Town of Otis
All Boards Meeting Minutes
April 26, 2010
The meeting was called to order at 6:30 pm.
Present: Chairman Don Hawley, Andy Pyenson, Donna Thomas, JoAnn Austin, Lyn Minery, Tom Ragusa, Ann Pyenson, Karen Fink, Anita Weinstein, Howard Levin, Roberta Sarnacki, Robert Rocke, representatives from WiredWest
The meeting was called to order at 6:30 p.m.
The meeting was opened with a presentation by WiredWest as to why all Western Massachusetts rural communities needed fiber optic broadband service, and how WiredWest hoped to bring fiber to every rural home in Western Massachusetts. At the end of the presentation, Chairman Hawley asked why Verizon wasn’t planning on providing fiber. The response is that it is not cost-effective for either Verizon or Comcast to bring fiber to the rural areas.
Assessors: Doing pretty good getting our job done.
Bicentennial: Everything’s going great and everyone’s working hard. We’re having tractor pulls for the kids on Saturday. Donna is proud of her great group of people. Overflow parking on Friday night is permitted at the school as long as the driveway isn’t blocked. The deadline for submitting parade entries is May 11th.
Tax Collector: Money is coming in slowly and bills are due on Monday May 3rd.
Town Clerk: Intentions are starting to come in. Weekend intentions are by appointment. Preparation for the Annual Town Election is under way. To the best of the clerk’s knowledge, both special senate elections (primary and regular) will be reimbursed by the state.
Cultural Council: In the prime of their season. Joan DeLevie has asked for and gotten ten more barrels: two at Santo’s, two at the Library, two at the Rec Center, two to replace the ones at the Farmington, and two for the Town Hall – we now have forty-three barrels in total. Brunch for the gardeners was a lot of fun. May 29th is the Tag Sale, the Arts Festival is on July 24th at the school, the Community Garden is coming along really well also.
Highway: Mud season wasn’t too bad; started paving and patching roads, starting to line up a contractor for the cemetery work, fixing culverts damaged by frost. Andy then requested a ten foot wide stone culvert be constructed between the two driveways for the Bicentennial Sculpture as soon as possible because the statue is almost ready to be placed. Don Hawley also mentioned the rocks on Reservoir Road down past Kevin Rocke’s place – these are too close to the road and need to be removed. Also per Don, at Izaak Walton, the culverts are being replaced and lengthened in time for the Bicentennial. The Bicentennial is going to need sixty hay bales for the weekend. Chris can talk to who he gets
them from, but they may be hard to get due to this being the end of the season.
Historical: Trying to get the Great Trail through the entire town designated as a National historical site – package has been sent to Peter Stott to get the process started. The Knox Trail is still mapping locations along the trail – the piece by Big Pond still needs to be groomed for the hike. The Knox Monument needs a nice flower box and cleanup for the Bicentennial. Norton Road through to Sandisfield also needs to be groomed.
Library: The museum is now reopened for the summer and Summer Hours will go into effect on June 1st. The annual Summer Fair will be held July 10th and they are once again looking for vendors. The interlibrary loan and bookmobile are on their way out, so we really need CWMARS. The Annual Town Meeting would be a good place to inform the public about this and how it will help the library. In order to have the town purchase the library, the trustees should get ahold of Town Counsel and see what the trustees need to do to get this thing started.
Planning Board: Ed Partyka has completed the by-law review and modifications and he will be presenting them to Smart Growth on Wednesday night, and then the public hearing will be at the next Planning Board meeting. Sometime in the next few weeks they will be meeting to discuss the roads. The Select Board stressed that this matter was very important and needed to be finalized. Howard asked if they’d like to do this at the next Planning Board meeting, and Don replied as soon as possible. Process for how to conduct the public hearing will be discussed at the next Planning Board meeting.
Police: In Service training is complete for the year. Firearms renewals are popular now, a good schedule has been worked out for Memorial Day weekend and the Bicentennial weekend.
Scholarship: They meet in May.
School: Thank you for all your support. May 8th & 9th is the Revolutionary Encampment and is open to the public. Candlelight tour will be the evening of May 8th, and invitations will be sent to certain groups in town who helped make this event happen. Policies need to be reviewed and updated with the school committee. Text books that refer to the tragic event that just occurred need to be available to parents, teachers and other interested parties before the next school year begins. These books have been purchased with grant funds.
School Committee: Next meeting will be in Sandisfield per their invitation.
Smart Growth: Reviewing Ed’s changes Wednesday night.
Building Inspector: Things are picking up. The specs are written for the hazardous waste and for the HVAC bids. Shrubbery and excavation and everything else the town is responsible for should be taken care of by the middle of May. Chris Bouchard brought everything to Conservation and we should be all set with our permits. The project is a little behind because the contractor is reworking several things. Larry was hoping to well under way by now, but we may be just getting started by the Bicentennial weekend. If that is the case, Larry will request the contractor wait until after that weekend’s festivities are over.
Zoning Board: They just met and reviewed one application. Nothing is pending for June.
Meeting was adjourned.
Respectfully Submitted,
Lisa D’Orazio, Selectmen’s Secretary
Town of Otis
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