Town of Otis
Select Board Meeting Minutes
February 27, 2018
Meeting called to order at 7:00 pm in the Town Hall conference room. It’s being recorded and a quorum is present.
Present: Select Board Chair Bill Hiller, Selectman Gary Thomas, Selectman Don Hawley, Town Administrator Becky Stone, Michael Ernst, Larry Gould, Terry Gould, Mike O’Brien, Paul Giardina, Jim Wilusz, Pete Kolodziej
Approval of Minutes: Approval of the February 13, 2018 Select Board meeting minutes were unanimously approved as written.
Board of Health: 98 Kibbe Point Road: The house plan is for three bedrooms. Paul is working with the architect and designer. Because of the pretreat plan, Jim feels the plan’s field size could be reduced up to 50% of its current size. Doing so would cut down on construction costs for the homeowners and would also reduce some of the potential well setback variances. Affected wells definitely should be tested before issuing any permits.
Jim will be conducting Septic Training classes on March 28th at 6:00 pm here at Otis Town Hall. Heather has sent out notices to Otis contractors.
Remote Meeting Participation: The Select Board has never voted on this before, but it has been requested so one of the Finance Board members can participate in the upcoming budget meetings. It was noted that if the Select Board passes this, all other committees and councils will also be able to use this as long as there is a quorum physically present for the meeting. The Select Board unanimously agreed to adopt remote participation.
Appoint a Flood Plain Administrator: Larry saw this on the agenda and informed Becky earlier today that he was the town’s designated Flood Plain Administrator so this is no longer necessary.
Other:
Town Building Insurance: It will cost us almost $2901.88 for insurance premium to insure the East Otis Schoolhouse without terrorism insurance. This is a vacant building and as such needs to be insured. This is based upon 125 square feet. The Select Board agreed to have Becky go forward with this. Vehicle insurance updates are still in progress.
Health Insurance Deductibles: Becky has begun preparing a list of who has already received payouts and remaining balances due per employee. This list still needs to be verified with the Treasurer for accuracy.
Discontinuing Road Maintenance: The Public Hearing will be continued on March 27, 2018 to allow for advertising and abutter notification.
Open Meeting Law Complaints: Becky has received notification from the Attorney General’s office that they will close the file on the second OML complaint if nothing is resubmitted in 90 days of the date of the violation. The AG’s office received a response from the Select Board on January 24, 2018.
Rescue Truck: After declaring the Rescue Truck totaled, the insurance company now will not total the truck and will give the town $92,000.00 towards it. The box on the back is going to try to be salvaged because a replacement for the box is about $310,000. Becky was never notified by the insurance company of this status change and the last she heard was that the truck was totaled. Too many people at the insurance company are notifying town personnel who cannot make decisions on this and there are too many discrepancies in the information going back and forth between town departments. The Select Board members recommended Becky call Town Counsel for advice on this.
The regular Select Board meeting was unanimously adjourned at 7:30 pm.
Respectfully Submitted,
Lisa D’Orazio
Selectmen’s Secretary
Town of Otis
List of Documents
- A copy of Lyn’s email explaining the remote participation request will be filed with these meeting minutes. This includes the explanation of how to apply the rules of 940 CMR 29.10 remote participation.