LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — Attendance is a problem for the town's Finance Committee and with budget season ahead, a game plan is needed.

Chair Jodi-Lee Szczepaniak-Locke brought concerns about meeting quorum for votes. The panel is "essentially down to a 33 percent attendance rate," she reported to the Select Board last week.

"I'm here tonight, out of significant concern from several members of the Finance Committee about our difficulty achieving a quorum," she said. "We have given due diligence to our members that have been absent on several occasions."

For full transparency to Lanesborough residents, she feels it is important that they know there are elected members of the committee who are not able to be fully present and this could pose a "significant" problem throughout budget season.

"I think I'm significantly respectful to our members and how long they have served in various positions in the town of Lanesborough," Szczepaniak-Locke added.

"I'm also significantly respectful to the privacy that they deserve for the reasons why they can't uphold what their responsibilities are to their elected positions and I think it's not my responsibility to go into that."

The Finance Committee has five members elected on a rotating basis for three-year terms. Its main job is to make studied recommendations on all town financial matters and to prepare a budget for the annual town meeting.

One member had nine absences last year. Several meetings had to be rescheduled due to not having a quorum when there was business to take care of.

It is foreseen that there may not be a quorum for the February meeting. The chair feels that her hands are tied and that "the taxpayers need to know that we can't do our job right now."

"To me, this is not how a chairperson should be running a finance committee for a town," she said. "So we are really not functioning at full capacity. We're not being notified appropriately when these two members are going to be either absent or attending."

Town Administrator Gina Dario pointed out that there is a provision in the bylaws that states if there are more than six unexcused absences within a consecutive 12-month period, the next step is to notify the member that they are considered to have vacated the position. In this case, the town and the committee will allow people to put in an interest form and appoint a replacement member to serve the balance of the term.

The Select Board supported sending out a communication to anyone who meets that criteria and will follow through with Szczepaniak-Locke's request. Board member John Goerlach was not present at this meeting.

In other news, a special town meeting will not be required this year because the town's current financial position has not encountered any unforeseen expenditure that would require it.

The board approved April 25 as the deadline to submit warrant articles ahead of the annual town meeting in June.

After a presentation from Tom Irwin, a member of Dalton's Green Committee, a resolution was also approved to support the paint stewardship legislation that diverts unwanted paint from waste streams. Paint stewardship is part of the product stewardship approach, in which manufacturers take responsibility for the end life of their products.

"It is a program where you will be able to return your unwanted paint to any participating retail store at no cost whenever they're open. Fantastic program," Irwin said. "The lift for individuals is going to be somewhere between 75 cents and $1 per gallon and that will be $1.75 for five gallons. They're not trying to make money they're trying to break even."

He explained that 5.9 million tons of trash are generated annually in the state and that number escalates by between two and three percent annually. There is a fixed capacity for incineration of 3.2 million tons per year and that means 2.7 million tons and counting has to be hauled away.

Product stewardship offers the potential to eliminate items from this waste stream and begin reducing this burden," Irwin said.

One hundred percent of oil-based paints can be used as coal fuel for industrial furnaces and 20 percent can be reprocessed.

"Since the residents of your community will appreciate this and since over 75 municipalities support this and since all Berkshire legislators co-sponsor it and since saving our environment demands bills like this, we strongly consider adding your community's valuable supportive resolution to the growing list of paint stewardship bill supporters," Irwin said adding that more support gives it a better chance of being passed.

Irwin has been speaking to other county boards including the North Adams City Council and the Williamstown Select Board. 

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