Review of appointed Boards and Committees—FY24 appointments

• Selectboard is waiting to hear from counsel if SB members can be on boards. Counsel reports they can be liaisons at this time not members. This can be changed at Town Meeting.
• Parks & Rec—Appointed Bob and Chelsea as members, Pat McGahan and Lyra Johnson-Fuller as ex-officio members.
• Board of Health - Sheila Litchfield on the Town Website  appointed for 3 year term.

[A volunteer form is available on the website at https://townofheath.org/p/50/Volunteering ]

Elissa unable to attend.
6:00 p.m. Call Meeting to Order, Review Agenda, Review Minutes: 6/13/23
6:05 p.m. Public Comment
6:20 p.m. Appointment: Mike Cucchiara, Parks & Recreation Committee chairman, update on activities

• Mike's focus is to continue work on the Woodlands Partnership of Western Mass. There is an opportunity to raise $75,000 in a grant money for a through-trail project connecting the Shapiro trail to Rowe, and $25,000 in grant money for in Town land work. FRCOG is working on mapping the route from Catamount State Forest, through the center of Town to Rowe. [The work on this trail by Mike through Parks & Rec has been an amazing effort and a wonderful benefit to the Town]
• A group of volunteers in town got together to fund the resurfacing of the basketball court and paint new lines for both basketball and pickleball. They also purchased portable pickleball equipment for use by all.   
• When questioned about the pickleball net moving into the Jacobs gym during the cold weather, Mike pointed out that taping lines on the gym floor is not good for the floor and everything is done by volunteers and there is only so much time in the day.

Other Business
Heath Historical Society—review of lease and possible vote

• Not discussed  due to absence of one Select Board member

Community Hall—floor repair update

• Samples were shown for vinyl composition tile (same as what is there). Elissa to recommend a color choice.

11 Bellor Road—update

• Robyn has contacted Jim Hawkins, FRCOG building inspector, regarding the options the farmers have to deal with the non-conforming fence.
• Hilma to provide the SB with an accounting of the money owed to the Town

Telephone System—update

• Hilma met with Granite Telecommunications, www.granitenet.com/, by phone. for a status update. The phones are ordered and there are DIDs for all extensions. [DID numbers can route calls to any type of phone, including voice-over-IP (VoIP) phones, mobile phones and landlines. They are often used with call forwarding services so that calls can be routed to the person or department even if they are not in the office. ] 

Review of appointed Boards and Committee​

• Voted to approve a number of appointments. Some are delayed awaiting appointment letters and other awaiting legal ruling on whether in a small town, SB members can appoint themselves to committees.

Transfer Stations

• Some folks do not want to affix the dump sticker to their window and use the yellow stickers..
• The transfer station expenses exceed income by approx. $20,000 and our taxes make up the difference. 
• People from Vermont are bringing their trash to the transfer station which costs Heath taxpayers.
• The SB will do a write up to let folks know of the new transfer station attendant and the rules that have been in place some some time. A sign will be posted as well.

6:00 p.m. Call Meeting to Order, Review Agenda, Review Minutes: 5/30/23
6:05 p.m. Appointment: Community Development Program—request for extension to complete housing rehabilitation program activity.  Extension approved.
6:15 p.m. Public Comment 
Community Hall—floor repair update

• Robyn got a quote of $1,200 more for bathrooms for sheet vinyl bringing the total cost to approx $10,000 which is what we have from insurance.  SB will commit to contractor and  look for scheduling.  Given cost of sheet vinyl and tiles are about the same, SB will ask for input from Tim Lively.
• Epoxy - $6 sq ft for 2 coats epoxy ($8000 for 2100 sq ft) 
• Elissa stressed that the floor condition did not preclude use of the second floor and Robyn said that the work would be scheduled so as not to interfere with the fall art show.

11 Bellor Road—update
Robyn and Hilma met with cannabis  farmers— Chris (True Cannabis)  other team members, and developer(s) [I think].  
Outcomes:

• Requested removal of 8 storage trailers- Done. One construction trailer remains.
• Requested  contact information for the new legal council for developers and farmers - Received.
• Farmers need an extension to the host agreement. The SB will not do anything until monies owed to the Town are paid.
• Farmers  will seek a building permit for a barn to replace the storage trailers 
• No crop is expected until 2024.
• Robyn spoke with Doug Mason, chair of the Planning Board, on what was actually approved originally and determined the front fence is not in the proper location.
• Robyn spoke with Bill Hawkins. Farmers need a building permit for the fence as it is over 6 feet and need to relocate it to meet the zoning setback [50 ft front, 25 ft sides].  Farmers can ask for a special permit and if not granted they can appeal.
• Barbara Rode raised issue that the bylaws are not followed when granting a special permits.  There must be an impact statement.

Trailers, unregistered vehicles:

• ​:The SB will meet with the Planning Board, and Board of Health, on a plan to begin to move on compliance regarding  trailers, unregistered cars, etc.  The thinking is a town wide contact is needed  giving people some time to comply before enforcement.

Telephone System—update

• Bill Fontes and Hilma have the details for phone ordering,  there will be separate lines for each extension. They will start the process of adding lines and upgrading the phone system. They will have weekly meetings with Granite Telecommunications.

Review of charges:   

• Ag Commission: See if there is interest in a new Agricultural Commission and what would be the goals? Possible food coop, farmer's market. Heath is a food desert. Makes us rank higher for certain grants for local access to food.
• Building Facilities Committee: need to reach out to current members to determine interest in continuing and working with SB on their role.
• Building Use Committee: need to review their role, still an important committee.

Review of appointed Boards and Committees—FY24 appointments

• Hilma will be contacting persons  to determine if they wish to continue in their appointed position. She will also be sending out the Parks & Rec charge to persons expressing interest in that committee.
• Lorraine Berger is not taking reappointment to the BoH.  Need to fill one BoH position so they have a quorum.  SB appointed Sheila Litchfield for a remining term ending June 30 so the BoH will have a quorum and will revisit appointments next meeting.
• There are many committees with open positions. Go to the Town website at https://townofheath.org/p/50/Volunteering and click on the volunteer form to see what is available.

Municipal Light Plant--method of income transference to town

•  Robyn, Hilma, Alice, Sheila, and Dave  met to discuss and understand how this will be done.
• Financial Planning--discussion
• Communications—methods of dispersing information to residents

Mail

• Most mail was covered previously. 
• Letter from state finding that the SB was not in violation of Open Meeting Law regarding complaints filed earlier in the year by Jesse Weigand.