Board of Selectmen Minutes

Present:        

Panny Gerken

Curt Plante

Kenneth F. Troup

Jodi Ross, Town Administrator

Linda Day, Town Secretary

The Board of Selectmen met at the Town Hall at 7:00 p.m.

Present:  Advisory Committee members David Lindsay, Burt Shnitzler and Randy Dinjian

Minutes of October 18, November 29, December 17, 20, 2007 and January 3, 17, 24 & 31, 2008 were read and approved.

MUNICIPAL MARKET FOR BONDS

Mr. Lindsay referred to an article published in the New York Times about a special kind of bond, mostly municipal, where in a municipal entity would issue debt that is legally a long term bond but is structured to behave like a short term bond so the municipality gets the advantage of lower rates because they are short term rates but the advantage of having a long term bond outstanding.    

From the point of view of the buyer of these bonds they get a little more return than they would on a normal short term investment.  But what happens is if there are not enough buyers there are default interest rates which can range from 5-6%.   Some are structured with penalties rates designed to force the issuer to buy them back.  Mr. Lindsay does not feel many will result in defaults.  

Mr. Lindsay stated that Bolton does not have this type of bonding.  He also contacted Mr. King and confirmed that Nashoba School District does not have any exposure.  He also talked with Mr. King about Nashoba debt and confirmed that Nashoba is rated AA3.    

Mr. Lindsay talked with Ms. Jeffers from Ms. Carney’s office to get update on the issue of debt.  Ms. Jeffers confirmed that a 10 year AA3 was at a 3.55%? today which is about the same as when Ms. Carney was in.  

Mr. Lindsay also had a discussion with Ms. Carney regarding a $5 million issue rather than a $2 million issue.  Mr. Lindsay stated that he was favorable to this provided the initial year’s principal payment would be lower in the early years and higher in later years.    This is possible but the most we could issue is $3.2 million rather than $5 million. Mr. Lindsay is inclined to keep it at this level.  

Ms. Gerken recommended a BAN be done for the first two years but Mr. Lindsay stated that we would still pay a fee.  Mr. Lindsay would like to get some long term debt out there at low rates.

Mr. Lindsay stated that there was an article in the Sunday New York Times that described a credit device called a credit default swap.  There is a lot of trouble with this and a lot of markets will close.  The possibility of trouble in this area should get us to go through with a bond sale in late March.  

EXPOSE’ SIGNS AND GRAPHICS, INC.  

A representative from Expose’ Signs met with the Board of Selectmen to request permission to replace the existing sign at Bolton Office Park with a new sign.  The proposed sign will be blue and internally illuminated.  The blue was chosen to keep their company properties all the same.  The “Office Park” letters will be illuminated.

 

Mr. Plante was not pleased with the blue color and it is his opinion that illuminating the sign and lettering would cause the entire sign to glow at night.  He stated that creating a neon type sign is not an accepted type of practice in town.  Mr. Darrell Lemmerman stated that the sign will be subdued, and night and day compared to the Colonial Candies sign.  Mr. Plante stated if the blue color were darker his concerns would be met.  

On a motion made by Plante and seconded by Troup, the Board of Selectmen voted to approve the sign with limiting the translucency of the color blue.  (Gerken – yes, Plante – yes, Troup – yes)

PMC KIDS BOLTON RIDE

Ms. Kristen Keane met with the Board of Selectmen to request permission to hold the 3^rd PMC Kids Bolton Ride on Sunday, June 8, 2008 at the Florcence Sawyer and Emerson School grounds.  Chief Alfano has approved this request.  

Ms. Keane stated that the last two years they have used the sheep field as an additional riding area for the older children.  Ms. Gerken stated that the sheep field is gone.  Ms. Keane stated that their main route is around the school and the school parking lot for the younger children and around the derby field, out the dirt road to the sheep field, around the sheep field and back in the other side for the older children.  Mr. Plante stated the vegetation had grown in yet and Ms. Ross stated that they will also be doing landscaping in the near future.  The Selectmen suggested they follow the trail toward Flatley and then turn around and come back on the trail.  Mr. Troup stated he did not want them riding in mud, hydroseed or landscaping that has been done.  Ms. Keane will walk the site in May with Chief Alfano to determine the best route.  

On a motion made by Troup and seconded by Plante, the Board of Selectmen approved this request.    (Gerken – yes, Plante – yes, Troup – yes)

TOWN ADMINSITRATOR

Emerson School Water Tank: Ms. Ross reported that three quotes were received regarding the water tank at Emerson School.  The contract was awarded to Waterline for the amount of $13,316.   The Advisory Committee voted a transfer for this project.  

Advisory Committee resignation:  Ms. Ross reported that Todd Koelling of the Advisory Committee has submitted his resignation as his family will be relocating.   Mr. Troup will provide the Advisory Committee with possible candidates to fill the vacancy.  

Snow and Ice deficit:  On a motion made by Plante and seconded by Troup, the Board of Selectmen authorized the Department of Public Works to spend an additional $75,000 on snow and ice.  (Gerken – yes, Plante – yes, Troup – yes)

Golden Run Road drainage issues:  Mr. Brown received five proposals from firms for the engineering for the drainage issue on Golden Run Road and National grid property.  The quotes ranged from $4,800 to $21,000.  The Board of Selectmen will review the proposals and provide opinion.  Ms. Gerken staed that she feels the berm is holding and does not want to put money into engineering at this time.  Mr. Brown does a daily check and it has not flooded this winter.  Mr. Plante stated that there are two issues: the flooding and icing of the intersection during the winter months, and flooding of the area in the spring.  He feels that the installation of the leaching catch basin and the berm has limited the flooding over the intersection.   Mr. Plante stated that one of the reasons it has not flooded is that there hasn’t been any frost on the ground.  Discussion was tabled so that the Board of Selectmen could review the proposals.

CULTURAL COUNCIL

Ms. Weiss Gordon met with the Board of Selectmen to request that the Board appoints Li Juan He to the Bolton Cultural Council.  

The Cultural Council is at 8 members and Ms. He would make 9 members.  Ms. Weiss Gordon is in her second three year term that ends in June and will not seek another term on the Cultural Council.  

Ms. Weiss Gordon acknowledged Ms. He for her efforts in leading the team that planned the amazing Chinese New year Celebration at Florence Sawyer School.  

On a motion made by Troup and seconded by Plante, the Board of Selectmen voted to appoint Ms. Li Juan He to the Cultural Council, term expiration March 1, 2011.  

(Gerken – yes, Plante – yes, Troup – yes)

Ms. Kate Weiss-Gordon was thanked for her years of service on the Cultural Council.  

JULY 4^TH CELEBRATION

Mr. Dan Teague and Mr. Douglas Knight met with the Board of Selectmen discuss plans for the proposed July 4^th celebration.

The Board of Selectmen received a written summary of progress for the 4^th of July parade, festival and fireworks display.

The organization has been approved as a not for profit organization.  They are working on the activities around the parade, fireworks and festival.  A vendor for the fireworks has been chosen and preliminary approval has been received from Fire Department for the location of the fireworks.  Fireworks launching locations include Florence Sawyer School to be viewed from Memorial or from Memorial field to be viewed from a private property owner that they are now in negotiations with.  A preliminary approval has been received from the Police Department for the parade route.  

The fireworks show would be on Thursday evening, July 3rd to set off events for the July 4^th weekend.   The parade route would start at Mechanic Street, onto Main Street to Wattaquadock Hill Road onto Memorial field.   One lane of Route 117 will be shut down so the parade can march down Main Street and all of Wattaquadock Hill Road will be closed which leads right into Memorial field where the festival will take place.

 

  Participates of the parade have not been determined.  A location is yet to be determined for vehicles that are in the parade.

The current plan is to hold a traditional town festival following the parade.  Events will include face painting, moon bounce, dunk tank, races, food vendors assuming permits are approved, and bands to provide music through the day.  Ms. Gerken suggested an art contest.  The organizers hope for people to come out and relax with their families.  They are trying to solicit high school students to participate in the event and would like all the local organizations to participate in the parade. (Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Brownies, 4-H).  A suggestion was made to contact the National Honor Society and school band.  

  

Permitting for the food vendors has been an issue and they are working with vendors to get the appropriate permits.  All other permits are not much of an issue.

They have an option of doing a rain date with the fireworks vendor.

Their biggest issue is funding the event.  They have marketing agencies and printers that they are working with to provide discounts.  They are working with local businesses to fund some of the event.  They hope to bring in about $7,000 through major sponsors.  

They requested $5,000 from the town that will be requested in an article on the annual town meeting warrant.    An article on the ATM warrant will give the voters a choice and also help to publicize the event.  Mr. Troup stated that he would be happy to have the Board of Selectmen sponsor the article.  

If the funds are needed in May a transfer request could be made in FY08 or an article to transfer the funds from available funds could be considered.

Mr. Troup agreed to write a letter to the School Superintendent regarding this event and hopes that no fees will be associated with this event.   Mr. Troup also suggested that they contact Ann Farrell, Coordinator of the EMT program to put together a group of cadets to set up a table to do blood pressure checks and provide ambulance presence.   

Mr. Plante suggested they talk with the basketball committee and sponsor of the basketball court at Memorial field.

 

TOWN ADMINISTRATOR REPORT

Meeting on February 26, 2008:  The Board of Selectmen will meet on February 26, 2008 prior to the Advisory Committee’s meeting to review the Ambulance and award the Public Safety Center OPM.  

Operations costs of the wastewater treatment plant:  Ms. Ross stated she spoke with Mr. King regarding the operational costs for the wastewater treatment plant.  The proposal is 25% to be paid by the town and 75% to be paid by the school for FY09.  Mr. King will be taking this to the school committee for their approval.   The estimated cost for the annual maintenance is probably going to be approximately $30,000.

  

Mr. Plante stated that for the record town usage will be less than 10% of the treatment plant.  Ms. Ross stated that based on DEP’s estimation the town usage is more like 20%.  Ms. Gerken stated that we own the buildings and it is our responsibility.

On a motion was made by Gerken and seconded by Troup, for the town to pay 25% of the operational costs for the treatment plant and the school paying 75% for FY09.  The Board will revisit this next fiscal year.  (Gerken – yes, Plante – no, Troup – yes)

Goal to digitize records:  Ms. Ross stated that the goal to digitize town records is a huge project.  The state law requires municipalities to have certain records on site.  The only approved State records retention law other than hard records is microfilm records.  The State is currently reviewing ESI which is “Electronic Stored Information”.  Some towns have gone with laser fiche, but this is not approved by the state and is quite expensive.  

Ms. Ross does not think we should aggressively pursue this until the state has decided what is considered to be the appropriate way to store the documents.  In the meantime, if the Selectmen would like to proceed with the town’s records being digitized funds in the amount of $25,000 to $35,000 are needed to get this process started.  This would pay for a scanner, software and for someone to set up a data management system.

Ms. Ross can hire someone now by using some of the Selectmen’s FY08 funds, or an article can be placed on the ATM warrant for funds to get this project started.   

We do not have any back up of our records and if the building burned down today we would lose everything.  We can start to set up a data management system to help our situation and wait for the state to determine what is acceptable to them.  The State must approve of records being digitized and stored off site.   According to the State records law we still need a fire proof vault on site.   

A recommendation was made to prepare a plan to determine our record storage needs, if we can achieve the goal by storing records on site at town hall and what can be stored off site.  The possibility of using the basement of the new library as a vault was also mentioned.

Ms. Ross stated that most Town Clerk records must be on site.  Ms. Ross pointed out that a lot of our every day job is to provide records to the public and it is not a service to the public if we can’t do this and have to drive to a different facility to get the records.  Ms. Ross stated that the vault is one issue and digitizing town records is another issue.  

Mr. Troup suggested an RFP be written for a company that specializes in records management to prepare a record storage plan.   Ms. Ross stated funds would be needed for an RFP.

The Board of Selectmen was not willing to fund this project at this time and it will not be budgeted for in FY09.  The Board of Selectmen recommended that this project be tabled and a summary be provided to the Board of Selectmen of information obtained from other towns.  This is a post town meeting task.  

Ms. Ross provided the Board of Selectmen with a proposal from Kafee Kang to look at space needs for the town hall and Houghton building.  The cost of the proposal was $9,200.  Ms. Gerken and Mr. Troup were favorable to the proposal as they felt it was the first step in working towards solving the space needs issue.   Mr. Plante felt it was premature to contract with someone now when he did not feel everyone was on the same page as to where we should be going with our space needs.   He stated that they needed to collectively agree on a plan so that direction can be given to the architect who will study the space.

Mr. Plante’s opinion is that the town hall is already overcrowded.  At a previous meeting he had recommended putting the financial team into the Emerson School space.  Ms. Gerken stated that Superintendent Wood proposed turning the 1952 of Emerson School into classrooms in September of 2008.   Mr. Troup stated that an article was passed at the 1997 annual town meeting that left the Emerson School under control of the School Committee for educational purposes.  This would have to be changed at a town meeting before the Emerson use could be changed.

Mr. Plante stated he was not opposed to the Kang proposal but that more time was needed to build consensus including talking with members of the Boards and Committees before implementing the proposal.  Mr. Troup stated that he felt this type of meeting had already taken place and that Ms. Gumbart had presented the results of the meeting which included short term and long term plans for the town hall and Houghton building.  

Mr. Plante expressed concern with the Council on Aging minutes that stated their idea for the use of the Houghton building had been rejected.  Ms. Ross stated she may have mentioned to the Council on Aging Director that there wasn’t parking at the Houghton Building and it was not accessible to the second floor.   Mr. Troup and Ms. Gerken stated that no one had voted on that one way or another.  

Ms. Gerken suggested that Ms. Kang be asked to divide the proposal into two phases.  Phase I being to meet with the users to discuss needs; review existing building spaces and functions and develop a base drawing on CADD as this is information that will be needed no matter what is decided.   

Mr. Lindsay suggested addressing the short term needs and only looking at the Town Hall space needs until the Houghton building is vacated.  Ms. Ross stated that it would cost approximately $7,000 to just look at the town hall.  As part of this review it would be determined if the treasurer, accountant and inspector would fit in the town hall.

Mr. Troup stated that if it was Mr. Plante’s opinion that consensus was not reached at the previous meeting held regarding space needs that a specific request be sent to each group that has space needs and ask them to detail what they want or need.  This information should be provided in advance of a meeting where all groups will have a representative present so that consensus can be reached by the end of the meeting.

Mr. Plante will be provided with a copy of the agreement between the town and the school district concerning present uses of Emerson School.

 

In the end Ms. Ross was asked to talk with Ms. Kang about a proposal to address the space needs of the town hall for the next two years.  Then we can reach consensus about what we do long term with Emerson School and the Houghton building.  Mr. Plante stated this approach sounded sensible at the moment.

 

Ms. Ross stated that the implementation of the organizational study required some funding and asked the Board of Selectmen if she should proceed with changing the budgets to reflect the changes.  

The Board reconfirmed their approval to:

Treasurer – grade change, effective July 1, 2008.  Treasurer will be taking over more of the human resource functions.  It was noted that this change came with a caveat that the Treasurer would get the required certifications to identify her as a human resources person.   She has provided training that she has already had and agreed to do additional training.  

Town Secretary - Reduce hours from 40 to 35 hours, effective July 1, 2008.

New phone system - will be put on hold until more research can be done.  

Tax Collector - Article for Tax Collector to become appointed position.

Town Clerk - Article for Tax Clerk to become appointed position.

Assistant Town Clerk – Reduce hours of Assistant by 2 hours and a grade increase.

Project Assistant position – will be budgeted in the Town Administrator’s budget.  The Advisory Committee and Board of Selectmen suggested Ms. Ross put the position in at what she felt it should be and then it could be discussed with the Advisory Committee and Board of Selectmen at a later date.   

Personnel Committee - As a result of the recommendation in the organizational study and the Board of Selectmen’s meeting with the Personnel Committee voted to disband and they did not have a role going forward.  The Board of Selectmen agreed to have the Personnel Committee’s budget moved to the Treasurer and Town Administrator’s budgets.  Longevity will go in the budgets of departments that have employees receiving longevity.   Educational Assistance will be put in the budget of the Treasurer.  The Purchase of Service will be in the Town Treasurer’s budget.  

CAUCUS

On a motion made by Plante and seconded by Troup, the Board of Selectmen voted to call a Caucus on Monday, March 17, 2008 at 7:30 p.m.

LETTER TO NRSD SCHOOL COMMITTEE

The Board of Selectmen reviewed and executed a letter to the NRSD School Committee regarding the town’s concerns about the proposed 10.98% increase in Bolton’s assessment.

MEETINGS

March 13, 2008: Agenda items include:  Golden Run Road; Minuteman budget discussion; discussion with Mary Carney regarding borrowing; ATM warrant review, and DPW roads.

The ATM warrant will be sent to the Board of Selectmen for review.

March 20, 2008:  Selectmen to vote the articles;

April 3, 2008:  Selectmen to sign the ATM warrant.

April 17, 2008:  Consider having space needs meeting.  Mr. Troup suggested someone speak with Ms. Chmielowski, Director of the Council on Aging to clarify the statement made in the COA minutes regarding the senior center.  

March 5, 2008: Tri-town meeting is in Stow.

DESIGN OF FORCE MAIN

Ms. Ross reported that 6 proposals were received for the design of the force main.  The Wastewater Treatment Plant Committee will evaluate the proposals.  

Meeting adjourned at 9:40 p.m.