Select Board Meeting ~ May 31, 2016

2016-05-31 · Select Board · 59:46 · watch on YouTube →

The Select Board met on May 31, 2016 and heard from Heather Roy, the Durham contact for fundraising for the Freeport high school track and field project, who apologised for hanging a banner at the Eureka Center without the board's permission and asked for it retroactively; the board allowed the 3-by-50-foot sign to stay for about a week. Fire Chief William St. Michel opened the only proposal received for the fire station painting and trim work and will bring a recommendation in two weeks, and reported at length that Durham's emergency management capacity rests almost entirely on the fire department, with no shelter coordinator and no public information officer. The road commissioner described bulky waste day, the paving programme on Stackpole, Davis and Woodland, and a difficult day building a coffer dam at the pond on Rabbit Road, where he discovered the existing culverts had been installed with the outlet a foot higher than the inlet. The codes official reported on the comprehensive plan committee's first meeting, questions about the legal status of the growth ordinance, and a proposed rewrite of the appeals section of the land use ordinance to stop variance and conditional use appeals from tangling each other up. The board appointed Wally J. Staples to the Comprehensive Planning Committee, made no nomination to MMA's legislative policy committee, and went into executive session on real estate.

What was discussed

1. 0:03
   Payable warrants and consent agenda

   Two payable warrants were before the board, the second a single check for flagging that had arrived about four o'clock that afternoon and had not been copied for members. Members were invited to look at it, and the consent agenda was moved as amended to add the extra warrant.

2. 0:03
   Tri-town track signage: how the sign came to be up

   Heather Roy said she lives down the road, has four children in the RSU, and apologised for putting a banner up at the Eureka Center. She had asked Nancy, who is affiliated with the Eureka Center, and been told it was fine, but took the sign down as soon as she learned the right route was to ask the board. The sign is 3 feet wide by 50 feet long, and she brought a photograph of it.

3. 0:03
   Why the sign is sensitive

   Roy acknowledged the board would not want the town to appear to endorse the project, since the track and field work was part of the original renovation bond that voters turned down, and the bond passed only once the track was removed and field repair alone was added. She said the project is now funded entirely by donations, that the sign says donate now, and that the website is on it for anyone with questions.

4. 0:03
   The brick challenge

   Roy said that two and a half to three weeks earlier the total raised from Durham residents and businesses stood at $500. She started a challenge around the $500 donor level, at which a family, child or business gets a name engraved on a brick in the donor walkway, aiming at 200 Durham donors and a $100,000 town contribution.

5. 5:12
   Fundraising to date and the rental question

   Roy reported the Durham total had reached about $24,000 in a little under three weeks, all voluntary rather than by tax vote. The board's only concern was whether anyone had rented the Eureka Center during the week the banner would be up; the sign travels town to town on roughly a Wednesday-to-Wednesday cycle and had most recently hung at the Freeport exit.

6. 5:12
   Deadline for the fundraising

   Asked whether the sign would come back, Roy said probably not, because there is a limited window before the project goes before the school board, believed to be in July, to put on hold the $600,000 the district has allocated to the repairs so the rest of the money can be raised. She said that decision would itself go out to a vote.

7. 5:12
   Phone service postponed

   The item on phone service was postponed to the next meeting. Ruth Glaeser said she was working on it, had Comcast pricing and had not yet reached FairPoint.

8. 5:12
   Fiber to the town

   A member raised a company, Tidewater, interested in running fiber through town, which he said would not conflict with the Comcast franchise because it does not sell cable and would only use the poles. He said the company works with grant money it can match, so it would cost the town nothing, and needs to line up neighbouring communities to make a loop worth building.

9. 10:15
   What fiber would offer

   Members discussed that fiber prices looked similar to what the town had already been quoted but the performance differs, since several devices can run without degrading each other. One noted a long driveway will still leave a household where it has always been. The company also offers phone service, and the board thought it worth expressing interest and inviting a presentation.

10. 10:15
    MMA legislative policy committee nominations

    MMA had asked for nominees again. Sarah had served the past year or so but was not believed to be interested again, and the member who has been an alternate said he cannot attend because the meetings fall in the middle of the working day at MMA in Augusta. No one else volunteered, so no nomination was made.

11. 10:15
    Appointment to the Comprehensive Planning Committee

    Wally J. Staples's application was in the members' packets. A member said he thought it was great, and moved the appointment.

12. 10:15
    Fire station project proposals

    The deadline for proposals on the fire station work was that day, and only one came in, for painting and trim. Fire Chief William St. Michel noted his RFP had said all trim where his original quotes had covered wood trim on the exterior doors, and thought the proposal was from the same contractor who gave the original quote.

13. 10:15
    Emergency management training and unfilled roles

    The chief and Mark Blake had attended emergency management training and came back with ideas; members praised the presenter as thorough and quick with answers. Asked whether the town has people for the incident command roles, the chief said there is a department safety officer, though not one specific to EMA, and that attempts to find a public information officer have failed twice.

14. 15:26
    Resource coordination and the in-house dispatch centre

    The chief said the department's in-house dispatcher, who also does the records for calls, would be the resource coordinator, and that calls for resources would come out of that dispatch centre. He said the department keeps its own radio system going at no cost because in a major emergency most communication centres are overwhelmed.

15. 15:26
    Search team and the county

    A search training was recently held in town and drew interested residents. The chief and Bill, his assistant EMA director, want participants to join the county team through Androscoggin County EMA so they get insurance coverage and full benefits, with Durham named as their primary response area when the team is activated through the proper channels.

16. 15:26
    Sheltering and depth of staffing

    The chief said he would like a local shelter coordinator or manager, because requisitioning supplies can be done through the fire department but staffing a shelter cannot. In the ice storm he staffed the station with four people around the clock for seven or eight days and did not have the depth to also run the shelter, which Debbie kept open. He noted that putting EMA under the fire chief looks logical until a disaster commits the fire and rescue chief entirely to response.

17. 15:26
    Pre-authorised emergency spending

    The chief noted the board authorises departments to spend a set amount of budget before town meeting, and that in the ice storm both fire and roads were on course to exceed that allowance, requiring two or three meetings. A member said the trainer had described standing authorisations for specified purchases in an emergency and that having such things in place beforehand would be worth doing.

18. 15:26
    Self-sufficiency

    The chief cautioned that any system protects its core first and that Durham is an extremity, not the core. He said the town should be prepared to be self-supporting for extended periods rather than relying on outside help once an emergency is under way.

19. 20:30
    The painting and trim quote

    The proposal came from Gary Lane using Mo's Painting of Brunswick. Exterior washing and painting of the station was quoted at 5625, trim replacement in composite material at 3760, with two optional interior items covering an area in the bays and an area in the meeting hall lumped together; the total came to 14285, and dropping the optional item would bring it to slightly under 10,000. The chief offered to review it and come back with a recommendation in two weeks.

20. 20:30
    Bulky waste day

    The road commissioner, Calvin Beaumier (?), reported bulky waste day went far faster than in past years, with one member getting two loads through by noon where the day used to be a whole day's plan. He said they had learned from last year and kept it flowing.

21. 20:30
    Traffic problems on bulky waste day

    A member said drivers on Route 136 coming from the Auburn direction were stopping behind the queue because they did not realise they could pass, and suggested signs at both ends warning of lines. There were also complaints about people blocking a driveway near Pound Road by pulling in tight rather than leaving a car length either side, and the board discussed signage or stationing someone there next year.

22. 25:32
    Chip seal and shim quotes

    The commissioner handed out the chip seal and shim figures for the same roads and asked members to compare them with the Excel sheet from the previous week. The totals were off by a couple of thousand from calculation differences, and the shim amounts that had come back for Stackpole were close to the estimate.

23. 25:32
    Davis and Woodland

    Davis was shimmed that day, with the end of Woodland to be ground and shimmed the next day and both roads surfaced on Friday under the plan as it stood.

24. 25:32
    Rain on the Stackpole paving

    The commissioner shut down the Stackpole paving when it started raining, with ten trucks waiting to dump pavement, because pavement laid on a wet road delaminates. The contractor swept for two hours trying to dry it before giving up and going elsewhere, and declined to try again the following Thursday rather than risk a shower. He said he was not the most popular person that day.

25. 30:50
    Crew time and the short weeks

    Getting the trucks ready for the parade, painting frames and cleaning takes about two days, which had caught the commissioner off guard on top of the Thursday swapped for working the Saturday bulky waste day. He said that next year it would be better to work the day and pay the overtime, and noted a Monday holiday and the highway congress on Thursday made this a short week.

26. 30:50
    Building a coffer dam at the pond on Rabbit Road

    To replace culverts the crew dammed the pond with large sand-filled yard bags set by machine. A borrowed pump could not touch it, a rented 4-inch diaphragm pump could not either, and only a trailer-mounted diesel trash pump got ahead of the water by noon, after which smaller sandbags sealed the leaks. Because gravel cannot be dumped in the pond, everything used has to be removable, and fabric was rolled out under the discharge hose so the returning water would not erode the bank.

27. 36:19
    Culverts installed backwards

    The commissioner found the existing pipes had their outlet set about a foot higher than their inlet, so the water had to rise to the outlet level before anything would flow and the pipes acted as a dam, staying full of water and debris. His engineer said no one would build it that way and that somebody had read the level backwards. Lowering the outlet would have dropped the pond a foot and created environmental problems, so the old outlet elevation became the new inlet elevation; the pipes were rotten on the bottom and the road was showing signs of caving in, so they needed replacing regardless.

28. 36:19
    Trees marked for cutting near Route 9

    Trees in the town right of way on the big hill before Route 9, near the big farm, are in the ditch line and have been hung with signs reading save our trees and asking people to call the road commissioner. The commissioner said Barry needs an answer and that he cannot see how they stay, since they would stop water and the road is already giving out there. Members agreed they have to come down, and suggested the resident might be offered the wood.

29. 36:19
    Buried utility lines at Runaround Pond

    The orange flags along both sides of the road marked buried lines that made ditching impractical. After going back and forth with the Time Warner engineer, the power company and their people, an agreement was reached that the lines will be taken out and put up on the poles, expected to take about a month. The town's only obligation is to dig an 80-foot trench from the pole to the pedestal that feeds the boatyard.

30. 36:19
    Disposal missing from a draft RFP

    The commissioner said he had a draft nearly finished before realising he had left disposal out. One bidder's terms did not include disposal; another, from Freeport, was very specific that the waste could not go to their landfill or transfer station and would have to be hauled to Portland. Members noted the roof is not leaking and there is a whole summer to deal with it, and that two or three other buildings of the same era, including a church with a steep roof, have the same problem.

31. 41:34
    Ditching, Quaker Meeting House Road and Ross Road

    Asked when Quaker Meeting House Road would be finished, the commissioner said he had done the one piece he was worried about, that the lowered water table had produced almost no frost action and far fewer cracks than expected, and that the rest would probably wait until next year, with an under drain still needed in front of one driveway. A member asked him to look at Ross Road, where gravel is washing into the ditch around the culvert and riprap is needed. Marks left in the pavement by the excavator tracks will be rolled back in by Crooker if heat and traffic do not close them, newer pavement being softer than the old oxidized surface.

32. 41:34
    A possible fifth public works position

    The commissioner raised, well ahead of budget season, that the crew could use another dump truck driver, so that small jobs do not stall the big project. He said the plowing setup has no slack: after advertising and re-advertising he found one on-call plow driver who has since left, and accumulating vacation will start pulling steady staff away for days or a week at a time.

33. 41:34
    State to cover an extra cost in full

    The board was told that after asking for time to work out where extra funds would come from, the answer came back by email that the state would cover the whole thing. Members called it a very easy process and said Lisbon was envious.

34. 46:40
    Bidding and scheduling on that project

    A member said he was disappointed other bidders from town had not had a chance to bid, and wondered whether short notice or being busy explained it. The contract has been signed and issued and work should start within the next two or three weeks, with the road work sequenced so only one road is ground up at a time.

35. 46:40
    Comprehensive plan committee's first meeting

    The codes official, Paul Baines (?), said he and Ruth Glaeser want to hold a meet and greet at the town office on the 24th, where the committee will set bylaws and elect a chairman, vice chairman and secretary, and members will go home with a comprehensive plan workbook. He expects to leave them until September before breaking them into groups on different parts of the plan, and said Ruth has a contact with deep planning and town development experience who could provide training.

36. 46:40
    GIS for development mapping

    Paul Baines said he has CAD background and would like access to GIS so he can produce development mapping as a visual aid, since the hardest part for committee members is picturing how an idea plays out over time. He said small towns cannot justify an annual licence at $1,200 to $1,500 and no money is set aside for software, and Ruth Glaeser offered to ask a woman at MMA for recommendations.

37. 46:40
    Legal status of the growth ordinance

    Paul Baines said he is waiting to hear from MMA on the actual legal status of the growth ordinance, which contains significant subdivision restrictions, and that several people are starting subdivision work. In the meantime he has been telling applicants they can go before the board of appeals for an interpretation for about $150 before spending on engineering.

38. 52:15
    Rewriting the appeals section of the land use ordinance

    Paul Baines described a case in another Maine town where a business expanding a restaurant and bed and breakfast needed a variance, and the ordinance's requirement that the variance come before the conditional use permit produced almost five years of Superior Court litigation and a law court opinion he called scathing toward the communities. The proposed fix is to let an applicant obtain a conditional use permit conditional upon the variance, so that either can still be appealed without the two blocking each other, with the permit falling if the variance is later denied.

39. 52:15
    TAN and BAN closing

    The tax anticipation note and bond anticipation note closed that day. The town has received the TAN funds, and the BAN is set up on a withdraw-as-needed basis as money accrues against the bond.

40. 52:15
    New federal overtime threshold

    At Jeffrey Wakeman's request, Ruth Glaeser (?) had looked into the federal Department of Labor rule raising the salary threshold for exempt employees from around $23,000 to about $47,000, effective in December, above which salaried staff working over 40 hours must be paid overtime at their 40-hour rate. She said she does not think it affects her, since she works more than her scheduled 32 hours but rarely more than 40 and can make sure she does not, and noted the town has no budgeted funds if it did apply.

41. 52:15
    Air conditioning and the tax commitment date

    The air conditioning unit on the other side of the building has stopped working and will need a service call. Ruth Glaeser said committing taxes on June 28 works, so the June 21 meeting is unnecessary and the board will meet on the 28th.

42. 57:20
    Computers and printers at the counter

    Staff reported the office computers are not staying connected to the printers, so transactions stall part-way and an MVR cannot be printed, leaving staff writing them by hand when busy. Joshua Libby said he would come in on Thursday when staff are working, since he cannot diagnose an issue he cannot reproduce. Members noted the state plans to roll out laser printing for vehicle registrations next year in place of the quadruplicate forms.

43. 57:20
    Excusal from the June 14 meeting

    A member asked to be excused from the June 14 meeting because he will be serving as warden for the primary elections. The response "request denied" drew laughter, and the exchange turned to whether he could join by teleconference, which was rejected, before a member said he supposed that could be done and told him to enjoy watching the video.

44. 57:20
    Upcoming meetings

    Meetings were announced for June 14 and June 28 at 6:30 p.m. at the town office, and a special joint meeting of the Pownal and Durham selectmen for Tuesday June 7 at 6 p.m., which members were asked to note because it falls on an unusual day.

45. 57:20
    Executive session on real estate

    A motion was made to go into executive session under 1 M.R.S.A. § 405(6)(C) on real estate. The minutes record the board entering at 7:30 p.m., coming out at 7:48 p.m. with no action taken, and adjourning at 7:48 p.m.

What was decided

• 0:03
  Motion to approve the consent agenda as amended, adding the extra payables warrant for flagging; moved by Joshua Libby, 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
• 5:12
  Motion to allow the track and field fundraising banner to be placed at the Eureka Center for one week, plus or minus; moved by Jeffrey Wakeman, seconded by Mark Blake. It was conditioned on there being no rental booked at the Eureka Center in that period, which Heather Roy was to confirm with the person holding the calendar. The chair called for discussion and for all in favour, and declared the motion carried; the minutes record 4-0.passed
• 5:12
  The agenda item on phone service was postponed to the next meeting.tabled
• 10:15
  No nomination was made to the Maine Municipal Association legislative policy committee. The sitting member was not thought to be interested in serving again and no one else present volunteered, the meetings falling midday in Augusta.failed
• 10:15
  Motion to appoint Wally J. Staples to the Comprehensive Planning Committee; moved by Michael Stewart, seconded by Mark Blake. The chair called for all in favour and declared the motion carried; the minutes record 4-0.passed
• 20:30
  No award was made on the fire station painting and trim proposal, the only one received. The board agreed the fire chief should review it and come back with a recommendation in two weeks.tabled
• 36:19
  Board agreed, without a formal vote, that the marked trees in the right of way on the hill before Route 9 have to be cut because they sit in the ditch line and the road is failing there. The road commissioner said he would speak to the resident who had put up the signs, and members suggested she be offered the wood.passed
• 52:15
  Board agreed to commit taxes at the June 28 meeting, which makes a June 21 meeting unnecessary.passed
• 57:20
  A member asked to be excused from the June 14 meeting to serve as election warden for the primary. The reply "request denied" was made in jest and drew laughter, a second was called out, joining by teleconference was ruled out, and a member then said he supposed that could be done. No clear vote is audible and the recording does not settle the result.outcome unclear
• 57:20
  Motion to go into executive session under 1 M.R.S.A. § 405(6)(C) on real estate; moved by Jeffrey Wakeman, seconded by Mark Blake. The chair called for all in favour and declared the motion carried; the minutes record 4-0 at 7:30 p.m., and that no action was taken when the board came out at 7:48 p.m.passed

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_5-31-20161.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.

• Approve the Consent Agenda as Amended adding extra Payables Warrant for flaggingcarried 4-0

  Moved by Joshua Libby, seconded by Michael Stewart

• Allow the sign to be placed at the Eureka Center for one week plus or minuscarried 4-0

  Moved by Jeffrey Wakeman, seconded by Mark Blake

• Appoint Wally J. Staples to the Comprehensive Planning Committeecarried 4-0

  Moved by Michael Stewart, seconded by Mark Blake

• the Board into Executive Session pursuant to Title #1, M.R.S.A., ss. 405(6)(C) – Real Estate at 7:30 p.mcarried 4-0

  Moved by Jeffrey Wakeman, seconded by Mark Blake

• the Board out of Executive Session at 7:48 p.m. Selectmen's Minutes 5-31-2016 page 3 of 4 ACTION TAKEN: No Action Taken. Adjournment

  Moved by Jeffrey Wakeman, no seconder recorded; no outcome recorded

• Adjourn at 7:48 p.mcarried 4-0

  Moved by Joshua Libby, seconded by Michael Stewart

Worth knowing

• 5:12
  Durham donations to the high school track and field project had stood at $500 three weeks earlier and reached about $24,000 by this meeting, against a challenge target of 200 donors at $500 each for a $100,000 town contribution. Heather Roy said the window is short because the school board is expected in July to consider putting the $600,000 already allocated to field repairs on hold so fundraising can finish.
• 36:19
  The culverts at the pond on Rabbit Road had been installed with the outlet about a foot higher than the inlet, so the pipes filled and acted as a dam rather than flushing. The town's engineer said somebody had read the level backwards and that he had never heard of it being done before.
• 52:15
  A federal rule taking effect in December raises the salary threshold for exempt employees from roughly $23,000 to about $47,000, meaning salaried staff paid below that must receive overtime beyond 40 hours. The town has no budgeted funds to absorb that if it applies.
• 41:34
  The road commissioner told the board the crew will likely need a fifth position next year, which cannot go in the current budget. He said the town advertised twice to find a single on-call plow driver and that person has since left, so the loss of any steady employee would leave plowing exposed.

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: 2 passages of motion language, against 10 decisions summarised.

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