Town of Otis
All Boards Meeting Minutes
January 25, 2016
The meeting was called to order by Roberta Sarnacki at 6:30 pm in the Town Hall conference room. It was announced the meeting was being recorded.
Present: Select Board Chair Roberta Sarnacki, Selectman Bill Hiller, Terry Gould, Sandy Pinkham, Jim Crandall, Hank Wingate, Jeanne Randorf, Michael Ernst, Edward DeBarbieri, Andrew DeBarbieri, Derek Poirier
Cultural Council: During their October and November meetings they voted on about $10,000 for grants. $900 went to various programs, $6000 to schools and youth programs, and they also helped fund the sculpture program in school, the Kops ‘N Kids program, the Lee High Drama club, and a Great Encampment Colonial program. Their next meeting will be in March.
Energy: They will have a contract to sign tomorrow night. The road site is amazing and the brush has all been burned.
Finance Board: They plan to go to the school budget meeting on February 3rd at 7:00 pm.
Fire Dept.: It has been a busy month for calls. Out of nine calls, two were structure fires. The DCR grant has been received and will be used soon for forestry items.
Highway: They have been working on widening Lee Westfield Road below the quarry with the mild weather. There have been a few plowable events. They have been doing chip, stone, and rock work as needed. They have been working on the trucks as problems have happened. They recently purchased a 5 ½ ton 6×6 military dump truck for $500 and spent a little more to make it road ready and it has been repainted and refurbished. It has 11,000 miles and can be used for hauling and plowing if needed. The new town truck’s transfer case overheated and was fixed under warranty. We purchased the truck body as an all seasons body (sander and dump body in one unit) from a reputable company, but it is dropping salt and material where it shouldn’t be. This problem will be fixed by the company in the spring. Their representative has already been out to see it. Derek has put in a temporary shield to try to minimize the problem in the meantime. Derek received three prices for repaving the parking lots at Harmony Hall, the Congregational Church, and at the East Otis Fire House. The low bid should be around $60,000 with the reclaiming.
Historical: St. Paul’s Church was built with the help of the Crittendon and Sumner families. The Tolland State Forest garage was planned to be torn down, but it is included in the Massachusetts Historical Commission’s list of historic Otis Reservoir gatekeepers house buildings and meets the criteria for being in the National Historic Registry. So MHC has requested the building be restored instead of demolished.
Maintenance: They have been busy with a lot of repainting, including the Town Hall gym and the Main Fire House parking lot. They also worked on vehicle maintenance, straightened cemetery stones, worked on Highway garage door, renewed their Waste Water licenses. They fixed a lot of problems with heat and hot water at Town Hall. They added two new heaters at the transfer station to keep things from freezing up. DEP okayed the installation of two 11 x 24 cement pads and tree clearing for the 12 x 80 area. The new demolition container was delivered and immediately sent back because the bottom was not painted as contracted.
Planning Board: They turned over the final draft of the revised Master Plan and Open Space and Recreation Plan to the Select Board at their last meeting.
Police Dept.: Calls are steady. They completed more in-service training in Defensive Tactics and Fair and Impartial Policing. In April, they will have another Kops ‘N Kids Kamp and signups will start next month. They will be going to see the Blue Man Group in Boston.
Technology: They are continuing to hold meetings with vendors. It looks promising, but there are no final numbers yet. Broadband survey have about 500 responses with 63% in the Very Likely and Likely categories.
WWTP: The plant has been quiet and alarms have been quiet. The year-end filing for drinking water and for the plant have been sent to the State. There has only been one grinder pump call in the last 60 days.
The meeting was adjourned at 7:00 pm.
Respectfully Submitted,
Lisa D’Orazio
Selectmen’s Secretary
Town of Otis