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BOARD OF SELECTMEN
MEETING MINUTES
3/1/11
47-fists
The Board of Selectmen met in the Town Hall, Joseph F. Bilotta Meeting Room as scheduled with Steven M. deBettencourt, Ernie
Sund, Tom Alonzo, Dave Matthews and Town Manager Kerry Spieled present, Paula Bertram absent. Meeting opened at 7:14 P.M
with the Pledge of Allegiance
PUBLIC COMMENT
Christopher Comeau, Chairman of the Board of Assessors announced that their office has installed a new Cartographics system which
is now on line. The installation has been approximately ten years in the making, maps were done first and then a number of overlays
have been incorporated which includes photos of properties, satellite overlays and topographical maps. This program enables the
public as well as town departments to access all the Assessor's records so that they can view all property record cards, evaluations,
various layers such as the sewer overlay district, zoning overlays (districts), wetlands etc.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
APPOINTMENTS
1. 7:15 PM - Interview - Zachary Cutting, Green Community Task Force - of 337 Page Street came before the board for a brief
interview. He attended FU, degree in Construction Technology, is an Eagle Scout, feels strongly about doing everything that he can
to support our community and wants to do everything he can to make the environment a better place for future generations. Board
expressed appreciation of his interest in serving the town. Tom move to approve appointment of Zachary Cutting, Dave second, voted
unanimously.
CURRENT BUSINESS
1.
Boston Post Cane - Doreen Noble explained the history of the Boston Post Cane, tradition In August 1909, Mr. Edwin A.
Grozier, Publisher of the Boston Post, a newspaper, forwarded to the Board of Selectmen in 700 towns in New England a gold-headed
ebony cane with the request that it be presented with the compliments of the Boston Post to the oldest male citizen of the town, to be
used by him as long as he lives (or moves from the town), and at his death handed down to the next oldest citizen of the town. The
cane would belong to the town and not the man who received it. The canes were all made by J.F. Fradley and Co., a New York
manufacturer, from ebony shipped in seven-foot lengths from the Congo in Africa. They had a 14-carat gold head two inches long,
decorated by hand, and a ferruled tip. The head was engraved with the inscription, Presented by the Boston Post to the oldest citizen
of Lunenburg --. "To Be Transmitted" The Board of Selectmen were to be the trustees of the cane and keep it always in the hands of
the oldest citizen. In 1930, after considerable controversy, eligibility for the cane was opened to women as well.
The custom of the Boston Post Cane took hold in those towns lucky enough to have canes. As years went by some of the canes were
lost, stolen, taken out of town and not returned to the Selectmen or destroyed by accident. Lunenburg had lost their cane for a number
of years but is was located and is now on display in the Eagle House Senior Center. We now nave a symbolic presentation and a
representative replica pin of the cane and certificate are now issued to the recipients of this prestigious award. In 1994 the Board of
Selectmen at that time transferred responsibility along with the passing along of the Boston Post Cane to the Council on Aging. The
first recipient of the Boston Post Cane was Luke Chase, for whom "Chase Road" is named. Our most recent recipient was Lucia Ross
and she received the cane on December 14, 2004. Mrs. Ross passed away in December 2011. Doreen has researched with the Town
Clerk on who is now the oldest citizen in town and she is Ruth E. Green who turned 100 on November 21st. She asks that this board
acknowledge that Mrs. Green would be the recipient of the Boston Post Cane and as such they have planned a reception for her next
Monday, March 7 at 1:00 PM at the Eagle House Senior Center and asks that a member of the Board attend to present a certificate to
Mrs. Ruth Green. There will also be a citation issued to her as well from the House of Representatives. Mrs. Green has been a resident
of this town for the past 39 years and been involved in various activities. Steve commented that he has been her snow plow driver for
the past 30 years and hoping to live as long as she has, this is fitting for her to receive the Boston Post Cane and it's fortunate that we
still have ours. Dave move to congratulate and award Mrs. Green the Boston Post Cane, Tom seconded, voted unanimously.
2. Review RFP for Solid Waste & Recycling Program (tentative) - Kerry informed the board that our current contract expires on
June 30, 2011 and we are beginning the process for bidding a new contract. One of the questions that has been repeatedly asked has
been on the costs of recycling portion as well as the trash program, as the recycling is open to all residential properties and the trash
portion is funded through the PAYT program. We will require with this new contract to submit what the costs of each component are,
however, not sure how sharp that cost will be. She noted that solid waste is not required to be bid through regular procurement laws,
but we still go through this process. Work with Tessa David, MassToss and she's' been working very closely with us to put this
document together. Dave when we're splitting out the costs, be sure that the vendors realize that we're going to do both with the same
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vendor and not splitting out as this could increase the cost. Steve we're not changing the bid, we want one vendor and it will not
necessarily be awarded to a vendor that is lowest on the recycling.
3. Minutes - Board of Selectmen Regular session for 1/16/10, 2/8/11, 2/10/11, 2/15/11 and Executive Session for 2/8/11 & 2/15/11
reviewed and signed
Warrants - #47 11, 2/22/11 - $514,677.44, #48 11, 3/1/11 - $410,066.58 and #18P 11, 3/3/11 - $627,686.34 reviewed and signed.
Action File Issues - None
Dave questioned the status on backups for the Ritter Building and according to Kerry, the IT Director provided information that when
she came there were no backups being performed at all on any of our systems. This issue has been addressed and backups are now
being done on a regular basis.
4. Committee Updates -
> Dave budget working group met informally last night, informational meeting. School Committee and Superintendent attended with
Tom and Dave. Discussed trying to cross utilize people in the areas of technology, human resources, facilities and grounds to see
if we can achieve a more consolodated effort town wide as opposed to spliting it in two. Also discussed health insurance, how we
were going to report that in the future. The School Committee would like to see it put under one umbrella instead of having it split
out so people know what it's costing the town in total over the year as it's a significant piece of the budget. Also spoke about plan
design. The Superintendent is going to be putting together a budget to try to close the gap between the Town Manager's Budget
and the School Committee budget.
• Tom Finance Committee meets this Thursday. Would request that from now until Town Meeting that "budget" be placed on the
agenda under Old Business, as this will be a topic that will be ongoing from now until Town Meeting.
5. Department Updates - None
6. Town Manager Updates -
> Kerry has received the contract for the grant that town received from MRPC for Summer Street, outlines scope of services and has
been reveiwed by Town Counsel (no issues). A staff meeting has been scheduled for March 8th to discuss how we will kick this
project off.
• There are 2 Eagle Scout Honor Courts coming up within the next several weeks. Both have requested that a member of the BOS
be in attendance. Please let Linda know if you will be able to attend one or the other so that she can inform the families. The
events are as follows: Sunday, March 27, 2011 at 1:00 p.m.; at United Parish Hall for Benjamin Morse Grossman and Saturday,
April 9, 2011 for Daniel John Paquette
• The MMA sent out a request that as many local officials as possible attend the hearing and testify in support of swift passage of
strong legislation to give cities and towns the tools to control skyrocketing health insurance costs, they are looking for strong public
support and she would like to attend to provide testimony. The Legislature's Joint Committee on Public Service has scheduled the
public hearing on municipal health insurance reform for 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, March 8 in Gardner Auditorium at the State
House. This public hearing is an important event, and it is imperative that as many local officials as possible attend the hearing and
testify in support of swift passage of strong legislation to give cities and towns the tools to control skyrocketing health insurance
costs. Noted that we do work dilegently with our Public Employee Committee (PEC) and has been working well together, noted
that as of July 1st we'll be going to 75/25 of cost sharing split between the town and employees.
She has had discussions with the PEC during the last budget season on the tiering proposal for health insurance coverage and in
almost all instances employees would be saving about 10% with little or no effect on their current providers. The town's costs are
higher than the schools as we cover all of the town departments as well as all of the retirees and as such she would be in favor of
plan design by the municipality.
Dave is for the legislation and believes that the PEC would still have a vibrant role in plan design. Noted that a few thousand
dollars could make a significant savings for our budget and can still maintain the good relationship with the PEC.
Tom thinks that there are reasons that you have involvement of the employees as well. Not happy about learning about the
changes when they are most needed, noted that the changes would affect "almost" no one but, what about those who would be
impacted. He believes that this would allow for too much authoratative decisions without input from those who it most affects.
Dave believes that this is a basic management tool and doesn't believe that most would be impacted.
Kerry it's not a public/private issue; at the state level they have plan design, this is how the public sector in Massachusetts has
managed at the state level, it's not the same for local officials throughout Massachusetts.
Steve agrees with Tom as he believes that Lunenburg is unique in that a lot of employees live and work in this town and have had
a long standing working relationship with our PEC and that they understand the constraints that we are working with. It is a
management tool, and noted that this has been a bill introduced through the legislature and this is also something we should look
at and evaluate. Ernie agrees with Dave.
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Tom would like our voice to be heard and believes that Paula would be with Dave and Ernie and would like it for the record, that he
agrees with Steve. Kerry will provide a draft of her comments to the board prior to attending.
OLD BUSINESS
1. Unitil Rate Increase Request - Kerry informed the board that the town did have representatives at the Rate Hearing with Uniti
and we were granted intervener status which means we can participate to whatever level this board deems as appropriate and will
discuss further in Executive Session. She has copies of the petition and will provide to the board in Executive Session.
Tom noted that both he and the Chair were present at the hearing and both presented testimony. Mayor Wong was also there as were
a number of Lunenburg residents, who also provided testimony. End of the day, nearly everyone was fully against the rate increase
request.
Steve questioned whether the board truly believes that the DPU is going to go through all of the documents that Unitil provided. Tom
reiterated that that is what their (DU) job is as well as the Attorney General's Office. They have to justify the increase for themselves
(Unitil); presumably what they're doing this for is for improvements and not for the shareholders. Noted all of the issues incurred as a
result of the storm, costs of generators, lost food, housing for them Just like the investigation, until he is proven wrong has to have faith
in the system that they're doing this in good faith.
2. Solar Farm RFP - Status update; still not ready to move forward with this. Last meeting discussed the need to put a map together
and that there was potentially a miscommunication between the DPW and the Green Community Task Force. We are in the process of
putting together the map and are working with Until to get a better understanding of what the financial impact could be to the
customers. The answer we received, still not comfortable with the information that we were given. Tentative meeting with Unitil next
week and should be able to bring this information back to the board within two weeks.
3. Permanent Closure of Holman Street Bridge - Tabled
COMMITTEE APPOINTMENTS/REAPPOINTMENTS/RESIGNATIONS
1. Green Community Task Force - board unanimously appointed Zachary Cutting to the Green Community Task Force.
EXECUTIVE SESSION
1. M.G.L. Chapter 39, §23B (3) to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation if an open meeting may
have a detrimental effect on the government's bargaining or litigation position. Also, to conduct strategy sessions in
preparation for negotiations with non-union personnel; to actually conduct collective bargaining and contract negotiations
with non-union personnel.
UPCOMING MEETING SCHEDULE
March 8, 2011 meeting with Conservation Commission
March 15, 2011
March 22, 2011
time.
Being no further business board voted unanimously to adjourn Regular Session at 8:10 P.M. and entered into Executive Session at this
Respectfully submitted,
Laura Williams, Chief Administrative Assistant
Board of Selectmen