January 11th BOS Minutes

Aquinnah Board of Selectmen
Minutes of Meeting 1/11/2011
Aquinnah Town Hall Selectmen’s Mtg Room

Members present: James Newman, Acting Chairman, Spencer Booker

Also present: Adam Wilson, Town Administrator, Shellfish Constable Brian, Shellfish Advisory Committee Chairman Buddy Vanderhoop, and Assistant Shellfish Constable Jim Sanfilippo
The meeting began at 5:45 pm.
-Minutes from December 14th were discussed. Since Spencer was not at that meeting, the request to accept the 12/14 minutes was deferred until the next meeting of the board.

-Next on the agenda was a report from J. Sanfilippo on the cleanup effort for the Ackerman granted aquaculture site. He said he has taken all of the bags that were floating on strings as well as everything that was sunk on the bottom out of the pond. He said that the equipment that is left on that grant includes a sunken boat that is full of line, enough line and various forms of anchors to fill up a pick-up truck. There is also a canoe with a hole in it that he’s managed to tie off and 2 -3 dozen seed trays still planted in the bottom that will take some work getting out. Jim said that the bill to date covers the initial estimate of the cost for the cleanup but he reported that there is 2 – 3 more days of work to be done to get the job finished. He said there are a few more cages that need to be removed and about 25 – 30 bags that are above the high water mark that need removing.
-Spencer asked how much more it will cost to finish the job. Jim said twelve to fifteen hundred more should take care of everything. Jim complimented Highway Superintendent Jay Smalley for his work in helping to remove all the debris
Jim made a motion to continue with the expense needed to finish the cleanup of the Ackerman aquaculture site until the work is finished. Spencer seconded.
The Board voted 2 – 0. The motion passed.

-Next on the agenda was an approval of the established rate of 51 cents per mile for travel reimbursement as established by the IRS.
The Board, by consensus, agreed to the new reimbursement rate.

-Next on the agenda was a discussion on the make-up of the Community Preservation Committee (CPC). Jim said this has come up because Derrill Bazzy is resigning from the Housing Committee but still wishes to remain with the CPC. Adam pointed out that when Derrill resigns from the AHC, he can request that the Board appoint him to the CPC as a Selectmen’s appointee. Adam, Jim and Spencer discussed who currently were the appointees to the preservation committee. Adam raised a question of having Carl Widdiss as an alternate to the committee and how that might be a conflict with the statute that only allows membership of 9 people. Jim asked if a letter could be written to Jean Entine to ask if she wants to continue her membership with the committee. Adam said he would get out letters to everyone asking for requests for reappointments since it is an annual occurrence and the deadline is soon approaching.

-Next item was a follow up report from Town Counsel regarding shellfish regulations. Jim said that the problem is there are two regulations regarding scallop licensing which Town Counsel feels is contradictory. Buddy asked to make a recommendation on the issue of residency that the 1999 language in the regulations be rewritten so as to make it very clear that one has to have lived in the town for one year in order to get the license and various forms of proof to validate it. He said it should be legally defined that you can’t live in another town and commute to Aquinnah in order to scallop. Buddy suggested a joint meeting with the Shellfish Committee and the Selectmen in order to rewrite the regulations and get the issue resolved. Jim and Spencer agreed. There was discussion on when they could meet and thought the middle of February would work best for all parties involved.

-In the Town Administrator’s report, Adam said the outdoor lighting for the police walkway has been finished. He also said he’s working on getting all the minutes done from the last six months since several meetings are only on DVD format. There was a visit by the folks at MVTV to check on the status of the cable hub that is in the old town hall and the live feeds available on the campus and everything is working. Finally Adam reported he is going to the MMA conference January 21 – 22.

-Adam asked when the Board would like to meet again. Jim and Spencer tentatively agreed to meet January 25th but only if there was enough of a need to meet. Other than that, the next meeting won’t be until February 1st.

-Adam reported that the replacement town hall’s emergency generator has been installed and that it was tested last week and worked fine. Adam and the Board discussed the work capacity the generator had in relation to the power needs of each department would want if the power failed for a long period of time.
Adam said he’d get the information on the back-up server’s outsource component and where data gets sent when it backs up beyond the hard drive.

A motion was made and seconded to adjourn.

The vote was 2 – 0. The motion passed.

The meeting adjourned at 6:05 pm