HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020-04-08 Select Board Minutes or
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Board - Committee - Commission - Council: R1L
Select Board Wd JUi —2 Ph 3: 52
Date: 2020-04-08 Time: 7:00 PM
Building: Location:
Address: Session: Open Session
Purpose: General Business Version: Final
Attendees: Members - Present:
Mark Dockser, Anne Landry, Karen Herrick, Carlo Bacci, Vanessa Alvarado
Members - Not Present:
Others Present:
Town Manager Bob LeLacheur, Board of Health Member Kevin Sexton,
Executive Assistant Caitlin Saunders
Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Caitlin Saunders
Topics of Discussion:
This meeting was held remotely on Zoom.
Mr. Dockser called the meeting to order at 7 PM.
Town Manager Bob LeLacheur started with an update to the board about Meals on Wheels.
He then noted the trial road diet construction will begin tonight and he will have further
updates for the board next week. Lastly, he shared a sad memo reporting the first loss in
the community due to COVID-19.
The board discussed last weeks meeting which was their first meeting held completely
remotely on Zoom. Ms. Landry thought it went smoothly and her only comment was they
should be reading the names and addresses of the people who send In emails for public
comment. Mr. Bacci and Ms. Alvarado agreed with Ms. Landry. Ms. Herrick agreed as well
and noted her appreciation for being able to meet this way during the current situation.
Mr. LeLacheur noted he was trying to collect feedback from other communities on how they
are proceeding with meetings and in what fashion; however, he has not gotten a lot of
comments back yet.
Board of Health member Kevin Sexton joined the board this evening to give the BOH
update. He wanted to start off by saying we will get thru this and we will get thru this
together. Town staff has been amazing during this time and they are working very hard.
The board of health wants to move into a more of an education standpoint for the
community going forward. He reported Reading did have their first death. There are 53
cases in town currently however 8 cases have come off due to recovery. The health
department in town is working hard currently at contact tracing. That is a huge priority right
now. Two nurses are being trained in MAVEN right now as well as Health Agent Laura
Vlasuk. MAVEN is a tool for nurses however so even though Ms. Vlasuk is getting trained
using the program, she will not be able to do/see as much as the nurses will be able too.
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Ms. Herrick noted that Wilmington gave all their businesses masks and PPE the other day.
She asked if Reading can do the same. She also asked if the town will be able to get any
reimbursements for staff time spent In cleaning all the buildings.
Mr. Sexton explained he does not know how Wilmington was able to get their hands on so
much PPE but he will look into how they got so many masks and see if there is any hope to
do so here.
Mr. LeLacheur explained the town has not seen any reimbursements for COVID-19 expenses
as of today however, they are keeping track of all expenses should a reimbursement
opportunity be presented.
Mr. Bacci asked how the local restaurants are doing. Mr. Sexton explained some are closed
and some are doing just take out but they are hanging in there as best as possible.
Ms. Alvarado asked about construction in town and if there are any plans to shut down
construction sites. Regarding the shortage of masks for public safety officials, she asked
about providing homemade masks to our public safety as she has seen many people in town
making masks.
Mr. LeLacheur noted that unfortunately public safety members must wear the N95
mandated masks. He also noted the Board of Health plans on talking about construction
projects at their next meeting later this week.
Mr. LeLacheur wanted to give an update on town bills. Residents can now take until June 1"
to pay their town bilis and have no fees. If anyone is having trouble paying anything at all,
please call 781-942-6622 and explain your situation to see if we can help set up a payment
plan.
Ms. Alvarado asked if there is anyone that we can delay the tracking of the road diet results
until traffic patterns are more back to normal rather than right now when very few people
are using the roads.
The board then discussed liaison reports and their thoughts on what a liaison should be and
how they're expected to keep in touch with the many other boards.
Ms. Landry started off noting that the liaison assignments are a burden to try and attend all
the meetings as they were divided up last year. One member can easily be out every night
of the week and still miss meetings.
Ms. Alvarado agreed expressing thoughts on just dealing with the boards who are meeting
regularly and carry heavy workloads, i.e. CPDC, ZBA, Recreation.
Conversation went on about how the board should be more of resource to other boards and
ideas were thrown out there to have quarterly updates from other boards rather than giving
an update after every meeting they have. The board also discussed doing less
'subcommittees' within their own board due to open meeting constraints that creates.
Town Manager Bob LeLacheur divided up the boards and committees by department to try
and make the list less daunting. The board was asked to pick their top 3 choices for next
week to discuss further.
The board then talked about the Volunteer Appointment Subcommittee (VASC). Last year
the VASC interviewed all incumbents also seeking reappointment as well as new applicants.
The board discussed depending on the circumstances, the interviews this year could very
well need to take place remotely still and members agreed Interviewing 60+ incumbents is
time consuming. The discussed a potential timeline and asked staff to send out the
reappointment questionnaire letters next week and ask for responses back by the end of the
month. At that point they will discuss further how to proceed.
The board will discuss a future social media/communications policy at their next meeting.
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Mr. Bacci moved to adjourn at 9:03 PM, with a second from Ms. Herrick the board
adjourned with the following roll call vote:
Alvarado - Yes; Herrick - Yes; Bacci - Yes; Landry - Yes; Dockser - Yes.
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