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02/20/2018 BOS Meeting Minutes
Town Of Sutton
Board of Selectmen
                                                        Meeting Minutes
  
                                           Minutes Accepted and filed with the Town Clerk on 3/6/2018 by a vote of  4-0   
                                                                                        (Selectman Plante absent)                       
7:00p.m. – February 20, 2018
                                       Sutton Town Hall, Selectmen’s Meeting Room
Members in Attendance:                           
      Chairman Jesse Limanek, Vice Chair John L. Hebert, Clerk David Hall and Selectman Michael Kenney    
      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: N/A

Selectman Hall motions to accept as presented the February 6, 2018 meeting minutes, Selectman Kenney seconds passes 3-0-1   
                                                       (Vice Chair Hebert abstains, not at 2/6/18 meeting/Selec. Plante absent)
**Public Hearing** Pole Hearing Town Farm Rd.- Public Notice read by Selectman Hall as advertised in the 2/12/18 T&G. Public Hearing open, present from NGrid is Merrill Harvey, Engineer of plan. Mr. Harvey states he met Chief Belsito at site last week as there was some concern with placement of the pole. Mr. Harvey goes on to say the wires will come over the road to this new pole and then be underground to the tower. Kevin Shaughnessy of NGrid which is the town’s liaison has been working diligently to move this quickly. Police, Highway and Fire are all set with location. TA Smith states this is the last thing Verizon (wireless provider) was waiting for to get the cell tower up and running.  Vice Chair Hebert says this is a very welcomed pole hearing, Selectman Kenney asks the time frame for this to be complete, Mr. Harvey replies 4-6 weeks but there is a lot of water at the site so it does have to dry. Hearing no public comments, Chairman Limanek closes the public hearing, Selectman Kenney motions to approve pole hearing #23633393 from NGrid as advertised in the February 12th, 2018 Telegram & Gazette Vice Chair Hebert seconds passes 4-0
TA Smith informs the BOS a letter from Kevin Shaughnessy will be coming notifying them that unless an Engineer is required for pole hearings they will not be sending to each pole hearing. Chairman Limanek states he is ok with the signoff from Police, Fire and Highway.   

Agenda #3 Melanson & Heath audit will be postponed to March 6, 2018 BOS meeting

FY19 Budget Presentation: TA Smith begins by saying this is his 11th Budget presentation to the BOS. It was balanced until last week when TA Smith received word of an increase at BVT as well as 5 additional students going to Norfolk Aggie.  Now there is a $187,000. deficit. In other words the deficit is all education related.  The FY19 budget is $32,355,309. which is an increase of $471,033. (1.48%) over FY18. FY19 Budget shows an increase of $377,000. to the school: Spec. Ed continues to put stress on the school budget but we are currently 2 million over the required net school spending.  Out of the 11 towns that go to BVT Sutton pays the highest per student as we are considered the wealthiest community. We are budgeting for an 8% increase to Health Insurance and are working with the IAC to possible have a HSA which is a high deductible plan. If we go to an HSA we may be able to take advantage of a rate hold for the year. At the May Town Meeting we will ask for a $300,000.general override to support roadway improvements as well as a home rule petition to abate tax bills of residents serving overseas. Dept. changes amount to $173,000., Emp. Benefits $371,000. And educational increases $727,000. Revenue increases amount to $675,000. revenues must exceed expenses and this year they do not. We continue to have a solid Stabilization fund. Pensions show a 10% increase and Prop. & Casualty Ins. will increase due to the new Police Station coming on the plan. The Capital Plan for FY19 is $694,000. Which will be paid out of new growth ($400,000.) Free Cash ($294,000.) Retained earnings ($15,000.) and the Cemetery gen fund ($15,000.).  Chapter 70 and Lottery Aid continues to be low with little change from 10-11 years ago. Vice Chair Hebert says Jim and the Financial Team have worked hard on this budget, it is nice to get a balanced budget but the rise in educational cost is beyond their control. Just keep doing what you are doing. John goes on to say he is glad that the Town Meeting approved the utilization of bond funds be used to add the maintenance bay back on to the Police Station project. Selectman Hall appreciates the excellent presentation, Dave feels we may need to as a town look at what we offer our students, why are students transitioning out to other schools. We need to continue with solid budgeting principles. Selectman Kenney thanks TA Smith for the informative presentation, Selectman Kenney states it is like a puzzle being built with a few new pieces being thrown in. Mike asks is there more students going to BVT or have they increased the cost per student. TA Smith replies he has emailed Dr. Fitzpatrick asking for the preliminary budget but has not yet received. Mike says the financial team has done a great job with the budget. Chairman Limanek appreciates the hard work put into the budget and says there are a tremendous amount of moving pictures.  Jesse asks for clarification on the HSA plan. TA Smith explains this would be a high deductible plan ($1500.00 single/$3000. family) for any non-preventative procedures/any type of preventative has a zero deductible. Chairman Limanek thanks the finance team for getting the road plan underway for Town Meeting. Jesse also thanks the Assessor’s office for working on a home rule petition with him for the abatement for those overseas in the military. The schools impact the budget which creates an unsustainable situation. Jesse says he likes that the financial team does not use one time money to balance the budget.        

Town Charter revision request: TA Smith states this Charter has been at the state senate waiting for approval for 4 years and due to recent changes the 3 items before the BOS tonight are to be amended before the Charter is approved. TA Smith states we are to go for Charter revisions every 5 years but due to this being held up for 4 years it will be another 5 years before we revise the Charter. Hearing no issues, Selectman Hall motions to approve the 3 Town Charter revisions as follows:
  • to amend the bill by striking out, in line 162, the figure “4” and inserting in place thereof the following figure:- “3”; and
  • by striking out, in lines 211 and 212, the words “50 per cent of the total number of persons who voted at the most recent annual town election” and inserting in place thereof the following words:- “20 per cent of the qualified voters of the town as of the date that the affidavit was filed with the town clerk”; and
  • in proposed subsection (a) of section 3-7, by striking out the last sentence and inserting in place thereof the following sentence: - “Three members shall be elected by the voters, 1 member shall be a tenant of the housing authority appointed by the board of selectmen and 1 member shall be appointed by the department of housing and community development.”
Selectman Kenney seconds passes 4-0

TA Update:
  • FY19 Budget- Fin Com public hearings will be held March 22, March 27th and Wed. March 28th @ 6:30pm
  • State Capital Bond Repair bill- Senator Fattman has put 3 million dollars for a sewer and water project in the capital bond repair bill. This would go towards running sewer and water from the Villas to the center and down to the school. The Gov. needs to borrow for these funds to become available.
  • Goddard Lodge- we are going out again for Goddard Lodge rehab on Feb. 28th with filed sub-bids due April 5 and Gen. Con bids due April 12. We will then know the funding gap for May town meeting.    
  • Home Rule Petition- at the March 6th BOS meeting we will present a home rule petition for members of the military to get an abatement on tax bills while serving overseas. This was discussed at the Goals meeting this past summer.
Announcements/Round Table:
  • Vice Chair Hebert comments on the new BOS table, it is really nice and it was built in Sutton at Fairview Millwork. John also comments on the recent questions from residents about the tax bills going up but the rate going down. This is due to the appraised value of the homes increasing.
  • Selectman Hall says the revenue trend slide in the budget presentation speaks volumes, 10 budget cycles and we are still not back to the figures prior to the recession. It shows more and more we must be self-reliant.
  • Selectman Kenney congratulates the Sutton co-op hockey back in the playoffs. Congrats to Nick Locurto, Matt McGreevy and Ethan Geer.
  • Chairman Limanek says excellent fish fry by the Knights of Columbus every Friday during lent
  • Thank you to the Dudley Gendron and the recent meat raffle benefiting the Fire Dept. A special shout out to the Sutton Fire Honor Guard recognized by the Dept. of POW’s and MIA for their patriotic service.
  • A list of needed items is read for the Food Pantry  
8:30pm, Chairman Limanek motions to enter into Executive Session reasoning #3 to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining with the intention of returning back to open session for the purpose of adjournment. Roll call vote taken.

8:53pm enter back into open meeting. Selectman Hall motions to adjourn, Vice Chair Hebert seconds passes 4-0