The meeting started at 19:05 hours and James Wettlaufer, chairman of the board, read a prepared statement addressing Police Chief Kevin Gleason‘s resignation. The statement mentioned a phone call yesterday morning during which Gleason announced his resignation for health reasons.
Officer Morehouse seems to be favored to replace the vacancy until the board of selectmen decided what to do. A special meeting of the members of the board of selectmen is scheduled for Monday evening at 19:00 hours. Officer Morehouse who is out of state will be back by then and attend the meeting to discuss the future of the HPD.
Appointments:
Anthony Perone as the speaker and Bob Noonan who answered some questions informed the board about the reverse 911-phone system. Reverse 911 is a sophisticated computer-based telecommunications system that can be used for a variety of notifications to residents. This innovative telephone messaging system provides pre-recorded voice notifications to town citizenry. Once the town has the system, all town departments can access R911 and deliver messages to targeted areas or to all residences. The system does not cost the town anything as the system is funded beyond 2010.
Teema Jordan & Cynthia Rogers complaint about a barking dog. They live in the windmill house they bought a couple of years ago on Brimfield Road. There is a bylaw against barking dogs. The barking dog belongs to Daniel Maudsley who lives above the Holland pizza parlor. Dan Maudsley is a volunteer firefighter on the Holland Fire Department. The problem goes on for some time and the new dog officer allegedly did not want to get involved.
Old business:
The Brook‘s, a private group of sports fishers reduced the number of trailers of participants from 12 to 10 and the permit for the fishing derby was issued.
New business:
Some changes were made to the annual town meeting warrant and the warrant signed. I will post the warrant on the Holland Blog as soon as possible.
Officer Morehouse seems to be favored to replace the vacancy until the board of selectmen has made a decision what to do. A special meeting of the members of the board of selectmen is scheduled for Monday evening at 19:00 hours. Officer Morehouse who is out of state will be back by then and attend the meeting to discuss the future of the HPD.
Carolyne Reardon complained about debris behind and around the A-frame house on the east side of the causeway.
Town counsel Vincent McCaughey entered the town hall shortly before the selectboard announced again that they will go into executive session to discuss disciplinary actions against a town official. The official in question was allegedly notified and choose not to attend. State police lieutenant Kevin Hope was also present. He is a member of the detective unit assigned to the Hampden County District Attorney William M. Bennett‘s office. It is sad that the public was not allowed to attend the most interesting part of the meeting.
An unusual large number of people attended tonight‘s meeting. I counted 19 people besides the members of the select board and the two individuals operating the video equipment. Two police officers were also present, one inside and another outside. It looked as if the police officer outside was watching the south side of the building so nobody could eavesdrop during the executive session.
Peter Frei