Board of Selectmen Minutes

Board of Selectmen                                 Present:     Kenneth F. Troup

January 26, 2010                                    Stanley Wysocki

                                                                Curtis Plante

                                                               Don Lowe, Town Administrator

                                                                Linda L. Day, Town Secretary

The meeting opened at 8:10 p.m.

Town Administrator Donald Lowe stated that the only agenda item was to discuss the options that are available to the Town of Bolton for the appropriation of funds to reimburse the Public Safety Building Committee for the $52,416 that they have earmarked towards the testing and remediation of contaminated soil at the construction site. Mr. Lowe updated the Board on three telephone conversations that he had with Mr. Gary Blau, who serves in the role of Tax Counsel for the Department of Revenue. Mr. Lowe explained that while it was deemed to be inappropriate to redirect debt-excluded funds from another project to the Public Safety project without a town meeting vote to authorize such an action, if the Board of Selectmen voted to declare the need to quickly remediate the site an emergency, the Department of Revenue would likely agree with that declaration. In an Emergency situation, the town would be allowed to deficit spend from its operating budget, but not a debt-excluded project. Mr. Lowe felt that since the deficit could not be made up from debt-excluded funds, even with town meeting approval, the emergency declaration might not be helpful. He still asked the Board of Selectmen vote to declare it an emergency in case something occurred where the option could be useful. A brief discussion followed that focused on how long it would take to provide proper notice for a Special Town Meeting. The feeling of the Board was that three weeks should be sufficient time and that it could certainly be done in four weeks.

Chairman Troup called for a motion to declare the contamination issue at the Public Safety Building an Emergency. The motion was made by Mr. Wysocki. The motion was seconded by Mr. Troup. The vote carried 2 – 0. Mr. Plante recused himself from the vote.

A brief discussion followed regarding site issues at the Public Safety Building site. The dumping of brush by abutters was discussed, as was the location of one of the abutter’s shed which was discovered to be on the town’s property. Mr. Lowe stated that he would follow up on the issues with Ms. Susan Mason, who is the Chair of the Public Safety Building Committee.

Selectman Wysocki made a motion to adjourn, which was seconded by Mr. Troup.

The meeting adjourned at 8:35 p.m.