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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017-11-07 Board of Selectmen Minutes OFR k Town of Reading g e Meeting Minutes RECEIVED: s18'INCREADING. MA'. Board - Committee - Commission - Council: 2918 FEB 14 AM 10: 46 Board of Selectmen Date: 2017-11-07 Time: 7:00 PM Building: Reading Town Hall Location: Selectmen Meeting Room Address: 16 Lowell Street Session: Purpose: General Business Version: Attendees: Members - Present: Chair John Arena, Barry Berman, Dan Ensminger, John Halsey, Andrew Friedmann Members - Not Present: Others Present: Town Manager Bob LeLacheur, Town Assesor Victor Santaniello; Town Engineer Ryan Percival, Civil Engineer Chris Cole, Executive Assistant Caitlin Saunders, DPW Director Jeff Zager, Assistant DPW Director Jane Kinsella, Barbara Melanson, Nancy Docktor, Mike Doyon, Dan Dewar, Erin Calvo- Bacci, Mark Dockser, Stephen Crook, Angela Binda Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Topics of Discussion: Chair John Arena called the meeting to order. Selectmen Liaison Reports Mr. Halsey noted the Birch Meadow Committee is becoming active again and. he would like them to come in and update us on how they're going forward. He also wanted to wish the very best to Gary Nihan who had to resign from the School Committee due to health reasons. He thanked him for his service to the town as a teacher, coach, committee member, and volunteer. Mr. Ensminger wanted to compliment the Reading Light Department and noted we had minimal outages during the storm last week when others weren't so fortunate. Mr. Friedmann noted the Climate Advisory Committee had an informational meeting on their plastic bag bylaw. He also wanted to know if we can discuss with HRAC the swastika found at the middle school. Mr. Berman informed everyone there is a new bookstore in town that just opened and everyone should go check it out. He noted he was a part of a wayfinding discussion with staff. We.recently received a grant, thanks to Julie Mercier, to create informational and directional signs as a gateway to downtown. Last night the CPDC meeting approved the Gould Street project under 40R and.it will consist of 55 apartments. He wanted to compliment the Green Street neighbors and developer on the process. Mr. Arena attended the school committee meetings as well as the CPDC meeting Mr. Berman just spoke about. He noted .November 14th will be open to public and will be held at Page 1 1 the high school at 7:30 and they will go over the survey results. The comments on the survey will be distributed after the meeting as it is impossible to go through all of them at one time. Mr. Berman explained that HRAC is-down a lot of members and they are struggling to find out what their role is. We don't seem to have an effective HRAC that works with us and they don't know where the stand. We need to understand what their relationship is going to be and how to work together. Mr. Arena made a motion to extend HRAC to June 30, 2019. The motion was seconded by Mr. Ensminger and approved with a 5-0-0 vote. Public Comment Bill Brown noted the Cemetery Trustees have been going through their regulations. He also noted the cemetery building was taken off the capital plan and no one notified the trustees of that; they are severely disappointed. Nancy Docktor stood up and asked for some clarification on comments made.at the October 24th meeting.about volunteers. She noted it was stated that the board would rather see generalists not specialists for volunteer boards. Mr. Arena noted that was not his statement; he stated being a specialist is not a . requirement for a board. Ms. Docktor then asked if they have interviewed the candidate for the board.of health yet to which Mr. LeLacheur noted they have not posted all the vacancies yet therefore they cannot vote until 15 days after it is posted. Mr. Berman clarified they were not implying they would randomly put volunteers on the boards they see fit. Erin Calvo-Bacci wanted to comment a facebook post one of the selectmen made regarding investment in downtown. Mr. Berman answered her question noting it was his post and explained his post was meant to read that they have been working hard to invest in the downtown area to.make it thrive. Phil Rushworth from RCN wanted to. remind everyone that Reading 365 fundraiser is holding a trivia night on November 17th at 7:00 PM. Michael Doyon commented he is here to represent Doyon's and the Chamber of Commerce against a split tax rate. Town Manager's Report Mr. LeLacheur wanted to echo John Halsey's comments regarding Mr. Nihan. He noted he recently saw him at an RCASA meeting and the substance abuse in this town is a real. problem. He noted he received a phone call from Rabi from Wakefield and he introduced him to some members of the community. The Rabi felt Reading was doing great dealing with the swastika incidents. Mr. Friedmann asked if RCASA can come in and give a report soon.and Mr. LeLacheur noted they will around the end of the year. Post Mark Square Condos Update Tom Connory was present to give the board a little presentation update. Page 1 2 This is the former post office. They are going to preserve the current fagade in the front of the building. They have worked with the Massachusetts Historic Commission and the local Reading Historic Commission. There will be 50 parking spaces at garage level. They plan to have commercial space at the sidewalk/street level. The presentation showed a bunch of renditions of what the building will look like at different viewpoints. He noted the town has been very helpful during this process. Hearing - Tax Classification Town Assessor Victor Santaniello was present for the hearing. Mr. Arena read the hearing notice. Mr. Santaniello went through and gave an over of the process and what the board needs to accomplish tonight. He noted we have no property in Reading that fits the'open space' definition. The board discussed small commercial exemption. Not many properties would qualify because there are a lot of qualifications that most of the properties do not fit. It would not benefit anyone. Mr. Halsey felt we need to'reopen and discuss senior tax relief again before they vote on classification. Mr. Santaniello gave a handout of other senior tax relief options that the board can.take. He said-they should be mindful though that if we give them 200% relief, that counts as income so then that may disqualify them next year because their income is too high. Mr. Halsey noted that could happen at a 100% match as well if people are right on the line. Mr. Arena explained we won't know the consequences; we can only inform them that this may happen if they are on the-cusp in the income bracket. Mr. Halsey noted 200% is essentially a .03 cent shift rate which.would be $47 a year on the average tax bill. Mr. Berman explained he thinks we voted on the conservative side last time because we don't know how many people will apply next year. We don't want to give 200% this year and then have to take some away next year because too many people applied and it would cost too much money. Mr. Ensminger noted this could really help people age in place and giving 200% is not that much of an increase from the 100% match. Mr. Halsey also reminded the group we are potentially looking at an override and these people qualifying for the senior relief won't be able to stay. He also noted he does not think-people will be mad if we give them 200% this year when we can and only 100% next year; it is still helping them out both years. Mr. Berman noted in the grand scheme of things we did a great thing granting senior tax relief but there are struggling families too who then have to pay for this. Mr. LeLacheur noted they really have to be careful of the consequences of knocking someone off from qualifying next year. Mr. Halsey moved that the Board reconsider their vote on senior tax relief _multiplier. The motion was seconded by Mr. Ensminger and approved with a 4-1-0 vote. Vanessa Alvarado asked as presented to Town Meeting, how do you plan on implementing. Page 3 . Angela Binda expressed that it was discussed as being capped at 1% of the levy or 600K and you would start small and work your way up to the cap, not start at the cap right away. Mr. Ensminger made a motion to grant senior tax relief at 200%. The motion was seconded by Mr. Halsey. Mr. Friedmann moved to amend the motion and grant senior tax relief at 150%. That motion was seconded by Mr. Berman and failed with a vote of 2-2-1 with Mr. Arena abstaining. The Board voted on the original motion of 200% relief, the vote passed with a 3-2- 0 vote. The board then discussed the CIP shift rate to cover the senior tax relief. Mr. Friedmann explained he would be ok with a 75/25 split between commercial and residential. Mr. Ensminger and Mr. Berman agreed. Mr. Halsey felt they should level the tax rate. Mike Doyon agreed with Mr. Halsey noting this is to help the seniors age in place and most of our businesses in town are small. Nancy Docktor explained she doesn't want to support anything increases the burden to small businesses. Town Meeting voted this on being a residential shift only. Mr'. Berman noted they are arguing over a nickel on the tax rate.The town cannot be residential vs. businesses. We are nothing without each other and we need to be a `one Reading'. Michael stood up and noted he moved his business here because there is no split tax rate and if he wanted to pay high commercial tax rates he would have stayed where he was. If you .want`one Reading', don't divide us by splitting the rate. Angela Binda read the motion from Town Meeting and noted instructional motions are just a suggestion but please consider it. Mark Dockser explained we are looking at how this.town is going to be run in the"future. Seniors aren't the only ones struggling. He noted he is in favor of splitting the tax rate here and even further. He explained we need to find a way to all share these costs that will make the majority happy. Erin Calvo - Bacci noted businesses always continue to pick up the deficits; you choose to make Reading a small business place; don't punish us for it now. Mr. Friedmann noted he doesn't think splitting the tax rate slightly will create empty store fronts. Mr. Ensminger moved that the.Board of Selectmen close the hearing establishing the FY2018 tax rate. The motion was seconded by Mr. Berman and approved with a 5-0-0 vote. Mr. Ensminger moved that the Board of Selectmen. not grant an open space discount for Fiscal Year 2018. The motion was seconded by Mr. Berman and approved with a 5-0-0 vote. Mr. Ensminger moved that the Board'of Selectmen not adopt a residential exemption for Fiscal Year 2018. The motion was seconded by Mr. Berman and approved with a 5-0-0 vote. Page 14 Mr. Ensminger moved that the Board of Selectmen adopt a residential factor of 99.9268 for Fiscal Year 2018. The motion was seconded by Mr. Berman. Mr. Halsey moved to amend the motion and adopt a residential factor of 99.9552 for Fiscal Year 2018. That motion was seconded by Mr. Ensminger and failed with a 2-3-0 vote. The board voted on the original motion to adopt a residential factor of 99.9268 for Fiscal Year 2018. The motion passed with a 4-1-0 vote. Mr. Ensminger moved that the Board of Selectmen not grant a commercial exemption for.Fiscal Year 2018. The motion was seconded by Mr. Berman and approved with a 5-0-0 vote. DPW Updates DPW Director Jeff Zager, Assistant DPW Director Jane Kinsella, Town Engineer Ryan Percival, Civil Engineer Chris Cole, Water & Sewer Supervisor Peter Isbell, Water & Sewer Coordinator Erik Mysliwy were all present to update the board on the Department of Public Works. The firs topic of discussion was the Pavement management program. Reading has 93 miles of road. Since 2008, 35 miles have been redone. The department gets a lot of complaints about south Main Street and they.would like to make it clear that they cannot touch that road because it belongs to the State. They then showed the projected budget scenarios through 2026 for the program. The program includes roads only and not sidewalks. The group then discussed fees. They included a spreadsheet with all their services and the current fees (if any) for that they charge. There are a lot of things the department doesn't charge for that they could, that other towns charge for. They can do a fee study of our_peer communities and come up with like fees for services they don't charge for now. Minutes Mr. Ensminger made a motion to approve the minutes of October 10th, 2017 as amended. The motion was seconded by Mr. Berman and approved with a 5-0-0 vote. Mr. Ensminger made a motion to adjourn at 11:30 PM, second by Mr. Berman and approved with a 5-0-0 vote. Page 5