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Home My WebLink About2015-02-10 Board of Selectmen Minutes O� OFR ' u Town of Reading a e Meeting Minutes 63��lII�OR*O� Board - Committee - Commission - Council: Board of Selectmen Date: 2015-02-10 Time: 7:00 PM Building: Reading Town Hall Location: Selectmen Meeting Room Address: 16 Lowell Street Purpose: General Business Attendees: Members - Present: Chairman John Arena, Vice Chair Marsie K. West, and Members Kevin Sexton, and Dan Ensminger Members - Not Present: John Halsey Others Present: Town Manager Bob LeLacheur, Town Accountant Sharon Angstrom, Assistant Town Manager Jean Delios, Police Chief Jim Cormier, Fire Chief Greg Burns, DPW Director Jeff Zager, Administrative Assistant Caitlin Saunders, and the RMHS Robotics Team. Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Secretary Daniel Ensminger Topics of Discussion: Reports and Comments Selectmen's Liaison Reports and Comments - John Arena said he got a letter from Phil Vaccaro, the old Athletic Director, asking where the Board stands on naming the new athletic field. Mr. LeLacheur noted he gave the Board an outline of previous guidelines that Selectmen have looked at for naming policies. He said these are just a guideline and not an actual policy that is in place. Mr. Sexton said he thinks the board should come up with some naming guidelines for the future. Dan Ensminger said he went to the Early Childhood Space Committee meeting. He said they are focusing on portable classrooms right now and looking into a long-term solution. Mr. Ensminger also commented he received a call from an elderly neighbor about trash pickup and how the notification about delayed pickup is very last minute. He asked Mr.- LeLacheur r:LeLacheur is there was any way to notify the residents earlier. Mr. LeLacheur noted he has to wait for the confirmation from the trash company before we can send out the reverse 911 call. Town Managers Report - Mr. LeLacheur noted Reading tied for #6 in the Complete Streets Policy. He also wanted to let everyone know Friends and Family Day will be June 13th this year. Mr. LeLacheur then wanted to thank the community and DPW during these past couple weeks and all the snow we have gotten. He said he has received more compliments than complaints about how the Town is dealing with the snow clean up. He said the DPW guys are working long shifts and doing the best they can. Discussion/ Action Items RMHS Robotics Team - The high school Robotics Team came to give a presentation. The team consists of Holly (Junior), Caitlin (Senior), Jake (Freshman), Tim (Junior), Andrew (Junior), Jared (Sophomore), and Steven (Senior). They explained they belong to a program Page 1 1 r Board of Selectmen Minutes - February 10, 2015 - page 2 called FIRST which stands for "For the Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology". They fundraise, build, and compete. Their team has business and technical mentors that help them along the six week venture to build a robot that complies with rules and regulations set before them. If they make it far enough they could eventually go to Worlds Competition where.other kids from other countries would compete as well. They can also qualify for scholarships along the way. Their mission is to inspire and it is not all about building the robot but how to get there. The team also mentors younger kids in middle school. Their first team was in 2013 and they had 18 students with 5 mentors. This year they are up to 47 students and 15 mentors. In 2013 they competed in the Boston Regional ranking 12th and winning the Rookie All Star Award. They also went to the Beantown Blitz where they ranked 3rd. In 2014 the team competed in the RI District and ranked 17th. They ranked 24th in the Northeastern District and ranked 35th in the New England Championship. The team is broken down into 7 categories including programming, electrical, mechanical, pneumatics, design (CAD), business (fundraising, accounting, marketing), and scouting & strategy. The teams' expenses mostly consist of fees for the competitions and travel to them. They noted they do a lot of fundraising and have raised $37,000 to date this year. They explained most of that money comes from corporate sponsors. I The team said they are involved in the community and are present at the Reading Street faire, Friends and Family Day, and the REF Festival of trees. They do a Girl Scout workshop, they are involved in a middle school outreach program, and they help with a teen tech week workshop at the library. Every year they get a new challenge. This year they are hosting a district for the first time on March 6-8th. There will be 40 teams participating and they are g expecting about 4,000 people in attendance. They said it is a great opportunity for the Reading community to come see what they do. r The Selectmen asked how they can help. The team said they can help promote around town ' and spread the word. They also need potential judges if they would like to maybe be one. They will need a police detail for the event as well if they could help out with that at all. And mostly just come watch the event. Mr. Sexton asked how someone can make a donation. The team gave their website: robockets.org and there is a donate button under`contact us'. Mr. Arena said the team and everything they do is extremely impressive. Mr. Sexton said the real life experiences this team gets are amazing. Town Accountant Report - Town Accountant Sharon Angstrom noted we have hit the red for snow and ice budget. She said the audit has been performed and now she is going through the results and she will have someone come in and explain it. They are currently working through a Munis update that makes the program slow in the live version. Ms. Angstrom noted Mark Dockser, Chair of the Finance Committee, is keeping her involved during the } RMLD investigation. She said they have chosen a CPA firm to help them out. Ms. West asked what RMLD has done with the trucks after they got them back? Ms. Angstrom noted she is not sure but she can reach out to Colleen and find out. Mr. Arena asked what the time frame looked like for the schools and town to be reviewed. Ms. Angstrom said she is not sure what stage they are in the process yet so she can't really answer that but if she had to guess maybe next month or so. Review FY15 Town Manager Goals and Discuss Reading 2020 Working Groups Community Partners - Mr. LeLacheur said they are trying to do an outreach every week but it's hard to measure the status. He said he thinks the Schools and RMLD should be involved Page 1 2 Board of Selectmen Minutes - February 10, 2015 - page 3 as partners. He noted they are looking into a possibility of regionalizing animal control and they are discarding Veterans Services and Recreation because other towns did not seem interested. Mr. Arena asked if some things that got discarded for regionalization could be reconsidered in the future? Mr. LeLacheur said yes. Services and Performance Measurement- Mr. LeLacheur noted the RCASA model is fine, the problem is regional but the solution is more local. He also stated Emergency Management is going well. Mr. Arena asked if there is a lesson learned/ improvement list after each situation or storm? Mr. LeLacheur said they will all sit down and have another meeting when there's time and review everything. Ms. Delios noted they are thinking of a way to get everything down on paper then present it to the Board of Selectmen and eventually go to the public about the priority of services the town offers. Mr. Arena asked if there are ways to view how many people use each service vs. ways to measure services and how they are doing. Communication - The Town has done everything they need to do on their side for the West Street project. Mr. LeLacheur said they are trying to think of easy ways to get community feedback and said surveys have been helpful in the past. Strategic Planning - Use of industrial zone properties has been put on hold due to RMLD losing a lot of staff recently. The new cemetery building project should be turned over to the new Building Committee. Affordable housing is an ongoing project but there are plenty of people willing and interested. Complete Streets we ranked 6"' and tied with other communities. We are just waiting on the state funding for that. The Zoning Bylaw is almost done. The Permanent Building Committee has been formed and just .waiting to be approved. The technology master plan is being worked on and the new hire will take care of the rest of this. Other Goals - Final phase of reorganization and HR planning will be taken care of in the FY16 budget. The Charter is done and we will have to send out a copy to every household with a registered voter. The library building project is on track. The Library groundbreaking ceremony had about 50 attendees and went very well. Mr. Arena said it is very impressive the amount of things that have been accomplished on the list and it is remarkable this much has been done after a year. Ms West made a motion to adjourn at 9.30 a m second by Mr. Ensminaer and approved with a 4-0-0 vote. Respectfully submitted !� j ^ r Y �ZVrt. N �� y u Secretary Page 3