Cotuit Fire District
Prudential Committee
18 May 2015
5:00pm
Present: Stan Goldstein, Laurie Hadley, Fran Parks, Clerk Charlie Eager
Fran: I’m calling the May 18, 2015, meeting of the Cotuit Fire District Prudential Committee to order. Any public comment? No public comment. The minister from the Freedom Church couldn’t make it here today. We’re going to meet with him next month.
Stan: Did we get any kind of reading whether it’s legal to rent the municipal building to a church affiliated organization?
Laurie: It was discussed at the time we first rented to … Well, we don’t rent. They use it for nothing, but they give a contribution. I think they give Tony a check every month. But nobody’s seemed to object. Nobody’s seemed to think it was a problem, so, no, as far as I know, nobody’s studied it.
Stan: Thank you.
Laurie: We can ask Mark Boudreau. Excuse me. We can ask Mark to …
Fran: Sure. I don’t think it’s a problem.
Stan: I think we should just to get a legal reading on it. Because I know reading in the newspapers years ago, there was problems with religious organizations renting rooms in public schools and stuff like that. , we’re in the middle of a meeting.
Fran: Can we move on to the treasurer’s request for proposal? Is that all cleaned up and ready to go?
Laurie: I thought I send it to you to give to Elaine.
Fran: No. I haven’t received it.
Laurie: Tomorrow’s Tuesday, you going to be around?
Fran: Yes.
Laurie: I’ll get you a couple of copies.
Fran: Okay. Thank you.
Stan: Has Mike expressed any interest in that?
Laurie: I did send him a copy and told him that we’d like his opinion. I haven’t heard anything. I told him to contact you, I think.
Fran: All right. I’ll get in touch with him again.
Stan: Because when I met with him, I didn’t ask him directly, but I got the feeling that there was a 50/50 chance that he would, depending upon the RFP, he would continue.
Fran: Well, we’ll let him write it as far as I’m concerned. All right, Stan, the district insurance?
Stan: What I’d like to do, number one, is wait until after the election to get started on that. Number two, I have talked to an acquaintance that I know who made his living as a commercial insurance consultant for industry. I was just asking him some questions, and he volunteered to do it pro bono.
Fran: Oh!
Stan: Fran sent me some stuff about the IG requirements, and I just want to look that stuff and make sure that we can actually do that.
Laurie: Oh, I’m sure we can.
Stan: I mean he worked with the libraries, all seven libraries, and looked at their insurance and analyzed it and worked with D&O , because the insurance was with D&O, to get a better deal for the libraries. I have a lot of confidence in him.
Laurie: Sounds good.
Fran: Have you gotten the insurance information from the water department?
Stan: I haven’t gone after that yet because …
Fran: Okay.
Stan: … what I want to do is once I get started lining him up and ask him, “What do you need,” because he said, “I’ll do it, but you have to be there with me.” I want to find out from him what does he want, so I can get everything he needs to get started.
Fran: Okay.
Laurie: Okay.
Stan: His name is Joe McWilliams and he lives in Osterville.
Fran: Mr. Nemec, who takes care of the smoke detector system and the monitoring of it for this building, looked at the 56 High Street and to wire that up for fire for fire, smoke and intrusions, is going to be $1710. That includes the $330 for the yearly monitoring fee. We still have $5000 in that line item for the purchase of 56 High Street, so we can use that line item to cover it. Because this is somebody that we’re already using for our security and alarms, we don’t need to go out to other vendors. If I could have a motion to accept the $1710 bid for 56 High Street for smoke detectors and a security alarm …
Laurie: I move that we accept Nemec’s bid of $1710 for smoke detectors and intrusion alarms for 56 High Street.
Stan: I’ll second the motion.
Fran: All in favor?
Stan: Aye.
Laurie: Aye.
Fran: Aye. So moved. [00:05:55] Now we need to go through annual warrant and decide who’s going to be reading which warrant articles.
Laurie: Now last year did Mike type out the actual motions for us?
Fran: I believe he did.
Laurie: I think so, because if he doesn’t do it I can do it. I always used to.
Fran: I’ll do article one.
Laurie: Okay.
Fran: I’ll do one, two and three.
Laurie: Okay.
Fran: We also need to do …
Laurie: We have to do article four.
Fran: Four.
Stan: Four. You want me to do four?
Fran: Sure.
Laurie: Sure.
Stan: Five.
Laurie: Five is fire.
Stan: I’ll do six.
Fran: No, the …
Laurie: No, six is also fire.
Fran: Fire. Fire and water do their own.
Stan: Oh, okay.
Laurie: So we skip down to …
Stan: Am I doing four and five or not? Yes or no.
Fran: That’s finance. The finance department.
Stan: Okay, I see.
Laurie: Five is fire. It belongs to fire.
Stan: So I’m doing four?
Fran: You’re doing four. Oh, don’t worry. You’re going to get more.
Stan: Okay. Not a problem
Fran: Seven is fire.
Laurie: Eight is water. Nine is water. 10 is water. 11 is …
Fran: Water. No. That’s us.
Laurie: Yeah. That’s Freedom Hall.
Stan: I’ll do 11.
Laurie: And 12 is …
Fran: I’ll do 12.
Laurie: Okay.
Fran: Laura, do you want to do the street lights?
Laurie: I’ll do the street lights. I can’t do the next article.
Fran: No, I’ll do that.
Stan: Are you doing go to do 14, Fran?
Fran: I’ll do 14. That way nobody associated with the libraries has to worry about anything.
Stan: 15 is finance?
Fran: Yes.
Stan: I’ll do that. Just to break here, so by assigning these to read, does that mean you’re responsible for answering questions or it’s just …
Laurie: No, you’re just making the motion.
Fran: Making the motion.
Laurie: Yes.
Stan: Yes.
Fran: Laurie, do you want to do 16 and 17?
Laurie: Sure. We already made our recommendations, right?
Fran: Right.
Laurie: I don’t think there’s anything we have to discuss, do you, about it, once we’ve done that?
Fran: The only ones that require our recommendations are the large transfer …
Laurie: And anything that the water commissioners or fire commissioners put in …
Fran: Put in.
Laurie: … we have to have a recommendation. Otherwise we’d be recommending our own articles, which is a little dumb.
Fran: Right.
Stan: I don’t know if this comes under this ADM warrant, but if you look at the notes, some of the things require a two-thirds vote, like the $550,000 for the …
Fran: Correct.
Stan: So we need to … you just can’t take a vote voice on that. You have to …
Laurie: You can take a voice vote …
Fran: Take a voice vote …
Laurie: … and if it’s unanimous, you’re all set. But if you have three people in the back yelling, “No!” then you have to have [inaudible 00:10:37].
Stan: Yeah. Because there’s that and the …
Fran: It’s the water tower, the fire truck, to move out on stabilization.
Laurie: Stabilization. This is … yeah.
Fran: We all set on that?
Laurie: I think so.
Stan: I think so.
Fran: So the website. Pam is moving to …
Laurie: Patricia.
Fran: Patricia, sorry, is moving to Somerville because her husband got a new job, and it’ll be closer to her kids. She’d obviously still do our website if we want her to.
Laurie: My daughter tells me it’s a much better job than the one he’s got at Cape Cod. He works at Cape Cod Hospital. He and my daughter have lunch together every day.
Fran: ]I don’t know if we want to look into finding somebody else that’s local or … The county is in the process and has gone out for bids to expand their IT department and offer it in support of all the towns and districts with the thought of saving us money. That’s just gone out to bid, and that’s not set up yet.
Laurie: I think that if we stick with Pat for a few months and see what transpires with the county. If it really is going to save us money, of course.
Stan: She’s effectively the webmaster now, right?
Fran: Correct.
Stan: Is there anything special that the webmaster needs to know or do? Because if …
Laurie: I’ve done postings, and I think you’ve done posting.
Fran: No, I don’t do postings.
Laurie: That’s right. I’ve done it. I’ve done the postings.
Stan: How much do we pay her?
Laurie: It was quite a bit.
Fran: Is it like 400 a month?
Laurie: I’m not sure. I don’t know what she’s charging us right now. I know what used to be …
Fran: I don’t either.
Laurie: When I was doing all the posting, it was 300 a year. That was to do anything that I couldn’t do.
Stan: I think that we ought to wait. We continue with her, but see what the county does. Then maybe look at either … Number one, I’d like to see a new website, because I think the website is really not set up to post stuff on it that …
Fran: It’s not user friendly. It didn’t work out to being user friendly.
Stan: I think going forward, maybe next year we ought to look at getting a new website for the.
Laurie: I bet we have consultants in the library that could get us going. Both Jenny and Francis are very knowledgeable with that.
Stan: We can certainly look at that.
Laurie: They can get all sorts of stuff on there, visual stuff that …
Stan: It doesn’t have to be fancy, but I think it just needs to be organized better.
Laurie: Yes.
Fran: Yes. It needs to be easier to find stuff.
Stan: Right.
Fran: The only problem this is going to be is going to be for basically Chris Wiseman because the water department doesn’t seem to be able to download their minutes. They leave the thumb drive for her to put in. That’s not going to work, so they’re going to have to …
Laurie: Yes. We’ll have to work out something there.
Fran: I’ll talk to Jen. It’s very easy to do.
Laurie: I think, when she was there she …
Fran: No, this is to get the audio.
Laurie: Yes, okay.
Fran: The audio, yes. Streetlights. Mr Shaeffer do not have any streetlights on Screecham, those are owned by the people that live on Screecham, of which there are two. He needs an electrician to put a bulb in the one. Putnam Avenue. I don’t know if anybody’s noticed, but when you go down Putnam Avenue and you’re down by Eagle Pond, there’s one old streetlight down there.
Laurie: You mentioned that, yes. I’m never down there at night.
Fran: It’s still there. I’ve been talking to the Cape Light Compact, who’s been talking to NStar, which is now Eversource. Apparently when COMM decided to buy their lights, they found out that some of our lights were being paid for by COMM for who knows how long.
Laurie: Gee. it’s a shame they caught us.
Fran: Yes, right. That got straightened out. All the lights were changed, and this one light is still sitting there. It’s number 10-1 something or another. I’ve been trying to find out why it didn’t get changed. The last report I had from Mrs. White, who’s the lady I’ve been dealing with, is that that light is and has always been privately owned. I’m going, “I don’t think so.” It’s in the middle of no place. When I was growing up, there weren’t even any houses there. I’m not even sure if that light … Anyway …
Laurie: It’s not lighting an intersection or anything like that?
Fran: No. It’s …
Laurie: So why do we need it? They tried to take out all the lights that weren’t …
Fran: If you’re coming in Putnam Avenue, and you go by the new parking spot for Eagle Pond, and then you go down about three houses on the left, it’s right there. The entrance for Nixon is down here. She assures me we’re not paying for it. Well, I don’t feel so comfortable with that without seeing some sort of documentation since COMM was paying for lights for God only knows how long. If we want to change it, we’d have to buy a whole new everything.
Laurie: I’d rather see it removed than changed, if nobody owns it.
Fran: No, it’s privately own. She just can’t tell me who privately owns it.
Stan: She doesn’t know?
Fran: Mr. Barton?
Stan: She doesn’t know or she won’t or can’t or doesn’t know or …
Fran: I … Well, you know, I don’t … When did we buy the streetlights?
Laurie: Two years ago?
Fran: Oh, no, originally.
Laurie: Oh, originally.
Fran: From Cape and Vineyard. From Cape and Vineyard.
Laurie: I wasn’t involved then.
Fran: That has to be 25 or 30 years ago.
Laurie: No, it couldn’t be that far back. I think I’d remember that far back. I don’t know.
Stan: I mean we have money in the new budget for two lights. After the first of July, we can replace the light.
Laurie: If it’s not our light, we can’t replace it. If somebody else owns it, we can’t be … Now, we have a pole on our property that we own that the Cape and Vineyard maintained, but then we had to grant them an easement along the driveway to get to it. Don’t ask me how that came about.
Fran: Anyways, I just want to make sure that we’re not paying for this light since it’s privately owned, and it’s not us. That’s the streetlight story. Before I get to the minutes, I don’t know if you noticed but Mr. Nardone been here. The parking lot is marked out for the repairs.
Laurie: Oh, good, good.
Stan: I saw that the driveway’s right.
Fran: The HVAC system is complete.
Stan: It is?
Laurie: Terrific.
Fran: Yes.
Stan: So we have air conditioning in here now.
Fran: We have air conditioning in here now, correct, so that will be available for next Wednesday night.
Laurie: If we need it.
Fran: If we need it.
Laurie: It’ll probably be 30 degree out there.
Fran: And we’re going to get a rebate of $900 for installing energy efficient equipment.
Laurie: Good.
Fran: That’s on that rebate, and that’s it. You may be getting a phone call, just so you know, from Hannah Rush who’s the assistant attorney general in the Opening Meeting Law Complaint Office.
Stan: I read your email, yes.
Fran: Okay. She requested more information. She may be contacting you. Did you both get a chance to review the minutes from the 22nd?
Laurie: I did. I actually printed them out this time, and I know why I don’t usually print them out.
Stan: Right, 33 pages worth. I noticed on page number two, down at the bottom, near the bottom, there’s a large paragraph, and it said 1% is 350,000. It’s a mistake. It should be probably 1% should be 35,000.
Fran: Oh, okay.
Stan: That’s the only error that I noted. Plus, at page 16, I got a little bleary-eyed.
Fran: I’ll take a motion to approve them with that correction.
Laurie: I make a motion that we approve the April 22nd minutes with one correction.
Stan: Second it.
Fran: All in favor?
Stan: Aye.
Charlie: Aye.
Laurie: Aye.
Fran: Do you need us to do anything for you Charlie on Tuesday?
Charlie: If you could maybe have this open at 2:00 in the afternoon.
Fran: Okay.
Charlie: I know the chief’s going to come in and set up the booths
Fran: Okay.
Laurie: Then I’ll talk to Ann. Ann will be the warden, and she has three workers.
Charlie: Could you ask her if she could get one for Wednesday night?
Laurie: Okay.
Charlie: Because I do not have anyone.
Laurie: Yes, you usually bring your poor wife over here and make her do it.
Charlie: She’s got my granddaughter right now.
Laurie: Oh, okay. We’ll find somebody.
Fran: What time do we want to set up for Wednesday?
Stan: The meeting’s at 7:00?
Charlie: Somewhere around 6:00.
Stan: I was going to say 6:00.
Laurie: That’s right. I’ve got to …
Charlie: I have contacted Charlie’s Music. He will be here to set up the microphones and stuff like that.
Fran: So he’s going to be here at 6:00.
Charlie: He just said somewhere between 6:00 and 6:30.
Laurie: I have to let them know I can’t work that night.
Stan: I’ll be here at 6:00.
Fran: We also have to set up all the chairs.
Laurie: I’ll bring a fire commissioner along with me.
Fran: I’ll bring my fix kit … I’ve got the screws to replace the ones that are falling out as you’re setting them up.
Laurie: Good, good.
Fran: So if that’s …
Stan: I just have one other thing. I think we should look at going back to having the meetings at 7:00 in the evening and try to get more people to participate. We’re running, in this year, in round numbers without the fire truck and the water towers … we’re running almost a $4 million dollar budget. We need to get some people interested in coming in here other than … just people interested coming in. I think if you hold the meeting in the evening, there’s a greater chance of working people coming in. Yes, Laurie?
Laurie: It doesn’t matter to me what time we meet. I’m not sure that people are going to take that much of an interest no matter what we do.
Stan: What’s your feeling Fran?
Fran: I don’t particularly care for evening meetings. I’m much better at later in the day meetings like this. I agree with Laurie, I don’t think it’s going to make that much … We don’t see a whole lot of people who work at these meetings anyway. It’s my understanding only six people showed up to learn about the new water tower.
Stan: I must have sent out 30 or 40 emails.
Fran: I did too.
Laurie: I know Rich Boden was sending it to his list.
Fran: And I sent them to Tom Burgess. Asked him to send them to his list.
Stan: I would have been here. Unfortunately I had a previous engagement. That’s unfortunate. I’d like to see more people to get a more diverse opinion.
Laurie: I spent a lot of time at the Stop & Shop this afternoon. I did have, as I said, one woman come up to me, and having spoken to the group at the Friends of the Library, I think got at least a few people interested that are going to be here. I don’t know who else we can talk to but …
Stan: You want to leave it for the time being and see what …
Fran: Yeah. This is basically a business working meeting. We’re available to everybody. Our names are on the website. People can get our phone numbers. They can get our email. They can go to the library.
Laurie: And if they’re interested, they can read all this.
Fran: And listen to it.
Laurie: This 33 pages is on the website.
Fran: I’ve had maybe a total of one or two people email me and comment about what they’ve heard or read on the website. I don’t know what you to get people …
Laurie: I agree with you. People don’t understand how much we’re taking out of their pocket to run the fire district.
Charlie: I’ll tell the Barnstable fire district had 30 voters at the top, and we have a quorum of 25. It was 7:33 before we hit quorum, and the meeting started at 7:30.
Stan: What’s the quorum here by the way?
Laurie: We’ve never set a quorum …
Fran: Never had a quorum.
Laurie: … so we’ve never had a problem meeting the quorum.
Fran: Also getting interested parties here is not a problem either.
Laurie: Yes.
Fran: The building will be full.
Laurie: We usually get a pretty good turn out at the district meeting. During elections, back when I was clerk, we’d have a ballot with no contest on it and have 35 or 40 people turn out to vote. I never could understand that one.
Stan: That’s all I have as far as business.
Fran: I’ll take a motion to adjourn.
Stan: So moved.
Laurie: So moved. Second.
Stan: Thank you. Thank you.
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