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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019-04-16 Select Board Minutes A ° Town of Reading _ Meeting Minutes TOWN CLERK R E A,.. NIG. AAA. Board - committee - commission - council: 2019 MAY 22 PM 3; 15 Select Board Date: 2019-04-16 Time: 7:00 PM Building: Reading Town Hall Location: Select Board Meeting Room Address: 16 Lowell Street Session: Open Session Purpose: General Business Version: Attendees: Members - Present: Vanessa Alvarado, John Halsey, Andy Friedmann, Anne Landry Members - Not Present: Mark Dockser Others Present: Town Manager Bob LeLacheur, Executive Assistant Caitlin Saunders, Deputy Police Chief Clark, Deputy Fire Chief Jackson, Town Accountant Sharon Angstrom, Stephen Crook, Kate Kaminer, Mary Ellen Killion, Emily Sisson Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Topics of Discussion: I Mr. Friedmann called the meeting to order at 7 PM. Mr. Friedmann started the meeting off by welcoming Anne Landry to the board and Mark Dockser who was unable to make the meeting tonight. Ms. Landry thanked the voters for voting for her and noted she looks forward to serving the town. Assistant Town Clerk Julie Rodger then swore in Anne Landry in front of her new board members and family. Public Safety Telecommunicators Week Mr. Halsey moved that the board proclaim the week of April 14th — 20th, 2019 as National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week here in Reading. The motion was seconded by Ms. Alvarado and approved with a 4-0 vote. Mr. Halsey thanked our public safety dispatchers for their hard work. Deputy Police Chief Clark thanked the board for doing this proclamation for our public safety dispatchers noting they are the ones who run the police and fire department. They are the ones who answer the calls and direct the officers where they are going all while trying to keep the person on the phone calm and collected. Deputy Fire Chief Jackson also thanked the board and the dispatchers noting their hard work never goes unrecognized and they are an important part of the department and they could not do without them. Page I 1 Public Comment State Representative Haggerty stopped by to congratulate the new Board members, Anne Landry and Mark Dockser, and wish them well in their terms. Mark Latina, of 20 Pond Meadow Dr, wants the board to reconsider their vote lowering the speed limit on Haverhill Street noting it is too slow. Demetra Tseckares noted the piece of land up for sale that the town wants to buy, seems to have a lot of wetlands which is concerning to her whether the land is useful or not. She also wants to know why Conservation Commission wasn't involved. Kristen, a Stop & Shop employee in the Reading store, just wanted to take a minute to ask the town to please support them and not cross the picket line. Stop & Shop is trying to take away pensions, vacations, benefits and make wage cuts. She also thanked the Reading PD who have been out there all day, every day with them since the start. Reoroanization Mr. Friedmann thanked the board for this past year as Chair noting it was a great experience. He then turned the meeting over to the Town Manager Bob LeLacheur to get the board started on reorganizing. Mr. LeLacheur opened the floor for nominations for Chair. Mr. Friedmann nominated Ms. Alvarado as Chair. Seeing no other nominations Mr. Friedmann made a motion to close the floor for nominations. Mr. Halsey seconded the motion and it was approved with a 4-0 vote. All those in favor of Ms. Alvarado for Chair, 4-0 vote. New Chair Ms. Alvarado then took over the meeting and opened the floor for nominations for Vice Chair. Mr. Friedmann nominated Mr. Halsey for Vice Chair. Seeing no other nominations Mr. Friedmann moved to close the floor for nominations with a second from Mr. Halsey the motion passed 4-0. All those in favor of Mr. Halsey for Vice Chair, 4-0 vote. Ms. Alvarado opened the floor for nominations for Secretary. Ms. Alvarado noted she had spoken with Mr. Dockser before the meeting and then nominated him for Secretary. Seeing no other nominations, the board voted 4-0 for Mr. Dockser as Secretary. Hearing - Driveway Request - 321 Pearl Street Mr. Halsey read the hearing notice aloud. Town Engineer Ryan Percival was present to explain this to the board. The reason this had to come before the board is because it does not meet engineering's driveway rules and regulations for the distance between two driveways. This did go to PTTTF after and there were no objections. The reason they are requesting a second driveway is utilize ADA access to their home. Mr. Halsey noted he has no concerns and seems this is appropriate because of the reason. Page 12 Mr. Halsey made a motion to close the hearing on 321 Pearl Street. The motion was seconded by Mr. Friedmann and approved with a 4-0 vote. Mr. Halsey moved that the board approve the driveway request for 321 Pearl Street as presented. The motion was seconded by Mr. Friedmann and approved with a 4-0 vote. Liaison Reoorts Mr. Halsey started us off noting he is the liaison for the Postmark Square project that is in full swing right now. He explained this developer and this project are the prime example of how we want projects to go in town. They communicate well with the neighbors and took care of the one complaint they received right away. Mr. Halsey has visited this site many times and appreciates the developers steady flow of communication. Mr. Friedmann noted the Climate Advisory Committee is donating a tree to the town and it will planted at Barrows. The Reading 375 Celebration is set to start the end of May. They have many events planned leading up to the big celebration as well; i.e. trivia. Ms. Landry just wanted to note even though this is her first meeting, she did attend Wakefield's recent ZBA meeting regarding the Tarrant Lane 40B project. The traffic impact on Reading still seems to be the biggest concern. The board did extend the hearing until May 8`h and it does not seem likely it will be done and voted on then. Ms. Alvarado noted the Ad-Hoc Committee for creating a Human Rights Board had its first meeting. They were very productive with brainstorming ideas. She explained they will need one more person from the board to now be on the committee since Mr. Berman is no longer. The CPDC is reviewing their policies. Town Manager's Reoort Mr. LeLacheur noted Thursday, April 25, 2019, the Garden Club will be kicking off their Adopt an Island Program this year. The new Resident open House is April 30`h at the Library. Our Superintendent of Schools Dr. Doherty ran the Boston Marathon yesterday, wanted to congratulate him on that achievement. He explained that he had to adopt a design review process before FCC deadline occurred over the weekend. No one was aware of the deadline until Thursday, so he had to adopt them immediately. If he did not, it would have let cell carriers come into town and start hanging equipment on any of our telephone poles as they saw fit. Health insurance negotiations with the PEC have successfully finished and he is happy to announce rates will decrease slightly this year! Ms. Alvarado wanted to thank Mr. Berman for his service over the years to the town. Town Accountant Uodate Town Accountant Sharon Angstrom gave the board a brief update in the finance department. The FY18 audit is complete with no issues found. The Assistant Town Accountant is in training and working out well. The department got a grant for new modules for Munis. She went over revenues noting no concerns. Expenses show a deficit for snow and ice which will need a transfer of funds at town meeting. Enterprise funds show water at 89.6% collected, sewer at 90% collected, and storm water at 89.4% collected. She indicated this is of no concern and we are actually slightly above where she expects us to be at this time of the year. Page 1 3 Reading Little League Baseball Gik Mike Wondolowski was present to go over what the league would like to gift to the town. He noted they sent out a survey to all the parents of kids who play and with the results they made a capital plan. The biggest problem is the Majors Field. It has the most cancelled games after a storm. They would like to make the field bigger to allow play for older kids as well. It would still be able to be used for younger kids but would give more flexibility for the older kids who cannot play there right now because the field is not the right size. They do not want to change any of the fencing or perimeters. They will use higher quality foundation materials to help with Flooding. They would like to do all these improvements to the field as a gift to the town and do the work in the fall of 2019. The other request they are asking is for temporary toilets. The biggest response they got back from the parent's survey was for bathrooms at the fields. Currently kids just run behind trees in the woods so they would like to put a temporary toilet at each field for the baseball season. They have obtained permission and temporary toilet permits from the health department already. They will put privacy fencing for abutters on three sides of the temporary toilet. They are changing the location of the one at Hunt Park due to concerns from the neighbors that were just expressed at their meeting prior to this. Emily Sisson, Chair of the Recreation Committee was also present and noted they approved the improvements are presented. Mr. Halsey moved that the board approve the infield rebuild at Majors/ Tennis Court Field as presented and accept it as a gift from Reading Little League Baseball. The motion was seconded by Mr. Friedmann and approved with a 4-0 vote. The board then discussed how they want to approve the temporary toilets specifically if they wanted to add a time frame into the motion or not. Mr. Halsey felt they should approve the gift and approve the toilets and let recreation handle the details. Recreation noted they would be fine with that. Mr. Wondolowski explained to the board the temporary toilets would only be there during the season and then removed until next season but the privacy fencing would be permanent. Mr. Halsey moved that the board accept the gift from the Reading Little league Baseball that includes temporary toilets on an annual basis with privacy fencing. Mr. Friedmann seconded the motion and it passed with a 4-0 vote. Change of Manager - Ove's It was noted this is a simple change of manager at one of our establishments that holds a liquor license. The new manager was already vetted by the Police Department and they have no concerns. Mr. Halsey moved that the board approve the change of manager for an Annual All Alcoholic License at Oye's Restaurant and Bar at 26 Walkers Brook Drive. The motion was seconded by Mr. Friedmann and approved with a 4-0 vote. Select Board Liaisons Ms. Alvarado noted she would like to wait to do the liaison assignments until the full board is in attendance. She did however want to take care of the Volunteer Appointment Subcommittee (VASC) position so they can start holding their annual renewal meetings. Ms. Alvarado asked if anyone would live to volunteer to be on the VASC. Mr. Friedmann noted he would. Page 1 4 Ms. Alvarado nominated Mr. Friedmann to a term on the Volunteer Appointment Subcommittee. The motion was seconded by Ms. Landry and approvfed with a 4-0 vote. Mr. Friedmann moved that the board adjourn at 9:14 PM. The motion was seconded by Mr. Halsey and approved with a 4-0 vote. Page 1 5