Board of Selectmen Minutes
Meeting date:
Thursday, January 13, 2005
Board of Selectmen Present: Kenneth F. Troup
January 13, 2005 Stanley M. Wysocki
The Board of Selectmen met at the Town Hall at 7:00 p.m.
WARRANT
#05-14 $ 79,250.04
#05-14A $ 88,319.07
PUBLIC WAYS SAFETY COMMITTEE
Present: Public Ways Safety Committee (PWSC) members Don Cole, Dan Senie, Deb Kellett, Alice Coggeshall, and Bev Mentzer
Advisory Committee members Chris Slade, David Lindsay; Town Clerk Betsy Cussen
Mr. Cole presented the PWSC’s recommended improvements throughout town that they would like to see budgeted for in FY06:
Crosswalk in front of Nashoba Regional High School: The Committee proposed the installation of a crosswalk in front of the high school.
Mr. Brown recommended that a traffic engineer be hired before putting a crosswalk in a 40 mph area. He also questioned whether the town of Bolton should be paying the bills associated with this project as it is a regional school. The PWSC had a preliminary meeting with Nashoba’s Superintendent Wood on January 12, 2005 and while nothing was specifically confirmed Supt. Wood did indicate a willingness to work with us around safety issues affecting the school including some sort of funding system.
Mr. Brown agreed to contact Mass Highway for guidance in location of the crosswalk. The Selectmen took no action on the crosswalk proposal.
Signs/poles
The Board of Selectmen requested that the PWSC discuss with the Police Department.
Brush clearing/tree cutting: The PWSC would like to see more trimming done and have recommended more than they did last year. There are trees around town center and other areas with limbs that should be removed before they fall down. The PWSC recommended additional funds be place in the Tree Warden’s budget to accomplish this.
A suggestion was made to contract this work out if the Tree Warden could not take care of it in a timely basis.
Fog lines:
The PWSC would like to see more fog lines done around town. Mr. Brown believes that the entire town should be done for safety reasons and it would cost approximately $15,000 per year. He presently spends approximately $6,441 now for fog lines and center line.
Mr. Brown budgeted for the $4,252 to do additional roads. The Board of Selectmen suggested that Mr. Brown budget for the entire town to be done.
A meeting participant asked if there was any data on how many accidents have occurred because of lack of fog lines.
Electricity: PWSC has recommended increased street lighting but do not have specific locations yet.
Mr. Cole gave a summary of the PWSC’s projects status report related to:
1. Sidewalk extension to the senior center property;
2. Adult guard at high school, and
3. Update of traffic rules and regulation of the town.
The Selectmen approved of the PWSC working on the traffic rules and regulations of the town. The Selectmen will discuss with the PWSC at a future meeting items 1 & 2. The Selectmen requested that Town Administrator Jodi Ross look into the crossing guard proposal prior to the next meeting.
CHAPTER 61A
Present: Tom Parker, Ken Swanton, Scott Duhaime, Bob Johnson, and Advisory Committee members Chris Slade and David Lindsay and Town Clerk Betsy Cussen
Mr. Swanton stated that he spoke with Mr. Taylor who owns the property and has proposed to gift 2 acres of land as conservation land and 3 acres of property with a conservation restriction. The rest would be divided into 4 house lots.
Mr. Duhaime confirmed that the Conservation Committee recommended against exercising the town’s right of first refusal.
The Board of Selectmen agreed to write a letter to Mr. Taylor informing him that the Town of Bolton has decided to not exercise the town's right of first refusal on the parcel of about 15 acres on West Berlin Road that he is removing from Chapter 61A.~ The Board will also inform Mr. Taylor that they are aware of Mr. Taylor’s intention to protect~much of this land in conservation and thank him for his efforts.
On a motion made by Troup and seconded by Wysocki the Board of Selectmen voted to waive their rights to the property and send a note to Mr. Taylor informing him of this vote and the understanding of intention moving forward.
CABLE COMMITTEE
Present: Rick Merrill, Ed Sterling, Bob Johnson, Cathleen Held, Cable Committee members Ed Favre, Dick Woolston, and Don Hallisey; Advisory Committee members Chris Slade and David Lindsay, and Town Clerk Betsy Cussen
Mr. Merrill requested that the Board of Selectmen designate the Bolton Access Television Corporation as the access provider and transfer the PEC funds to them so that they could purchase equipment and get a studio up and running. Mr. Merrill stated that they have established roles and brought on personnel as follows:
Ed Sterling, President
Rick Merrill, Treasurer; Bob Johnson, Clerk; Ed Favre, Technical Director; Cathleen Held, Director of Programming
Ms. Ross stated that a lot of towns are going this route and recommended to the Board of Selectmen that they maintain some sort of directive by drafting a written agreement with the Corporation that Town Counsel approves.
On a motion made by Troup and seconded by Wysocki the Board of Selectmen voted in favor of supporting the designation for access provider pending the approved agreement of the town and the corporation.
CENTURY MILL ROAD BITE HEARING
Present: Phyllis Tower, Assistant Animal Control Officer, Mr. and Mrs. Reczac; Mr. Gilbert, Mr. & Mrs. Sweeney, James Owen
Phyllis Tower, Assistant Animal Control Officer provided information related to the incident on December 5, 2004 when Ms. Sweeney was walking her dog along Century Mill Road and was bitten on the arm by the Reczac’s dog. Ms. Tower reported that although this was the first bite there have been complaints about the dog coming off of the property and acting aggressively with people walking, jogging or riding their bicycle.
Ms. Sweeney stated she has never filed a complaint before but her children have had a problem in the past.
Ms. Reczac stated that when the animal control officer contacted her regarding the complaints the Reczac’s immediately proceeded with installing a smaller loop of invisible fence within the existing larger loop of invisible fence which is up the hill and away from the road.
Mr. Sweeney stated the dog is a menacing dog and said that anything short of having the dog restrained was not acceptable.
Ms. Reczac stated that the dog has never been a problem with their business people are also visiting with children but did acknowledge that he does bark when people go by on the road.
Mr. Gilbert stated that he has experienced the same extremely aggressive dog when riding his bike on Century Mill Road and had to use the bicycle to protect himself from being bitten by the dog. He also stated that he has not had any problems since they installed the fence. Mr. Owen stated that he his family had experienced a terrifying incident when walking with his wife and daughter along Century Mill Road. He stated that two brown dogs came across the road from the Stables and one dog was very aggressive. He yelled to get attention of employees working in the stable that came out and pulled the dog away from them. There was an electric fence in place at this time but may not have been on as he heard employees yelling to others to check to see if the fence was turned on.
The Reczac’s apologized and reiterated that once they received the notification of the complaint they immediately took action to install a second loop of fencing to solve the concerns. They went through great expense to install the fence and would opt not to tie the dogs up or place in a pen.
Ms. Tower, Assistant Animal Control Officer stated she appreciated the effort the Reczac’s had taken to put the dog further back with new fencing, but felt that if it didn’t work with one loop of invisible fencing it was not going to work with the second loop.
Mr. Troup stated that he had hoped the fence would work.
On a motion made by Wysocki and seconded by Troup the Selectmen voted to endorse the recommendation of the animal control officer, ordering that Smudge be restrained by a chain link pen which is escape proof or tied out in such a manner that he can not get loose again.
A letter will be sent to the Reczacs and copied to parties who attended the meeting.
BANNER POLICY
Present: Advisory Committee Chris Slade and David Lindsay, Clyde Wheeler, Sharon Shepela, Jack Holbrook, Denny Mahoney
The Board of Selectmen reviewed a draft banner policy. Town Administrator Jodi Ross stated that a suggestion made at the last meeting to hire a private company would cost approximately $125 per hour, totaling about $350 per banner, plus a police detail would be needed.
Mr. Troup stated that the point of the policy would be that banners hung across Route 117 would be for town meetings only and all others would be hung on the fence.
The Board also received a comment that the fence should not be used at all for hanging banners as there were other ways of advertising.
Mr. Slade, Advisory Committee chairman agreed with this approach as a temporary solution and suggested we continue to look for alternatives. (i.e. sign on Town property near Flatley). Ms. Cussen suggested sandwich boards that are taken down after the event versus a fence being there at all times.
Mr. Wheeler asked if those holding the events could do the advertising on their own property (i.e. Trinity Church placing banner on their property advertising the soccer camp). The Board did not have a problem with this suggestion.
On a motion made by Troup and seconded by Wysocki the Board of Selectmen approved the banner policy dated January 6, 2005.
All banners should be of community wide interest. Advertising events is ok but a banner sending a message is not. All banner requests are reviewed by Selectmen and if there is a question can be addressed with Counsel prior to approval.
The policy will be forwarded to all those who have requested a banner in the past.
POLICE STATION STUDY COMMITTEE
The Board of Selectmen requested that Ms. Ross contact Mr. Boyer of DEP regarding the possibility of building a police station septic system on the Cell tower site while the sand filter project was still being considered for the schools located at the other end of contiguous property.
USE OF TOWN HALL
Ms. Cussen asked if the Board of Selectmen had a policy regarding the use of the town hall. The Board will table this discussion for further discussion.
TRI-TOWN MEETING
Mr. Slade gave an update of the school budget discussion that had occurred in the first ½ hour of the Tri-Town meeting.
HOUSE NUMBERING
Present: Advisory Committee member David Lindsay; Town Clerk Betsy Cussen
The Board of Selectmen reviewed a press release type document entitled “Bolton Street Number Law to be Enforced” prepared by Town Clerk Betsy Cussen which addresses the concerns with lack of house numbers and how critical it is. The document will be used to get the word on by placing in the Bolton Common, on the website, etc.
Town Administrator Ross asked the Board’s permission to get some publicity out there regarding the house numbering issues.
Mr. Krysa is not supposed to issue a building permit until a number has been placed on the property. If Mr. Krysa inspects and finds a number is not in place there is a $50 fine.
Mr. Lindsay felt that putting the police department in charge of enforcing the house number was a mistake. Mr. Troup agreed that this needs to be addressed delicately.
TOWN ADMINSITRATOR’S REPORT
Budgets: Town Administrator reviewed her budgets with the Board of Selectmen.
Town Hall Space: Ms. Ross reported that she met with Kaffee Kang this week and toured the town hall with her. (Linda Day, Betsy Cussen, Panny Gerken were also present). Ms. Ross stated that she has asked Kaffee Kang to give her recommendation on a short and long term solution to the space needs at the town hall to include a few more offices for the treasurer, accountant and building inspector, a vault, and to make the facilities utilize the space more efficiently. These offices must be moved out of the Emerson School as they will soon be starting renovations at Emerson School for classrooms.
Ms. Ross also noted addressing the space issue at the town hall was a goal the Selectmen had assigned to her.
DEP Project: The feeling is that the cost estimate of the project is significantly more than thought. Ms. Ross stated she spoke with David Boyer of DEP who was pleased with the work done by Ducharme and Wheeler.
Local Emergency Planning Steps: The Board of Selectmen was asked to review and comment on the Emergency Planning Steps document.
Smith Property: Ms. Ross stated that the appraisal has been completed. The Title 5 was also completed but has not received a copy of the report as yet. Loitherstein requested permission to do a radar scar to detect any large objects that might be buried on the property, and also another drilling near a well to detect possible contamination from a tank leak that was discovered that dated to 1992. These two additional assessments will cost an additional $2,400.
Beaver Issues: The immediate crisis has been taken care of; the fencing is working and the water level has gone down and was told it is at its lowest level in a 1-1/2 years.
Vacation: The Board approved of Ms. Ross taking vacation the week of February 17th.
LAWRENCE PROPERTY
The Board of Selectmen reviewed a letter dated October 8, 2004 from Mr. & Mrs. Lawrence regarding their willingness to gift a .20 acre piece of land to the Town of Bolton. Based on the information provided the Board voted not to accept this gift. A letter will be sent to the Lawrence’s thanking them.
MOEN PROPERTY
The Board of Selectmen requested that a request for proposal be done again for the Moen property; no minimum will be set; advertising will be done in newspapers (Bolton Common, Boston Globe, and Telegram and Gazette), a sign will be placed on the property and a notification will be placed on the website.
Meeting adjourned.