Town of Otis
All Boards Meeting Minutes
September 26, 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, Selectman Don Hawley, Tom Nadolny, Sandy Pinkham, Michael Ernst, Keith O’Neil, Hank Wingate, Marlyn Coffey, Lyn (Minery) O’Brien and Russ Loring
Town Clerk: Lyn is getting ready for the November election and is preparing for early voting which starts two weeks prior. Her office will be open on Saturday, October 29, 2016 from 9:00 am to 12:00 Noon for early voting. She will also be attending a Mass. Clerks’ Conference in Springfield on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of this week where they will be presenting the changes to be aware of with early voting procedures.
Council on Aging: Hank reported they are doing a wonderful job with lots of activities.
Energy: They did not have a quorum for the last meeting.
Finance Board: They just voted to transfer Reserve Funds to various line item accounts and elected Terry as their new chair.
Fire Dept.: The new Engine 1 fire truck was in the Lee Founder’s Day parade along with the Buffalo. They also had a practice burn in Blandford with their crew. They are gearing up for their Pancake Breakfast on the Sunday of Columbus Day weekend. The hose for Engine 2 has been upgraded to 2000 feet of four inch hose so all equipment and fittings are compatible.
Historical: We have a genealogical book of the Hawleys, which Hank thinks is one of the best books of the year. Hank noted every town in the country has a Hawley family. Hank is looking forward to getting the East Otis School House restored.
Planning Board: Nothing new to report.
School: They opened the new school year with minimal problems. There are 115 students this year. They are working on their capital improvement list. The fifth and sixth grades are on their Nature’s Classroom trip. Culverts have been cleaned and they thanked the Highway Dept. for doing a really great job fixing their parking lot. There was a concern that with Sandisfield’s Highway Dept. being down two people, how would that affect school cancellations. Tom said if Sandisfield cancels, Otis will need to cancel also because there is no way to accommodate one town and not the other. Tom plans to go to the Sandisfield Select Board and express his concerns.
Technology: The Pole Data Survey is complete and we are moving forward with the Broadband project. We are currently in the process of submitting license applications with Verizon and Eversource.
Waste Water: There have been no issues with running the plant and we continue to pass permit every month. Our six year permitting renewal process with DEP is coming up and we have paid SK Design to complete an engineering survey with a five year plan for that permit process. Beach testing is closed for the year with no issues or beach closures to report.
Assessors: The annual inspections are just about done and Jeff is getting ready to submit the paperwork setting the preliminary tax rate.
Zoning: Nothing to report.
Don mentioned that we need to investigate getting transponders so our town-owned passenger vehicles can use the Mass. Pike. Bill thinks we can set up a municipal account with them and get billed at the reduced rate, but we will need the license plates for all the vehicles under this account.
The meeting was adjourned at 6:57 pm.
Respectfully Submitted,
Lisa D’Orazio
Selectmen’s Secretary
Town of Otis
List of Documents
None