Select Board Meeting ~ January 14, 2025

2025-01-14 · Select Board · 3:21:40 · watch on YouTube →

The Select Board met on January 14, 2025 with a quorum and one member excused. It held a public hearing and adopted the updated general assistance maximums that follow the Department of Health and Human Services figures, approved an amended letter of support to the Department of Transportation for an all-way stop at Route 136, Rabbit Road and Quaker Meeting House Road, and approved an order delegating authority to the town manager to sign escrow agreements with contractors. Town attorney Kristen (?) presented the concept of contract zoning and walked the board through a draft ordinance section by section; the board agreed to hand the draft to the planning board to run its own review and public hearing process ahead of a town meeting warrant article. The remainder of the meeting was town manager Jerry's presentation of the FY2026 budget, which covers 18 months as the town moves from a calendar year to a July-June fiscal year. No vote was taken on the budget; members agreed to bring recommendations to the January 28 meeting so the budget can reach the budget committee by February 1.

No written minutes could be matched to this meeting. The transcript records that the speaker changed but never who was speaking, so any name attached to a statement below is inferred from context and is marked (?).

What was discussed

1. 2:59
   Opening, agenda amendments and public comment

   The chair opened at 6:31 p.m., noted a quorum and one excused member, and said budget discussion would pause when town legal counsel arrived. In public comment a planning board member, Juliet (?), speaking as a citizen, asked that solar projects only be pushed into contract zoning above a 10-acre threshold and reminded the board the solar ordinance already requires large vegetated buffers.

2. 8:00
   Public hearing on general assistance maximums

   The board opened a public hearing on the annual update to general assistance maximums. Jerry (?) explained the town follows the Department of Health and Human Services policy, so the update is a formality needed to stay compliant and eligible for reimbursement. No members of the public spoke.

3. 13:12
   Letter of support to the Department of Transportation

   The board discussed a letter supporting an all-way stop at Route 136, Rabbit Road and Quaker Meeting House Road. The chair said the state road project will proceed regardless of the board's position and will cost Durham taxpayers nothing. One member objected to the phrase 'strong support' and the letter was amended to strike the word.

4. 18:38
   Escrow agreement and delegation of signing authority

   George drafted an escrow agreement form for performance guarantees between contractors and the town, but the ordinance gives the town manager no authority to sign such agreements. The board considered an order delegating that authority to Jerry, with the order kept as an appendix to the master copy of the land use ordinance. Members asked whether this required a town meeting vote and were told it does not.

5. 23:43
   Freedom of Access training for boards and committees

   Josh (?) raised that the elected budget committee has not been given Freedom of Access training, which is a legal requirement. Heather (?) proposed a single workshop covering all boards, committees and commissions, recorded for anyone who cannot attend, with a caution that town business discussed on personal devices is subject to records requests. The board agreed the workshop should wait until after April and that in the interim members would complete the online read-and-sign form.

6. 29:09
   Contract zoning: overview from town legal counsel

   Kristen (?) described contract zoning as a statutory process that works like a mini amendment to the land use ordinance applying to one parcel and one project, valid only after approval at town meeting. She said it suits Durham because the town has townwide zoning rather than defined commercial and residential districts. Standards not explicitly modified by the agreement still apply.

7. 40:22
   Contract zoning: application and hearing process

   An applicant submits to the town manager, who engages the town planner and town attorney for preliminary review, followed by a joint public hearing of the planning board and select board that can run over multiple meetings. The planning board's vote is advisory and looks at consistency with the comprehensive plan; the select board decides whether the article goes on the town meeting warrant. Kristen (?) said the process is not appealable because it is a legislative act.

8. 57:02
   Application fee and escrow for professional review

   Asked for a ballpark application fee, Kristen (?) said it should be in the thousands, at least around $2,000, to cover staff time. The draft also allows the board to require the applicant to deposit money in escrow for professional assistance, which she said could cover contract planning help, legal fees and engineers. She estimated a typical process at roughly 25 staff hours and five attorney hours.

9. 1:18:57
   What the town can require in an agreement

   Kristen (?) said contributions are usually in kind rather than cash, giving examples of firefighting equipment and training for a battery storage facility, or requiring a development's roads be built to town specification and accepted as town roads. A member asked whether the town could require an applicant to fund an economic analysis of the net effect on revenue sharing and school funding, and was told yes. Agreements run with the land, must include an enforcement provision, and carry deadlines to start and complete construction.

10. 1:29:52
    Referral of the draft ordinance to the planning board

    The board agreed to send the draft contract zoning ordinance to the planning board to run its public hearing process and bring back warrant language. Battery energy storage systems will be included as a use requiring contract zoning; the planning board was asked to vet what other uses and what project size thresholds should trigger it. Board members were asked to bring their own suggested uses to the next meeting.

11. 1:36:00
    FY2026 budget presentation opens

    Jerry (?) described building the budget with fire chief Tripp (?), road commissioner Calvin and Mark Roy over about two and a half to three months. He noted the budget is 18 months long, so some costs appear twice, such as two winters of salt, while the county tax and one paving season are paid only once.

12. 1:41:31
    Budget summary and tax levy target

    Total spending is down half a percent, and the townwide figure is down 3.2 percent on an annualized basis. Jerry set a target tax levy increase of 3.5 percent, matching the Northeast Consumer Price Index, which requires using $590,000 of fund balance, annualized to $393,000, against $668,000 budgeted last year. The mill rate increase is 2.252 over 18 months, a 1.7 percent annualized increase, and remains an estimate pending the school budget, county tax and the assessor's commitment.

13. 1:52:08
    Revenue estimates

    Intergovernmental revenue shows large negative percentages because only one year of it falls in the 18-month budget. Revenue sharing fell from about $740,000 in FY23 to $680,000 in FY24 after the town lost eligibility for revenue sharing two. Interest on deposits rose from $28,000 in 2023 to $112,000 in 2024, and planning board fees came in at $10,671 against $3,000 budgeted after the fee schedule change.

14. 2:07:43
    Legal retainer and HR consultant

    The town has moved its legal services onto a monthly retainer; the figure spoken in the transcript is garbled. Rather than hire a fourth full-time employee, Jerry (?) proposed $20,000 for a contracted human resources professional to bring the town into compliance, review personnel files, update the employee handbook and job descriptions, then move to an on-call basis. Board members said this was cheaper than the roughly $80,000 a year an additional employee would have cost.

15. 2:17:59
    Information technology and text notifications

    The category is up about 50 percent after the town's previous IT provider dropped it and the town went out to bid for managed services. Jerry (?) said the IT consultant reported that someone had been in the town's system but had chosen not to do anything with it. The budget also pays twice for the TextMyGov notification service and website within the 18 months; about 950 people receive notifications against roughly 2,000 households.

16. 2:28:16
    Fire department budget and call volume

    Part-time wages rise because the budget includes three months of night coverage that did not start until April last year. The chief reported call volume up 12.1 percent for the year, about 50 extra calls at roughly four hours each, and up 28 percent over the three and a half years since he started. Roughly half the department is paid at minimum wage, which rose 50 cents on January 1 with no published figure for 2026.

17. 2:33:43
    Proposed stipend for the fire chief

    Jerry (?) proposed a stipend of $5,200 a year for the fire chief, who also serves as EMS director and emergency management director and regularly signs timesheets of 46 to 50 hours. He tied the proposal partly to the chief not taking health insurance. Heather (?) said the stipend should stand on the work alone and not be justified by the insurance.

18. 2:44:22
    Fire apparatus, grants and animal control

    The six vehicles in the bay average 16.5 years old and the ladder truck is being rehabbed in Auburn with ARPA funds, adding an estimated ten years. The chief listed grant applications including $180,000 to FEMA for radios, about $23,000 for a CPR machine, over $30,000 for a boat, and about $15,000 from the Maine EMS sustainability fund. Animal control is budgeted at about $29,000 for 18 months, billed by call volume rather than a fixed fee.

19. 2:49:55
    Public works budget

    The public works budget itself is down 3.6 percent while the wider category shows 2.9 percent. Paving falls 33 percent because it happens only once in the 18 months, at about $407,000, with Auburn Poland Road (?) next and Stackpole Road the year after. Salt and liquid deicer rise because two winters fall inside the budget.

20. 2:55:05
    Municipal buildings, grounds and the cemetery

    Municipal buildings and grounds has moved from general government into the public works budget. The line is up 31.4 percent, including about $15,000 that would cover mowing plus repairs to stones and a gate at the cemetery the town is being asked to take over, which requires a town meeting vote to transfer. A member asked that cleaning be added for the meeting space now used for about half a dozen meetings a month.

21. 3:06:23
    Solid waste

    Solid waste is up 22.7 percent, driven by volume rather than rates. The town budgeted $375,000 and actual costs came in at about $430,000; the new figure applies the contracted 5 percent rate increase to that volume. Members asked for five years of tonnage data to build a trend into the estimate and put the solid waste committee on the next meeting's agenda.

22. 3:11:39
    County tax, education estimate and capital reserves

    The county tax rose 10 percent but is paid only once in this budget. The education figure is an estimate carried forward at the same 3 percent used last year. Transfers to capital reserves total $598,500, with department amounts held at last year's level and multiplied by 1.5 for the 18 months.

23. 3:16:48
    Fund balance, manager report and adjournment

    The general fund balance started the year at about $3.6 million and ended at about $3.2 million, using roughly $420,000 of the $668,000 budgeted. Jerry (?) reported the town office generator is scheduled for installation on January 24. Board member reports were skipped for time; the minutes and consent agenda were approved and the meeting adjourned.

What was decided

• 8:00
  Motion by Josh, seconded by Deb, to open the public hearing on the general assistance maximums update.passed
• 13:12
  Motion by Josh, seconded by Heather, to approve the general assistance maximum update as presented in the packet, and a following motion to close the public hearing.passed
• 13:12
  Motion to amend the Department of Transportation letter of support by striking the word 'strong' from the first paragraph, adding a period at the end of that paragraph, and accepting the letter; seconded by Josh.outcome unclear
• 23:43
  Motion by Josh to approve the escrow agreement order delegating authority to the town manager to sign escrow agreements with contractors.passed
• 29:09
  Motion to send the chairs of town boards and committees a link to the Freedom of Access training documents and instruct them to have their membership complete it within 30 days and return the signed forms to the town office.passed
• 1:29:52
  Board agreed, without a recorded vote, to send the draft contract zoning ordinance to the planning board for its review and public hearing process, with battery energy storage included and the planning board asked to vet additional uses and size thresholds.passed
• 2:23:14
  Motion to extend the meeting to 9:30 p.m.passed
• 3:00:48
  Motion to extend the meeting to 9:45 p.m.passed
• 3:16:48
  No vote was taken on the FY2026 budget; members agreed to review the presentation and bring recommendations to the January 28 meeting, which is the last chance before the budget goes to the budget committee by February 1.tabled
• 3:16:48
  Motion to approve the meeting minutes and the consent agenda, and a following motion to adjourn.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.

Worth knowing

• 1:41:31
  The FY2026 budget covers 18 months as the town shifts to a July-June fiscal year. Total spending is down half a percent, but reaching the 3.5 percent tax levy target requires drawing $590,000 from fund balance.
• 13:12
  The chair said the Route 136, Rabbit Road and Quaker Meeting House Road intersection is ranked eleventh or twelfth in the state for crashes. The fire chief noted the department had responded to a crash there that same day.
• 3:06:23
  Solid waste was budgeted at $375,000 and came in at about $430,000, and is up 22.7 percent in the new budget on volume alone. One member said she would be a stickler on the line this year after raising it last year and being overruled.
• 2:17:59
  The town's previous IT provider dropped it, and the incoming consultant reported that someone had been inside the town's system but had chosen not to act on it. The replacement managed services contract is a fixed cost driving a roughly 50 percent increase in that category.

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

Elsewhere

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