Coordinator report November 16, 2017 

Clyde Perkins Sr. is interested in serving on council on aging. He is involved
in leading COA fitness activities.

Accounting request for quotations / procurement is underway following town
counsel review where he had me take "binding" out of the request for quotation
because nothing is bound until a contract is signed. Besides BMAG and FRCOG I
found two other firms that Ashburnham recently considered.

We got a question about a church group that wants to serve wine at church
sponsored meetings held at the library. My understanding is this consumption
would be recreational rather than sacramental. I suggested they provide proof of
insurance / indemnification or alternately meet in homes.

The surplus brush firetruck sold on eBay for $3550. I've arranged for the buyer
to mail a personal check. When payment has cleared our bank we will complete the
sale.

I thought that the joint Selectboard / School Committee training meeting was
helpful. One thing I had reinforced is that the Superintendent is in charge of
the budget and only if we voted a line item budget is this untrue in a regional
school district.

Doc and I attended the Bernardston meeting out of which a Selectboard letter to
the School Committee Search Subcommittee is recommending the SC look at sharing
or teaming up with another district for some or all Central Office functions,
particularly Superintendent and Business Manager. To that end a number of
districts including Pioneer are pitching planning grant proposals for
efficiency. Pioneer and other districts got a shout out in today's Recorder
editorial.

Our Building and Grounds Committee has the 2017 Green Communities report ready
for Selectboard approval and they are working on the next application which
includes our elementary school. In order to do this they must revise our Energy
Reduction Plan. I've asked that this be in your hand for review by 11/17.

I request the board vote to accept the gift of bench at WCS in memory of former
principal Wallace McCloud and I've told the Principal to site it where she sees
fit.

Warwick needs to vote to remain member of our Veteran's District and to
authorize chair to sign three year Memorandum of Agreement (MOA).

I've submitted bill schedule for the Town Forest land acquisition so that it may
close once we are ready and have our documents reviewed by town counsel. Local
attorney William Oldach is preparing the deed conducting the title search.  I've
asked and he's granted us 30 day terms on his costs. We will need to meet any
recording fees. I believe we are tax exempt on the By Monday the 20th when you
meet we will have cleared the public notice requirement and may proceed. A vote
to acquire the Shaw land as additional town forest under management of Forest
Committee and control of Selectboard would be in order. I've scheduled the
closing, subject to your vote, in Attorney Oldach's office at 3 pm on Monday
Nov. 27.

We discovered we should have and did not publicly advertise the 6:30 p.m. Tax
Classification Hearing we held last meeting. We are doing it over to perfect at
this meeting, at the same 6:30 time as before.

I'm planning to write something for newsletter about our new road salt use
practice that Larry described.  We got line painting done. Still waiting on
follow up on fire drill policy and scheduling a fire close out briefing

I have been in conversation with Ms. Hoag, a Wendell resident and activist about
her and other's concerns about the future of the "County" Law Library
collections. Wendell BoS letter and the trial court's response are attached. The
concern is that we are losing primary source documentation and digitized content
is not the same as archived.

We got a grant for a "Universal Waste" shed from DEP. Universal waste includes
fluorescent bulbs and ballasts, mercury switches, and rechargeable batteries. I
got a plastic shed from Hamshaw and have had difficulty getting a contractor to
erect the kit. Highway will do it. Their hours spent on the project will be
allocated to grant expense. I have suggested they construct it in a garage bay a
on a suitable base and drag it to its place in sight of the attendant and where
the old 5 cent bottle recycle trailer sat in the past. This shed has to be
visible from the "shack" and photographically documented by a DEP agent before
Dec. 1.

We got word that our FFY17 EMPG communication grant in amount of $2200 is funded
to acquire a second police hand held radio. This requires a local match which TM
provided with a specific grant match article.

We note with sadness the recent passing of one of our community's elders, Mr.
Charlie Brown. Known to many as our historian I'll always remember him as level
headed to the end, as when two local youth trespassed in the Unitarian meeting
house. We met and he told me "Boys will be boys." Then we worked together to
provide some reciprocal community service for the youth.