Selectboard discusses goals and objectives

BELCHERTOWN – As the town approaches a new fiscal year and ushers in a new Town Administrator, soon to be the town’s first Town Manager, the Selectboard discussed its goals and objectives in the upcoming year.

Selectboard Chair Ed Boscher said the goals and objectives are “what direction we want to see the town go.” Then these goals and objectives are delegated to the Town Administrator.

Town Administrator Steve Williams presented some of his own goals and objectives, on which members provided feedback.

He wanted to improve communications in the town to get more people informed including a system for customer feedback, social media and signage.

“We need to have a town-wide social media presence on Facebook, Instagram and whatever else is out there so we can disseminate information better,” he said.

He said he is already in the process of working with the police department to budget for a permanently mounted sign on State Street for town-wide notification.

“It’s an easier location and if we have emergency messages that come out, we can get a message up right away and they can update it,” he said. “It can be as simple as high school graduation, elections, the Annual Town Meeting or EEE is active again.”

Selectboard member Peg Louraine proposed two signs, given that not everyone goes down State Street on a regular basis.

“Something where it would be more universally viewed,” Louraine said.

Boscher said the signs typically cost about $30,000 to $40,000 each.

Selectboard member Jen Turner brought up perhaps having a PR position.

Another goal Williams has is to update job descriptions for town employees, which he said hasn’t been done in over a decade.

“I spoke with our HR Director, and we have a verypreliminary budget of about $35,000 to hire consultants that come in and redo our job descriptions. I think there are over 100 of them,” Williams said. “These will be updated to reflect current job duties. We can look at organizational structure at that time and compensation.”

He also wants to review and reevaluate the structure of the performance evaluations as well.

As far as the budget is concerned, Williams said he wanted to tackle the structural deficit by starting the budget process earlier, which he wants to begin in the fall.

“The Town Accountant and the Town Assessor are already working with the DLS forecasting tools,” Williams said. “It’s quite an effort, but once we have that, it should be easier to maintain.”

He wants to begin to look at the deficit number and begin to chip away at it in a responsible way that doesn’t lose essential services.

“We need to look at what we’re charging for various programming and permits and make adjustments not only to account for expenses more closely but to compare to other communities,” Williams said.

Speaking about first responders and emergency management, Williams said he’d like to have another tabletop exercise to practice the town’s plan as well as roles and responsibilities.

He also spoke about working with the police and fire department chiefs to set goals and objectives, which Boscher said he’d like to see a presentation on in the next two to three weeks.

Williams also spoke about the town’s need to look at its buildings and equipment capital to “find a way to be more aggressive with that.”

“We are falling behind on new trucks and equipment. We have buildings that are aging,” Williams said. “Not only do we need to have a capital plan, but until we back out of our reliance on free cash, we don’t have the means to fund these capital projects.”

Boscher asked if Williams had a complete list of the buildings, equipment, approximate ages and life expectancies. Williams said he did.

During feedback from the board, members brought up determining office hours of the Conservation Department, an Earth Day clean up and the town’s master plan.

Turner said it’s been updated in sections with implementation steps.

“I’d like to see that as more of a living document that we’re using. There was a lot of work and effort put into that,” she said. “We updated the economic development section and the recreation and open space section. The housing section is actively being worked on. There are steps we can follow and use it as a guidebook.”

Selectboard member Lesa Lessard Pearson and Turner also brought up looking at the organizational development of the Human Resources Department.

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