Leverett Town Seal

Massachusetts

Leverett

Town of Leverett
9 Montague Road
Leverett, MA 01054
Town Clerk: (413) 548-9150
Tax Collector: (413) 548-9666
Assessor: (413) 548-4945
Town Hall Fax: (413) 548-1035
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Select Board

Tuesday, January 23, 2018, 7:00 pm until 9:00 pm
Town Hall, 9 Montague Rd
A meeting of the Selectboard

Meeting of Selectboard

Members: (Quorum)

  • Present: Peter d'Errico, Chair, at 7:00 PM
  • Present: Tom Hankinson, at 7:00 PM
  • Present: Julie Shively, at 7:00 PM

Also Present:

  • Present: Julie S.
  • Tom H.
  • Margie M.
  • Lisa S.
  • Rob S. (Montague Reporter) Phil C.
  • Tom P.
  • Ann D. (Finance Committee)
  • Brian C.
  • John I. (Fire Dept.)

See original Agenda Approved Meeting Minutes

Meeting opened: 7:00 PM

Meeting closed: 8:20 PM

  1. Meeting Preliminaries

  2. Budget Hearings

    • 7:00: Highway Dept. - (employee update?)

      General Discussion...
      Rescheduled to Feb. 6, 2018

    • 7:30 : Library

      General Discussion...
      Ashley Blais came in with a budget within the guidelines and was thanked for that. She discussed making sure that the town “contribution” to the Library budget is high enough to meet the MAR threshold. A COLA for the new Library Director would put her budget in range, so would adding $160(ish) elsewhere in her budget. The Library had 2 capital requests: carpet cleaning for $3,000 and exterior painting for $10,000.

  3. Business

    • 7:50: Fire Dept. update

      General Discussion...
      John Ingram, Fire Chief wanted the board to know that two young fire fighters are leaving. Yotam Block and Ezra Ward are both moving out of Leverett; John wished to publicly thank them for their service. He also had with him a new recruit, David Stultz.(David Finn, Highway Supt was unable to attend for his budget hearing which will be rescheduled.)

      MOTION, moved by Julie Shively, seconded by Peter d'Errico: Motion: To appoint David Stultz to the Leverett Fire Department pending satisfactory physical and CORI check. Vote: 2-0 in favor.
      .

      Pass: Aye: Julie Shively, Peter d'Errico, Tom Hankinson.

    • 8:00: Appt. new Bd. of Health member

      General Discussion...
      Board of Health (also present: John H., Mike F., Rich B., Bd. of Health members, Sue N., David S.)
      The same David Stultz, who volunteered to be on the Fire Dept. early in the evening, was interested in being on the Board of Health.

      MOTION, moved by Julie Shively, seconded by Peter d'Errico: Motion: To appoint David Stultz to the Board of Health to fill Fay Z. unexpired term: Shively, aye; Hillman, aye; Brazeau, aye; Hankinson, aye; Fair, aye. .

      Pass: Aye: Julie Shively, Peter d'Errico, Tom Hankinson.

    • 8:10: Other business - Sign thank you's, Sign ACO reappointment

      General Discussion...

      Margie reminded the board to get requests for FRCOG Regional Projects to her ASAP.

      The Community Compact Grant for infrastructure capital planning was awarded to the Collins Center in Boston.

      Margie put out an RFP for the American’s with Disabilities Act Self-evaluation and received no responses. She did receive a $23,000 grant and will try again.

      All police are trained on and carrying Tasers.

      Eversource sent a team of people to a meeting with Margie to tell her that they could not run 3-phase power in town (@ $1 million) in exchange for a right-of-way on Depot Rd. The Town will consider an amount of money once it is clear how big the right-of-way is.

      MOTION, moved by Julie Shively, seconded by Peter d'Errico: Motion: To hold the Town-wide budget hearing on March 6, 2018. Vote: 2-0 in favor.

      Motion: To approve Beth Adam’s plan to ask to create a subcommittee at the FRCOG to explore agency-wide climate change and clean energy policy. Vote: 2-0 in favor.
      .

      Pass: Aye: Julie Shively, Peter d'Errico, Tom Hankinson.

  4. Mail

    • MMA Agenda, for meeting that already happened...

    • Veteran's District, new options

  5. Personnel Board

    • Update

      General Discussion...
      Personnel Board Update
      Julie gave a Personnel Board update. The PBd. met with 4 departments seeking to restructure or ask for raises. The Police Dept. would like to add another full-time officer to replace most part-timers. Some money will come from his budget; benefits and OPEB were not included. Fire would like two part-time fire fighters, one of which is the Chief and the Chief requested a raise. The Conservation Commission Clerk was looking for increased hours due to an increased interest in building in town of which the remaining lots often require the assistance of ConCom due to their locations. Also, she has been spending lots of time on the Open Space Resource Plan. And the Town Clerk was also looking for increased hours to address the records management of the town and to meet some of the unfunded mandates which are increasing her hours due to changes in election law and voting procedures. All requests will be revisited once the overall budget comes together.
      The Personnel Board voted a 2% COLA.

  6. Meeting Wrap-up

The listing of matters is those reasonably anticipated by the Chair which may be discussed at the meeting. Not all items listed may in fact be discussed and other items not listed may also be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by law.

Minutes approved on Thursday, Feb 22, 2018

Posted to: Select Board.