Town of Otis
All Boards Meeting Minutes
November 28, 2016
The meeting was called to order by Don Hawley at 6:30 pm in the Town Hall conference room. It was announced the meeting was being recorded.
Present: Selectman Don Hawley, Selectman Bill Hiller, Tom Nadolny, Walter Engels, Sandy Pinkham, Kathy Carroll, Jim Crandall, and Mary Adams
School: Everything is moving along except for problems with transportation. Dufour is our bus contractor and Tom has been struggling with them all school year with mismanaged pick up and drop off times. The children most affected are the Monument Mountain students who usually seem to arrive late. There is no penalty clause in the contract to get the kids to school on time. The drivers are saying road construction in various towns has been a problem, but Tom doesn’t see anyone starting routes earlier to accommodate for this. Tom also noticed that drivers appear to change often and that could also be contributing to the problem. Tom spoke with management earlier this month and hopes by bringing upper management in on the problem, things will be resolved soon. His worry is that we haven’t even dealt with winter weather yet. Various contracts will be coming up this budget season for the school, so hopefully that will go smoothly. Tom hopes he has an agreement with Jane to stay on as Business Manager for another year. He has farmed out some of her responsibilities to the other office positions and Maintenance is handling more of getting quotes for what they need. The Business Manager will be responsible for setting the budget, tracking expenses, and purchase orders. They are also working on a capital expense project list with the driveway at the top of the list.
Maintenance: Jim just completed a WWTP class and now has 18 of the 20 hours he needs to maintain his license every two years. Garland Company checked the Town Hall roof and those issues have been repaired. Also, Town Hall windows were washed and screens removed. A float switch went on one of the two East Otis Fire House pumps so he changed both of them just to be sure. He was also able to purchase a rebuild kit for the two pump chambers. Oil burning furnaces have all been serviced for the season. A week after the expansion tanks at the Rec Center were inspected, it had to be replaced so that was done. They had two funerals and sold two lots and had to move some cornerstones. Highway came up and helped them remove the material around the playground equipment and install new material that was deemed to be playground grade. Covered the WWT Plant for vacation coverage.
Energy: Everything is in motion and moving forward.
Library: The federal Form 990 was filed on time and Walter got the IRS receipt for that. The state tax form was also filed, but the state is no longer accepting checks for payment, so Walter had to send the money via an online procedure. He has the receipt for this filing as well. There is a winter state grant that will be awarded in the amount of $950 and change, so Walter will forward paperwork to Karen so it gets electronically deposited into the correct account. The Otis Museum is in need of a new curator, but the Library Trustees all agree that museum donations must be Otis related.
Fire Dept: They had about six calls this month for CO detectors, wires down, and one stove fire. They were also one of the mutual aid responders to the Tolland Maintenance fire. Sandy heard the fire was caused due to an electrical problem. At least ten fire departments responded to the call. The new fire truck is working out well.
Recreation: The Commission wants to add a Cardio Blast class on Thursday nights after the new year as this class is well attended. They are also considering offering Waltz dance classes in April. Tai Chi and Qi Gong will end in December and start up again in the spring. The Gingerbread House event will be held in two sessions this Friday at Town Hall.
Technology: Broadband is continuing to move forward. Bill and Larry will be meeting with WG&E this week to define the network build out and come up with hard numbers. Westfield can also do the pole submissions automatically as they will already have a pole location database set up for their end of the project. This should save us a lot of time as everyone is so tied up with other projects.
Police Dept: Roberta could not make tonight’s meeting so she sent an email with her report. Bill read it aloud verbatim. The biggest item was to remind everyone that it is shotgun season and to wear orange when out walking.
Don reminded everyone to sign up for the Holiday Party by December first.
The meeting was adjourned at 7:00 pm.
Respectfully Submitted,
Lisa D’Orazio
Selectmen’s Secretary
Town of Otis
List of Documents
The email from Roberta reportingon the Police Dept. will be filed with the meeting minutes.