Town of Warwick Selectboard April 13, 2015 Minutes Members present: Dawn Magi, Nick Arguimbau, Patricia Lemon (via remote participation) Others present: Town Coordinator David Young, Town Secretary Rosa Fratangelo, Police Chief David Shoemaker, Bill Lyman, Broadband Committee Chair Tom Wyatt, WiredWest Delegate John Bradford, School Committee member Martha Morse, Steve Ruggiero, Maria Ruggerio, Laurette Crane, Eaden Marti, Zachary Marti, Todd Dexter, Kim Smith, Scott Williams, Sue O'Reilly McRae, Susan Wright, Carol Kahler, Lawrence "Doc" Pruyne, Jon Calcari, Clare Green, Paula Robinson (Athol Daily News) I. Call to Order Chair Magi called the meeting to order at 6:00 pm in Town Hall. Bill Lyman announced that he was recording the meeting. II. Public Comment Sue O'Reilly McRae commented on the small number of children currently enrolled at WCS relative to the size of the building. Young said that while he hoped the School Committee will look into this, it makes sense for individual towns to look into it without waiting for the School Committee. He said according to the District agreement, for any elementary school to close all the member towns would have to agree to the closing. McRae asked the Board if it has any plans, and Young responded that he wanted to wait and see how negotiations go with the School. Susan Wright said that there are currently 57 students at WCS; 38 from Warwick and 19 choice or tuition students. Tom Wyatt noted that Leyden had looked at their situation and decided to stay with the District. School Committee member Martha Morse said that the District agreement can be amended by petition from either the School Committee or a town, that all four member towns would have to vote on the amendment, which would have to pass in at least three of the towns. Carol Kahler said that there were eleven students in the 5th and 6th grade class. Morse said that as of October 2014, Pre Kindergarten had 5 students; Kindergarten had 10; 1st grade had 3; 2nd grade had 8; 3rd grade had 11; 4th grade had 7; 5th grade had 1 and 6th grade had 10. WCS capacity is 120 students. Steve Ruggiero asked if the warrant articles and budget will be mailed out to households prior to the Annual Town Meeting. Magi said no, but that all information will be ready well ahead of the meeting. Young said that everything will be available on the website, and that the post cards sent to all households announcing the ATM and Annual Town Election will include mention that the warrant is on the website. Ruggiero inquired as to who actually owns the fiber optic lines coming into Town. Young said that Mass Technology Collaborative owns the middle mile network up Route 78 to WCS. He said that Verizon and National Grid jointly own the poles, with Verizon owning the telephone wires and National Grid owning the electrical wires. III. Minutes Arguimbau MOVED to accept the minutes of March 30, 2015 and April 2, 2015 as printed. Magi SECONDED. Magi: AYE; Arguimbau: AYE; Lemon: AYE. Motion CARRIED 3-0-0. IV. Presentations and Discussions Energy Settlement and Creation of Electricity Special Revenue Account--Young said that the Attorney General's office had negotiated a settlement with Soltas from which the Town will receive $22,000.00 in damages. Young requested that the Board vote to create an Electricity Special Revenue account so that the settlement funds can be allocated to departmental budgets and to supplement future electric bill payments. Arguimbau MOVED to create an Electricity Special revenue account from which to fund the marginal or additional cost of electric power generation resulting from net-meter contract breach and to deposit the Attorney General negotiated settlement proceeds into the account. Magi SECONDED. Magi: AYE; Arguimbau: AYE; Lemon: AYE. Motion CARRIED 3-0-0. Young noted that the reason for the funds was that we have been paying than we should for electricity. 2. Warwick Police Department --Chief Shoemaker read aloud a letter of commendation he had written for placement in Officer John Stewart's personnel file. The Chief commended Officer John Stewart II for his response to a medical emergency call on March 17, 2015. Shoemaker said that Stewart was also being nominated at the State level for life saving CPR measures. Magi signed a letter of commendation to Officer Stewart on behalf of the Selectboard. Arguimbau requested that another letter be written acknowledging the involvement of the other responders. The Selectboard's letter of commendation for saving a life to Officer John R. Stewart II, dated April 13, 2015, read as follows: On March 17, 2015 while on patrol you received a radio call to respond to a report of a hiker down with a probable heart attack. You brought your Automatic External Defibrillator, oxygen, and medical bag with you as you tracked the man, a Warwick resident, a half mile into the woods and found him lying on the ground in the snow. You arrived and began administering care and stabilizing the patient. More Fire and Police Department personnel arrived and eventually carried the resident out of the woods, loaded him into the ambulance and transferred him to the local hospital and then to a life flight helicopter to a Worcester hospital. As you know, the Warwick resident survived and is expected to make a full recovery. In your fifth year as a member of the Warwick Police Department, you have saved a life. You are hereby commended. Congratulations and thank you. TOWN OF WARWICK Dawn Magi Chair of Selectboard 3. Broadband and Fiber to the Home --Tom Wyatt handed out a letter from the Broadband Committee recommending to the Board and the Town that the WiredWest funding question not be placed on the May 4, 2015 Annual Town Meeting warrant. He said that this recommendation was voted on at the last Broadband Committee meeting, and that they wished the issue to be put off until the fall because the information is still incomplete at this time. WiredWest delegate John Bradford said that a lot more information will come to light in the next couple of months. Arguimbau MOVED to remove the fiber to the home borrowing article from the Annual Town Meeting warrant with the expectation of a Fall Special Town Meeting to consider the matter when more information is available well before that meeting. Magi SECONDED. A discussion ensued, beginning with Ruggiero's question of who pays for the election. It was explained that while the cost of a special town meeting is stamps and postcards, there would be accost for a special election for an override ballot question, should the article pass at the STM. Young said that the election would have to be a minimum of four hours, and that while not required, the inclusion of the contingency of an override was a good policy. Wyatt said that we have until the end of June 2016 to accept the WiredWest project. He noted that neither the figures regarding the tax impact nor a finished business plan have been finalized, which is why it would be best to wait until this crucial information is available. Bradford said that more details are needed and that it is better to put it off than have to answer "we don't know" because the data to support answers to many questions has yet to be made public. Arguimbau said that he favored postponement, and wanted to be sure that the business plan and other critical information will be presented well in advance and not just two weeks before a town meeting. He said that the public needs to be informed early on. The discussion ended and the vote was taken on Arguimbau's motion. Arguimbau: AYE; Magi: AYE; Lemon: Aye. Motion CARRIED 3-0-0. 4. Pothole Grant Work Plan/Project--Young said that he was seeking the Board's approval of a new pothole grant work plan which will be much like the one from last summer. Arguimbau MOVED to approve the $34,147.00 "Pothole Grant" project plan and authorize the Selectboard to sign the project documents and submit to the Commonwealth with work to be completed by June 30, 2015. Magi SECONDED. Magi: AYE; Arguimbau: AYE; Lemon: AYE. Motion CARRIED 3-0-0. 5. Report on Definition of Capital (PVRSD)--Young said that he met with his counterparts from the school district towns to discuss the definition of Capital for the purposes of PVRSD. He commented that there is a need for a policy to replace the current practice of situational evaluation. Young said he was waiting for a memo from Northfield's Town Coordinator. 6. FY 16 Budget --Young said that in general wage items were increased by 1.5%, and that the current proposed budget projected a $20.48 tax rate. He noted that the excess capacity is $171,000.00. Young also pointed out that with the FY 16 Chapter 90 funding of $225,273.00, the total available in Chapter 90 money is $587,735.00. He proposed that $115,000.00 be allocated for some projects such as gravel, stone, hot patch, roadside mowing and a portion of wages for work on eligible projects. Arguimbau commented on the estimated 9.3% increase of our PVRS assessment, saying that in two years there has been an increase of 18% and that this direction cannot continue. Young said that the overall proposed school spending is up 5.2%. He noted that our Tech School assessment decreased by $32,000.00 because we will have three fewer students enrolled next school year, while the PVRS assessment is up by $40,000.00. Morse said that there will be a budget subcommittee meeting on Thursday, April 16. She said that some things are expected to go down, and that they have worked very hard on this budget. She noted that there are unfunded mandates, which means that there are things that the State requires but does not fund, so that the individual member towns must fund these mandated programs. Morse pointed out that the PVRSD budget was level funded for three years beginning in 2009, and then increased 1.4% in 2012 and 1.44% in 2013. She said that the budget has not increased more than was absolutely necessary, and that our 2009 assessment was higher than it is now, all while state aid has decreased. Morse stated that there is a balancing act between the school and the state, with state funding decreasing. Young said that Warwick pays 9.37% of the District's operating budget. Todd Dexter asked if we should look into other regional school districts. Young said that many small western Mass towns have declining enrollments, and mentioned looking at Gill or Erving. McRae asked if the Selectboard can invite state representatives to meet with us as a Town about formulating a long term plan. She said that the school and the towns yelling at each other is not the way to get things accomplished. McRae favored speaking with our representatives at both the state and federal level, and did not favor moving into another district. Morse said that PVRSD is a Level 1 district, and that we should be careful not to lose this quality of education. McRae said that as an educator herself, she felt remaining in the Pioneer District was best for our students. Arguimbau thanked the Police Department for requesting a budget $5,000.00 less than last year's. Young pointed out two capital items on the ATM warrant for the Fire Department: $12,300.00 from Capital Stabilization to make a 2800 gallon used Mack truck serviceable, and a borrowing article to purchase a vehicle from Northfield for about $8,000.00 per year for three years. He noted that both the Police and Highway departments have gotten new vehicles recently and that now it was time to focus on the Fire Department for vehicles. A brief explanation of taxes yielded that the tax rate in FY 15 was $19.92 and $18.22 for FY14. Young said that total expenditures minus revenue equals taxation. Morse said that if someone's tax bill is over 10% of their gross annual income that you can get money back from then State. Ruggiero noted that there is a cap of $1,200.00. 7. Correspondence--Young said that the only correspondence was the Chapter 90 award letter previously given to Arguimbau. The letter certified that the Town's Chapter 90 apportionment for FY 16 is $225,273.00. 8. Selectboard Reports--None. 9. Coordinator Report--Young said that he will invite all the candidates for Town offices to meet and greet sessions in Town Hall on Friday, May 8th. He said that there will be two meet and greets, one at noon during the Gathering Place, and a second from 6 p.m. - 8p.m. with refreshments supplied by the Women's Guild. At some point in this discussion, Lemon's remote participation in this meeting ended, as telephone contact was lost. 10. New and Other Business not Reasonably Anticipated Prior to Posting Notice--None. V. Adjournment At 7:59 p.m., Arguimbau MOVED to adjourn. Magi SECONDED. Magi: AYE; Arguimbau: AYE. Motion CARRIED 2-0-0. Minutes taken by Rosa Fratangelo