selectman Maynard absent from 3/08/2016 meeting)
7:00 p.m. – March 8, 2016
                                       Sutton Town Hall, Selectmen’s Meeting Room
Members in Attendance:                           
        Chairman David Hall, Vice Chair John Hebert, Jesse Limanek & Michael Kenney   (Selectman Maynard absent)
       Town Administrator James Smith & Debbie Jacques, secretary   

Chairman 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 minutes from the 02/16/2016 BOS meeting; Selectman Limanek 2nds passes 4-0

Melanson & Heath FY15 Audit presentation: Scott McIntyre and Alan Goodwin are here to present the audit. Tim Harrison, Town Accountant is present. Scott says this will be a quick overview; most importantly the audit went very well. The books and records are in good working order with no significant audit entries. This was a clean unqualified audit. Scott reviews the addition of the Net Pension liability which is found beneath the Liabilities. This must be included now per audit standards.  He gave a brief review of the revenues & expenditures which include the use of some free cash. Scott then goes into the Management letter which discusses recommendations by the Auditing Firm. The recommendations include the previous year recommendations of Formal Dept. Receipt Policies & Procedures. This year’s recommendations include updating the fixed asset reports on a timely basis and improve controls over journal entries. Mr. McIntyre ends by saying this audit went very well. Vice Chair Hebert says Melanson & Heath are not new to Sutton.  The BOS and the Finance Team take these reports serious. We took on funding the OPEB which was quite new to towns. Our Financial team, Tim, Jim and the Dept. Heads are pretty concise and stay within the rules and regs. Selectman Limanek says the report was fantastic, he felt it was a huge learning curve for him as he is new to the Board. Jesse is happy there was nothing too critical. He is happy that the financial team is doing as much as possible for the inclusion of the new audit. He is glad the pension liability was included as transparency is important for municipal government. Selectman Kenney thanks Melanson & Heath for the presentation, Mike asks if the $12.6 figure is good for a town our size, Scott McIntyre replies that would be something for a financial advisor to reply to, Tim Harrison states that is purely employee funded based on the number of employees in town. The OPEB liability will be completely funded in 2035 which is 5 years earlier then what is required. Mike replies, so we are in good shape. TA Smith replies yes, we have a plan; we get an assessment yearly form Worc. County Retirement.  Mike replies hats off to the financial team and we are on pace to meet the recommended actions. Mike asks the auditors on a scale of 1-10 where would we be, Scott says the town is where a town this size should be, this is a good report from the auditors. Chairman Hall says they had him when they said the books and records are clean. Dave says there is a lot of consistency from year to year with the audits. Dave has a lot of appreciation for the financial team as well as the consistency with this Audit team, the fees for the audit has remained very stable over several years. We have a process in place to get the work done. Year over year there is consistency which is good news.

Peregrine- Paul Grommer from Peregrine and Energy Mgr. Doreen Defazio are present. TA Smith begins by saying last week there was a conference call with Doreen, Jim, Jen Hager and DOER, the aggregation plan was reviewed. There has been a link on the Towns web site for residents to review and if there are any questions they can refer them to Doreen. Mr. Grommer says currently there are 75 communities in MA with an energy aggregation plan. Residents would still get one bill from Ngrid, Ngrid would still deliver the electricity; the supplier would be who the BOS chooses. In addition there will be a green product if the resident so chooses. Part of a Municipal Aggregation plan is for residents to have an opt out period. Mr. Grommer states that the town has already approved the Aggregation at town meeting, the plan has been finalized, and the review with DOER has been completed. DPU is about to start its review. Once complete, there will be an education period. This should be able to be launched in late fall early winter which is the best time.  Doreen Defazio says that when the Educational piece starts residents will get a mailing, the logo Doreen will have on any related material is “Sutton Power Choice”. There are other companies out there so if residents see this logo on mailings they will know it is the town’s supplier. All residents will be contacted but if they have signed a do not solicit list they will not receive any mailings. There will be enough advertising that if these individuals would like to opt in they can contact us.  Vice-Chair Hebert feels this will be a great choice for residents, this is all positive news. Doreen has done a great job. Selectman Limanek says he appreciates the update and asks when residents will get notification. Mr. Grommer states 30 days prior to the start of the new supplier these mailings will go out. Jesse asks when this will be approved, Paul states it usually takes anywhere from 2 to 6 months. Jesse also asks if we can put a link on the town web site, Jim replies yes we will, it will also come back to the BOS to choose the supplier. Selectman Kenney has spoken to Natick about Peregrine, they had very good things to say about them. Mike asked for more information about the time line from choosing the competitive supplier and the educational period. Mike asks about the individuals on the no solicitation list, Doreen states word of mouth in other towns has worked. Chairman Hall says that it is good to continue discussions on this; Dave states we have a good partnership with Peregrine; we will be bringing a better price to residents. This looks like a really good thing for us.

IMA Nursing Services Town of Rutland: TA Smith says this is the 10th town we have an IMA with. This is basically for our town nurse, Cheryl Rawinski to provide Maven services at $75.00 an hour. TA Smith goes on to say at some point we will have reached our breaking point, our main focus is on Cheryl and to not over load her. All agree this is a good money maker for the town. Vice Chair Hebert motions to approve the IMA between the Town of Sutton and the Town of Rutland for Public Health Nursing Services, Selectman Kenney seconds passes 4-0
     
TA Update:
  • Meeting with DEP- March 2nd, Jen Hager & Jim Smith met with DEP and Wilks water regarding the capacity of water. Wilks water is close to meeting capacity. They will apply for a grant that will help them increase the water capacity. This is important for the expansion of businesses coming on to 146.  
  • Selectman Limanek asks the diminishment of water, will it affect Galaxy or the condos, TA Smith replies no, but it is important to have an audit done to see where the water is going.
  • Chairman Hall is happy that the town has taken the initiative to work with the water district and their issues. This is an important issue. TA Smith states economic development on 146 is reliant on water
  • Health Insurance: MIIA has notified TA Smith that after the plan design changes the increase will be 6%. With this number the budget is balanced.
  • Selectman Kenney asks what the savings are to the proposed budget, TA Smith replies $125,000.00
  • LED street lights: one issue has come up, there are 12 privately owned lights in town, PRT inadvertently changed them to the new LED lights. PRT has agreed to change them back.
  • Vice Chair Hebert states he remembers in the 1990’s when street lights were shut off. Some residents chose to pay and have them on. John feels that with these new lights and the town purchasing the street lights we should include those 12 lights. He feels it would be a good gesture.
  • Selectman Kenney says it would be good to have all the lights LED to be uniform.
  • Chairman Hall says Johns idea is outstanding, that is a great concept to retake the responsibility.
  • Senior Center: they have been asked to participate in a healthy living expo at St. Vincent’s Hosp. on March 15th. Congratulations to them for being asked.
Library OPM- there were 7 submissions, the preferred provider is CMS.
  • Selectman Limanek asks if the OPM will be paid out of the grant, TA Smith replies yes, there is $13,500. for this.
  • LED lights in the Town Hall. TA Smith goes on to say the lights in the meeting room are new; Larry Morris was able to eliminate 3 lights just in this meeting room by using the new LED’s. This has reduced the energy consumption.
 
Announcements/Round Table/ Correspondence/Business Topics:
  • Selectman Limanek volunteered with Meals on Wheels last week, it was a great experience. The Sheriffs Dept will be holding an event at the Sr. Center this week to dispose of expired medications, etc.
  • Selectman Limanek asks if we have a process in place where we recognize those that get deployed. Jesse mentions Brendon Finley has been deployed. Jim states this may be something to discuss at our Goals meeting.
  • Selectman Kenney and his wife volunteered delivering Meals on Wheels, they both felt it was an eye opening experience, Mike goes on to thank Market 32 for the very generous donations to the Food Pantry
  • Selectman Kenney would like a letter drafted for the Safe Passage from the school to Shaw farm sidewalk. Mike has spoken to Senator Fattman and feels this letter would help.
8:30 pm Vice Chairman Hebert motions to adjourn Selectman Limanek 2nds passes 4-0