Selectboard Minutes

Town of New Salem Selectboard

Meeting Minutes

 February 7, 2022

Held Virtually via Zoom

Convened: 7:00 pm

Present: Randy Gordon, Wayne Hachey, Hugh Mackay, Selectboard; Kathy Neal, Town Coordinator; Joe Cuneo, Fire Chief; Stacey Senflug, Town Clerk; Claire McGinnis, Police Future Committee; Jen Potee, Board of Health; Amy Fagin, Zoning Board of Appeals; Sarah Kohler, Planning Board; Gail Spring, Animal Control Officer; Nancy Slator, New Salem News; Rose Lyman; Marny Ashburne; Kathy Ronchi; Pat Rapinchuk

Selectboard Reviewed & Signed the Following:

• Payroll & Vendor Warrants

Discussion Items

Update from Police Future Planning Committee

Claire begin by outlining some of the progress. A survey is just about ready to go out. A budget will be needed, roughly about $400. It will be mailed to all households in town. She then elaborated on the schedule that’s been set by the committee with the intention for a formal recommendation to the Selectboard ready by January of 2023. Claire then asked if the Town Hall would be available for a hearing in the middle of April. This would require undoing some of winterization, primarily relating to the restrooms. Wayne noted we usually are in good enough shape to open up in April anyway. He saw no reason not to open for such a hearing. He then expressed the feeling that the Selectboard has sufficient funds to cover the $400 request for the mailing of the survey. He noted the Selectboard has the budget and seeing as how this is committee was created by the Selectboard for this purpose, that it should cover it. Claire agreed to research whether the funds are present. Randy supported the idea, but wanted to ensure the funds were verified to be present. He suggested a caveat. Hugh noted he sits on this committee and felt it appropriate to abstain from any decision to fund the committee’s activities.

A motion was made by Wayne to authorize the Police Future Planning Committee to fund the $400 mailing with the caveat of the funds being available and should they not be that the appropriation be determined to come from other funds. Randy seconded the motion and it passed by majority vote with Hugh abstained.

Update from Website Committee

Hugh reported that the test site exists, essentially in “sandbox” mode. Civic Plus creates this so that you can see and test out the website prior to its launch. He then shared the site so those present at the meeting could see it. Several pictures have been donated from citizens for the background. The new website will have an online payments option, and various others that make sense for the town such as minutes and information on the Transfer Station. There will be a full calendar for the town for things like meeting postings and town events. Various items have been added and there are now department pages. The Library, for example, will keep its own website but will still have a department page that will link to it and which may have information they can post there. He noted you can click on the towns seal which will return you to the home screen. There will be a News & Announcements feature and the ability to subscribe. Nancy then asked if a link could be included for the New Salem News. Hugh noted there’s already a page for it and a link can be added. Randy asked if archived versions of the New Salem News can be posted. Hugh responded it should be possible to do. He suggested the link for subscribing could be added to the area for people to subscribe to items from the website as well. There’s a number of ways that it could be done. Claire then asked whether there would be training for town employees who would update various pages. Hugh affirmed that indeed there will be training. Civic Plus usually offers one session for all employees when the site is first launched. Then they provide various training videos that can be referenced. They also have a great support team.

The other thing to work out is who will be designated in each department or for each committee for maintaining their pages. Wayne suggested adding a few other departments noting that Highway Dept. should have a page. Otherwise he felt the website looked good. Stacey asked if there would be anyone as an overall administrator of the website. Hugh suggested Kathy should be the primary person, and perhaps 2 or 3 other people designated as backups. Hugh then highlighted the ability for the town to post forms and a whole variety of items and resources on the website. Wayne suggested we have a page linking to FRCOG. They do a lot of work for the town that’s most often overlooked. Hugh suggested we could link to their website. Claire interjected to submit a quick link to the FRCOG’s website would be best. She noted she works for them and they are also rebuilding their website. She then noted a number of ways to publish information suggesting various materials provided by the FRCOG could be placed on the website where it makes sense. Hugh then briefly went over a few other benefits to Civic Plus’s technology noting how easy some features should be for town employees. Amy then asked for past town meeting warrants to be included. We could seek grant funding from FRCOG to digitize them.  

Request from Amy Fagin Regarding Solar Panels

Amy reported on some information regarding the National Grid distribution for our Schedule Z and the towns solar system. The Schedule Z is disjointed and the credits are skewed. National Grid isn’t willing to assist in reformulating the Schedule Z. Further, we actually have another town as a stakeholder in this and we need their permission, per National Grid, to update the Schedule Z. She then noted another related matter regarding the inspection of the towns solar panels. A lot of things can go wrong with panels and she wasn’t certain if we are monitoring them properly. She recommended we find someone to inspect them and to report back to the town. She noted a field in Greenfield that suffered issues from a lack of monitoring and went unnoticed for about a year. Wayne concurred in that concern noting we really need to monitor them to ensure things are functioning properly. He asked an item be added to a future agenda to sit with the Energy Committee. Kathy reminded that the primary committee member couldn’t make it for this meeting but may be able to make it to the next meeting. She may have something to report on this.

Board of Health Update

Jen reported that she hasn’t heard back from the engineer Chris Stoddard. The timeline for his work isn’t in line with the request. It may take some time to get things fully sorted out. She noted she’s provided information regarding similar work from the past. The situation at Swift River Elementary appears to be very unique and will take the right people with the right equipment to determine the problem and a fix. She conceded that all parties are interested in this getting done. As long as we’re moving on this DEP is satisfied. Wayne concurred noting that DEP just wants to see a resolution and that we’re working towards it. She then went over some of Chris’s reports to DEP on this. They are aware that he’s our engineer for this. She stressed that he’s concluded that drilling another well is also not likely given the land we have. Wayne felt it likely that there will be more attention on this going forward and noted that both abutters are open to allowing the town to drill a new well for the school. He didn’t think that a new well isn’t an option. Randy reminded that Wendell has requested that New Salem join them in approving the funds for a company to send a camera down. They tend to agree that with Chris Stoddard’s initial query about whether it’s the well casing that is the issue. Wayne reminded that part of this issue could be related to other factors as well. Jen noted one option that Chris has mentioned is pumping down the well a bit to see what the test results are after it’s refilled. But that likely can’t be done until April. She acknowledged that all parties are anxious, but we need to be patient. Randy returned to the camera option asking what the support level is. Hugh expressed support, but also wished to have an idea of the cost. He didn’t want the town to just jump into something. Again he stressed support for the idea. Wayne noted the cost really shouldn’t be that high. He felt confident with a few bids it shouldn’t be over a thousand or so. It’s a fairly simple process. As long as we’re moving this down the road and the levels are dropping and DEP sees us working on it then we’re in good shape. Kathy interjected to remind that we have an earmark from the Commonwealth to support resolving this problem. So we likely have funds. Hugh put forward a motion in support with a cap. He initially proposed $2,500. Wayne concurred with the motion but felt $1,500 to be a more prudent cap. He further recommended that we ask Chris Stoddard for a quote as well. He should have an idea of the cost. Jen felt that the $2,500 would be a better figure as a cap. It was so agreed. Jen then turned to some good news relating to the pandemic. Numbers are coming down. We all must remain vigilant, but things are going a bit better. She’s had a lot of questions about the town’s mask mandate. Board of Health is revisiting its mandate every month at the ordinary meetings. At the moment things are looking up. Still, COVID isn’t going away. So we may be able to lift the mask mandate, but it may not be until spring.

A motion was made by Wayne to approve up to $2,500 for the purposes of scheduling and conducting a camera investigation as needed with authorization to expend the funds granted to Jen Potee and the Board of Health. The motion was seconded by Hugh and passed unanimously.

ARPA Funds Discussion  

Joe began by reporting on his formal proposals for the generators. Wayne noted the request is for $70,000 so it would need to go out to bid. Joe responded that is correct as it would fall under the provisions of Chapter 30B. Wayne noted that the fuel cost seems a bit high as far as what’s been quoted. He expressed concern about ensuring we don’t get overcharged. Joe noted that we could buy the tank which would lower the costs and he actually is recommending we do so. He then went over some various verifications he went through on the quote including talking to various other companies about components. Wayne turned to the noise pollution. The generator type quoted would have a low decimal level and he expressed approval of that. Wayne then noted that the Library’s costs for its propane heating. It seems to really vary depending on how much you use. Joe concurred and noted the Library doesn’t own its tanks. They have AmeriGas. He stressed that the meaningful cost for this is the cost of the generator. Wayne conceded a lot of that cost isn’t just the generator in each instance but also the electrical costs for wiring them in. Hugh stressed that the propane tanks will be separate from any generator. Whether we buy the tanks or rent them. Joe noted we don’t have any current contracts that we can tell for propane. The amount we use in the town is so small we don’t go out to bid on it. But ideally if we have one or more generator then we might be able to go out to bid and obtain cheaper prices on the propane in the summer. But if you don’t buy the tanks then you are locked into the vender that supplies the tank. Wayne noted the cost for the tanks is usually around $2,200 or so. Hugh suggested then not including the tanks in any RFP relating to the generators as they can be separated given what Joe is saying. Hugh then asked if all parties were in agreement to spend ARPA funding on this. He noted that it’ll be close to a year before we’d obtain it with the pandemic backlog. He also expressed reservations over the $70,000 cost. Wayne thought that number to be accurate.

Joe concurred noting he has a full quote. We’d still have to go out to bid, but that’s todays numbers. Hugh suggested that’s really an estimate at this stage. Wayne suggested consulting Capital Improvement and vetting with the Finance Committee. Claire noted that traditionally grant funds are outside of the general fund budget that runs the rest of the town. Historically the Finance Committee is just charged with that general town budget. Grant funds are usually between the departments and the Selectboard. This is an exceptional chunk of money granted to the town so it is different. That said the Finance Committee hasn’t traditionally had a role here and the Selectboard is the body charged with this. She’s heard of other towns creating ad hoc committees to vet proposals for ARPA funding expenditures. But others are just deciding to expend the funds on the projects of the highest need. Joe noted that these truly are at the disposal of the Selectboard to decide. Hugh asked Kathy if any other departments have requested use of ARPA funds. Kathy responded that only a few others. A few requests have been received. Broadband has asked for some last mile funds. The Police Dept. has asked about first responder premium pay. There was also a question about the Swift River PFAS amelioration. But for the last item it looks like we now have an earmark from the Commonwealth for that. Hugh suggested we cap what can be spent on the generator idea, specifically the Fire Station. That way we know we have funds left out of what has been allocated to the town for other departments and other needs. Randy suggested we get the quotes before we expend the funds. Hugh responded that for RFPs and Chapter 30B we have to have funds committed. Randy then reminded that we have 3 years to spend the funds and there is no need to rush. He felt that we should not rush to make decisions. Kathy suggested sending out emails to public bodies again.

Old Academy Building

Randy noted there aren’t any updates on this topic and therefore determined to skip it.

Discuss Date of Next Meeting due to Presidents Day Holiday

Randy asked if the meeting should be shifted to February 22, 2022. Hugh and Wayne were in favor of this idea and so it was so agreed. The next meeting of the Selectboard will be on Tuesday, February 22, 2022 at 7 pm.

Minutes

The Selectboard reviewed the minutes for January 24, 2022. The Selectboard saw no reason not to accept them as written and determined to do so.

A motion was made by Hugh to approve the minutes of January 24, 2022 as written. Wayne seconded the motion and it passed unanimously.

Executive Session

Stacey in her capacity as Town Clerk reported she has been contacted by various Commonwealth level officials in regards to matters that may be covered by the Executive Session. She asked to be included in any discussion relating to those requests. Kathy noted the Selectboard could invite the Town Clerk. Randy was uncertain about the logistics of that given the fact that there are three sessions. Kathy made a few suggestions about how to manage the logistics via the virtual system being utilized (Zoom). Subsequent the following motions were adopted:

A motion was made by Hugh Mackay to enter into Executive Session pursuant to MGL Chap. 30A, Section 21(3) regarding litigation as the towns position may be compromised if it was not held in executive session. Further that there be intent to enter another Executive Session thereafter. Randy Gordon seconded the motion and it passed with Hugh Mackay, Randy Gordon, and Wayne Hachey voted in favor as well.

A motion was made by Hugh Mackay to enter into Executive Session pursuant to MGL Chap. 30A, Section 21(1) regarding personnel. Further that there be intent to enter another Executive Session thereafter. Randy Gordon seconded the motion and it passed with Hugh Mackay, Randy Gordon, and Wayne Hachey voted in favor as well.

A motion was made by Hugh Mackay to enter into Executive Session pursuant for the purposes of complying with or acting under the authority of the Public Records Law (MGL Chapter 66) in accordance with MGL Chapter 30A §21(a)7 and that further there be no intent to return to ordinary session thereafter. Randy Gordon seconded the motion and it passed with Hugh Mackay, Randy Gordon, and Wayne Hachey voted in favor as well.

Executive Session entered into at 8:21 pm.

A motion to adjourn at 10:13 pm was made by Randy. The motion was seconded by Wayne and passed without objection.

Respectfully Submitted

Jakob K. Hamm, Selectboard Clerk