Board of Selectmen Meet February 6

by Bill Tobin 2/7/12

The board reviews department budgets, appoints a constable and signs the warrant.

The selectmen opened the meeting on February 6 with thanks to the many volunteers that made the Souper Bowl in the Upper Town Hall on Saturday a successful evening in support of the Holliston Pantry Shelf.  No one mentioned the Super Bowl in Indianapolis.

A review of the Holliston Auxiliary Police and budget was presented to the board...

 

... by Sergeant Craig Denman, Director. He explained that the donated hours by the current 18 members of the auxiliary police totaled 2,188 hours which provided a savings of $91,655.32 if these hours were paid as overtime to the regular members of the police department.  Some  of the events covered by the Auxiliary Police are Celebrate Holliston, Cycle for Haylee, Mission Possible Road Race, Little League Parade, the Lions Club Carnival, Memorial Day Parade, Mudville Baseball Club Procession, Newcomers Club 10K Race and the Boston Marathon-Hopkinton. 

The Auxiliary Police patrolled 5,281.6 miles on weekend patrols, checked town owned property 1,234 times and check 3,557 commercial and other buildings. 

Officer Denman expressed the gratiude of the Auxiliary Police for the generosity of the Holliston Newcomers Club, Holliston Lions Club and Celebrate Holliston.

The selectmen individually thanked the Auxiliary Police for their dedication and  great job for the town.

Margaret Fitzpatrick, Director of the Holliston Youth and Family Services presented the budget for FY 13.  The goals for FY 13 are to continue to provide high quality services to and assessing the needs of the community: continue the internship program with the UMass Boston Counseling Program to help with the incresed clinical load and work with the the Middle School; work with organizartions and grants to help offset budget reductions. This budget will not provide for outside professional services and consultation, continued loss of full cost of living increase and will not encourage additional program development. 

Youth and Family Services work with organizations such as the Holliston Business Association and their Community Action Fund that helps residents in financial trouble.

The Board accepted the budget as presentd.

Chief Michael Cassidy presented the Fire and Ambulance budgets, within the suggested guideline, but with warnings. Some of the risks of the proposed fire budget include the fact that the firefighters stipends have not kept up with the employees' share in insurance premiums. Staffing reductions over the years has significantly impacted day-to-day operations. There is insufficient funding for professional development, maintenance of fleet and buildings and equipment replacement. 

The ambulance budget does not reflect the true cost of operating ambulance, as some costs have shifted from the fire budget. There  is insufficient funding in this budget also for professional development, maintenance of fleet and equipment replacement. With costs shifted from the fire budget, there is not enough annual savings for timely ambulance replacement in the future. 

It was noted that the number of fire incidents and ambulance runs are increasing.

Participation in State and Federal Grant programs are opportunities for budgetary savings. 

In other board business,  Robert Guyon was appointed Constable. The Holliston Business Association was granted a one-day alcoholic beverage permit for its annual Comedy Night scheduled for Friday, March 30th at St. Mary's Hall. 

The board granted the request by The Wine House to cancel their approved relocation application as they are not going to move to the Hollis Plaza as planned.

 

After the meeting adjourned, Kevin Conley announced that he returned the nomination papers to Liz Greendale for his re-election to the Board of Selectman. He was elected in May ,2011 to complete the one-year left on term of Will McColl who had resigned.  

Posted in Politics, News.

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