​Select Board Meeting Notes for 2021/01/19

These are my personal notes—for any clarifications or questionable items, please see the approved notes when they become available. ​
The main topics of the Select Board meeting were (1) use of Jacobs Road during COVID and ensuring COVID safety and (2) how to ensure letters and emails to the Board receive a response if needed and that response is from the whole Board.  There was an addition to the Building Maintenance section regarding a failed expansion tank on the heating system at Jacobs Road.   Click on Read More  to the right below  for notes.

Hawlemont Regionalization
Brian raised the question as to whether regionalization still made sense given changes that have taken place over the two years since the initiative began. Gloria pointed out that part of the reason for regionalization was to guarantee that Heath students could go to the same school, but with school choice that isn’t happening anyway.
 
Ken Rocke brought an available grant to the attention to the Board that would  help with costs associated with setting up regionalization, but the due date for application is Jan 25.  Bob Gruen will try to see if that can happen.
 
Building Maintenance
Salt Shed Repair – awaiting required paperwork from the engineer before contractor can begin.
 
3 Ledge Road shed dismantling– Carson  Ovitt had to order an additional dumpster for $450 due to all the additional garbage in shed.  Select Board approved payment of the bill.
 
Community Hall Doors - There is a quote from Carson Ovitt  for repairing the doors.  The doors are  rusted out on the bottom and the hardware doesn’t work.
 
Other -The expansion tank at Jacobs failed and needs replacement. Glen White submitted an at-cost quote for the tank, but has not submitted a quote for service.  Based on information from Tim Lively,  heat is working and the Select Board can wait a week to get a quote.
 
COVID-19 Municipal Protocol, Concerns, Updates
The Learning Hub numbers at Jacobs Road have dropped as schools move to a hybrid model. Monday and Wednesday lunch delivery will be impacted with this change and will be worked out in the coming weeks.
 
Building access at Jacobs Road was discussed at length:

• On the day of the foot clinic at Jacobs Road Sue and Bob Gruen visited the building but were not signed up for the foot clinic. Jack Estes when attending the clinic was accompanied by his granddaughter. This raised the issue of unauthorized persons being in the building.  
• One solution would be for the volunteer on duty for the learning hub could lock the door after 9 AM once the teachers and students are in the building to avoid having to ask anyone not authorized to leave. 
• Brian suggested the Select Board query the volunteers to determine if there have been any problems of this type to date in the months the school has been open for remote learning. [A query of the volunteers has determined there has been no unauthorized entries since the open of the learning hub in the four months the hub has been operational.]
• There was a discussion as to who has keys and who should have keys.  Gloria suggested the need for a means for recording this. 

 
Robyn will check in with Tim Lively regarding the COVID cleaning for the TriWire rental.
 
The new Building Use Committee needs to keep a calendar of building use to ensure COVID safety protocols are maintained in use of the space.
 
During the pandemic only the Select Board has the authority to decide on use of town buildings  rather than the Building Use Committee. 
 
Relocation/Reconfiguration of offices discussion, update

• Northeast IT is working on setting up laptops for town employees to facilitate working from home or at Jacobs Rd. Tim Lively is checking on how the phone system will work at Jacobs Rd as it uses the internet for communication, Alice Wozniak is ready to move.
• With the 2nd floor of Sawyer Hall closed the mail slots will need to be relocated to Jacobs Road. An option for a secure location on the 1st floor of Sawyer Hall was mentioned.

 
Indoor Hotspot
There was a question as to whether we want to accept the offer for an indoor hotspot from an outside agency.  Cubicles are provided with the hotspot and could be set up in the gym for Heath residents.  The Board will look into whether we get any assistance for what we have already expensed.  
 
Check in on How Zoom Meetings are working for the Select Board.
All members find it difficult to carry on business in a normal manner. The format is stilted and not conversational with static and screen freezes. There is no remedy for this at this point.
 
Email Receipt and Response
From the chair:
The job of the Select Board is to serve the public and the Board needs to be able to get the work done as efficiently as possible.  The Select Board has a policy for meeting attendance and public comment, but not an email policy—one is needed. Things take time and mail responses can’t always happen in 7 days. 
Discussion:

• Any email received by a Board member in their official capacity needs to go to the Town Coordinator to be distributed to all Board members.
• Board members need individual Town of Heath email addresses [to facilitate distribution].
• The Town Coordinator is responsible for acknowledging receipt of mail and can respond to anything within her purview. 

• The Select Board should put any email that they feel requires a Board response on the agenda ensuring it would be discussed and a single response come from the board.
• Email to be discussed at the next Board meeting needs to be received by a certain day to allow members time to read and do any research needed to respond.

 
Budget
No updates on budget, the next meeting with FinCom is on Feb 2.
 
Green Communities update – There are more people interested in bidding on the insulation project for Community Hall. Brian spoke with an engineer who wants electric and oil bills for 2019 and 2020.  Hilma can direct her substitute Mary Sumner to location of those files. Board to ask Steve Thane to compile the data.
 
Other
The Board accepted Kara Leistyna’s resignation from the Building Use Committee due to work schedule.
The MLP  recommends against allowing a pole on South Schoolhouse Road to serve some Hawley homes as it could impact  subscribership.