To: Board of Selectmen
From: Brian J. Bullock
Town Manager
Date:June 2, 2006
Subject: Miscellaneous
1. Retirement of Fire Chief Chief Edward Stark announced his plans to retire after 34 years of service to the Town, including 9 years as Fire Chief. Ed has taken a temporary three-month post as a Fire Ranger at Yellowstone National Park, a life goal of his that has become available only recently. Town employees will gather for an informal farewell on Wednesday, June 7th from 8:30 to 10:00 a.m. at the Senior Center. Please come if your schedule permits. I understand that there will be a more formal gathering in the fall, upon Eds return from Yellowstone. We wish Ed the best in his adventure and look forward to his return in the fall as a civilian.
Information Only [X] Vote [ ] Signature [ ]
2. Charter Communications Franchise Enclosed is a letter from Robert J. Spain, Jr., Director of Government Relations at Charter Communications requesting that the Town commence franchise/license renewal proceedings. The current franchise agreement expires on March 5, 2009.
Information Only [X] Vote [ ] Signature [ ]
3. Selectmen Meeting Schedule Enclosed is a proposed Selectmen meeting schedule from July 2006 through June 2007. Note that the summer meetings are July 17th and August 14th.
Information Only [ ] Vote [X] Signature [ ]
4. Year-to-Date Revenue and Expenditure Reports Helen Graf, Town Accountant has prepared the enclosed Revenue and Expenditure Reports for the period ending April 2006.
Information Only [X] Vote [ ] Signature [ ]
5. Gale Free Library Jane Dutton forwarded the enclosed brochure of Library summer programs. For your information, Gale Free Library begins its summer hours on June 10th. From June 10th through August 19th, the Library will be open on Saturdays from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Hours are Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Tuesday and Thursday from 9:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. (closed on Sundays).
Information Only [X] Vote [ ] Signature [ ]
6. Disposition of Town Owned Property Jean Berg, Treasurer/Collector, has put together a list of town-owned properties acquired via tax title foreclosure. We are preparing to dispose of these parcels through an auction process, probably some time in the fall. Note that we have (recently) acquired a 72 acre parcel located between Bullard Street and Chapel Street, behind Mayo School, formerly owned by Holden Youth Sports. At one time, this now defunct organization was to build play fields on this parcel. Although there is a general impression that the soil conditions present on-site and limited access would impair development of this parcel, developers seem to possess ever innovative and creative ways to build on land with heretofore marginal potential. Or, the savvy buyer could merely flip such a parcel, a growing trend in the
real estate industry.
There are other means of disposing of this parcel if the Selectmen have a goal of preserving some or all of it as open space. I will forward this opportunity to the Comprehensive Plan Committee to gather their input. Once received a public discussion of this matter might help to better define the Towns goals for this parcel and to determine interest in it by other parties.
Information Only [X] Vote [ ] Signature [ ]
7. John Alden Road Larry Galkowski, DPW Director, has provided the attached email regarding the island at the end of John Alden Road.
Information Only [X] Vote [ ] Signature [ ]
8. General Hobbs Neighborhood For your information, the streetlight installations have recently been completed in the General Hobbs area.
Information Only [X] Vote [ ] Signature [ ]
9. Board of Health Report Included is a copy of the report from the April 28, 2006 meeting of the Board of Health relative to Apple Jax.
Information Only [X] Vote [ ] Signature [ ]
10. DPW Facility Study At a previous meeting, a Selectman inquired about the shelf life of a facility study, in the scenario that a design was completed and construction delayed. I put that question to Michael Pagano, Principal of Lamoureux-Pagano Associates and his response is enclosed for your information.
Information Only [X] Vote [ ] Signature [ ]
11. Service Incentive Grant On behalf of the Holden Council on Aging, Louise Charbonneau, Senior Center Coordinator, applied for and received a Service Incentive Grant from the Department of Elder Affairs. The $1,200 grant will be used to upgrade some of the Senior Centers computer equipment.
Information Only [X] Vote [ ] Signature [ ]
12. Name the Newsletter Contest The Senior Newsletter is published monthly by Senior Center staff and the Friends of the Council on Aging. Although our newsletter has been a regular for many years, it does not have an official name. So, we are asking the public to offer suggestions through a Name the Newsletter contest. If you would like to participate, please see the enclosed form. Entries should be submitted to the Senior Center Office by June 12th.
Information Only [X] Vote [ ] Signature [ ]
13. Employee Appreciation Chairman White has suggested an Employee Appreciation Cook-Out on Thursday, June 22nd from 12:00 to 2:00 p.m. In order to allow all employees to gather at one time, we would ask the Selectmen to approve the closing of town offices during that time from Noon to 2:00 p.m. We will place a notice in the Landmark and on the office entries.
Information Only [ ] Vote [X] Signature [ ]
14. Rice School RFP - As we informed you last week, the RFP process for the disposition of Rice School has begun again. It was determined that while we mailed copies of the RFP to all previously interested parties and filed the requisite notice in the Central Register, the RFP was not advertised in a newspaper of local coverage as required by statute. Consequently, we have established a new calendar and the appropriate advertising, noticing and individual contacts to all known interested parties has been accomplished. The new date for RFP submittals will be June 30, 2006. This new solicitation does not affect the Town Meeting vote in that we are reissuing the very same RFP as we did earlier.
Information Only [X] Vote [ ] Signature [ ]
15. Wheelabrator Trash Disposal Contract We have entered into a 20 year extension of our trash disposal contract with the Wheelabrator facility in Millbury. Authority to do so was granted at the May 2005 Town Meeting. The deadline for coming to terms on the contract was May 31, 2006. The process of achieving this extension was a long one. The coalition of communities who now use the facility retained an attorney, along with a marketing consultant, and negotiated over an 18 month time frame to achieve the best terms possible. We intentionally postponed action until the very end looking for any last minute changes that might be granted to any other community that could have proven helpful to Holden. However, although many of us tried, once the general framework was hammered out no additional individual changes were to be had. The
contract does call for an increase in our disposal rate on January 1, 2008 to $63.00 per ton. Our current rate is $44.23. In contrast, the current market rate at Wheelabrator is $105.00 per ton. Remember that Holden as a Tier 1 community enjoyed the most favorable rates over the first 20 plus years of the contract. (Credit to Bill Kennedy and previous Selectmen for that foresight.) The Town of Franklin, for example, as a Tier 3 community is currently paying $85.00 per ton and will see a decrease in their costs as a result of this contract. Rates higher than Holdens by varying amounts were true for approximately 2/3rds of the communities involved. That, coupled with the prohibitively high market rate, drove the desire to settle this contract.
Certainly a change of this magnitude will have predictable upward pressure on our local trash fee. However, the true key to dealing with this increase will come in our ability to decrease our disposal tonnage through increased recycling. The Recycling Committee has been reconstituted and has had an initial meeting. The result of that meeting was to schedule a second over the summer (July) with a goal of establishing a promotional push timed for the beginning of the new school year. The hope is to enlist the schools and the students in this effort.
Information Only [X] Vote [ ] Signature [ ]
16. Town Offices Summer Hours We will be going to Summer Hours effective June 26th through September 1, 2006 as follows:
8:00 a.m. 4:00 p.m.
Accounting Assessors
Fire Department Growth Management
Police Department Public Works
Senior Center Town Clerk
Town Manager Treasurer/Collector
7:30 a.m. 4:00 p.m.
Public Works Administration
Public Works Engineering
Water/Sewer Division
Light Department
We will notify the Landmark and post a notice at each location.
Information Only [X] Vote [ ] Signature [ ]
17. Pool Opening! It is that time of year once again. Our pool will open weekends in June starting this Saturday, June 4 from Noon to 5:00 p.m. On June 20th, the pool will open officially for the summer from 11:00 a.m. to 7:20 p.m. daily.
Information Only [X] Vote [ ] Signature [ ]
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions concerning these matters.
_________________________________
Brian J. Bullock
Town Manager
BJB:la
cc: Department Heads
| 
