Town of Otis
All Boards Meeting Minutes
November 23, 2009
The meeting was called to order at 6:35 pm.
Present: Chairman Don Hawley, Donna Thomas, Chris Morris, Bob Rocke, Tom Ragusa, Bill Dyer, Arlene Tolopko, Chris Bouchard, Hank Wingate, Howard Levin, Barry Weinstein, Anita Weinstein, Sandy Pinkham, Roberta Sarnacki, Steve Graves, Russ Loring
Chairman Hawley announced the Town Holiday Party on December 11th at 6:00 pm at the beginning of the meeting. Notices for said party were also available at the meeting. Also, the board unanimously decided to cancel the December All Boards meeting scheduled for December 28th with approval from all in attendance.
Bicentennial Committee: Planning is going really well. The Car Show is scheduled to be held in Crandall’s field on Sunday the 13th, fireworks will be held Friday night at Isaac Walton field, with a rain date of the following weekend if necessary. Friday night will also have the Boy Scouts picnic with hamburgers and hot dogs, the Towne Crier, and music. On Saturday at 1:00pm, the parade begins, after the parade there will be games, the Taste of Otis, a variety of food and a promise from Donna Thomas of nice weather, with a band to play for that evening. Sunday will be the Auto Show at Crandall’s field, old artisan demonstrations (spinning, horseshoeing) in Firehouse Park, vendors on the Town Hall Green, tours of historic places, and hikes along
the Knox Trail. Pete Adams Band will be one of the musicians playing.
Building Inspector: The new transfer station plans and funds were met with approval at the Special Town meeting held November 17, 2009. The new energy upgrade plans for the Town Hall were also presented.
Cultural Council: Fifty grant applications were reviewed. There was a total of $9,100.00 available to be issued, and thirty-four of the fifty applications were approved, issuing the full dollar amount available. Six of the approvals were for the Farmington River School, five went to Bicentennial events, including Pete Adams, the artisan demos, and the School re-enactment for the bicentennial. The Community Garden is progressing nicely – sixteen people came to the November 18th informational meeting and there was a lot of enthusiasm and donation promises for a good amount of materials.
Fire Dept: Wildfire gear has been ordered from the funds from the approved DCR grant. There was a shed fire on Rainbow Road that appears to be from an improperly installed wood stove. Training is progressing, and the motor on the Buffalo has seized. The Highway Dept. is working on it to try to have it up and running for the bicentennial.
Highway Dept.: Sepe Tree finished on Friday and they trimmed a lot more than what FEMA estimated. 2381 trees were trimmed instead of the estimated 938 hangers. The additional trimming was watched and approved by the monitors that FEMA agreed to have working with the tree company. Blacktopping has been completed on West Shore, Reservoir, Norton, and Old Blandford roads. The Highway Dept. is trying to finish up and get ready for winter. The reclamation that was approved at the Special Town meeting on November 17th (Article 4) will redo the black top that currently exists at Otis Center Cemetery.
Historical Commission: We are currently drawing up the final Knox Trail map with ACCORD Engineering. Hand maps will hopefully be forthcoming from this survey. Tom has discovered 16 cellar holes along a three mile stretch of the Knox Trail. A partial stew pot was found at one site on Commonwealth property which appears to date back to 1690 – 1720. Found artifacts are helping to date some of these cellar hole locations. Bernie Drew, a writer, has become very interested in this project and The raising of the Town Flag at the East Otis School was held – there were seven to eight people in attendance. Diane Dyer is researching the property ownership of the church next door to the school. It is very complicated since this property was
granted and not deeded. The church has a meter and electricity and Bill Dyer was wondering who is paying for the electrical usage there. Can we use this electric to light the flagpole at the school? Hank Wingate noted that we recently found maps of the town grave locations of our war veterans – these go back to the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812.
Library: They purchased five computers with the recommendations of Bob Rocke. The new computers have been delivered and Bob will set them up tomorrow. There are problems with the boiler – this could become a big problem. The rugs were shampooed and the Pancake Breakfast had a big turnout – the library did well. Western Mass Electric Company charges approximately 11 cents per kilowatt hour. Public Power, similar to Dominion, is a wholesaler and can offer 8.25 cents per kilowatt hour and the library felt the town should know about this. Public Power, unlike Dominion, has no lock in period and the account can switch whenever another wholesaler offers a lower price. And the bills are still
issued by WMECO.
Planning Board: Don Hawley, Howard Levin, and Chris Bouchard had a meeting earlier today to look at the town road situation. The plan is to identify roads to be discontinued for maintenance. Windpower: one board member is representing & following & working on proposed bylaws. Ed Partyka’s bylaws are just about ready to be presented to the Planning Board. Smart Growth wants to move some of the zoning bylaws to the general town bylaws so the actions can then be enforced.
Police Dept: The new Expedition is due to arrive in late December. The Crown Victoria was ordered after the approval of the expenditure at the Special Town meeting on November 17th. Firearms qualification was held with Sheffield’s police department. Halloween went well, there were no incidents. One of our new officers has already started on patrol, the other is waiting to pass his firearms certification. The reason for keeping the old cruiser is to have a car available for a Sergeant, use it as a backup cruiser, or to have something available for detail work. The Select Board is concerned at some point the old cruiser may cost the town more than it’s worth. Radio upgrades are probably the next
expenditure for the police department. They are looking into something to close the gap with non-coverage areas. Chris Bouchard noted that they will need a minimum of 50 watts because there is no tower coverage in South County and hand held radios do not work.
Recreation: They questioned how to utilize their revolving fund. Once fees have been collected and put into the fund, then the commission can use those funds for payments. Due to the new programmable thermostat, they now have the Recreation Center open on Saturdays from 12 Noon to 5:00 p.m. One resident has complained about the roof to the shelter. The shelter was designed to remain where it is through the winter. Bill noted that the shelter was already placed off to the side so as not to impede people’s views, and the shelter is not in front of anybody’s house. The shelter is anchored with corkscrew anchors and will be difficult to move now.
School: The new school principal is Mary Turo, not Mary Coral as previously reported. The business situation is working out great.
Technology Committee: The state broadband initiative is now talking about DSL to connect all the underserved and not served communities, instead of FIOS. The problem is that DSL is currently becoming obsolete and can’t carry today’s traffic load, while FIOS is the only method that is scalable for the future. The grassroots effort to identify the Verizon pole locations in town have been taken care of by Western MA Electric. The Select Board signed an agreement with WMECO to let them release to BRPC the pole locations as long as this information is not disclosed elsewhere. MBI wants to disperse this information everywhere and does not appear to be willing to sign a confidentiality agreement with either National Grid or WMECO.
Meeting was adjourned at 8:20 pm.
Respectfully Submitted,
Lisa D’Orazio
Selectmen’s Secretary
Town of Otis
| 
