Board of Selectmen, November 13, 2017
HOLDEN BOARD OF SELECTMEN
MEETING MINUTES
November 13, 2017
6:47PM Starbard Building
Present: Chairman Robert Lavigne, Geri Herlihy, Anthony Renzoni, Tim Ethier, Jeremy Kurtz (7:08PM)
Others Present: Peter Lukes, Town Manager
Liz Fotos, Town Recorder
Chairman Lavigne called the meeting to order at 6:47PM.
Town Manager Goals
Chairman Lavigne stated that the first goal they wished to set was to develop a plan for full use and development of 18 Industrial Drive.
Sel. Renzoni stated that the scope of this goal was huge and that it was a lot of work.
Mr. Lukes stated that it is phases; the first Town Meeting would be with regards to facilities and fields and then the next year to clear up some of the wetlands flood plane issues and move from there. He stated it would take some time.
Chairman Lavigne stated that they wanted to see a plan about what Mr. Lukes envisioned.
Sel. Ethier stated that there were many potential uses and could even be looked at for a school down the line.
Chairman Lavigne stated that second goal that he wanted to discuss was development of a Capital Asset Management Plan.
Sel. Renzoni agreed and stated that he feels as though the Towns capital assets float around and he wanted to see a goal attached to them. He stated that each department seems to have someone else responsible for the maintenance plan of the location and there was no one place that the information was gathered
Chairman Lavigne stated that there was no plan in place. He asked how this matter was overseen; he stated that with all the capital assets, buildings, trucks, equipment, etc. there needed to be an inventory and a plan created with regards to maintenance and replacement.
Sel. Renzoni stated he was more concerned with the buildings. He stated that it came up with the school district and the Regional Agreement when an audit was conducted and that he thinks it would be helpful throughout the Town. He stated the Town owns properties and there is no one person designated to maintaining and looking after them.
Mr. Lukes stated that everything was degrading, he stated that the departments all talk about the useful life of things.
Sel. Ethier asked if that was the responsibility of the department heads.
Sel. Herlihy stated she thought it would be beneficial to have because they could then keep Fin Com informed for financial planning purposes.
Chairman Lavigne stated that Mr. Lukes should look at it from a five-year planning standpoint. He stated they don’t know what is happening in five years and in order to plan they needed this.
Mr. Lukes stated that he does a five-year Capital Planning. He stated that it was just with department heads though, not contractors. He stated the schools were the black hole because there was not anyone on site to do this.
Chairman Lavigne stated that this may warrant a consultant to come in on a one time basis and develop a plan and then it would be up to them to execute and maintain it.
Mr. Lukes replied that was a controversial discussion.
Sel. Ethier asked if that would make sense for an Assistant Town Manager to take hold of.
Mr. Lukes replied they would need construction/ industry expertise.
Chairman Lavigne stated that the Board was going to set the goal and it was up to the Town Manager to execute it how he saw fit be it with a consultant, an Assistant or otherwise.
The Board agreed with setting this as a goal.
Chairman Lavigne stated that the third goal he wanted to discuss was taking the report from the Education Option Committee and developing a proposal. He stated that one of their recommendations was to develop a grant system to Holden teachers. He stated that he was interested in having Mr. Lukes come up with the framework around how this could happen.
Sel. Renzoni stated he would like this to have Mr. Lukes take any feasible portion of the report from the Education Option Committee and bring it forward.
Chairman Lavigne stated that he did not find all of their findings useful.
Sel. Ethier stated that he agreed about the grants but he liked the Ed Op’s first proposal to create a fund and use it. He stated that he knows that it would involve legal matters and the state but that he wanted to bring this back to the Board regardless and discuss it further. He stated that he did agree with the grants as well.
Sel. Renzoni stated that he did not agree with the money left over going into an account. He stated that he feels as thought if they set it as a goal they are acting with certainty and he does not know if it is worth their time as a Board or the Town Manager’s time.
Mr. Lukes stated that the matters with the state were extremely complicated issues and they would also include FinCom. He stated that what they were discussing was different then allocating funds to education. He stated what Sel. Ethier was discussing was an overage not an allocation.
Chairman Lavigne stated that it did not need to be done as a gift.
Mr. Lukes stated that they were speaking about different things and they needed to make sure that what they were doing did not defy the spirit of the Regional Agreement.
Chairman Lavigne stated that a teacher could approach the Board and apply for something and they could then allocate money to that project.
Sel. Renzoni stated that he would support a proposal but not a budget item at this point.
Chairman Lavigne stated he did not want to put a timeline on it but the goal would be to develop a proposal. He stated the way that he was seeing it was that once it is funded, a teacher could come to the Board instead of the Town Manager for up to X amount of money to work with and the Board could allocate funds for a project. He stated he just wants to make sure it would work before they fund it.
Mr. Lukes stated that if the principal came to him, it could go into a budget.
Chairman Lavigne replied it would be a gift but it should be sustainable and breed innovation in the classroom in order to get the funds.
Sel. Renzoni stated that he was in if it was to develop a plan. He stated his only objection was that they needed to know if they could do it.
Chairman Lavigne agreed.
Mr. Lukes stated he would need to work with Town Counsel and the School District’s Administration.
Sel. Kurtz entered the meeting at 7:08PM.
Chairman Lavigne told Sel. Ethier that if the Board met in a few weeks and he had new information to present that everyone agreed on, they could adjust the goal for the Town Manager.
Sel. Ethier replied that he wanted to research what was needed with the state under current laws. He stated that he was currently looking into it and asked the Chair if he could present it to the Board in January or February before the budget. He stated at that time he may have more information as to what was involved.
Chairman Lavigne stated they could discuss it and that January was fine.
Chairman Lavigne stated that so far the Board had agreed on 1) Full use and development of 18 Industrial Drive; 2) Capital Asset Management Plan, an inventory on what the Town has and what was needed to be done to maintain it; and 3) Develop framework around grants for teachers consistent with the EOC reports mini grants.
Chairman Lavigne stated that the fourth goal he wished to discuss was to phase out town vehicles and reduce the fleet. He stated that other than Police and Fire and the Town Manager by contract he did not know why any other town employee needed a town hehicle. He stated he is not saying to call the cars in but as they started to roll off, to let them.
Sel. Renzoni stated that even with the town employees that receive cars, they did not need to drive the vehicles home. He stated that use during the day was different and that it was an investment with gas, insurance, etc.
Mr. Lukes stated it was a competitive thing with other towns that helped with recruiting. He stated that it could lead the Town to not attract the same level of candidate.
Chairman Lavigne asked what the cost was to the Town to keep vehicles on the road with insurance and gas. He stated if it was $10,000 he would rather consider a $5,000 salary bump.
Sel. Renzoni stated he was not in favor of getting rid of all cars but to look and see what the Town did have.
Mr. Lukes stated that he understands that there was interest in reducing the cars that were not needed. He stated they need to reevaluate the fleet and look to make it more efficient.
Sel. Renzoni stated that they should also look at the policies that were associated with town vehicles. He asked if there was a policy.
Mr. Lukes replied that there was not one but there should be.
Chairman Lavigne stated that they should develop a policy surrounding this.
Sel. Kurtz stated that some employees had them but they did not need to leave the Town.
Sel. Renzoni stated that the purpose of the goal was to evaluate the fleet and develop a policy surrounding it.
Chairman Lavigne stated that the fifth goal that was bought up was a Master Plan Refresh.
Sel. Herlihy asked if that was with the population study.
Sel. Renzoni stated that he proposed this as a goal now because if they start it now it won’t be a document for over a year. He stated the Master Plan did a lot for the community in terms of showing where the Town and the leadership of the town wanted it to go.
Sel. Ethier stated that the Town spent a lot of money on this; he stated he had previously voted against it.
Chairman Lavigne stated that if you read the Master Plan there was some things that were able to be done and some things that were ignored. He stated that it was a good idea to refresh it because it was outdated.
Sel. Ethier stated that some recommendations were ignored.
Sel. Renzoni stated that there was an Implementation Committee as well but the problem was that they had no authority over people.
Chairman Lavigne stated they re zoned Main Street as well.
Mr. Lukes stated the update would not be the same magnitude as the original report.
Sel. Renzoni stated he was in on this as a goal. He stated that if you did not know where you were going as a town it was not good. He stated the Growth and Population Study would fall into this.
Sel. Renzoni asked if this would take money or if they could do it in house.
Mr. Lukes replied it could be done in house and with the assistance of CMRPC. He stated they were doing the Growth and Population Study and Building Analysis.
Chairman Lavigne stated that they should set up a Committee to explore the dissolution option that the EOC presented. He stated that the EOC said that they should consider a Committee that would look at how to revise the Regional Agreement and have K-8 out of the regional district.
Sel. Ethier stated that the Ed Op Committee looked at the Regional Agreement. He stated that they determined it would take all the towns to vote out; however, they did say that the Agreement is reviewed every three years.
Sel. Renzoni stated that further exploration would be needed. He stated that they could look at the Regional Agreement and establish a Committee.
Chairman Lavigne stated that they could look to see if there was an easier option to leave.
Chairman Lavigne stated that was all the goals that were provided to him, he asked the Board if they had anything further that was not yet submitted.
Sel. Ethier stated that the Town Manager had mentioned a research process that was needed to keep Main Street clear of leaves. He stated that a DPW worker needed to be certified because it was a state road.
Mr. Lukes replied that was in the process and Dennis Griffin was going to go for training by DCR and DEP and hopefully that would be completed by next spring.
Sel. Ethier asked about Eagle Lake.
Chairman Lavigne left the meeting at 7:32PM.
Sel. Ethier stated that regarding Eagle Lake, it was not maintained. He stated years ago it would have been maintained because it was a recreation area. He stated now there were things broken and falling apart and that they should at least dump clean sand.
Chairman Lavigne stated that the Eagle Lake Committee was going to come to the Board with a report showing the cost to make Eagle Lake useable again. He stated he was not sure that they were at the point where they could set it for a goal yet.
Sel. Renzoni stated that routine clean up should be done.
Sel. Ethier asked if the Rec. Department was supposed to fix some of the problems. He asked if it was a liability. He stated that they needed to shut it down or clean it up and that every year the Recreation Department had a huge surplus but did not spend any money on Eagle Lake.
Mr. Lukes replied that it needed to go through the legal processes and that the Committee needed to get the Board a plan before repairs be made as they could be doing something that was counterproductive.
Sel. Kurtz stated that there was a plan to drain the lake that was discussing playing fields.
Mr. Lukes replied that there would need to be a plan for reuse regardless.
Sel. Kurtz stated that Eagle Lake could be part of the Building Plan/ Facilities Management plan. He stated it was a Town Resource and could be added to that list.
Sel. Kurtz stated that the only added goal he had was about the old DPW Facility at Adams Road.
Sel. Herlihy asked about pedestrian access through Adams Road.
Mr. Lukes suggested piggybacking the old facility onto Goal 1: 18 Industrial Drive and making it one goal.
Sel. Herlihy suggested having pedestrian access.
Sel. Renzoni stated he did not feel as though pedestrian access was a town problem but did think the redevelopment of the old facility should be included onto goal 1.
Sel. Renzoni asked Mr. Lukes about the budget.
Mr. Lukes replied he sent a quarterly report with line items to FinCom.
The Board agreed on the six goals presented.
Motion by Sel. Renzoni, seconded by Sel. Kurtz, it was UNANIMOUSLY VOTED TO ADJOURN THE NOVEMBER 13, 2017 BOARD OF SELECTMEN MEETING AT 7:42PM.
APPROVED: ____January 2, 2018_____________