September 24, 2018

The meeting was called to order at 6:30 pm in the Town Hall conference room. It was announced the meeting was being recorded.

Present: Don Hawley, Gary Thomas, Bill Hiller, Becky Stone, Terry Gould, Rich Phair, Jeanne Randorf, Jim Ebitz, Dan Hamill, Lisa D’Orazio

Fire Dept.: The Steak Roast went really well and traffic flowed well for the event. They are now working on the Pancake Breakfast for Columbus Day weekend. KME is shooting for delivery of the Rescue Truck for Thanksgiving.

Planning Board: Michael Ernst asked Terry to report for him. He believes there was a great turnout for the Harmony Hall meeting. Michael felt more people were interested in tearing down the existing building and replacing it. Don and Terry both noted that the original Harmony Hall has been retrofitted for so many different uses that there really was nothing original left to preserve anymore. Everyone reiterated that putting up a Regulation house and housing the museum artifacts in it was a great idea.

Cultural Council: The new grant season is beginning and applications are starting to come in. Also, the three year Community Survey they are required to do is currently being conducted and they’d like as many surveys submitted as possible – one survey per person.

Rescue Squad: Business has slowed down a bit and some people who were on leave of absence have returned to work, but they are still short staffed. They still have not been able to get a second person to work on weekends. They are also researching new ambulances to see what they should get when the current ambulance needs to be replaced. It is not ready to be replaced yet, but may need to be soon. The Health care bill for one EMT has passed the Senate, but still needs to go through the House so everyone is encouraged to call Smitty Pignatelli to get this passed.

School: Tom submitted an email report which was read by Don. They had a great opening of the school year. They have also completed drills with the Otis Police Dept. and the Ma. State Troopers. Fire drills will begin this week. Both Tom and Derek have been trying to get paving quotes with no response.

Recreation: A report was submitted by email and Don read it. They provided a list of inventory in storage and didn’t know if it was worth declaring surplus or should they just get rid of it. Most of it is not worth anything and should either be discarded or given away. They have submitted for their movie license renewal. The Selectmen noted there is no requirement to have an AED unit at the Rec Center and the EMTs are just down the street. Karen has established the process for setting up an employee and who should be set up. We definitely want the Southern Berkshire Chamber of Commerce to locate their kiosk in front of the Rec Center on the street side of the building. Rec will post monthly activities in their monthly newsletter. Rec renewed their winter passes for Otis Ridge but not for Maple Corner Farm.

Technology: Bill let everyone know we would be redoing all emails with the town domain name, but we will wait until after broadband has been installed in the center of town. Phase 2 installations begin next week and Phase 3 is complete with stranding. They have staked out the location of the second hut at the Main Fire House and will begin digging it this week. It will measure 20 by 10.

Police Dept.: Things have quieted down since Labor Day weekend. They still have a steady stream of service type calls. Dave Hamill was trained for maintaining a Property Evidence Room. Dan discovered he needs an officer to hold this position and Dave has been designated as our Evidence Officer. Dan attended the first class of MPI Command Staff training, which is for all officers above Sergeant level, and he was able to connect with resources to help him update some of our policies. There were recent 911 hang-ups due to the wet weather from Florence and MSP responded to those calls as they occurred off shift. Florence also caused some minor flooding in town in the usual places. Dan is working with Becky to complete our Hazard Mitigation Plan and has been attending the town’s Safety Committee meetings. They are also gearing up for the annual Halloween party for the kids and trick-or-treating in town. Dan purchased some glow sticks for the kids so they would be more visible this year. The regular costume parade and party at Town Hall will be held again this year. Dan needs to convert his space downstairs to an officer-access-only evidence room. He needs to check with Maintenance as to whether the whole room is for the Police Dept. or it gets partitioned off for evidence.

The meeting was adjourned at 7:08 pm.

Respectfully Submitted,

Lisa D’Orazio

Selectmen’s Secretary

Town of Otis

List of Documents

A copy of the email from Tom Nadolny at FRRSD will be filed with these meeting minutes.
A copy of the Rec. Center email attachment will be filed with these meeting minutes.
A copy of the Police Dept. report will be filed with these meeting minutes.

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