Town of Otis
Select Board Meeting Minutes
February 14, 2017
Meeting called to order at 7:00 pm in the Town Hall conference room. It’s being recorded and a quorum is present.
Present: Chair Roberta Sarnacki, Selectman Don Hawley, Selectman Bill Hiller, Chris Morris, Jim Crandall, Michael Ernst, Larry Gould, Kelly Correia from Verizon, Kathy Carroll, Mary Adams, Richard Theriault, Dorothy Theriault, Betsy Andrus
Approval of Minutes: The January 23, 2017 All Boards minutes and the January 24, 2017 Select Board meeting minutes were unanimously approved as written.
Verizon Pole Hearing #4A0FQ7E: This request is to add three midspan poles to increase the load needed for the wind turbine project. The three poles referenced in the drawing will be put in additionally to what is already there, no replacements will be made. Highway has requested that any old poles be removed by the end of October. The town has requested that the three new poles have the pole licensing for the broadband installation automatically included by Verizon. Al Bessette and Deb Tobin will need to get together for the two projects.
Reappoint Richard and Dorothy Theriault to Historical Commission: After very little discussion, both people were unanimously reappointed to the Historical Commission. This appointment was at the request of the Select Board.
Southern Berkshire Chamber of Commerce: Betsy Andrus made a presentation on behalf of the Southern Berkshire Chamber of Commerce of which Otis is a member. The building booths are made out of recycled doors and can be fitted for a town’s particular needs. Youth doing community projects for college are actually constructing the booths, which are generally 42 inches by 42 inches. Betsy had a quick look around Town Hall and proposed the booth be located just off from the front door walkway near the hedges. These booths will be serviced and stocked by the Chamber of Commerce. The Select Board decided to table this to the next meeting so they could investigate this further.
Other:
Recreation Center: Kathy brought up a topic that had been discussed previously and the Select Board said the discussion would be tabled.
School Budget Meeting: The school will have its first budget meeting on Wednesday. Michael Ernst will definitely be there and Bill will try to make the meeting. The Select Board decided it would start setting up Budget meeting dates and settled on Tuesdays, March 14th, 21st, and 28th at 5:00 pm as the first three, with other dates to be determined as needed.
Wind Turbine bids: Bids were returned and opened for three phases of work on the wind turbine. Bids came in for Civil, Electrical, and Mechanical and the same vendor was low bidder for all three parts. Robert F. Audet from East Greenwich, Rhode Island was low bidder, was qualified, and has worked with our turbine vendor Vensys on eleven previous occasions. So not only do they already have a lot of the materials needed, but they are also familiar with Vensys’ process and using one vendor will prevent lag time between switching vendors from one process to another during construction. Robert F. Audet, Inc. had the low Civil bid at $149,800.00, the low electrical bid at $269,000.00, and the low mechanical bid at $426,860.00 and they submitted a performance bond with their bids. The Select Board unanimously voted to award the three bids to the lowest bidder Robert F. Audet, Inc.
Conservation Commission Concern: They brought to the Board’s attention a piece of property that is owned by the town that a local property owner on Brookman Drive appears to have cleared of brush and trees without permission.
Reservoir Road: Chris just recently found out that the state has granted another extension on this project.
Police Dept.: Roberta has received a few applications for part-time police officers and is waiting on a few more before scheduling interviews.
The meeting was adjourned at 7:43 pm.
Respectfully Submitted,
Lisa D’Orazio
Selectmen’s Secretary
Town of Otis
List of Documents
A copy of Verizon’s Petition #4A0FQ7E will be filed with these meeting minutes.
A copy of the booth proposal from Southern Berkshire Chamber of Commerce will be filed with these meeting minutes.
A copy of the letter from the Theriault’s requesting appointment will be filed with these meeting minutes.
A copy of all three bid results for the civil, electrical, and mechanical bids for the wind turbine project will be filed with these meeting minutes.