SB Notes, Feb 8

 Apologies, but these are not edited against the meeting recording which I normally do.  There could be significant gaps and some inaccuracies.

6:15 p.m. Budget Hearing~~Highway Dept.~~Superintendent Jeff Johnston

• Capitol item – plow $7600
• Jason’s truck – sound for now, no trade-in value, keep for summer use and backup
• Capitol Item - Trade-in 2012 International which has had $29,000 repair  over last two years. A replacement would cost approx. $200,000
• Capitol replacement plan – grader needs replacement , cost over $400,000

 
7:00 p.m. Budget Hearing~~Fire Dept.~~Chief Nick Anzuoni

7:30 p.m. Budget Hearing~~Police Dept.~~Chief John McDonough

• Asking $2000 budget increase to pay for state mandated training

Other Business
Special Town Meeting possibility –

• current and upcoming legal bills for AT&T issues
• $5000 over budget if we pay current bill
• If interveners prevail, we will need more funding
• Need to go to STM in March and estimate increased cost. May have to go up to $20,000
• Ask Mark for an estimate of what costs might be
• Sand & Salt coming in -spent  $16,000 , 571 tons salt, 1100 tons sand
• Need overall increase in budgets due to account for increases in materials and equipment
• Overage on bridge  project- even with 500,000 grant cost estimated to over
• Culvert just before Ingram Drive, grant is estimated to go $18,000 over grant of $100,000
• Salt Shed – should demolish current structure, clear trees, sue concrete walls and a Quonset style roof

Colrain—Heath Capital Expense agreement

• Brian and Sue met with two Colrain Select Board members and have reached an agreement modeled after area schools using a rolling 5-year average.
• Will be on spring town meeting
• School Committee members in favor
• 
  Review of Budget Requests
  Potential Capital Expenses—Salt Shed, Other
  • Robyn to contact Building Facilities Committee regarding needs for the buildings
  • Need to engage that committee in the Salt Shed and other projects. Drainage is important for the salt shed.
  • Need to be sure we have a building in place in time to get salt under cover
  • What would we do if we needed to transport salt to another town
  • Need to work on Sawyer Hall egress issues. Brian: we need to see how we can address that

Heating problems in SH need to be addressed. Glen White has replaced some fixtures and should be contacted for input.

• Need to figure out windows on Community Hall
• Robyn: we have a lot of information on the buildings and we need to determine use of the buildings
• Should town hire a consultant to help gather information and help create a plan.

• 
  Ledge Road – a non-conforming lot, not buildable, would have to go to town meeting, would need to go to town counsel. HHS should come in to speak on it.
  • Need to talk about lease vs sale. We own the property, but not the building and this could be a problem.  Should be able to just auction it.
• Broadband Loan Repayment Schedule

Alleges criminal conspiracy

• Brian: we have absolute proof of the falsity of allegations