Board of Selectmen, March 7, 2016
HOLDEN BOARD OF SELECTMEN
MEETING MINUTES
MARCH 7, 2016
6:30PM Memorial Hall
Present: Chairman Jeremy Kurtz, Anthony Renzoni, Kenneth O’Brien, Robert Lavigne, Tim Ethier
Others Present: Jacquelyn Kelly, Town Manager
Peter Lukes, Assistant Town Manager (6:31)
Liz Fotos, Town Recorder
Stephen Madaus (6:32PM)
Chairman Kurtz called the meeting to order at 6:30PM. The Board stood to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.
P. Lukes entered the meeting at 6:31PM.
- Appointments, Licenses, Permits
Ms. Kelly told the Board that there were two individuals up for appointments for the Historical Commission. She stated that this position is a Town Manager appointment with confirmation from the Board of Selectmen.
Motion by Sel. Renzoni, seconded by Sel. Lavigne, it was UNANIMOUSLY VOTED TO APPROVE MS. JANIS GAGE AND MR. STEVEN COOK TO THE HISTORICAL COMMISSION AS PRESENTED.
Sel. Ethier thanked them both for stepping forward.
Sel. Renzoni asked if Ms. Kelly conducted interviews in person for the positions.
Ms. Kelly replied that she spoke with them.
Sel. Renzoni asked Ms. Kelly to thank them on behalf of the Board.
Mr. Madaus entered the meeting at 6:32PM.
A motion was made by Sel. Renzoni to reappoint Bonnie Prescott to the Board of Registrars’ it was seconded by Sel. Lavigne, the motion was opened for discussion.
Sel. Ethier stated that he had spoken to a few people that said that it was their first time on the Board and that they had sat for twelve hours. He asked if this was the general situation or if they are given breaks.
Ms. Kelly replied that it was something that they would work with the Town Clerk about but that they could certainly take breaks.
Sel. Ethier stated they may have just been busy.
Motion by Sel. Renzoni, it was seconded by Sel. Lavigne it was UNANIMOUSLY VOTED TO REAPPOINT BONNIE M PRESCOTT TO THE BOARD OF REGISTRARS FOR A THREE YEAR APPOINTMENT EXPIRING MARCH 31, 2019.
Sel. O’Brien read a message from Marshall Horowitz, Chairman of the Town Committee into record. He stated the message speaks highly of the Town Clerk and operations.
- Discussion of Pool Passes for Child Care Workers
Sel. Renzoni stated that he did some research and that he did not want to examine all the rates because from what he gathered Holden Pool is the cheapest around for an all day water activity. He stated that he did want to discuss the addition of a nanny pass onto a family pass for the pool. He stated that he is at the pool a lot during the summer with his family and that there are times that out of town grandparents, hired nannies, family friends or others cannot take Holden kids to the pool because there is only 400 out of town passes given.
Sel. Lavigne stated that he knew that they had spoken about this a little in the past and he wanted to find a way to make a family friendly pass. He stated that his concern was a family of four with two working parents with a grandparent or nanny watching the kids and then the Town is asking them to increase their expense although they are Town residents. Sel. Lavigne stated that he was looking for a holistic approach to offer a plan that would include a nanny pass or if they are unable to do that to hold back a limited number of passes and given residents first dibs on them and then whatever is left over allow out of town residents a chance to purchase them. Sel. Lavigne stated that the Town did not build the pool for the people of Worcester or Rutland; it was built for Holden families.
Sel. Ethier asked if resident and non resident passes got sold out.
Ms. Kelly replied that only non resident passes get sold out.
Sel. Ethier asked if this was about the issue at the pool last year.
Ms. Kelly replied that was a different issue that related to a special needs child.
Sel. Ethier stated that there is no limit on people in town and he stated that his fear would be that most families would throw in an extra pass and then the Town was letting in people off the street. He stated that he doesn’t feel as though what was suggested would work and that it wasn’t enough to charge. He stated the pool makes money by selling passes.
Ms. Kelly stated that the daily rate was $10.
Sel. Lavigne stated that if the Town stayed with the price structure how it was, they could look at giving Holden residents some number of passes before it is open to the general population. He stated if it goes into the general lottery system with everyone else there is a chance that someone with no affiliation with the Town could get a pass over a nanny or grandparent for an actual town resident.
Ms. Kelly stated that it would be in addition to the 400 non resident passes already sold; she stated that at this point they don’t know how many of this type of pass would be purchased.
Sel. Lavigne asked if it would be the same price as out of town passes.
Chairman Kurtz stated that he thinks they need to bundle some type of nanny pass with a family pass. He stated that he does not think that $78 is the right price, but maybe half of that to make it more affordable for daycare workers. He stated the point of the pass being passed around is a concern and that he doesn’t want people to get these passes and sell them on the black market. He stated that the pass could be sold as part of the family pass and have a named user identified for a discounted rate.
Sel. Lavigne agreed. He stated that Ms. Morano had addressed a bunch of passes being sold on Craig’s List and that he thinks there needs to be a program with controls so that the Town does not lose out like they did in the past.
Sel. O’Brien stated that if they do have this additional pass that is being offered, it shouldn’t just be for nannies. He stated that it could be extended to cousins or grandchildren or things like that and could be a good opportunity for families that have visitors.
Sel. Renzoni stated that he thinks there could be a million different exceptions to this rule. He stated that he had brought this point up as a childcare option. He stated that there was no way to know how many people this was impacting until they do it. He stated that they can incrementally move forward and see the impact that it has this year. Sel. Renzoni stated that if there was a concern about fraud, they could talk about different color passes for the nanny or something else. He stated that he did not know what the answer was but that he felt it was something that should be fixed because Holden residents were impacted by it. He stated there are kids that are not able to take advantage of what Holden has because their parents are unable to make it. Sel. Renzoni stated that $78 is a lot and suggested maybe $28 additional on top of the $93 for the family pass. He stated that if there is fraud it can be dealt with as it happens.
Chairman Kurtz stated that the Director of Recreation Denise Morano was present; he asked if she would like to comment.
Ms. Kelly stated that they have heard what the Board has said and she and Ms. Morano will meet and put something together for the next meeting. She stated that they need an enforceable system.
Sel. Renzoni stated that Ms. Morano ran an exceptional operation and this was not brought up to criticize the operation.
Denise Morano was present. She stated that she understood the problem with the nanny pass but there needed to be a way to link that pass to the family one. She asked if she was going to allow that babysitter into the pool on Saturday or Sundays without the family. She stated a lot of things needed to be worked out for this to work out the way it was supposed to. Ms. Morano stated that parents do not have to buy a family pass if they do not want to or feel as though they will not be at the pool. She stated that she needed to look at everything from a revenue perspective too.
Sel. Renzoni stated that he did not think it was going to be that much. He said that he does not think that $78 is fair and that parents would often want to buy the family pass to enjoy the pool with their families on weekends. He stated that there is a way to figure this out but that he would leave that to Ms. Morano and Ms. Kelly.
Ms. Morano stated that it is widely advertised that if you’re expecting to have grandparents from out of town or something similar to purchase them a pass when they go on sale. She stated the passes don’t sell out April 1 but they do sell out fast and if someone wants them, they need to get there.
Chairman Kurtz asked if the pool runs into a capacity issue.
Ms. Morano replied that between the two pools there could be 823 people in the pool at the same time.
Chairman Kurtz stated that if they left the 400 non residents passes alone and then added ‘x’ amount of passes for nannies on top of those, the revenue would increase not decrease.
Ms. Morano agreed.
Chairman Kurtz stated that perhaps they could look into doing something like that and leaving the 400 non resident passes as is.
Ms. Morano stated that on hot days there have been 1500-1600 people at the pool. She stated that even on these days, there is not capacity in the actual pools at the same time.
Ms. Kelly stated that it was a self entity. She stated that there is revenue from the pool to consider.
Chairman Kurtz stated that time was a concern and he thanked them for working on the issue.
- Girl Scout Troop 30603 Town Wide Yard Sale
Sel. O’Brien stated that a bunch of the girls from Girl Scout Troop 30603 were at the meeting to talk about the Town Wide Yard Sale.
Isabel from Girl Scout Troop 30603 stated that there would be a Town wide yard sale on April 30th from 8AM to 2PM. She stated that the event would be held rain or shine and people could pay $20 to put their address onto a map. She stated the troop was raising money for troop activities and that anyone interested could visit jdispervo.com/yard sale.
Sel. O’Brien stated that for $20 you get your yard sale on the map or you can rent a table at the Town Hall spot for a certain price too.
Isabel stated to rent a table would be $25.
Sel. Renzoni thanked Troop 30603 for coming out.
- Citizens Address
Ken Mills, 255 Wachusett Street was present at the meeting. He stated that he was on the Wachusett School Committee and he wanted to let people know that the School Committee is considering taking up a resolution and he was asking the Selectboard to support the findings of that committee.
Sel. Ethier asked if Mr. Mills could highlight how that will affect the town positively.
Mr. Mills replied that the education committee will take this up next week but essentially they reorganized fines state wide structure deficiencies with special needs and health insurance so a lot of the towns were affected. He stated what the foundation budget review commission did was recommend increases to reflect the needs of special needs and insurance. He stated it would reflect an increase in Chapter 70 for structural deficiencies. He stated what they are asking for is to support the resolution to ask legislature to fund it.
Sel. Renzoni asked Mr. Mills to email that information to the Board as well.
No other citizens rose to speak at Citizens Address; Chairman Kurtz closed Citizens’ Address.
- Darryll McCall, Superintendent of Schools
Dr. McCall passed out a double sided paper. He stated that one of the things that they are doing as a school committee is giving towns the opportunity to put aside funds to purchase WiFi in the schools.
Dr. McCall stated that legal counsel put together this language for the Towns. He stated this was something that was discussed at the Town Managers meeting, and the School Committee supported this option and is handing it out to all the Towns.
Sel. O’Brien stated that he was in Rutland and he was met with some surprising hostility. He stated that they were mad about this and when he spoke about it he was told that Glenwood already has Chrome Books.
Dr. McCall stated that what is happening is that the region has not had a great budget over the past 7/8 years. He stated that one of the things that goes is technology. When that happens sometimes PTOs or PTAs go and purchase Chrome Books. He stated they will go and buy $8,000 Chrome Book Cart. He stated that Glenwood did that as did other schools in the region, but as a District that has not been done.
Sel. Ethier thanked Dr. McCall for coming to the meeting. He stated that there were some School Committee members present at the meeting; Ken Mills, Christina Smith, Tom Curran. He said that if there is a budget item that the Town Manager put in, he said it was the Board’s idea to contribute $300,000 to the Town schools, he said that they would come back with a plan. Sel. Ethier asked if there was any idea where they were going with that.
Dr. McCall stated that one of the things they were looking at was a different model with the WiFi infrastructure that will let the schools prepare for the future. He stated that they don’t have a heavy WiFi infrastructure and it becomes challenging to have systems running at the same time without WiFi.
Dr. McCall stated that one of the things that was being looked at was to look at putting heavy duty WiFi Internet into the three elementary schools. He stated those schools have spotty connections and they are not currently hard wired.
Sel. Ethier asked if Mountview would be wired correctly.
Dr. McCall confirmed it was.
Sel. Ethier stated that he has a hard time grasping that because Rutland did not support it; that Holden would be doing something that was not appropriate.
Dr. McCall replied that the School Committee is sending it out to all five Towns; the WiFi infrastructure resolution.
Sel. Ethier stated that then all towns could do the same thing.
Dr. McCall confirmed that.
Sel. Ethier stated that just because a different town did not have the option for a positive change, it would not make sense for Holden to handicap its kids. He stated that we should help our own kids if possible.
Dr. McCall replied that with the five towns, there needed to be a level of comparability. He stated if you were to say the town wanted to buy math or social studies books for one town’s elementary schools you couldn’t do that because the disparity would be glaring with one town over the other. He stated they thus looked at accessibility and looked to bolstering WiFi infrastructure for the future.
Sel. Lavigne asked that if a few towns move forward with this project and some decide not to, will the project still be able to proceed.
Dr. McCall replied that they would. He stated it is the plan for the district to all for WiFi in all buildings by 2021 so somewhere down the road; the District will end up putting WiFi in.
Sel. Lavigne replied that was his concern. He stated that if Holden decided to move forward with this and then three years down the road the other towns have not done this then Holden is going to end up footing the bill for the towns as well. He stated that from a Holden taxpayer standpoint, he does not want to pay 100% of our bill as well as 50% of the other town’s bills.
Dr. McCall replied that they had been mulling over it for months. He stated that this would accelerate the access for Holden children.
Dr. McCall stated that one of the first things that needed to happen is that the high school needs full access. He stated that we were probably one of the only high schools that didn’t have full access to WiFi.
Sel. Lavigne asked if the Town moves forward with this plan assuming the budget doesn’t pass, could Holden, assuming it’s passed in Holden, eventually take the difference between the two. Can the Town take that delta a put it toward these issues.
Ms. Kelly replied that it would depend on how it was presented at the meetings. She stated the short answer was maybe. She stated that she thinks the theory is that if Holden moves forward and appropriates money they could theoretically apply for some free cash but she couldn’t know that without the dollar amounts.
Ms. Kelly asked what the last line meant in their suggested resolution “…and in accordance with the regional agreement having said sums assessed to the Town of Holden…..” She asked if that related back to the regional agreement.
Dr. McCall stated that it went back to the wording in the regional agreement.
Sel. Ethier stated it would be a donation.
Dr. McCall stated that it would be a gift. He stated that legal counsel told them that the District could accept a gift from Holden and Holden could state where they would like that money to be spent.
Sel. Lavigne stated that the way he read it, it lays out what schools receive the money and it becomes for lack of a better term a one time special assessment through a budgeted item or the Town can buy and gift it to the District.
Sel. O’Brien stated that he echoed Sel. Lavigne’s concerns with the long term plan and with expanding infrastructure to other towns. He stated that especially given the fact that Holden’ now has Mountview; he asked Dr. McCall if he was concerned with the Holden kids getting a better quality of education compared to the other towns and does that create a problem within the district.
Dr. McCall said they look at it in terms of 18 years. He stated that 18 years ago Mountview was an old building. He stated that when Central Tree was built in Rutland, it was a state of the art building. He stated that no matter what gets built it’s never equal town to town just because they are not built at the same time. Dr. McCall stated that ultimately Mountview will open up and have 700 Chrome Books and WiFi and the infrastructure in place that will surpass everything that is currently in the District.
Sel. O’Brien stated that Dr. McCall didn’t seem too concerned.
Dr. McCall replied that he ultimately was not.
Chairman Kurtz asked if the School Committee had looked to see if there were any legal challenges with this gifting.
Dr. McCall replied that the legal counsel considered it fine.
Chairman Kurtz stated that he was concerned depending on how it was worded with the WiFi infrastructure; he stated that would not necessarily benefit the children. He asked if there could be some upgrading to desktops or include some Chrome Books in the gift; he stated he would like something more tangible that the children could use in today’s learning environment.
Dr. McCall stated that it is a good point. He stated that when they were looking at WiFi in a building it would allow students to BYOD (bring your own device). He stated that many teachers and students already have mobile devices ready to go. Dr. McCall stated that one of the things that was noticeable to him was that kids weren’t walking around with iPads/ Chrome Books. The learning was stationary. He stated that WiFi would give kids mobility with learning spaces. Dr. McCall stated that Mountview is going to be able to work like that because of the infrastructure in place. He stated that the District does have a pretty good program in place to replace aging computers with new computers and it is already part of the budget. He stated that the WiFi will allow students to bring their own devices in; he stated that they don’t want schools to be a place where you leave your technology at the door because you don’t have the access that is needed.
Chairman Kurtz asked if the District was going more towards Google, Chrome Books, Google Apps and things like that.
Dr. McCall stated that right now everyone has a GMAIL account and Google drives are used. He stated that everything is done through the drive and that they are already in the cloud based world. He stated that they are turning over the XP computers that are no longer updatable. Dr. McCall stated that they currently have 1,700 computers that they are in the process of restoring systems to up to date systems.
Sel. Ethier stated that he had worked at the high school and the wireless system was not adequate to cover the whole school. He stated that something needed to be updated to that building. Sel. Ethier stated that if Holden did spend $300,000 there will be pressure to have the other schools updated. He stated that he hoped they can find a way to do that and he felt that it would be a huge benefit to Holden’s kids. Sel. Ethier stated that a lot of towns don’t want to pay into a huge budget if the money is not for their own schools; maybe this will be a saleable proposition for those towns. He stated he felt this would be a positive thing.
Dr. McCall stated that he agreed with Sel. Ethier and he appreciated his service in the District. He stated that Mountview was the catalyst for this movement. Dr. McCall stated that it will be one of the most technologically advanced schools in the state and that they want to make sure that the kids from Mountview don’t go to a dinosaur with the high school. He stated it was an important aspect of what they were doing and that they were fortunate and the students were fortunate to have Mountview.
Sel. Renzoni stated that he was going to bring up the high school. He stated that people move here to go to the school district and there is a great middle school but that the Town is going to have problems coming out of Mountview if the issue is not addressed. He stated that the Superintendent from Monty Tech was at a meeting a few weeks ago and she announced that every students in her school was going to get a Chrome Book; he stated that applications went up from 5-25 since that time.
Dr. McCall stated that one of the things that they will speak to the Fin Com about is the per pupil expenditure. He stated that the District is going to need to spend more money on supplies and the day to day tools that kids need and teachers need to work with students. He stated it is hard when Clinton, Leominster, and other towns were all spending more money per pupil.
Chairman Kurtz thanked Dr. McCall for coming in.
- Town Manager Update
- Year to Date Revenue and Expenditure Reports: Ms. Kelly enclosed the monthly Revenue and Expenditure Reports for the period ending January 2016, prepared by Lori Rose, Town Accountant
- Rabies Clinic: There will be a Rabies clinic on Saturday, April 2, 2016 at the Public Safety Building rear parking lot. Cats should be brought in carriers to the clinic from 9-10AM; dogs, on leashes, should be brought from 10- 11AM. The cost is $13 per shot. If there are any questions, please contact the Animal Control Office at 508-210-5649.
- Summer Recreation: Holden Recreation passes will go on sale beginning Friday, April 1, 2016. Passes are required for admission to the pool, Eagle Lake, tennis courts, and to participate in all instructional programs at the Dawson Recreation area. A press release is attached with further information. There will be information and a brochure posted to the Town’s website and Facebook page and the booklets will be available in the near future.
- DPU Report Signature Page: Each year, the Light Department files an Annual Report with the MA Department of Public Utilities. It includes the enclosed page that is signed by the HMLD General Manager, Town Manager Jacquelyn Kelly and the Selectmen/ Light Commissioners. It is due by the end of March. The Town Manager recommend that the Selectmen sign the page.
Sel. O’Brien asked if they would be receiving a copy. Ms. Kelly verified they would be.
- DPW Monthly Reports: Ms. Kelly enclosed the DPW monthly reports for October, November, and December of 2015 and January of 2016, prepared by John Woodsmall, DPW Director
Sel. Lavigne asked when the Board will receive the copies of the feasibility study.
Ms. Kelly replied that she was not sure but that she would look into it.
Sel. O’Brien stated that he was not sure that he would be able to support it. He stated that he thinks that maybe he feels as though they have put the cart before the horse. He stated that it was his hope that they could get FinCom and the Board of Selectmen on board with a site and facility before moving forward. He stated that he thinks if they revisit the process that Mountview took, it was very public and he felt that was important. Sel. O’Brien stated that he felt that this was rushing things too much; he stated that he is concerned with this year and the budget with the impact of Mountview School and it is going to be compounded by asking about a DPW facility as well. He stated that the net result is that there is going to be a jump in the average bill. Sel. O’Brien stated that it is his view that the best process for the DPW building to be successful is to have a list that everyone can agree to and a design that everyone can agree on and then hold a Town Meeting or a Special Town Meeting and go to the Town and ask for support for the facility in that way. He stated it is clearly a building that needs to be built but that it is being rushed. He stated that he is not comfortable with the process how it is going right now and he is supportive of the project. He stated he was hoping to have some further discussion about this because he feels that it is an important project.
Chairman Kurtz stated that he would let Sel. Renzoni give an update and feedback as the representative to that committee but that the Board could schedule a more detailed time to have them come in and meet with the Selectmen as well.
Sel. Renzoni stated that a lot of Sel. O’Brien’s concerns were the committee’s concerns as well. He stated that they were moving forward cautiously and in specified phases, and are looking at firms and doing a feasibility study. He stated it is the desire of the Committee to progress like the Mountview project did and the Committee is working through it.
Ms. Kelly stated that she shares the concerns and agrees with them. She stated that the committee needs time to come up with a schedule and how they want to approach the project. She stated that there is a lot of strong people working on the Committee and they will be guided down a measured planning process. She stated that she doesn’t believe it is going to be rushed to the May Town Meeting. She stated that she knows public information is important to the Committee as well and that they share the concerns of the Selectboard. She stated that she is sure that the Committee will come in and discuss the process with the Selectboard at the appropriate time.
Chairman Kurtz stated that they were six months out from a fall special town meeting; he stated with Mountview they knew where they stood a year in advance. He stated that this project did feel very rushed. Chairman Kurtz stated he knew that Sel. Renzoni was on the Committee and he asked if they could come in informally to give an update, timeline, and tell the Board the stages they were thinking about.
Sel. Renzoni stated that he did relay that to the Committee and that they felt that he (Sel. Renzoni) as the liaison could report back to the Selectmen. He stated that they were in the beginning stages; design is the next phase they will be discussing and that they are using funds that were allocated eight years ago at this point. He stated that they are moving forward responsibly with those funds and when they have a decision about a few parcels of land, they will update, however right now they are really just looking at maps.
Sel. Ethier stated that he appreciated that they were moving forward deliberately and measured. He stated that he did see that they had put into the budget over a million dollars for the cost of the feasibility study and research.
Ms. Kelly stated that when she initially put a budget together she did include a capital number but she didn’t put an appropriation in. She stated it was more of a planning document and since she put that planning number in this year there was a change in the site evaluation. She stated that the plans that the Committee has gone through would probably change the number eventually, too.
Sel. Ethier stated that it was going to be an expensive year. He stated with the debt exclusion of Mountview, he said that he thinks that it makes sense to go slow so people don’t get shocked with the tax bill. He stated that if they could find a way to not spend the money right away it would make a lot more sense.
Ms. Kelly replied that they would not be doing that; it won’t be added because it was not budgeted.
Sel. O’Brien asked how the capital lien was funded.
Ms. Kelly replied the source of funding is other funds not taxes. She stated it was a planning number and numbers change. She stated she thinks it will be less.
Sel. O’Brien replied that it was from somewhere. He stated that it was one thing to put money into a stabilization fund so that some money would have an impact from savings. He said that one goal was to add to that so if the Town was spending from savings, they weren’t adding to it. He stated that he was not trying to be critical of the process; he just wanted to have clarity in it. He wanted to emphasize that the Town needs to be sensitive to it and have balance or people will be turned against the process. He stated he was concerned about the budget this year.
Sel. Lavigne stated that he agreed with Sel. O’Brien. He stated that he heard a lot about Special Town Meetings, and that he doesn’t feel that there is a need to have a special meeting. He stated he does not want to push this through.
Sel. Renzoni replied that he does not think that the Committee is expecting a Special Town Meeting. He stated there is no timeline and they are moving in phases deliberately; site, design, etc. He stated they are not aiming for any date at this point.
- Composting and Brush chipping: The DPW has scheduled dates for Spring Composting and Brush Chipping. Composting takes place at the former landfill site on River Street; the brushes shipping is done at the Adams Road DPW Facility, due to the Longhorn Beetle Quarantine area. The hours are 8 AM to 2:30 PM, weather permitting.
Saturday, April 16
Saturday, April 23
Saturday, April 30
Saturday, May 7
Saturday, May 14
Mr. Lukes told the Board that the Town was accepted to the Baker’s Initiative Community Compact and the tentative date to sign with the Lieutenant Governor is April 10, 2016. He stated that the Town will be a best practice and they will assist the Town in achieving best practices and in turn, they will give the Town access to grants and sometimes exclusive grants. Mr. Lukes stated they were very excited about this opportunity.
Chairman Kurtz asked where the May elections would be held.
Ms. Kelly replied that the May 9, 2016 polling would be at Mountview; she stated there is no traffic from facilities or buses so using the facility was feasible.
- Follow Up to Citizen’s Address
Sel. Lavigne thanked Ken Mills for the update.
- Selectmen Subcommittee
Sel. O’Brien stated that HMLD (Municipal Electric Power Advisory Board) has not met.
Sel. O’Brien stated that he had come across a program that recognized great performances for municipal employees. He stated that he thought this was something that should be done annually as the Town has a lot of great employees and they should be exposed to the public.
Chairman Kurtz asked if it made sense for the Board to sign a letter in support of these employees.
Ms. Kelly replied that she didn’t think it was necessary because the letter of support usually comes from their supervisors.
Sel. O’Brien replied it may be something they could do going forward.
Ms. Kelly replied she would draft a letter.
Sel. Ethier stated that Ag Com did not meet because of lack of a quorum.
Sel. Ethier stated that the Board of Health met and it was essentially in response to an inquiry. He stated he was impressed with the Board of Health and what they do. He said they were discussing a report about the biological catastrophe with the Zika Virus and other concerns. He stated that he learned that the high school was the evacuation location as well.
Sel. Lavigne stated that four years ago, there was a desktop exercise done for disaster recovery. He asked if there were any plans to do that again in the next few years.
Ms. Kelly replied that they had done emergency training with the schools and they have had exercises. She stated that CMRPC was a wider range of regional responses as well but that it wouldn’t hurt to do another in house one.
Ms. Kelly asked Chief Armstrong to reply.
Chief Armstrong stated that there is a working group with regards to bomb protocols and they are working toward drills as well. He stated that they had a meeting on the 16th with businesses and that they were working on that as well. He stated that everyone will be involved and they will update in the future.
Sel. Renzoni stated that he had already updated as the liaison to the DPW Building Committee.
Sel. Renzoni stated that the Veterans Advisory Committee met last week to discuss the Memorial Day Parade and that there will be more information in the future regarding the event.
Sel. Renzoni stated that there was no brief for the Water Sewer Advisory Committee.
Sel. Lavigne stated he had no updates.
Chairman Kurtz stated that the 275th Committee met last week. He stated that they were making plans for an additional event and they want to do a celebration with some sort of light show or fireworks. He stated two of the locations they were discussing were the high school or the CRA baseball fields and they were looking to do this in late September.
- Selectmen Minutes
Motion by Sel. Lavigne, seconded by Sel. Renzoni, it was VOTED TO APPROVE THE FEBRUARY 10, 2016 BOARD OF SELECTMEN MEETING MINUTES BY A VOTE OF 4-0-1 (Sel. Ethier: abstain).
- Selectmen Miscellaneous
Sel. O’Brien stated that the Holden Democratic Town Committee has their annual Good Neighbor Award on March 21, 2016. He stated that Margaret Watson, a long-time school committee member, and Ralph and Deb O’Brien-Thibodeau,
were all going to be awarded. He stated it was a great event and a lot of community people are involved. He stated that Sel. Ethier was going to emcee the event. Sel. O’Brien asked if the Chairman could work up some sort of recognition for the winners.
Sel. O’Brien thanked the Town Clerk and her employees for their work on the recent primary elections.
Sel. O’Brien stated that April 23, 2016 was opening day for little league and that last year, the 9 year olds won the state championships. He stated it would be great if the Town could get a high profile Red Sox Player to come to opening day. He said that he had tried to reach out to the Red Sox Foundation to see what could be done but called on everyone in Town to see if it could happen.
Sel. Ethier stated that he attended the grand opening for Sweets and Java and they are doing a great job. He stated it was an excellent local business.
Sel. Ethier stated that the high school hockey team was in the semi-finals and that the boys’ basketball team was beat by St. John’s. He stated that the girls’ basketball team was in the finals and that the track team had won district.
Sel. Ethier stated that on a sad note, Bob Johnson passed away; he stated he was quite a guy and did a lot for the Town.
Sel. Renzoni had no miscellaneous items.
Sel. Lavigne stated that he attended the ribbon cutting for Baked. He stated it was a nice store front with great food. He said it is the daughter of the person that owns Flip Flops and that everything tasted amazing.
Sel. Lavigne stated that nominations were still available until March 17, 2016; three for the Board of Selectmen, 1 for the moderator, and 2 trustees were up.
Sel. Lavigne stated that he knew since the Education Options Review Committee was approved there had been a more than usual interest from residents to serve on the Committee. He asked if they could start to schedule interview and make some choices on Committee members.
Sel. Renzoni suggested having a small subcommittee or working group to meet with these potential candidates; he stated that public interviews are difficult.
Chairman Kurtz agreed.
Sel. Renzoni suggested that Sel. Lavigne and Sel. Ethier conduct the interviews; they agreed.
Chairman Kurtz had no additional miscellaneous items. Next Meeting: March 31, 2016
Motion by Sel. Lavigne, seconded by Sel. Renzoni, it was UNANIMOUSLY VOTED TO ADJOURN THE MARCH 7, 2016 BOARD OF SELECTMEN MEETING AT 8:06 PM.
APPROVED: _____April 25, 2016______________