Town of Otis
Select Board Meeting Minutes
May 10, 2016
Meeting called to order at 7:00 pm in the Town Hall conference room.
Present: Select Board Chair Roberta Sarnacki, Selectman Don Hawley, Chris Morris, Terry Gould, Michael Ernst, Bill Dyer, Marion Middleton, Gary Thomas, Dave Conklin, and Hank Wingate
The meeting was called to order at 7:00 pm by Roberta Sarnacki who announced the meeting was being recorded.
Approval of Minutes: The April 26, 2016 Select Board meeting minutes were unanimously approved as written. The April 25, 2016 All Boards minutes stated Roberta was present and she was not. Neither of the April 25, 2016 minutes were approved as there was no quorum for approval with Roberta having to abstain.
Recreation Inventory: Bill Dyer noted that the department’s inventory was housed in two separate buildings, the Rec. Center and a storage building at the Transfer Station, and neither the Commissioners nor Patricia had time to inventory what they had. So they were requesting funds to have someone do it for them. Once the inventory list is created, Rec. can then identify which is surplus inventory. The Select Board suggested they use one of the people qualified under the Senior Tax Work-Off Program to do the inventory for them. After this program was explained to Bill, it was agreed that Lisa would send the contact list to Patricia.
RRG Contract: Chris presented the contract from RRG. Otis had requested a two year contract, but RRG sent one for three years because that was their standard. The contract price was higher than what was quoted in February for budget discussions. RRG stated that the annual inspections were not included in the February figures. The current three year contract presented for signature would cost Otis about $193,000 for three years for an average of $64,000 per year. While this amount is more than we budgeted, Chris believed we did still have the funds available to cover the contract for FY2017. Roberta and Don agreed discussion should be tabled until Bill comes back.
Other:
Rec. Commission Weight Room: Bill asked what equipment could be reinstated into the closed weight room because a lot of people were asking about it. Chris recommended that Bill and Kathy and Patricia meet with Chris, Larry Gould, Jim Crandall, and Chris Vreeland, the engineer the town uses for various projects, to see what the weight room will need for repair and approximately how much it will cost the town to repair it. The results of that meeting will determine if and how we can move forward.
Rec. Equipment Capital Expense Item: Bill asked about the status of the capital expense equipment request to replace some items. The Select Board responded that this request was not stated as replacement of existing equipment and determined that new equipment purchases would be put on hold until the Recreation building can be evaluated.
Recreation Position Reclassification: Bill also asked what the status was of this request. Chris responded that he had met with Bob Rosen and the request had been withdrawn based upon the job classification criteria. Job classification criteria was developed for all the town positions by an independent consultant and this system was adopted by the town a few years ago.
Planning Board: Michael informed the Select Board that a motion was made at last night’s Planning Board meeting to “…encourage the Select Board to engage the Transportation Advisory Council (TAC) and become active voting members and seek funding”. Planning also requested a Selectperson be at the June Planning Board meeting. Chris Morris volunteered to become Otis’ TAC representative because he qualified as a voting member. The Select Board unanimously approved Chris for that position Michael also said the Planning Board would like a written response as to why the Select Board does not want to pursue Complete Streets.
Historical Society: Hank let everyone know that a resident named Pete Cameron was almost done writing a book about the founding families of Otis and was very excited about this project. The Historical Society also understands why the East Otis Meeting House needs to be demolished, but they hope that the Select Board will come up with the funds to work on the foundation for the East Otis Schoolhouse before that goes into disrepair that cannot be fixed.
Lisa announced the next Select Board meeting will be held the day after the Annual Town Elections and will be Wednesday, May 25, 2016 at 7:00 pm.
At 7:53 pm both Select Board meeting was unanimously adjourned.
Respectfully Submitted,
Lisa D’Orazio
Selectmen’s Secretary
Town of Otis
List of Documents
A copy of the email from Chris to the Rec. Center about the weight room will be filed with these meeting minutes.
A copy of the email from Recreation listed the equipment they would like to put back in will be filed with these meeting minutes.
A copy of the RRG Contract will be kept on file in the Select Board office.