Select Board Meeting ~ January 26, 2017

2017-01-26 · Select Board · 2:43:46 · watch on YouTube →

The Select Board met on January 26, 2017 with four of five selectmen present and spent the bulk of the evening on the public works budget. Before that it waived the Eureka Center's no-animal rule for a child's birthday party, heard a long and frank report from animal control officer Patrick Johnson about working alone, and heard the Durham Youth Baseball president present a roughly $320,000 plan for four ball fields to be funded by grants and fundraising rather than by the town. Selectman Joshua Libby resigned by letter, which the board received with regret while allowing him to keep his keys and security code until his IT work is finished. Code enforcement officer Paul Baines laid out an analysis of town growth arguing that Durham's buildable lots along town roads will be consumed within ten to fifteen years and that, because the ordinance blocks other revenue, the entire tax burden will stay on residential property. On the budget the board trimmed vehicle maintenance, tree work, the meteorology subscription and $75,000 off the roads line by chip sealing Stackpole Road, pressed Calvin Beaumier for a long-promised cost-per-foot comparison between in-house and contracted road work, and left the question of another road bond for the budget committee; the recording ends mid-vote on a $120,000 stream crossing appropriation.

What was discussed

1. 0:02
   Call to order and agenda

   The chair, Jeffrey Wakeman (?), called the meeting to order, noted a quorum with four of five selectmen present, and led the Pledge of Allegiance. Item 7E and a letter from Selectman Libby were added to the agenda. Before the gavel members had discussed where a historic district item belonged, concluding it was a budget question since the group would need an appropriation to spend anything.

2. 0:02
   Request to waive the no-animal rule at the Eureka Center

   Bill Downs of Evergreen Lake (?) said he was renting the Eureka Center from Pearl for his son's seventh birthday on March 18 and found a clause barring animals. Part of the party is an educational animal presentation by Wildlife Encounters of Rochester, New Hampshire, whose website and insurance rider he had emailed to the administrator. The animals named were an arctic fox and a coatimundi, or a wallaby as backup, kept away from the guests, and a mini pig, cockatoo, laughing kookaburra and sugar glider for the children to handle.

3. 5:18
   Consent agenda

   A motion to accept the consent agenda as presented was made, seconded and put to a vote.

4. 5:18
   Animal control officer's report

   Patrick Johnson brought copies of his incident reports. He said his arm operation had stopped him only on the day itself and slowed him for three or four days, and proposed keeping a carbon-copy log of date, mileage and calls received so he can send a copy every couple of weeks or once a month.

5. 5:18
   Reports that went nowhere

   Johnson said none of the reports he filed covering his first year appeared on the town website or in the town report, nor did the rabies notices he had asked to have posted. He and Ruth Glaeser agreed communication between them had not been good on either side and needed work. Members explained the reports are not posted on the web as such but would appear through the town report.

6. 10:43
   Dogs at large and mileage

   Johnson said there are a great many dogs at large and he has caught perhaps one in sixty, and described being called at two in the morning about a loose dog and being told it will be his fault if it is hit. Because he had submitted no mileage paperwork all year, members suggested folding the mileage allotment into his salary instead; he estimated roughly 1,200 miles a year.

7. 10:43
   How he enforces

   Johnson said building a court case is difficult because a $50 fine rarely reaches a judge and witnesses will not testify to what they saw. He described talking a family into registering a dog he had been warned about, and working with an elderly woman whose goat had been escaping for seven years, who is now putting up fence posts and wire herself and calls him rather than being ticketed.

8. 10:43
   The pigs on Leighton Road

   Johnson recounted catching two seventy-pound pigs near the Brunswick line shortly before his operation, after ropes and lassos failed, by jumping on one and grabbing its front legs, with Ryan Whitmore helping. Members joked that the town should send a videographer with him.

9. 16:05
   Reporting and coverage

   Members said something like the report he had brought, submitted quarterly or monthly, would be exactly what they wanted. Johnson described working with the Brunswick, Harpswell and Lisbon Falls officers, noting that in Brunswick a police officer escorted him on every call and dispatch knew when he was clear, while in Durham he is alone and unaccounted for. He said three situations had made him genuinely nervous, including one where the owner warned him the dogs would tear him apart.

10. 21:22
    Who covers when he is out

    Members asked whether a neighbouring officer could cover absences and suggested writing to surrounding towns. Johnson said Jeff Cooper already covers two other towns, and that he had covered for Heidi in Brunswick one summer, dropped into it without agreed terms or pay, but that when he asked her to return the favour she declined. He said Cooper helps him readily, having roped him down a cliff to check a dog stranded on the ice when Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, the state police and the sheriff would not come, and that the Brunswick clam wardens Dan Deo and Paul have an airboat and are on his speed dial.

11. 21:22
    Animal control pay

    Johnson said the money is not enough and asked whether there was room to change it. The chair told him to pick a number, present it to the board, and the town would ultimately decide. He was asked to get it to Ruth Glaeser by the following Monday because the budget is being finalised next week before going to the budget committee.

12. 26:23
    Continuing education

    The board had budgeted money for the continuing education credits the position requires and had no record of any being taken. Johnson said he has not done any but has been in touch with Liam, who runs the officer training course, and that the four-day course costs $50 in total. He said he was thinking of first aid and CPR since what he learned years ago has changed, and members asked only for a copy of any certificate for the file.

13. 26:23
    Ball fields: the site

    The president of Durham Youth Baseball (?) said the league's lease requires it to present its plans to the select board before building. The 10-acre lot has lost about a third of its area to a wet corner that an environmental scientist wanted to call a vernal pool, which he said did not meet the definition, but which the Army Corps requires them to stay out of. The plan shows two full-size Cal Ripken fields and two smaller T-ball fields, with entrances placed so as not to face houses directly.

14. 31:26
    League numbers and parking

    The league averages about four T-ball teams a year plus rookie, minor and major teams, so two large fields is the minimum and two small ones is where it needs to be. T-ball has been playing at Shiloh since school construction started because there is no other field space in town. The plan has about 100 parking spaces, roughly one per player.

15. 31:26
    Clearing and cost

    An earlier clearing netted the league perhaps $10,000 to $12,000, which it has held for this. Sappi cleared the rest this autumn at no charge, taking only pulp. A contractor's rough price that week put the fields at about $320,000, which the league does not have; it intends to pursue grants, including one from Major League Baseball, and has heard of contractor interest in donating materials.

16. 36:42
    The catch-22 on grants

    The league has held the property about ten years and has been slow moving because it cannot realistically apply for grants until it is committed and permitted, and cannot easily get approvals before the money is in hand. The aim is to start work by summer, with grant applications in the spring, after going to the planning board and obtaining permits. Asked directly, the president confirmed the town of Durham will not be paying for it.

17. 36:42
    Why the school fields do not work

    Access to the school fields is dicey. Everything goes through the RSU, the high school can bump the middle school off a field regardless of what is scheduled, and last year nobody was allowed on any field until nearly the beginning of May. Even to hold a clinic in the Durham gym the league must hire a custodian at about $40 an hour, since it is not part of the school; members noted the town gets a custodian bill for elections too.

18. 41:46
    Other uses and buildings

    Members asked whether other groups could use the fields to spread the cost beyond April to June. The lease permits other uses, though fencing makes a soccer field difficult, and the league said it would entertain the growing softball league. Plans include a 24 by 24 or 30 by 30 building between the two large fields for a snack shack and storage, with portable toilets rather than a septic system, since a septic design driven by three months of concentrated use makes little sense.

19. 41:46
    Planning board: retail marijuana

    Todd Beaulieu reported the planning board had discussed prohibiting retail marijuana establishments and social clubs in town, saying members do not think it is in the character of Durham. He noted the state has a moratorium until next February but the town meeting falls in April, so it would be better to get ahead of it. The board established that what is proposed is a prohibition rather than a moratorium, that MMA (?) says a town can do it, and that whether it survives depends on the final state enactment; a member also raised that the town has no police force.

20. 41:46
    Timing the ordinance hearing

    Members noted a public hearing is required before the article can go on the warrant, with what they took to be a ten-day notice period, and that all other ordinance changes should be gathered for the same hearing. The planning board expects to set the date at its next meeting, and members observed that without the Tri-Town paper the notice can go into the daily papers closer to the date.

21. 46:51
    Selectman Libby's resignation

    The chair read Joshua Libby's letter stepping down from the board. He wrote that he was doing it in time for someone to be elected for the last year of the term, noting he himself was first elected as a write-in candidate, and that the decision was largely down to commitments to his employer and career, with three major exams this year, the first before March, and a new child. He apologised for quitting in the middle of budget season and offered to be reached by phone about the network.

22. 46:51
    Fire department forestry grant

    The fire chief's written report included a request to accept a grant covering 20 pairs of forestry pants at $2,540, with the purchase made from the grant match account and half reimbursed afterwards. The original grant request had covered 10 portable radios and 20 pairs of forestry pants, and only the pants portion was approved.

23. 46:51
    Waiving permit fees after a house fire

    The code enforcement officer, Paul Baines (?), asked the board to waive town building and electrical permit fees for anyone whose house is destroyed by fire and who rebuilds in town. The state plumbing permit would still be required, and permits and inspections would still occur; only the fee would be waived. He asked that the house up the corner that burned a couple of weeks ago, whose owners pulled permits last week, be included and reimbursed.

24. 52:20
    Flag pole at the War Memorial

    The main flag pole has suffered structural damage and is listing about three degrees, with the concrete and ground moving when the pole is shaken. It needs assessment in the spring once the frost is out, and the code officer expects it will have to come down and be reset, possibly along with the other tall pole. It is set about two and a half feet in concrete, which he had questioned at the time but allowed because Joe followed the pole manufacturer's installation instructions; he would want at least four feet and a rectangular rather than a round sonotube footing, which absorbs water and works itself out of the ground. In the high wind storm the two flags proved more than the pole could take, the rope broke and the American flag was destroyed, so the right flag size also needs establishing.

25. 52:20
    When Durham's houses were built

    Working from housing data Ruth Glaeser had compiled for the historic district commission on when houses on the tax rolls were built, the code officer said growth stopped around 1880 and picked up again around 1946, with the anomalies of the last forty years tied to I-295 giving Durham the transport links to become a bedroom community. The decade from 1970 to 1980 added about 220 homes and each decade since has run 250 to 300, with about 25 to 30 built this year.

26. 52:20
    Subdivision inventory and rural roadside

    He said a substantial part of the town's subdivision inventory was absorbed this year and there are no new subdivisions because of the permitting restrictions, so growth will now fall on town roads. At 300 feet of frontage per lot and 30 houses a year, that is nearly two miles of rural roadside a year turned into lawns, mailboxes and driveways, or 12 to 17 miles in a decade. His mapping of available buildable lots suggests they will be consumed within ten to fifteen years at 300 to 450 houses.

27. 57:43
    What that means for taxes

    Because the ordinance allows no additional revenue streams, is unfriendly to business and is completely restrictive to subdivision, the code officer said the entire tax base will remain residential property and the town faces significant increases year after year. He said the previous comprehensive plan called for a town planner precisely to track these trends, and that the State Planning Office declined to certify the last plan because growth pressure in the rural district was not relieved: the growth district it created has the same lot square footage and only 50 feet less road frontage, so there is no reason for anyone to build there rather than along the Lisbon, Topsham, Brunswick and Freeport lines where the pressure already is.

28. 57:43
    What Durham does not have

    He noted Durham has no coastal frontage to charge against, no Sebago Lake, no recreational zone and no downtown, and that under the current ordinance the town could not build a downtown even if it wanted one. He said people are moving to Durham because the schools are good and property values and taxes are low, while residents already here are complaining that their taxes keep rising.

29. 1:02:54
    A joint workshop

    A member asked Todd Beaulieu whether there would be value in the select board and planning board sitting down together on this, with the comprehensive plan committee, since the two bodies are going about their business separately and the comprehensive plan will steer where the ordinances go. Beaulieu agreed.

30. 1:02:54
    Commercial development restrictions

    Beaulieu said the five-lot limit in rural residential and the way the town treats commercial projects have hurt Durham, citing L.L. Bean driving through the town to Lewiston when a warehouse could have been built here had it been welcomed. The ordinance bars commercial development visible within 1,000 feet of a residential structure measured from its tallest floor, which members worked out amounts to a half-mile circle; the existing convenience store predates the rule and could not be built today without being set back 100 feet and fully screened.

31. 1:08:29
    Land prices and retirement lots

    Members traced the dynamic: as available lots tighten, prices rise toward Freeport and Yarmouth levels and people who have held two lots next door for thirty years will sell them as their retirement. No ordinance stopping that would ever pass at town meeting, so the only route is relieving pressure elsewhere so inventory stays available and values do not skyrocket.

32. 1:08:29
    The case for a town planner

    Asked what he proposed, the code officer said the town needs a planner and has needed one for ten years, someone tracking this information year by year so that the planning board can look annually at where the town is going against where it planned to go and recommend ordinance adjustments. He compared it to the derivative element of PID control programming, which reassesses performance against the target and readjusts the inputs. He said tracking this is nobody's task at present and is not in his job description either.

33. 1:13:46
    Caveats in the data

    He cautioned that the two most recent decades are distorted by the 2008 to 2010 housing recession and the years of almost no building that followed, so the underlying trend is probably higher. He noted the Maine Association of Realtors had just reported 2016 as the highest sales year since it began keeping records, and that Durham faces pressure both from growth radiating north from the Boston corridor and from people leaving northern Maine for the south.

34. 1:13:46
    Net versus new

    Asked whether the figures were net of replacements, he said they come from the tax rolls rather than permits, so a house torn down and rebuilt still counts as one structure. Members reckoned roughly 1,300 homes have gone up since 1970 against a household figure the recording garbles but which members put at around 1,850, meaning everything before 1970 accounts for the rest. Only about 32 homes were built between roughly the turn of the century and the second world war, when people moved to the mill communities, and members noted the railroad never came through Durham either.

35. 1:13:46
    Staff and the budget

    The code officer closed by saying budget season is intensely stressful for employees, who feel under the gun not to get a dime for anything and take every complaint that comes through the door, and that the people in the town office work very hard and are not paid a lot. He said it would be good to make up some of that ground in future, and that means revenue. Members then noted the comprehensive plan committee's visioning meeting the following Tuesday at the Durham Community School cafeteria, which is seeking public input.

36. 1:13:46
    Public works budget: wages and benefits

    The raise pool is 2 percent across the board, including the road commissioner. Salaries rise about $4,700 while FICA and Maine PERS rise more, though Ruth Glaeser said the $18,000 figure might come down because part-time staff do not get Maine PERS. Health insurance carries the regular increase, and workers' compensation is actually falling because of money owed from the 2015 year.

37. 1:18:49
    Utilities and communications

    Against $18,310 approved and $11,594 spent last year, Calvin Beaumier asked $14,810, cutting CMP from $7,000 to $6,000 and reducing heating oil and propane while leaving FairPoint and Comcast unchanged, on the basis that oil prices have risen from a very low period and the number two oil is locked in only to the end of the season. Cell phone stipends have moved into the utility line, which explains why communications rose from $800 approved and $1,110 spent to $1,200.

38. 1:24:14
    Vehicle and equipment maintenance

    The request was $38,000 against $32,071 spent in 2016, including $1,500 a year for Freightliner diagnostics and $1,500 for JD Link, which reports on the equipment. Members noted the highest spend in three years was $35,000 and proposed $36,000; Beaumier said the department has three newer trucks but the older ones are another year into salt and rust and he is looking for metal to weld to. He accepted $36,000, noting this is the summer line and the older plow trucks fall under winter maintenance.

39. 1:24:14
    Rental equipment

    The $3,000 credit in the rental line was an error rather than a real credit: a lawn mower shared with Pownal in 2015 was not invoiced until 2016. Nothing was rented last year. Beaumier plans roadside mowing, which he has said does not need doing every year, and ditching with a hoe ram to get water moving on some side roads.

40. 1:29:25
    Facility maintenance and septic

    The jump in facility maintenance was largely $5,400 spent on the roof out of the operating budget because the bond fell short, leaving about $7,118 of ordinary spending, plus $2,800 to replace the salt shed door, which is there but has nothing left of it. A $500 line was added to pump and possibly service the septic system, which Beaumier said must be done because there are no records and the system on file may not be what is in the ground; members put pumping at $250 to $300 before any filters or baffles.

41. 1:34:38
    Training, signs and safety

    Professional development rises to $1,400 against $600 spent, including classes for Ron that should have happened last year. The sign line carries $2,500 for a new Welcome to Durham sign on top of more than $2,000 in ordinary spending. Safety equipment rises about $450 to cover the Greater Portland Council of Governments bid fee for salt, which had arrived with no line to charge it to.

42. 1:34:38
    Fuel, uniforms and professional services

    The fuel account for gasoline and diesel is up about $21,000 on prices rather than usage, with about a 25 percent increase seen. Uniforms were cut because the money was not spent. Engineering and surveying rises above the $14,000 spent because Beaumier wants to get survey and engineering work done a year ahead.

43. 1:34:38
    Traffic control and tree work

    A new traffic control line covers subcontracted flagging, which frees the crew for actual work; Beaumier said he then uses on-call drivers to wash trucks and patch roads rather than adding a full-time position that would cost about $50,000 with benefits, and that trucks left with salt on them for days rust. On tree work the board again cut the line to $4,000, noting only $660 was spent, though Beaumier said there is plenty to do and dead trees over the road; members noted CMP will do tree work in town this summer but only on the side carrying power lines.

44. 1:39:47
    Materials and dust control

    Against $45,325 approved and $18,020 spent, the request rises about $26,000, the underspend explained by the crew being tied up on the bond project. A new $6,000 dust control line would put magnesium chloride on the gravel roads; Beaumier argued it binds the surface almost like pavement and stops rain washing out the fines that hold the gravel together, so it saves gravel. The patch line drops to $12,000 because Runaround and Rabbit were rebuilt, though Davis, Bowie Hill and Meadow Road are getting worse by the day.

45. 1:39:47
    Whether the materials line stands

    A member marked the materials line to come back to, since the request is nearly two and a half times what was spent. Beaumier said the request is less than last year's approved figure and that if there is no new construction bond he will definitely need the money, so he could not leave it out.

46. 1:44:54
    The roads line

    The paving line was renamed roads because the work is more than paving. The apparent $218,500 increase falls to about $158,000 once the $60,000 of surface treatments moved up from below is taken out. The figure rests on shim and overlay at $120,000 a mile over 3.43 miles, Cedar Pond Road at 1.83 and Stackpole at 1.6, giving about $436,000, plus $5,000 crack seal and $2,500 striping. Beaumier said that on a ten-year cycle across 45 miles the town needs to do four to four and a half miles a year, about $550,000 annually just to keep a surface on the roads it has.

47. 1:50:12
    Shim and chip seal instead

    Beaumier said he could shim and chip seal the last section of Stackpole, from Bowie Hill to Auburn Pownal Road, for about $70,000 a mile rather than $120,000, saving roughly $75,000. He explained the shim restores the road's profile so water sheds rather than standing, and the chip seal is a wearing and waterproofing surface. Chip seal's poor reputation, he said, dates from a period when competitors cut the liquid asphalt with gasoline; All States is now the only local firm doing it properly. He has used seven years for chip seal against ten for shim and overlay, though All States now suggests both may reach ten.

48. 1:55:24
    Bowie Hill Road

    Bowie Hill was described as too far gone, with snow plows getting stuck in the pavement and repairs now needed, the surface a cobweb that cannot support the weight of a plow. Members asked whether it would be better to grind it back to dirt temporarily and rejected the idea, given mud season followed by dust season.

49. 2:00:29
    Winter materials

    The deicer line stays at $18,000 because every load of salt entering the yard is now treated with Ice Be Gone at eight gallons a ton, giving a working temperature to 49 below, so unlike last year the whole amount will be used. Nothing was spent on sand last year and the shed needs refilling. Salt rises about $20,000 on usage, Beaumier explaining that cost is driven by the number of freeze events and temperatures rather than snowfall, since a foot of snow is cheap to plow and it is the last half inch that has to be treated and scraped repeatedly.

50. 2:05:39
    Winter equipment maintenance

    Winter maintenance ran about $22,000 to $23,000, which with the $32,000 summer line means roughly $50,000 a year on five trucks. A member pressed that with a new truck delivered and one old truck gone the figure should fall; Beaumier replied that the remaining old trucks are a year older, their warranty repairs are now behind them, and a single plow pump cost $1,500 plus a trip to Plymouth. The line was left where it was to see how the year goes.

51. 2:05:39
    Weather service subscription

    The $495 meteorology line had already been cut to $300. Beaumier said he uses it for location-specific forecasts and compares it against others, but that he gets more updates from the National Weather Service. The line was cut entirely, with a member noting that if it proves valuable he could find $300 in the budget. Members reckoned the cuts so far had taken about $79,000 off, bringing the increase from roughly $222,706 to about $143,406.

52. 2:10:43
    Bonds and the summary sheet

    Ruth Glaeser proposed leaving the building and equipment bonds inside the public works budget to show what the department truly costs, but pulling the road bond out as its own capital article. A member asked for a summary sheet for next week showing last year's and this year's bottom line by department, where the money comes from and the tax impact. Excise revenue is up from about $733,000 to $825,283, which offsets some of the increase.

53. 2:10:43
    Truck replacement fund

    About $349,000 sits in the capital fund, and Ruth Glaeser suggested covering at least half the road bond payment from it to level the tax impact. She also urged keeping the $100,000 annual contribution toward truck replacement in the budget, which the request had dropped, arguing it will be hard to get back next year and that replacing a truck every two years is already almost too slow. Beaumier said the independent review of the trucks came back worse than he expected.

54. 2:15:51
    Paving the public works lot and the wash bay curtain

    About $37,350 is requested from the capital account to pave the public works parking lot, comparable to the roughly $40,000 the town office lot cost, including a 30-foot strip at the two back doors and 15 feet at the cold storage building to stop ice building where snow slides off the roof. A $10,000 wash bay curtain would let two trucks be washed inside the garage in cold weather; members questioned spraying water near outlets, switches, panels and heat, noting the town is held to a higher standard than a private contractor exempt from Maine Department of Labor inspection, while another pointed out that Mike Cop (?) washed trucks in that building for years without difficulty. Beaumier explained the crew uses volume of water rather than pressure washers on salt.

55. 2:20:58
    The road project list

    The list of road projects, with Shiloh, Davis and Bowie Hill (?) added that day, comes to almost $2.5 million at contractor prices. Beaumier said Pownal's Brown Road was recently done at about $100 a foot with a contractor, while Durham's work, doing most of it in house, came to about $50 to $55 a foot, or $1.1 million over 19,700 feet.

56. 2:20:58
    The missing spreadsheet

    Michael Stewart said he had asked for the figures backing that comparison repeatedly and had not received them, this being the second budget season. Members agreed the comparison is exactly what residents need to see to judge whether having a public works crew pays, and that it must include labour with benefits, equipment time, materials and fuel to compare like with like.

57. 2:26:04
    Efficiency against cash flow

    Members drew a distinction between whether in-house work is cheaper and what it does to cash flow: the town borrows less by doing its own work, but pays crew wages out the door daily and gets less done elsewhere in town. If the comparison came out at $95 a foot against a contractor's $100, the crew's time would be better spent on preventive work elsewhere; at $65 against $100 it might justify hiring another person. Beaumier was asked to produce the figures before the board meets the budget committee in early February.

58. 2:31:20
    Whether to bond another road project

    Beaumier said waiting a year would let the crew finish the ditching on the current project and do the preparation themselves at about $55 a foot rather than $100, saving perhaps a million dollars off the $2.5 million list, because the crew is stretched too thin to do it this year. Members countered that Meadow, Davis, Shiloh, Plummer Mill and Old Brunswick Roads are all in very poor shape, that email and phone complaints are already coming in about Meadow Road, and that it was exactly this that brought Runaround Pond Road residents out last year.

59. 2:36:39
    How to put it to the town

    Members discussed presenting the numbers to the budget committee and possibly putting a bond article on the warrant without recommending it, explaining why, so residents have the choice. It was noted that a warrant question cannot offer a choice between doing the work in 2017 or 2018. The board wanted the budget committee's view first, and one member said that if the figures show a 20 to 30 percent saving from doing it in house, holding off makes sense.

60. 2:36:39
    Upcoming meetings and nomination papers

    A budget workshop was set for Monday January 30 at 6:00 p.m., with regular meetings on Tuesday February 7 and Tuesday February 21 at 6:30 p.m., and the comprehensive plan committee's public input meeting at the school on Tuesday January 31 at 6:30 p.m. Nomination papers are available for two three-year selectman positions, three budget committee positions, a school board member, and selectman terms of two years and one year, due back around February 14.

61. 2:41:55
    Stream crossing grant match

    Beaumier said the grant application required showing the town has dedicated its share, and that the engineer told him the chance of getting both crossings is nil to none, so he should figure $100,000 for one. If the grant is not awarded he could replace the existing culverts conventionally for around $120,000 and do both crossings. The board discussed appropriating $120,000 from the capital account by warrant article, with anything unused returning to the account.

What was decided

• 5:18
  Motion that the board waive the no-animal restriction for Bill Downs's party at the Eureka Center; moved by Jeffrey Wakeman, seconded by Mark Blake. The chair called for discussion and for all in favour and declared the motion carried; the minutes record 4-0. Members noted the presenter carries insurance and asked that the company be told the venue is Durham, Maine rather than Durham, New Hampshire.passed
• 5:18
  Motion to approve the consent agenda as presented; moved by Sarah Hall, seconded by Michael Stewart. The chair called for all in favour and declared the motion carried; the minutes record 4-0.passed
• 21:22
  Board agreed, without a vote, that the animal control officer should submit a written pay proposal to Ruth Glaeser by the following Monday so it can go into the budget, and that he should bring the board a report monthly or at least quarterly rather than annually.passed
• 41:46
  No vote was needed on the ball field plans; the lease only requires the league to present them to the board. Members raised no objection, asked that other groups be able to use the fields when the league is not, and directed the league to the planning board and the code officer for permitting.passed
• 41:46
  No vote was taken on retail marijuana. The board agreed to work toward putting a prohibition on retail marijuana establishments and social clubs on the April town meeting warrant, with the required public hearing to be scheduled at the planning board's next meeting and other ordinance changes gathered for the same hearing.passed
• 46:51
  Motion to allow Joshua Libby to keep his email, keys and the building security code until his outstanding IT and network work is complete; moved by Jeffrey Wakeman, seconded by Michael Stewart. The chair called for discussion and for all in favour and declared the motion carried; the minutes record 4-0.passed
• 46:51
  Motion that the board receive Joshua Libby's letter of resignation with regret. The mover noted the board does not accept a selectman's resignation because it does not elect selectmen, so the wording is to receive rather than accept. Moved by Jeffrey Wakeman, seconded by Michael Stewart; the chair called for all in favour and declared the motion carried; the minutes record 4-0.passed
• 46:51
  Motion to approve the forestry grant for twenty pairs of forestry pants at $2,540, paid out of the grant match account with 50 percent reimbursed after purchase; moved by Mark Blake, seconded by Michael Stewart. The chair called for discussion and for all in favour and declared the motion carried; the minutes record 4-0. The radio portion of the original grant request was not approved by the grantor.passed
• 46:51
  No motion was made and no vote taken on the code officer's request to waive town building and electrical permit fees for residents rebuilding after a house fire, or on reimbursing the fee for the house that burned a few weeks earlier. The chair began to ask whether the board wanted to act that night and the discussion moved on to the next item.tabled
• 1:24:14
  Board and road commissioner agreed to cut the vehicle and equipment maintenance request from $38,000 to $36,000, about $1,000 above the highest spend of the last three years.passed
• 1:34:38
  Board agreed to hold the tree work line at $4,000, the same as last year, against a higher request and only $660 spent, taking $4,000 off the budget.passed
• 1:39:47
  The materials line was marked to come back to rather than settled, because the request is close to two and a half times what was spent, with the road commissioner noting he will need it if there is no new construction bond.tabled
• 1:55:24
  Board and road commissioner agreed to take $75,000 off the roads line, bringing it to about $368,500, by shim and chip sealing the last section of Stackpole Road at roughly $70,000 a mile instead of shim and overlay at $120,000, with the possibility of stretching the saving to a section of Cedar Pond Road. One member said he was abstaining from that part of the discussion.passed
• 2:05:39
  Board agreed to cut the meteorology subscription line entirely, having already reduced it from $495 to $300, on the basis that the National Weather Service provides comparable location-specific forecasts.passed
• 2:10:43
  Board agreed the road bond payment should come out of the public works operating budget and appear as its own capital article, while the building and equipment bonds stay in the operating budget to show the department's true cost. It was suggested that at least half the road bond payment be covered from the roughly $349,000 in the capital fund to level the tax impact.passed
• 2:10:43
  Ruth Glaeser (?) was asked to prepare a summary sheet for the following week showing last year's and this year's bottom line for each department, where the money comes from, and the total tax impact.passed
• 2:15:51
  No decision was made on the $10,000 wash bay curtain. The board asked the road commissioner to put the question to Safety Works first and find out whether a curtain would be accepted as sufficient protection for the electrical outlets and panels, so the town does not buy them and then be told trucks still cannot be washed there.tabled
• 2:26:04
  Board directed Calvin Beaumier to produce, before it meets the budget committee in early February, the cost-per-foot comparison between in-house and contracted road work, including crew hours with benefits, equipment time, materials and fuel. Members noted it had been asked for repeatedly across two budget seasons without being produced.passed
• 2:36:39
  No decision was reached on whether to put another road bond on the April warrant. The board agreed to take the project list and the cost comparison to the budget committee first and hear its view, with the option of putting a bond article on the warrant without recommending it so residents can decide.tabled
• 2:36:39
  Board set a budget workshop for Monday January 30 at 6:00 p.m., avoiding Tuesday because of the comprehensive plan committee's public meeting, with the fire chief asked to attend as well.passed
• 2:41:55
  Motion to put $120,000 from the capital account into a warrant article for the stream crossing culvert work, covering the town's share if the grant is awarded and a conventional culvert replacement if it is not, with any unused money returning to the capital account. A second was given and the chair called for all in favour, but the recording ends before any result is stated.outcome unclear

An outcome reads "unclear" where the recording does not state it plainly. The recogniser drops short words, and "the motion does not carry" is one missing word from its opposite.

Motions the minutes record

The town's own written account of what was decided, taken from select_board_minutes_1-26-171.txt. It owes nothing to the recording or to a model: the clerk typed it, with the vote. Where the summary above claims a decision this list does not carry, the summary is the part to doubt.

• the Board waive the no animal restriction for this partycarried 4-0

  Moved by Jeffrey Wakeman, seconded by Mark Blake

• Approve the Consent Agenda as presentedcarried 4-0

  Moved by Sarah Hall, seconded by Michael Stewart

• the Board receives the letter of resignation with regretcarried 4-0

  Moved by Jeffrey Wakeman, seconded by Michael Stewart

• allow Joshua Libby to hold keys and security code until such time as his work with IT is completecarried 4-0

  Moved by Jeffrey Wakeman, seconded by Michael Stewart

• Approve the Forestry Grant for twenty pairs of forestry pants at $2,540.00 paid out of the Grant Match Account with 50% reimbursementcarried 4-0

  Moved by Mark Blake, seconded by Michael Stewart

• Adjourn at 8:45 p.mcarried 4-0

  Moved by Michael Stewart, seconded by Mark Blake

Worth knowing

• 52:20
  The code enforcement officer told the board his mapping shows Durham's remaining buildable lots along town roads will be consumed within ten to fifteen years, at 300 to 450 more houses. At 300 feet of frontage per lot and about 30 houses a year, nearly two miles of rural roadside disappears into lawns and driveways annually, and because the ordinance blocks subdivision and commercial development the entire tax base stays residential.
• 2:20:58
  Pownal recently had a road built by contractor at about $100 a foot, while Durham's own project came to about $50 to $55 a foot with the crew doing much of the work, $1.1 million over 19,700 feet. Michael Stewart said he had asked for the spreadsheet supporting that figure repeatedly across two budget seasons and still had not received it, and members agreed it is exactly what residents need to see to judge whether the public works department pays for itself.
• 1:44:54
  The road commissioner said that keeping a surface on Durham's 45 miles of road on a ten-year cycle means resurfacing four to four and a half miles a year, roughly $550,000 annually, before any reconstruction. The board found $75,000 of the increase by shim and chip sealing the last of Stackpole Road at about $70,000 a mile instead of shim and overlay at $120,000.
• 2:31:20
  The road project list before the board came to almost $2.5 million at contractor prices. Calvin Beaumier said waiting a year would let his crew do the ditching and preparation themselves and cut roughly a million dollars off that, but members noted Meadow, Davis, Shiloh, Plummer Mill and Old Brunswick Roads are all in poor shape and that it was this sort of delay that brought Runaround Pond Road residents to town meeting the previous year.

Motion language found in the transcript

Located by pattern matching, with no model involved: "I move that", "I'll second", "all those in favour". This is an independent check on the summary above: 1 passage of motion language, against 21 decisions summarised.

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