June 26, 2017

The meeting was called to order at 6:35 pm in the Town Hall conference room. It was announced the meeting was being recorded.

Present: Select Board Chair Bill Hiller, Selectman Don Hawley, Jim Crandall, Russ Loring, Sandy Pinkham, Terry Gould, Jim Ebitz, Keith O’Neil, Jeanne Randorf, Roberta Sarnacki

Community Celebrations: Sup N Swing was great. Rain may have put a damper on attendance, but 125 people showed up and the band was great.

Cultural Council: Assisted with Sup N Swing and are preparing for the Arts Festival.

Energy: We are still on track, but our base tower is still not here yet. Roads were closed in Canada, then there was a strike, and now the permits may be expiring. They are cutting the tower in half, and building flanges to reattach the halves, and they are shipping the loads that way. We are expecting delivery for August.

Finance: Planning a July meeting for encumbrances and other year-end work as well as elect new chairperson.

Fire Dept.: It has been busy with a lot of alarm calls. Automobile accident and hay fire responses as well. Getting ready for fireworks in the next few weeks and the steak roast in August. This is Sandy’s last All Boards meeting, 10 years as Chief, 35 years in the Department.

Maintenance: Mowing is every other week. Sent out refrigerators, working on Fire House fence, events at Town Hall have needed cleanup, straightened stones at Norton Road Cemetery, assisted WW with grinder pump repair, changing hot water heater element for East Otis Fire House, working on air ventilation system for Town Hall. Don asked about replacing the wood posts with plastic and Jim said it was about seven grand two years ago and the Select Board said it was too expensive. Don asked us to get estimates again. The old Kiwanis sign at the transfer station will be removed.

Police Dept.: Traffic details went well for Memorial Day Parade and Sup N Swing. The Chief and Officer Whiting attended training at BCC for working with citizens with developmental and physical disabilities, sponsored by BCaRC. Chief Sarnacki, Sergeant Hamill, and Officer Whiting today completed training called Psychological First Aid training at MCLA. The Chief will attend a training in Crime Scene Investigation in August. The Tahoe will be ordered July 1^st and we should have it late August, early September. Sergeant Hamill has been handling these details. Last Friday was the last fist bump Friday of the school year. The grant Bruce asked about is for after July 1^st and this will be applied to the generators needed for broadband backup for Emergency Services.

Rescue Squad: Jim Ebitz had to leave for a call but he mentioned he is having trouble covering weekends. As of July 1^st, he will be covered for the primary call times with three people so hopefully this will resolve the problem. Regionalization was again brought up but Jim had returned and pointed out potential problems with ambulance and on call requirements for regionalizing. Other discussion was around on call and stipend pay to encourage younger applicants to volunteer their time. We are having difficulty covering nights and weekends. Subscription letters will be coming out in another month.

Planning: Michael Ernst is the new chairperson, Jennifer Daily has filled in the empty position, and the July 10^th meeting is rescheduled for July 17^th.

Technology: We have been awarded the full 1.77 million dollars in grant money and hope to have the first $700,000 in a few weeks. We hope to begin construction on August 1^st and WG&E will be handling that for us. We have only been released for Phase 1, but we expect costs and timetables from Verizon soon for Phase 2 and 3. We have to go back out to bid again for construction and should have those results in a few weeks. The first construction bid did not go as well as we had hoped.

Waste Water: Paperwork has been submitted early, but we still have not heard back from DEP. Until then, they said we are okay to continue to operate under the current permit. We still have money left to spend on energy projects so Keith was asked to get information regarding using solar panels for a fuel oil replacement.

Zoning Board of Appeals: They had a special meeting scheduled for June 19^th and only had to continue one of them for July.

Bill noted that we were billed for eight computers and Bill took care of vouchering each one against the appropriate expense account for this year’s budget.

The meeting was adjourned at 7:22 pm.

Respectfully Submitted,

Lisa D’Orazio

Selectmen’s Secretary

Town of Otis

List of Documents

Roberta’s Police Dept. write up will be filed with these meeting minutes.

Michael’s Planning Board write up to Bill will be filed with these meeting minutes.