Town of Otis
All Boards Meeting Minutes
August 22, 2016
The meeting was called to order by Bill Hiller at 6:30 pm in the Town Hall conference room. It was announced the meeting was being recorded.
Present: Selectman Bill Hiller, Jim Crandall, Jim Ebitz, Kathy Carroll, Walter Engels, Sandy Pinkham, Michael Ernst, Derek Poirier, Jeanne Randorf, Keith O’Neil, and Cory Willey
Rescue Squad: Jim Ebitz said they have been busy making calls and had mutual aid calls for Becket and Sandisfield. The Fire Dept. was a tremendous help with the severe accident on Route 8, especially since the Rescue Squad lost their communications signal and the Fire Dept. relayed the messages. Otis should look into putting up some repeaters in town so there aren’t so many communications dead spots during emergencies. Bill suggested we research to see if there are any grants for this. Sandy didn’t think repeaters would help the radios and wouldn’t clear up many of our dead spots. We would have to talk to a radio guy to see what might help.
Finance Board: They are waiting to close out FY2016. Karen and Margaret are progressing on that.
Fire Dept.: The new Engine 1 fire truck has arrived and the Annual Steak Roast is this Saturday night. The old Engine 1 fire truck will be transported to the new owners tomorrow.
Cultural Council: They are gearing up for the new grant season. The Otis Arts Festival is October 15, 2016 and should be the last event for the current round of grant awards.
Highway: Derek submitted a written report of what the department had done this month, but it was not read aloud. Bids were opened for West Center and Pearl Roads paving and the job was awarded to Palmer Paving. The crew has already begun prepping Pearl Road. They helped demolish the East Otis Meeting House and removed debris and backfilled the foundation. Western Star has begun the repair on the spreader body for the truck we’ve been having problems with. They reclaimed and repaved the parking lot for the Rec Center and Library and topsoiled and seeded and graveled up to the edges. They patched the parking lot at the Elementary School also, which used about 5 tons of asphalt. They made recommendations and advised the school about drain clearing. They have also removed several dead trees, and received the new pickup and plow. Out of three applicants, they will be interviewing to fill the staff opening.
Maintenance: They finished staining the East Otis Fire House and discovered and fixed some septic issues there as well. One of the pumps had a bad float. The East Otis Meeting House demolition went well, especially with the Highway Dept. and Fire Dept. there to help. They had one funeral this month. This week they’ve been painting the window trim at the Erbe Building. During next budget season, we need to plan for replacement of the Erbe Building windows. The fourth load of rigid plastics has left the Transfer Station for this season, so that is a lot that would have otherwise gone in the landfills. And they have been doing regular mowing and trimming of all Town properties.
Library: There is a second program tomorrow for teaching people how to use their computers. The new driveway paving looks good and they thank everyone for the timeliness. Fifty people came for the mechanical bank talk and they used the big screen for that presentation.
Recreation: They had 26 students for swim lessons this year – there were two sessions. Pilates and Yoga classes continue to have high attendance. BJ’s does allow ordering online but they found everything they need is for In Store Purchase only. They proposed a prepay VISA could be used for purchasing when they need it.
Waste Water: Keith reported that we continue to pass permit each month and the plant is running steady. After quite a while, DEP did a compliance audit, and we passed the audit with flying colors. Because our plant is up for renewal in April 2017, DEP gave us an extension on the October paperwork deadline so we could complete the engineering report we should have for the April renewal. So far we have received one quote from Tighe & Bond for approximately $20,000 for the report, which Keith thinks is high for what we need. He is still waiting for quotes from SK Design and Berkshire Engineering. Also, he has been looking into the possibility of accepting septage from haulers to boost the income at the plant. According to Tighe & Bond, SK Design, and others Keith has spoken with, it will probably cost us so much to retrofit the plant that we probably won’t see any payback on this, so unless Keith hears something different, he’s going to pass on this idea. Usually, the BOD is in such high strength with hauled septage that it would overwhelm our plant’s capabilities.
Technology: Equipment has begun arriving in house for the Town Hall ReWire Project. The project should be starting this fall and the plan is to complete one room at a time. The Pole Survey is progressing faster than we expected and is almost half done. MBI should be in by the end of this month and we hope to have an answer on Otis’ portion of the MBI grant money.
Energy: There is a meeting on Thursday. Two turbine deliveries came in already: the tower base and wire.
Investment Advisory Committee: Bond money has been properly invested and is earning interest.
There was nothing to report for Planning or for Zoning.
The meeting was adjourned at 7:03 pm.
Respectfully Submitted,
Lisa D’Orazio
Selectmen’s Secretary
Town of Otis
List of Documents
The hand-written Highway Report will be filed with these meeting minutes.