Minutes Accepted and filed with the Town Clerk on _11/21/2017 by a vote of 4-0
(selectman Plante absent)
7:00p.m. – November 7, 2017
Sutton Town Hall, Selectmen’s Meeting Room
Members in Attendance:
Chairman Jesse Limanek, Vice Chair John Hebert, Clerk David Hall and Selectmen Michael Kenney & Ray Plante Jr.
Town Administrator James Smith & Deb Jacques, secretary
Chairman Limanek calls the meeting to order at 7:00pm followed by the Pledge of Allegiance
Public Forum: Glen King from Hiloft Farm in Sutton is present to comment on the Animal and Equipment Excise Tax. Glen states not all people in town are paying animal tax and surrounding towns do not tax. It is not fair for those that do pay. It is a couple hundred dollars a year that would be better in the pockets of the farmers.
Selectman Hall motions to accept as presented the October 17, 2017 meeting minutes, Vice Chairman Hebert seconds passes 4-0-1
(Selectman Plante abstains)
Public Hearing** Tax Classification Hearing with the Board of Assessors as read by BOS Clerk David Hall. Present from the Assessor’s office is Robert (Knick) Nunnemacher, RJ Nichols and Joyce Sardagnola. Knick states this is a yearly procedure held before the Selectmen as the BOS have the choice of keeping a single tax rate or a split rate. If the Selectmen choose to go to a split tax rate it will shift a larger burden to the commercial properties in town. Historically it has been a single tax rate. The tax rate is based on debt exclusions and new growth. The new tax rate for residents for FY18 will be $16.55 per thousand (an increase of .05 cents from FY17). The new growth, in the amount of $459,945.00 has been approved by DOR. The total new value of the town is $1,390,059,614.00 with a levy limit of
$23,018,352.00. Vice Chair Hebert feels we should keep it at one rate. Selectman Hall has no desire to change the tax ratio, if we had a split rate it would counteract us trying to have business come in to town. Selectman Kenney and Plant concur with previous comments and agree we should stay at one rate. Selectman Limanek feels tilting the rates could chase business out of town, we need to keep Sutton business friendly. Vice Chair Hebert motions to approve a single tax factor for Fiscal Year 2018 Selectman Kenney seconds passes 5-0
Code Red presentation: Peter Agglegarth is present. TA Smith says it is in the FY18 budget to implement an Early Notification System which replaces the previous reverse 911. Peter introduces the program which can be found at onsolve.com. This is a nationally run program that assists with missing person, active shooters, weather conditions, etc. Residents will go on to the town web page and click a link, fill out contact information and will then be included on any alerts that the town may have to activate. It can be town wide or to just a selected location. The Board all feel this is a great program and look forward to this being used in our community.
Release of Sewer Betterment Lien: TA Smith says this is regarding 2 First Street. It had been paid off several years ago but the lien was never released. It is basically a housekeeping issue. Hearing no issues, Selectman Kenney motions to release a sewer betterment lien for the property located at 2 First Street, Vice Chair Hebert seconds passes 5-0
Amendment to Regulatory agreement-Leland Hill Estate: present is Attorney Stephen Rodolakis. TA Smith says John Burns owns this development and is requesting a small increase for the 3 affordable units remaining, 10 have been sold. This increase is approx. $4,000. dollars. This will also be presented to the DHCD for their approval. Vice-Chair Hebert states this is a modest increase, we would like to see all the units sold. Selectmen Hall, Kenney and Plante all agree it is the right thing to do. Chairman Limanek sees no issues. Selectman Plante motions to amend the Regulatory Agreement for Leland Hill Estates Selectman Hall seconds passes 5-0
Standard & Poor’s power point presentation: TA Smith reviews the Oct. 17th visit which included a tour around town and then a meeting at the Town hall. This tour was due to the town requesting a bond rating change with the anticipating of borrowing for the Police Station project. Some of the criteria the Rating Agency uses is the economy of the town, the management, financial policies, budgetary flexibility as well as access to external liquidity. Our retirement account with Worc. County Retirement and our OPEB are two areas we need to work on. TA Smith says this is all done by a team effort but gives a special thankyou to Tim Harrison. Vice Chair Hebert says previous BOS and the present BOS have been very conscious of our bond rating, the increase to AA+ comes with a lot of hard work. Every year when
Melanson & Heath come before us with recommendations we listen. This is a proud day for Sutton. Selectman Hall says this is a champagne moment, congratulations to the whole financial team. This was a long road to get the rate increase using a conservative financial approach. Selectman Kenney says incredible presentation and shows what S&P thinks of Sutton we are one mark away from AAA. Selectman Plante questions what could keep us away from AAA, TA Smith responds one issue is the percent of commercial business another is our retirement system. Tim Harrison replies that the issue with Worc. County retirement is they pool all the communities together, we are not separate with them. Chairman Limanek says this increase was due to a culmination of a decade of work, years of strategizing and planning despite hard times. This sent a message to the buyers of bonds that the Town of Sutton is a good investment.
Awarding the Bond Sale for the Police Station & refunding: TA Smith states we went out on Monday for the bond sale and Citi Bank was the winning bidder. 25.7 Million in bonds (8.7 million for the Police Station and 17 million refund bond sales for 2007 and 2011. This was the 4th largest Bond Sale in the nation on Monday. This is where our rating increase helped us. Selectman Plante motions to authorize the Clerk to sign the letter for the sale of the bonds for the Police Station building project and refunding of the 2007 and 2011 bonds Selectman Kenney seconds passes 5-0
Holiday opening schedule for all Alcohol License holders: read by the BOS Clerk Dave Hall, hearing no questions or comments, Selectman Plante motions to approve as presented the 2017 Holiday opening and closing schedule for all alcohol license holders Selectman Hall seconds passes 5-0
Appointment to the Police Station Building Committee: TA Smith states this appointment is to fill the vacancy by Steve LeClaire. Richard Deschenes from the Zoning Board will take the place of Steve. We thank Steve at this time for his input at the start of this project and now look forward to Rick Deschene with a construction background. Selectman Kenney motions to approve the appointment of Richard Deschenes to the Police Station Building Committee Vice Chair Hebert seconds passes 5-0
TA Update:
- Cell Tower at Town Farm Road has a completion date of 60-90 days. John Arthur (Wireless Edge) has agreed to donate cabling and lines to the generator and NGrid will donate the power to run the repeater.
- Police Station- contract executed with NELCO on October 23. Within the next two weeks they will have a trailer on site, a ground breaking will be planned.
- Aggregation Contract was signed on Tuesday October 31st. It is a 3 year contract with Agera at the rate of 10.93 cents per kilowatt. Ngrids price is 12.673.
DEP Grant was awarded to the Transfer Station for $3150.
Donation of Flags- Rep. McKenna recently donated 3 flags to the town
- Jingle Jaunt 5K to be held on Dec. 9th at 10:30am.
Municibid sales recently ended, we made $16,300. On the sale of surplus items.
The Transfer station will be closed this Saturday in honor of Veterans Day
Energy Manager Doreen Defazio is present and updates the BOS on a few of the Green Community projects: all of the projects which were applied for under Green Communities in July are now complete. A meeting is currently being scheduled to discuss the next round of grants.
2 new Chevy Bolts were delivered today totally payed for thru green communities
Boilers at the school are completed
Vice Chair Hebert would like to check into solar powered Stop signs
Selectman announcements/Correspondence/Round table
- Selectman Hall attended the Marion’s Camp Cookout, it was a great day
- Selectman Plante mentions not being at recent meetings due to a new job but he always reviewed meetings to keep up to date in the future he will make every effort to be here.
- Chairman Limanek thanks St. Marks for the recent donations to the Mike Chizy Food Pantry, Jesse reads a list of needed items. Jesse also thanks the Dudley Gendron for the lunch served to seniors on Sunday and Manchaug Pond Foundation for the fall cleanup. At this time Jesse offers thanks to all Veterans for their service.
Selectman Hall motions to adjourn, Selectman Kenney seconds passes 5-0 Meeting adjourned 9:02pm
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