Town of Otis
All Boards Meeting Minutes
July 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 Chairwoman Roberta Sarnacki, Selectman Bill Hiller, Selectman Don Hawley, Jim Crandall, Hank Wingate, Tom Nadolny, Jim Ebitz, Kathy Carroll and Walter Engels
Historical: Hank reported that the private non-profit formed to save St. Paul’s Episcopal Church is moving forward. However, it may take all summer to work out the ownership issues. Don Hawley noted that the town was willing to sponsor the title search on the church’s property titles.
Library: Walter thanked the town, especially the Maintenance and Police departments, for their help with another successful Library Country Fair. The Library netted close to $2500, which was good considering the drizzly weather. The Library’s fire alarm inspection has been completed and they will be replacing the old sensors. Hank encouraged residents to see what is in the museum. The Library as a 501c(3) also qualifies for the special software rate for licenses through TechSoup, so this is no longer an issue for them.
Finance Board: The association dues are now due.
Maintenance: They have been painting. They repaired the Erbe Building back porch and painted there. They are staining the East Otis Fire House as well. They have been mowing, taking care of dead trees, remediated air locks involving the gym, fixed some register leaks, have been cleaning up the goose droppings at the Town Beach daily, had two funerals, and Jim has put on extra help at the transfer station because it has been very busy. Jim will begin enforcing last-Saturday-of-month brush disposal only because it is too busy to do every weekend. A load of TVs and propane bottles have been removed. Annual inspection of fire alarm system has been completed for Town Hall. The Quilters tables are now going to be locked up because too many people use them for events in the gym and we have already had to replace one table due to damage.
Police Dept.: The big annual summer call increase has begun. The officers have also been requested to assist with numerous events and several motorcycle runs. They’ve covered the Library Fair, Town Picnic and tag sale. In addition, our officers have also been working lots of traffic details. Another successful Firearms Training Class was held yesterday and they will schedule another one here at Town Hall on September 18, 2016.
Recreation: Weight Room has no results from the engineering review and nothing will happen for at least another year. Reimbursement for Rec events also needs to be worked out better because no one should have to put it on their personal charges. Chris will check into setting up accounts. A computer tech has checked Patricia’s computer and believes she may have a virus, or Verizon DSL is causing her problems. If it is Verizon’s problem, don’t expect them to fix the problem.
Fire Dept.: Sandy and several members of the Fire Dept. are away inspecting the new truck.
Rescue Squad: There have been a lot of calls, but they are handling it well and they are continuing with training. They still need new members and new EMT classes will be starting soon. They recently acquired a new carbon monoxide pulse oximeter that reads both oxygen and carbon monoxide levels. It was a new model that was used as a demo at trade shows so we got it at a good discount. They already went out on a call where it proved to be very useful in saving a life. They’ve replaced their computer with a refurbished one and the new one is working well.
School: The Governor has already cut some funds for the new school year. Boston has increased the Chapter 70 funds, but has pulled the kindergarten grant, so essentially the budget is now in the hole for roughly $1700. Attendance has been steady but Tom is now looking to increase attendance through outreach to surrounding towns. Some teachers have left; the music teacher’s departure was expected and the replacement has been hired, but they also now need to replace both the Kindergarten and Second Grade teachers. The Maintenance crew is working hard to have the school building ready for the end of August. The Regional Committee has essentially disbanded and will meet on an ad hoc basis when sharing services looks to be a viable option. There did not appear to be any benefits to us merging with surrounding districts. Sixth grade sent two students to Lee and the rest will be going to Berkshire Hills. Don mentioned to Tom that the town would appreciate having a future project list to anticipate future repairs.
Technology: We are very close to ordering the parts to do the Town Hall ReWire Project.
Energy: There is a meeting on Thursday.
The meeting was adjourned at 7:25 pm.
Respectfully Submitted,
Lisa D’Orazio
Selectmen’s Secretary
Town of Otis
List of Documents
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