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Town of Otis
Selectboard Meeting Minutes
August 10, 2011
Meeting called to order at 7:00 pm in the Town Hall conference room. Don noted the meeting was being recorded.
Present: Chairman Don Hawley, Selectwoman Roberta Sarnacki, Chris Morris, Hank Wingate, Terry Gould, Larry Gould, Don Chaffee, Bob Rocke, Tom Bagwell, Lyn Minery, Barbara Salwocki, Mr. Depuis, Dave Hamill
Approval of Minutes: Minutes for the July 25, 2011 All Boards meeting were amended and approved with changes, and the July 26, 2011 Select Board Meeting were unanimously approved as presented. Roberta also requested changes to the July 12, 2011 Select Board meeting minutes – requested changes were approved by the board.
Appointment of New ConCom Secretary: The Conservation Commission has selected Roxanne Beaudry to be their new secretary. Roxanne’s credentials were presented to and accepted by the Select Board. Don Hawley mentioned to Conservation that the Energy Committee needs to walk proposed properties for the wind turbines with Conservation members to ensure there will be no problems with wetlands, etc. when the time comes to move forward with the wind project. Tom mentioned Conservation usually does their walk-throughs the second Monday of each month around 1:00 pm. Don noted that the Selectmen’s office will contact Conservation with proposed times to walk and would like to be put on Conservation’s schedule for Sept.
19th.
Scholarship Donation: Tom Bolger from Cragsmoor, NY has donated $500.00 to the Scholarship Committee in memory of Barry Weinstein. This money will be deposited into their donations account for future disbursement.
Auction: Seven lots have been identified for potential auction, but the town needs to walk these sites first. Members of Recreation, the Select Board, Larry Gould, Karen Fink, Don Chaffee, and Chris Bouchard should be included in an afternoon tour after 3:00 pm someday soon. Becket recently had a land auction, so we should also check with them about their procedures.
MLP Discussion: An email addressing the last of Don Hawley’s concerns was presented to the Select Board. The email was from the town of New Marlborough Administrator, who uses the same town counsel as we do, and their Town Administrator answered our questions. Roberta moved to have the Town of Otis join the WiredWest cooperative, Don Hawley seconded and the vote passed unanimously. Bob Rocke is comfortable with representing the town as the MLP Manager and as a WiredWest delegate. Bob also stated that the proposed bylaws apply to the telecom part of the MLP and should not impact the wind turbine project. The agreement to join was signed by Don Hawley.
Other:
Police Dept. MEMA Mutual Aid Agreement: Roberta has polled nearby towns and Tolland, Sandisfield, Becket, and Blandford have all signed up with this MEMA mutual aid agreement. Roberta also noted that maybe the Fire Dept. and the Highway Dept. (Public Utilities piece) may want to opt in to similar agreements as well. The agreements will be forwarded to both those departments for review.
Big Brothers/Big Sisters: This organization has inquired if they could put a clothing and shoes donation box at the transfer station. Don Chaffee noted that there was room at the Transfer Station. Don Hawley asked if the traffic would prove to be too much as the transfer station is already congested. Also, we already have a donations box located elsewhere in town. Roberta asked if it would become too much for the Maintenance Dept. How often is pickup? Is pickup during the hours the Transfer Station is open? How long will stuff be left there? Roberta has seen other sites where the boxes were overflowing and donations were left out in the weather. The issue was tabled until we get more information.
Beach Issues: Barbara Salwocki says the town beach is getting out of hand. People are drinking down there, there’s overnight parking, the trash is out of control, and there is no supervision. People are coming in boats to use the porta-potties and to dump trash. Roberta told her the Police Dept. has been doing shift checks, checking for beach stickers, and we just recently published the beach rules in the Otis Gazette. Barbara said that’s fine, but there are still problems with the speeding on the road, drinking at night, and the rules need to be enforced. Two six and seven year-old kids left the beach and they broke into a nearby residence and trashed the place. Various options were discusses including establishing by-laws
with fines, removing the trash barrels, installing a gate that would be locked at night, hiring a beach attendant, as well as establishing a Beach Committee to come up with options to fix the problems. However, for now, we can enforce trespassing violations.
Division of Fisheries & Wildlife. Lyn noted that they want to go to an electronic system, and they want to be able to electronically go into a town’s account and withdraw the money collected that week. Most towns are now refusing to sell fishing and hunting licenses. First, most towns do not want anyone outside of the town’s government to have access to their accounts. Second, money is not deposited quickly enough to have it in there for a weekly withdrawal, and this would continuously cause the accounts to be overdrawn. The state plans to begin this program December 1st. Per their requirements, Lyn will also be required to be bonded for a higher dollar amount than she currently is, even though she never handles as
much money as they are requiring. Don Hawley wanted to know if we could set up a revolving fund to handle the account withdrawal problem. Lyn will need to look into this. Also, if other towns are stopping their issuing of these licenses, and we continue to do it, we are going to have lines out the door, which will take away from the time Lyn needs to do her job as Town Clerk. Lyn didn’t need a decision now, but she wanted the Board to be aware of the situation. She will continue to get information on this.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:30 pm.
Respectfully Submitted,
Lisa D’Orazio
Selectmen’s Secretary
Town of Otis
List of Documents
- MLP Discussion: The email provided to the Select Board will be filed with these meeting minutes.
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