Back to Board of Selectmen Meeting Minutes
April 7, 2009
Regular Session 7:05 pm
Mr. Riley, Ms. Burns, Mr. Rabuffo
Mr. Jones, Chairman of the Recreation Commission, asked the Board who would be responsible for scheduling the fields at the new Department of Public Works Complex. The Board suggested that Mr. Paicos coordinate the fields discussion with the Sports Partnership; Recreation and the Selectmen.
Hingham Municipal Light Plant Recognized for Reliable Service.
The HMLP was recognized as one of 50 municipal light plants out of the 2,000 public power plants to earn the Reliable Public Power Providers designation. This award was given to the Hingham Light Plant at a recent meeting in Texas. This is a national organization representing the over 2,000 community and state owned electric utilities.
Voted - to extend congratulations to the board of the light plant and staff for the excellent service to the town.
Redesign of the Hingham Rotary
Jeffery Dirk of VAI explained that he has been commissioned to look at the Route 3A rotary. One area of concern is the pedestrian connections across the highway to the waterfront. The existing roadway accommodates about 30,000 vehicles per day; in the summer that number may increase to 40,000. Studies indicate that the breakdown is 17,000 vehicle trips to Hull and 13,000 to Cohasset and Scituate. During the commuter hours are about 3,000 vehicles per hour. The crash rate at both North Street and the rotary exceed the state crash rate.
Three types of alternatives were looked at to replace current rotary: (1) Grade separation, such as that at the cape, (2) Modern roundabout, a smaller circle which forces yielding and slower traffic and (3) Signalized intersection. The state requires looking at a twenty year window.
The grade separation alternative would be an extremely difficult solution since the water table would work against this. Mr. Dirk said that the modern roundabout would allow for good operating conditions through 2029 with sufficient reserve capacity to accommodate summer volumes. The challenges include the fact that this is not pedestrian friendly and there is no stop light. Pedestrian crossing would require push button pedestrian crosswalks on all three legs of the circle. The road medians would be marked with “quick curb” rubberized barriers. Mr. Dirk said the best operating of the alternatives is a signalized T intersection. This alternative includes the reengineering of the North Street which would provide a better angle for the merge onto Route 3A. The traffic signals would be synchronized.
The State has earmarked a line item for improvements at this location. In order to access this money the Town has to conduct a study then a Project Need Form (PNF) would be submitted to the local regional planning agency. The request then goes to the state for placement on the TIP. The next time for projects to be considered by the regional planning agency is May 15. The planning agency looks at the regional significance of the project. The need, the town process, the interests of the other communities and the fact that the legislature has seen fit to include a line item in the budget to do this project will be considered. Mr. Riley noted that this public process is very important to ascertain whether there is input from the public and if there is support for this project.
The Town of Hull is amenable to the signalized alternative. The signalized intersection with the emergency pre-emption system will be an improvement for Hull’s transport time to the hospitals. Mr. Paicos, Mr. Fernandes, Ms. Foley and Mr. Dirk reviewed the project with the Hull Town Manager and DPW Director. The land use boards have reviewed the project and reacted favorably. The Joint Regional Transportation Committee (JRTC) is charged with reviewing the project applications and assigning a priority number to the project. Mr. Paicos said he is hoping that this plan can be ready to put in front of the JRTC in May. If the Town is lucky it will get funded and, if we are phenomenally lucky, it might get built in the summer of 2010. Ms. Burns asked if it was necessary to have four lanes in order to accommodate the amount of traffic to and from Hull. Mr. Dirk said that with the volume of traffic anything less would be at absolute capacity today and summer conditions would not allow sufficient capacity. The current right of way is at the back edge of the sidewalks.
Ms. Burns asked why the pressure to get this project out now. Mr. Paicos said the state is likely to take the stimulus money and move down the list as soon as possible. He said that the reasoning is that if the feeling is this is acceptable then let’s get it in front of the JRTC in May so we won’t lose an opportunity. The public process does not stop saying that then. Once a preferred alternative is identified and it is on the list, the public comment will be further refined in the public process. The cost of this alternative has not yet been determined. There is a gas perfuming station that can be moved and the gas company does need access to it. The preferred alternative is determined by creation of a matrix including cost, etc.
The Board expressed condolences to Mr. Sylvester on the passing of his father-in-law.
DPW Contracts
Mr. Sylvester said the recommended contracts are being extended for the third and final year. There are other services that will be rebid. There has been an attempt to streamline the bidding process. The unit pricing is a continuation of the pricing obtained two yeas ago. These contracts did not include an escalation costs. The asphalt prices have gone from $55 per ton to $80 per ton. The price is now down around $60 per ton. Under normal circumstances paving contracts should be in hand now and the consortium is just starting to advertise for these commodities at this point. Actual contracts will not be in hand until the second week of May. Mr. Paicos, Ms. Foley and Mr. Fernandes met with the MAPC and advised them that the town was unhappy with the timeliness of the bids.
The Town is in a consortium with other towns that have longer trucking distances. The bids are being broken that into zones so that we are not paying higher amounts. The. Mr. Fernandes said that although the perception is that there is a savings going through the consortium he did not know that we save anything. This will be reviewed again down the road. Mr. Riley asked about the companies that bid on these contracts and if there is any problem with scheduling. Mr. Sylvester noted that the contractors see the schedule in advance and the town benefits by that. Mr. Paicos said that later in the year we will have to have a sit-down with MAPC and a neighboring community and get things worked out. If things cannot be worked out, then the consortium may not be the best for the town. Mr. Riley said that if this works the way it is supposed to work it would be a good thing. Ms. Burns thanked Mr. Fernandes and Mr. Sylvester for their efforts to do things the best way for the town. She remarked she was glad to have Mr. Paicos with his experience in regionalization to take a look at this. Mr. Rabuffo suggested that this topic be revisited in September or October.
Voted - to sign contract extensions for the following Goods and Services procured by the Regional Purchasing Consortium:
Cold Planing by Costello Industries, Inc.
Pavement Reclamation and Recycling by Mass Pavement Reclamation, Inc.
Road Surfacing Sealing Treatments by All States Asphalt, Inc.
Road Surfacing Sealing Treatments by Sealcoating, Inc.
Crack Sealing by Crack Sealing, Inc. and Sealcoating Inc.
Pavement Markings by Hi-Way Safety Systems, Inc.
Guardrail from DeLucca Fence Company
Street Sweeping by American Sweeping Company, Inc.
Catch Basin Cleaning by Truax Corporation
Catch Basin Jet Rodding and Drain Line Video Inspection by National Water Main Cleaning Company
Earth Materials:
Gravels (FOB and delivered) by G. Lopes Construction, Inc.
Loam (FOB) by G. Lopes Construction, Inc/T.L. Edwards
Loam (delivered) by T. L. Edwards
Ordinary Borrow (FOB) and delivered) by G. Lopes Construction, Inc.
Recycled Roadbased material (FOB and delivered) G. Lopes Construction, Inc.
Sand (FOB and delivered) by G. Lopes Construction, Inc.
Stone (FOB and delivered) by G. Lopes Construction, Inc.
Voted - to accept the minutes of September 16, September 23, September 30, October 18 and October 21, 2008.
Voted - to sign the warrant for the 2009 Annual Town Meeting.
Mr. Paicos explained that the Plymouth County Health Group receives a Medicare D reimbursement. The DOR has ruled that the reimbursement goes into the group’s free cash and they are not required to put it against the seniors’ rates. He explained that fifty percent of that money was paid by the retirees and it should go to reimburse them. Mr. Paicos is unclear why the reimbursement is not coming back to member communities and, at the very least, he feels the subject should be revisited. He requested the Board to send a letter on this matter. Mr. Paicos will call the members of the PCHG and request that their Boards issue similar letters. Mr. Rabuffo said that the reimbursement money is received because the groups takes care of its retirees and he absolutely agrees that it is appropriate that the funds be allocated accordingly. He further suggested that if this effort is not successful, Town Counsel could be contacted. He questioned where the agreement give the purchasing group the right to the money and not to use it for retirees. Mr. Paicos said the DOR said it is legal; they did not opine as to whether it was ethical or moral.
Voted - to write a letter expressing the Board’s displeasure with the Plymouth County Health Group’s decision to provide subsidies to certain insurance options and not all options equitably.
There are fort- nine articles on this year’s warrant for the annual town meeting. Mr. Paicos said he had met with the Moderator and Mr. O’Donnell said that, while he understood the Selectmen and Advisory Committee’s thoughts about the single line item, he felt that this would be best approached gradually.
Mr. Rabuffo thanked the members of the Board and the new Town Administrator for their efforts at the Economic Summit. The dialogue was informative and the presentation was appreciated for its transparency and candor. Ms. Burns said that she would like the Town to be able to present a power point presentation. Mr. Paicos said a projector has been ordered that will be compatible with the laptops. Mr. Rabuffo said that he and Mr. Paicos met with Harry Hibbard, the new vice president of Aquarion, to discuss how to get the town more entrepreneurial.
Ms. Burns thanked everyone who worked so hard to put the Economic Summit together. The change in the teachers retirement health benefits should be mentioned to the citizens. We have a liaibliity to pay for all retirees health insurance benefits. The number of what we owe is very large and like all towns and municipalities in Massachusetts we hav only recently added up what that liability is. We know that the iability is so large that it must be shown on the books. When the number was added up we discovered that the number was too high. We hve been discussing what we can do about that. We began setting money aside for that liability in fiscal 08, We funded it to the 300,000 that year. The required contribution is more like 3,000,000 a year for thirty years. We need to bring the size of the liability down. We hve to find ways of lwering that expense. All of our employees receive a 50% benefit after they retire except for teaches and administrators who receive a 90% benefit after retirement. The teachers and administrators retired benefits account fo aproximatley 2/3 of the required contribution. We have begun discussions with the teachers union. We will have to remove the teacher retirees from the current insurance pool in order to change this contribution. The only way to lower it was to bring them out and put them into the town pool. As of July 1st the retirees will be joining the town pool with the town retirees and all active retirees. While the greatest savings was everyone going to 50% immediately the current board of selectmen did not favor doing that to current reitrees since they made their plans based on the promised 90%. We would like to continue to . Without the unions cooperastion in the creation of a trust we cannot complete that plan. As of July 1st everyone goes to 50%. This is not the outcome desired by the Board of Selectmen. In order to grandfather people at the 90% benefit a trust must be created and that requires the cooperation of the teachers union. The bottom line is that we have a large liability and this action will shave a full third of that liability. The town made promises without ever sitting down to find out what the cost of those promises would be. It is our goal to feel confident that we have made promises that the town can afford. Mr. Riley noted that when the town joined the GIC the contribution was 50/50. At the tiem the way the town payed for the health benefit. The teachers union did not negotiate for this benefit and the town did not agree to this benefit. Other items include – Burtons restaurant celbrated its fourth anniversary and held a fundraiser where they donated a portion of their take to the towns elderly and disabled tax relief fudn. Next week they will come to the bos meeting to present a check.
Judeth Van Hamm is visioning a no emission public transportation shuttle bus from Pemberton point stopping in the middle of Hull, the Nantasket pier, the Nantasket station, West Hingham Station, Hingham, Square and the Hingham Ferry. She would like to have someone from Hingham involved in the meeting with the Harvard graduate students. Mr. Riley agreed to attend the meeting next week.
Mr. Riley mentioned candidates night is april 15 in town hall . Candidates will be ther and everyone is encouraged to attend.
Voted to adjourn to executive session roll call. Real estate and collective bargaining.sec