Board of Selectmen Minutes
Meeting date:
Tuesday, November 1, 2005
Board of Selectmen Present: Stanley M. Wysocki
November 1, 2005 Kenneth F. Troup
Panny Gerken
The Board of Selectmen met at the Town Hall at 7:00 p.m.
Present: Advisory Committee members David Lindsay, Wendy Rogers, Scott Powell, Chris Slade; Moderator James Anker; Gary Perwak, Computer consultant; Roland Oschenbein, Library Building representative
SPECIAL TOWN MEETING
Mr. Perwak was introduced to the Board of Selectmen and the audience. Mr. Perwak has done a quick draft of the slide presentation for special town meeting which consists of approximately 20 slides of articles and summaries.
Anyone giving presentations should forward their presentations to Mr. Perwak by November 9th, early morning.
Presentations include Articles 11: Library – Bob Zak and Roland Oschenbein, Article 12: Taggart and Article 13: Smith - Ken Troup.
The Advisory Committee has asked for 5 minutes for a presentation prior to the start of the capital project articles and provided Mr. Anker with a copy of their presentation. Mr. Anker will review the Advisory Committee presentation and confirm where within town meeting he felt the presentation should be given. Mr. Slade suggested a presentation for the rezoning article and Mr. Troup volunteered to give this presentation.
Mr. Anker has been approached to do a secret ballot for all three articles. Mr. Anker stated that the moderator or town meeting can make this decision. Mr. Anker’s opinion is to allow town meeting to make the decision. The Mass. Moderators Association is meeting this Friday and Mr. Anker will discuss the secret ballot and how it can be handled to keep the meeting moving forward.
Mr. Troup asked if people felt that a public meeting should be held prior to the special town meeting for anyone wanting to ask questions regarding the warrant. The concensus there was not enough time for such a meeting.
ANNUAL TOWN MEETING CALENDAR
The Annual Town Meeting Calendar was reviewed and accepted with the warrant being signed on March 16, 2006 and citizen’s petitions being received by March 30, 2006 at 2:30 p.m.
BOARD OF SELECTMEN’S GOALS FOR FY07
The Board of Selectmen reviewed their goals and assigned each goal to the liaison:
Maintain town services – Board of Selectmen
Control expenses at current levels~where possible~– Board of Selectmen
Ensure that we are properly training our Police Officers~~- Stan Wysocki
Support the Police Chief search process through~the hiring of a new Chief – Stan Wysocki
Review Town-wide salary schedule to ensure competitiveness~across all~town positions -Board of Selectmen~
Finalize APR’s (Nicewicz/Schartner) – Jodi Ross
Publish and begin implementation of the master plan – Ken Troup
Oversee Wastewater Treatment Plant design and construction – Ken Troup
Participate in School Needs Assessment process – Panny Gerken
Fix heating system at Town Hall – Ken Troup
Control energy costs by looking at regionalization – Panny Gerken
Drainage Issues – Ken Troup
Bylaw revisions (one at a time) – Stan Wysocki (gravel removal being the 1st to address
Assist with finalization and adoption of the Review Emergency Response Plan drafted by Police Dept. – Stan Wysocki
Research and recommend Health Insurance – Panny Gerken
World Peace – Stan Wysocki
WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT
Mr. Troup reported that the Wastewater Treatment Plant Committee met with Tata and Howard regarding the wastewater treatment plant project and were very impressed with the team that will be doing the work. On a motion made by Troup and seconded by Gerken the Board of Selectmen voted to award the contract for the design of the wastewater treatment plant in the amount of $182,000.
Martha Remington, Historical Commission member stated that the Historical Commission is concerned with the crossing of the Great Brook. The Historical Commission will be invited to the site walk.
TOWN ADMINISTRATOR REPORT
Ms. Ross reported that she has met with representatives from Wireless Capital Partners (WCP) who have offered to purchase our cell tower lease with an upfront, one-time payment. Ms. Ross does not recommend this as we will not continue to receive the revenue for the rest of the lease and the town will not have any way to replace the lost revenue. The Board is not interested in this offer.
APPOINTMENT
Ms. Gerken reported that Chris Combs has resigned from the Bolton School Needs Assessment Committee and recommended that Ted Kirchner be appointed to the Bolton School Needs Assessment Committee. On a motion made by Gerken and seconded by Troup the Board of Selectmen appointed Ted Kirchner, to the Bolton School Needs Assessment Committee, term expiration upon completion.
TOWN ADMINISTRATOR REPORT
Smith Property: The Board of Selectmen voted to execute a modification to the original agreement extending the deadlines of the agreement to November 28, 2005.
Budget Message: Town Administrator Ross provided the Board of Selectmen with a copy of the budget message to be forward to all departments with budget forms in preparation for the upcoming FY07 budget process.
Police Chief Search Committee Consultant: Mr. Unsworth has provided a list of questions to be distributed to the candidates for the Board of Selectmen’s review and comment. The Board of Selectmen suggested one or two questions be given as part of the assignment and specifically suggested that the question regarding moving to Bolton be eliminated.
CONTRACTS
On a motion made by Wysocki and seconded by Troup, the Board of Selectmen voted to accept the contracts for the Interim Police Chief and Town Accountant.
MASTER PLANNING COMMITTEE
Present for this meeting: Master Planning Committee members Ken Swanton, Brad Reed, Russ Karlstad, Mickie Simpson, Margaret Campbell; Advisory Committee members David Lindsay and Scott Powell; Roland Oschenbein, Library Committee representative
Mr. Swanton stated that Chris Slade, Curt Plante and Nat Tipton (who was a big help) could not be at the meeting this evening.
Mr. Swanton provided the Board of Selectmen with a summary of their meeting and votes they took on the articles as follows:
Article 3: Rezoning - 6 to 1 in favor.
Articles 5 & 6: Affordable housing partnership – 5 to 1 in favor, 1 abstained
Article 11: Library - 2 to 4 against; Those in favor stressed a good gathering place as well as the project had been sized by professionals. Those against were more concerned about the cost with all the capital projects in town.
Article 12: Taggart property – voted unanimously in support of this article.
Article 13: Smith property – have not voted on this article yet; collecting data at this point before taking a vote. Support for front of the property being a common or park. And the other thought was discussion about how to recoup some of the money including selling off the houses, or land in the back.
The Master Planning Committee will vote on the Smith property at their next meeting and will inform the Board of Selectmen
TRI-TOWN MEETING, NOVEMBER 9TH, BOLTON
Mr. Troup will communicate with the Lancaster and Stow and prepare an agenda. Possible agenda items might include: emergency plan and energy costs.
Meeting adjourned at 9:04 p.m.