Town of Warwick Selectboard March 3, 2014 Minutes Members present: Dawn Magi, Patricia Lemon Member Absent: Nick Arguimbau Others present: Town Coordinator David Young, Town Secretary Rosa Fratangelo Calcari, Police Chief David Shoemaker, Town Accountant Janice Barrett, Brian Miner, Jon Calcari, Paula Lundgren Robinson (Athol Daily News) I. Call to Order Chair Magi called the meeting to order at 6:10 pm in Town Hall. Public Comment None. Minutes Lemon MOVED to approve the minutes of February 3, 2014 as printed. Magi SECONDED. Motion CARRIED 2-0-0. IV. Presentations and Discussions 1. Snow Removal Overtime--Town Accountant Janice Barrett came before the Board to seek guidance and clarification of the overtime statement in the Town's Personnel Policy. The document referred to in this discussion is the Town of Warwick Personnel Policy (revised June 27, 2011), page 2, which reads "Overtime Time in excess of the normal work week of forty (40) hours during periods of normal highway maintenance. During snow removal, overtime begins after eight (8) working hours per day." Barrett said that she uses the strict interpretation of day as being a 24-hour period. Young said that Town Counsel had opined that while the strict interpretation to define day as a 24-hour period is accurate, it is not reasonable because the intent is that of a shift and not strictly a 24-hour period of time. Lemon said that a paragraph was needed to define the term "day". Barrett gave the example of a highway worker working from 3pm - 12am and again from 12am - 5am the following day. Under the strict interpretation of a day being a 24-hour period beginning at midnight and ending at the following midnight, this example would not meet the requirement for "overtime" even if it were a continuous shift because it spans two different 24-hour periods. Barrett noted that this applies only to part-time workers who are on-call for snow removal. Lemon again said that a definition of the word "day" should be added. Lemon MOVED to direct Janice Barrett to assume for the purposes of overtime calculation that a day is a 24 hour period. Motion FAILED for lack of a Second. Barrett said that this matter presented a long term concern for the part time workers, and that it does not affect full time employees. She suggested that the intent was to pay overtime for the task of snow and ice removal and that part time workers could be penalized by the arbitrary term "day", so the word "shift" should be used instead. It was noted that "shift" would also require a specific definition. Young said that a specific start time and end time with a description of the type of work done would indicate whether it is a continuous shift. At the request of reporter Paula Robinson, Fratangelo Calcari read aloud the motion prior to the vote. Lemon MOVED that pending receipt of suggested revisions from Town Counsel, the second sentence under Overtime be revised to read "During snow removal, overtime begins after an eight (8) hour shift". Magi SECONDED. Motion CARRIED 2-0-0. 2. Town Hall Handicap Access Signage --Lemon wanted to limit the time a non-handicapped person could park in the handicapped parking spot near the door to the Town Hall dining room for purposes of loading and unloading. Police Chief Shoemaker pointed out that there is a $500.00 fine for a vehicle lacking a handicap placard or license plate that is parked in the space and such a vehicle can be removed (towed). He and Coordinator Young pointed out that there should be no parking in a handicapped spot without the appropriate placard or sticker. Magi inquired if the space could be made wider; Young said that would not be feasible. Lemon said that anyone parking to unload things into Town Hall should park as close as possible to the door, thereby avoiding the handicapped parking spot. 3. WiredWest Update--Young said that Warwick was well represented at the last meeting by our WiredWest representative and Broadband Committee member Reva Reck, Selectboard members Nick Arguimbau and Patricia Lemon, and Finance Committee member Bill Foote, and Young himself. Lemon said that WiredWest is at the point of needing to determine a formula to allocate expenses. Young said that the next meeting will be March 13th. Lemon and Magi both said that they would attend. Lemon said that WiredWest is aiming to assess a monthly subscription fee of between $100.00 and $150.00 per household, with subsidies available for low income households. Young noted that this fee would be for a package that is expected to include internet, telephone and television services. He also said that the biggest challenge for WiredWest will be obtaining financing. He said that there are a number of grants which we may or may not get, and that the MBI grant should be about $40,000,000.00, but that WiredWest might ask towns to join together to guarantee a bond issue to fund completion of the fiber optics wiring and WiredWest was currently examining various ways of allocating costs (by mile, by household or by some other standard). Lemon said that if any Town vote for such a guarantee were ever required, an informational meeting and discussion would be held before the Town Meeting at which it would be voted. 4. Police Chief's Report --Chief Shoemaker said that he had met with the Finance Committee regarding the proposed FY 15 Police Department budget. He said that officers are conducting a couple of ongoing investigations, and that he had to pull one officer off of patrol and assign him to investigative work because of the time commitment involved. Shoemaker noted that a resident had recently been taken in by a Nigerian online scam, and added that in the very near future he wants to set up a presentation on various types of fraud. It was thought that a Women's Guild meeting might be a good forum for launching such an educational effort. Lemon inquired if the Chief was aware of a dip in the road caused by a collapsed culvert on Mt. Grace Road. He said that he was not, but that he could inform the acting Highway Superintendent Larry Delaney about it. The Chief said that our roads are bad, despite being better than most in surrounding communities. Lemon also asked about the intersection of Flower Hill and Leland Hill Roads, where she recently narrowly avoided being hit by a car coming from Leland Hill Road without slowing or pausing. The Chief said that there should be Stop sign at that intersection, which he could mention to Delaney as well. 5. Selectboard Reports--Lemon said that she thought that a discussion of the proposed Tennessee Gas pipeline should be included on a future agenda. She noted that the pipeline had recently generated considerable discussion on the "L" as well as on Facebook. Magi said that Arguimbau had told her that the Planning Board would be involved in the issue. Young said that he had granted permission for the proposed location to be marked, both to expedite bureaucracy and to find out where exactly they propose to dig. He noted that the company must come to the Town for permission before doing any major digging. Young mentioned that on Saturday, March 8th at 6:30pm in Town Hall there will be a screening of the movie "Gasland II" with a discussion to follow. 6. Coordinator Report--Young said that within the past couple of weeks Senator Rosenberg's office had called to ask if the Town had any projects to be added to the Transportation Bond Bill. Young said that he asked for 3.2 million dollars to reconstruct Winchester Road, particularly the portion through the Gulf. He said that Mary Jane Bacon from Senator Rosenberg's office had called to say that it looks promising and that nothing had been excluded from the bill. Young said that he contacted Representative Denise Andrews, who supports the bill. He said that we could receive close to $4,000,000.00 including the Chapter 90 funds for Winchester Road. 7. New and Other Items Not Reasonably Anticipated Prior to Posting--Lemon said that she will send something to the Athol Daily News tomorrow regarding a hearing to be held later this week on the Updated Bottle Bill. She said that every town in Massachusetts supports it and yet Representative DeLeo still refuses to allow it to be brought up for a vote. Lemon wanted as many people as possible from Warwick to attend the hearing in Boston. Young said that lots of telephone calls and Emails to local legislatures are often very effective. Lemon noted that both of our legislators had signed on as sponsors of the bill. V. Adjournment At 7:03 pm, Lemon MOVED to adjourn the meeting. Magi SECONDED. Motion CARRIED 2-0-0. Minutes taken by Rosa Fratangelo Calcari