All Boards Meeting Minutes
Otis Town Hall
Conference Room
Monday, April 26, 2021, at 7:00 PM
Topic: All Boards
Time: Apr 26, 2021 07:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
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Present: Town of Otis (Brandi Page), William Hiller, Diane Provenz, Lyn’s iPhone (Lyn O’Brien, Patricia Richard, Arlene Tolopko, Donna Thomas (Gary Thomas), Keith O’Neil, Jim Crandall, Larry Gould, Cbouchard (Chris Bouchard), Sonia Morrison, Hal Kobrin, Therese’s iPad (Terry Gould), Daniel Hamill and Derek Poirier.
Updates form the following Departments:
Building Inspector- Construction is busy, seeing permits and accelerated work.
Town Clerk- Census is complete. Dog Licenses are slowing down. 90% of conflict of interest and ethics have been returned. Activity for mail in voting for May is picking up. Lyn is now handling the calendar for town hall events.
Celebration- Hoping for an event in early autumn possibly outdoors. Excited about the power being put in to the gazebo. Huge thank you to Ralph, he has been amazing.
Cultural Council- Purchased posters for the school, working with Diverse Otis to buy books for the school, need a few more volunteers for flower barrels there are 41 total.
Finance- Budget season went smooth. Welcoming new members. Lost both Michael and Walter.
Fire Department- Getting back into doing trainings. Working on the two way radio purchase and the fire truck bids. They have new software at the station up and running, now cloud based. Burning season is over May 01. Waiting for adobe and new email setup.
Highway- Grading roads, working on pick up repairs. Discussion about Eversource ongoing trimming.
Historic- Updated fundraising efforts to date. Historic & Opt both have six members each. Lynne Geane has set up a Facebook page for OPT. Historic has articles coming up on the ATM warrant and seeks support. Update on Tom Ragusa’s work on the Knox Trail. Had a recent hike that was well attended. He was called in on a cannon ball find in Russell recently. Pushing ahead with the proposed Historic District in the center of town and later hopefully one in East Otis. Working to establish a Junior Historic Group and camera club for kids. Berkshire Magazine is doing an article soon.
Maintenance-Electric is going in to the gazebo. Painting is complete at Town Hall and the Highway garage office. Spring cleanup is underway and the cemetery opened April 1st. Working on marking the 100 acre park. Also working on the environmental monitoring being installed as a result of our MIIA grant. Discussion about mowing at St. Paul’s.
MLP- Towards the end of the fiber installs. Finishing up OWL and a few missed properties in the original design. Larry has been working hard on this. We will see more grant disbursements in the Broadband. Wind turbine is doing well. We had a recloser issue, Larry again worked hard and got things back up and running. Discussion about MLP financials. Report in annual town report.
Police- Department has been busy. Increase in traffic. Complaints of speeding on West Center Rd. Dan read call numbers and mentioned a large delivery of COVID supplies we were able to get. The cruiser was hit but is fixed and back in use.
Recreation- Have been hosting online classes for the time being. Hopefully transition back in the next few months. Replenishing sand at the beach. Looking into grants for playground equipment at the town beach.
Planning- The Board has been busy. Two bylaws on the warrant for ATM. Working on HMP & MVP planning and Complete Streets. BRPC is assisting.
School Committee- Arlene said the school has been amazing being in person and navigating the pandemic. The teachers are doing double duty both teaching in person and online.
Technology- Completed new computers for departments, new Wi-Fi at the Library, new security measures and new phone system being researched. Discussion about boards utilizing technology before securing a third party for services.
WWTP- Keith stated things are running well. He will be able to utilize other personnel at the plant soon. For the last year during COVID is has been just him. Discussion about capacity limits.
Zoning- Have a full Board with new faces. They’ve had a few applications. May looks quiet.
Scholarship. We have 7 seniors this year. Three applied and two qualified.
Discussion and questions about mandating attendance, the building reuse committee, the block grant, a citizen’s petition and better communication.
Adjournment:
8:16 PM