Board of Selectmen January 22, 2019

HOLDEN BOARD OF SELECTMEN

MEETING MINUTES

January 22, 2019

6:50PM                                                                                               Memorial Hall

Present: Chairman Geri Herlihy, Tyler Gibbs, Jeremy Kurtz

Not Present: Robert Lavigne and Anthony Renzoni

Others Present:            Peter Lukes, Town Manager

                                    Liz Fotos, Town Recorder

Chairman Herlihy called the meeting to order at 6:50PM.  The Board stood to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

Appointments, Licenses, and Permits

Motion by Sel. Kurtz, seconded by Sel. Gibbs, it was, UNANIMOUSLY VOTED TO APPROVE STEVE D’AQUILA TO AG COM FOR A THREE YEAR TERM TO EXPIRE ON 1/22/22.

Motion by Sel. Kurtz, seconded by Sel. Gibbs, it was, UNANIMOUSLY VOTED TO APPROVE LARRY KOWALCZLYK TO THE HISTORIC DISTRICT FOR A THREE YEAR TERM TO EXPIRE 1/22/22.

Motion by Sel. Kurtz, seconded by Sel. Gibbs, it was, UNANIMOUSLY VOTED TO APPROVE RONALD SPAKAUSKAS TO THE ZBA FOR A THREE YEAR TERM TO EXPIRE ON 1/22/22.

Motion by Sel. Kurtz, seconded by Sel. Gibbs, it was, UNANIMOSULY VOTED TO APPROVE JAMES DEIGNAN TO THE ZBA FOR A THREE YEAR TERM SET TO EXPIRE 1/22/22.

Motion by Sel. Kurtz, seconded by Sel. Gibbs, it was UNANIMOUSLY VOTED TO APPROVE ANTHONY COSTELLO TO THE CONSERVATION COMMISSION FOR A THREE YEAR TERM SET TO EXPIRE 1/22/22.

Motion by Sel. Kurtz, seconded by Sel. Gibbs, it was UNANIMOUSLY VOTED TO APPROVE IDA NYSTROM TO THE HISTORICAL COMMISSION FOR A THREE YEAR TERM SET TO EXPIRE ON 1/22/22.

Motion by Sel. Kurtz, seconded by Sel. Gibbs, it was UNANIMOUSLY VOTED TO APPROVE BRIAN VITALIS TO THE EAGLE LAKE COMMITTEE, FOR FIRST ALTERNATE TO MEMBER REPLACING MARK TAUBERT FOR THE REMAINER OF THE TERM (RESIGNED).

Sel. Kurtz thanked everyone for their continued help and volunteering for their time and devotion to the community.

Chairman Herlihy asked if there were currently any vacancies on Boards/ Committees. 

Mr. Lukes replied that he did not believe we currently have vacancies.                                                                                                                 

Town Manager Update

Brush Burning Permit: The 2019 brush burning season begins January 15 and ends May 1, 2019.  Residents can apply for seasonal permits online by going to the Holden Fire Department website www.holdenma.gov or in person at Fire Headquarters from 8:30AM to 4:30PM.  Permit fee is $20 online and in person.  As a reminder, the burning of grass, hay, leaves, construction materials, stumps, branches in excess of 4” in diameter, and land clearing is prohibited.  Holden Fire Department can be reached for questions at 508-210-5650.

Unannounced Lockdown: Holden Police and Fire officials conducted the first ever unannounced lockdown at Wachusett Regional High School on January 8.  The lockdown lasted approximately twelve minutes and full classes resumed in under thirty minutes from start to finish.  I and members of my administration observed the drill through closed circuit cameras that link directly from the school to the Emergency Operations Center in our Public Safety Facility.  The drill went well for the most part, although there are always improvements that can be made and mistakes which we can learn from.  Public safety officials realize the importance of minimizing the impact of these drills upon the learning environment and school officials appreciate the need to run these sort of drills as well.  Holden Police returned to the EOC after the drill was finished to de-brief and discuss weaknesses or improvements to be made for future lockdown situations.

Chairman Herlihy stated that she thought that they did a great job with the kids as well.

Mr. Lukes stated that this was the first unannounced one and it went well.

WRSD/Regional Municipal Administrators Meeting: I met last week with Superintendent McCall and members of his administration as well as the other regional Town Administrators.  Among other topics, we discussed the FY 20 budgets for the District and the District Towns.  Dr. McCall provided some optimistic calculations which will be delivered to the District School Committee shortly.  It does not appear that the District will meet the 3.5% growth “ceiling” that many of the District towns requested earlier this year through letters from our Select Boards and Fin Coms, however the School Administration did present a more promising outlook and they seem to be making every effort to ultimately present a budget that is moving toward that number.  We will be scheduling their official budget presentation to Fin Com during our budget process, tentatively set for March 27. 

At this point in my budget we have a 3.9% for the schools.

Citizens Address

None

Town Manager Update Cont.

Mr. Lukes stated that the presentation of the Superintendent was on for March 27 it will be HMLD at 7:00PM.  All budget hearings are going to be held on Wednesday nights and that February 13th will be the Resource Profile at The Senior Center.

Real Estate Taxes Due: Real estate taxes are due Friday, February 1.  For more information please contact the Tax Collectors Office at (508) 210-5510.  The Tax Collector’s Office is located on the second floor of the Starbard Building, 1204 Main Street.  You can also pay your bill online through the Town’s website holdenma.gov

Central Mass Regional Public Health Quarterly Meeting: I and members of my administration will be attending the CMRPHA quarterly meeting this week where the topic for discussion and presentation will be blighted properties. As you know, we have taken what is essentially a zero tolerance stand toward blighted properties.  Our Director of Planning and Development has been doing an excellent job of working with property owners as well as Town Counsel and the Attorney General’s Abandoned Housing Initiative to combat issues in Holden as they arise.  Municipalities are required to go through a very long, often costly process in trying to combat abandoned/ neglected property but we have maintained that unless we are vigilant in addressing issues as they arise, blighted properties have a way of multiplying quickly in a community.  The CMRPHA meeting will provide incite to our staff for further work in this area.

I want to thank and congratulate the DPW and Emergency Management team for the storm response.  We were at the MMA in Boston and we had conference call with management person and we were going to activate solid meeting on Friday with the Light Dept/ DPW / Public Safety / Emergency Management and a good plan was in place in by Friday afternoon in case we did have power outage.  We knew that there were going to be cold temperatures and we had it set up with staff and volunteers.  Fortunate that we did not have the icing so we did not open warming centers. So thank everyone for their work on that and DPW for snow and ice

MMA: Mr. Lukes stated that he thought his was beneficial to everyone and that with all the seminars attended a lot of best practices were learned.  He thanked the Board of Selectmen for attending as well as the Assistant Town Manager as they were able to learn a lot from all those attending.

Mr. Lukes stated that the Baker Administration was going to engage in a few conference calls and give briefings on school finances.  He stated that he will be on the call that they will give details about taxes and the School Financial Bill and he will have more information after that call.

Chairman Herlihy asked if the Board could come in and sit for the call.

Mr. Lukes replied that they could and that he would let her know the times of these calls.

Chairman Herlihy asked if there had been a situation where the warming stations needed to be activated if they Town would have used the Code Red System.

Mr. Lukes replied that they would have used all means available to get the information out to the public.

Chairman Herlihy asked if the Town kept track of how many citizens were signed up for Code Red.

Mr. Lukes replied that they did but he did not have the information off the top of his head.

Selectmen Miscellaneous

Sel. Gibbs stated that Ag Com’s next meeting would be in the Senior Center and they would be discussing Fruit Trees.

Chairman Herlihy stated that the next DPW Facilities meeting was on February 25, 2019.

Sel. Kurtz stated that he agreed DPW did a great job during the storm.

Sel. Kurtz stated that February 1, 2019 was coming up and it was election season for the Town.  He stated that if anyone was interested in running for office they could reach out to the Board or Town Managers office to learn more.  He stated that School Committee, Board of Selectmen, Town Moderator, and a few others all had open seats.  He stated that he was happy to discuss the process and how to pull papers and run a campaign and that it was never too early to start this discussion.

Selectmen Minutes

None

Motion by Sel. Gibbs, seconded by Sel. Kurtz, it was UNANIMOUSLY VOTED TO ADJOURN THE JANUARY 22, 2019 BOARED OF SELECMEN MEETING AT 7:11PM.

APPROVED: ____3/4/19_________