1992-03-03 Board of Selectmen Minutes

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Minutes of the Board of Selectmen Meeting March 3, 1992 The meeting was called to order at 7:31 p.m. in the Selectmen's Meeting Room, 16 Lowell Street, Reading, Massachusetts. Present were Chairman Eugene Nigro, Vice Chairman Dan Ensminger, Selectmen Russ Graham and George Hines, Town Manager Peter I. Hechenbleikner, Elizabeth Klepeis, Cathy Quimby, Deirdre Hanley, Elia Marnik, Gary Demopoulos, and James Keigley. On motion by Ensminger, seconded by Graham, the minutes of February 11, 1992 were approved by a vote of 3-0-0. On motion by Ensminger, seconded by Graham, -the minutes of February 18, 1992 were approved by a vote of 3-0-0. On motion by Ensminger, seconded by Graham, the minutes of February 24, 1992 were approved by a vote of 4-0-0. On motion by Ensminger, seconded by Graham, the minutes of February 25, 1992 were approved by a vote of 4-0-0. On motion by Ensminger, seconded by Graham, the minutes of February 27, 1992 were approved by a vote of 4-0-0. Liaison Reports Russ Graham had no report; Dan Ensminger indicated that he was involved as a member of the selection committee for the Senior Center designer; George Hines had no liaison report, but asked to be allowed to remind residents that Reading Youth Baseball sig- nups were this Saturday; Eugene Nigro met with Human Services su- pervisors and the Town Manager regarding a trust fund and the demand for medical assistance. Public Comment The Town Manager indicated that he had requested and received a Reserve Fund Transfer from the FinCom to cover labor counsel ex- penses. Gene Nigra indicated that he had received correspondence regarding Markey legislation which would appropriate $1 billion for the Boston Harbor cleanup. The Board discussed the remaining sections of the Budget. With regard to the Library budget, the $451,000 budget proposal would reduce library hours by two hours per week, possibly Monday morn- ing. They are now open 59 hours per week. If $4, 000 is added to the salary budget, then the hours of operation would remain. The Library is contracting out the operation of the public access copy machine. They currently spend $10,000 and take in $11, 000. The cost to the consumer may go up slightly. With regard to the collection of fines, the elimination of the fine system has been a great help to the staff in reducing the number of hours. In general, the public is happy to donate in lieu of fine and there has been good public acceptance. We are able to get the books back faster. We received about 4,000 donations since July when we stopped doing fines for kids and September when we stopped ` -� doing fines for adults. Deirdre Hanley noted that the 15.7 full time equivalent persons in the Library actually results in two fewer benefited positions.