TranscriptMay 11, 2021 ~ Select Board Meeting

All set. All right. I will call this meeting of the Durham Board of Selectmen to order as Tuesday, May 11th. Uh we are still in the Zoom format. So I will call each board member by name. And when I do so, please uh say something out loud to confirm that anybody watching or listening to the meeting uh can hear you. Rich George

Rob Panto here. Todd Bolier here. And Mark Farren here. All right. So, all board members are present. Um, just let everybody know, uh, Selectman Farren is multitasking right now. He's actually attending two meetings at once, so he might be in and out, uh, of the meeting, but we'll be sure. Um, I think Markx, just if if there's anything we vote on tonight, you you probably want to just have been present for the entire discussion or just not vote on that.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Don't wait on me. Yeah. Okay, great. All right. amendments to the agenda. I do have a couple um under action and discussion items. 4 D, we need to uh approve the warrant so that it can be posted for the special town meeting on May 22nd. And for E, uh, we need to approve an

oath for um, Ruth Glazier as deputy treasurer so that she can continue to work the counter during this uh, twoe transition period and handle money. So we need to authorize that. So that'll be 4 E. Any other amendments to the agenda?

comment. Use the raise your hand feature if you can on Zoom. Okay, Heather Roy. Yes. Okay, thanks. Um I had a couple of questions and then I had um a couple of things that I wanted to say. So last meeting you guys approved a list of all kinds of people for committees and I wasn't on that list. I didn't know if I needed to be for the budget committee.

Uh the you uh is Becky on the line? Beck I think because you just took your oath. I don't I'm not sure you needed to be, but Becky can answer that question. She didn't need to be on that because you came in and took your oath right after the election. So, so that was for um oaths that had expired or the yearly oaths on the other committees that are yearly. So, you're all set.

Okay. Thank you. You'll be on the list next year. Okay. Actually, no, her oath is a little bit longer. It's Okay. I'm sorry. Three years, right? Okay. Okay. Thanks. Um, and then I was looking for the agenda for today and when I went back and I looked at the um, meeting minutes, if the minutes are posted, does that mean that they've already been approved?

Uh, yes. Typically, they don't get posted unless the board has approved them. So, there's generally a, you know, two to much more than two week lag, unfortunately, sometimes with those being posted. Yeah. No, I understand. I think we've talked about that before, but I was curious because on wasn't the public hearing on the road ordinance the April 13th meeting?

one before? questioning? The April 13th minutes. I'm pretty I mean unless I have my dates mixed up. It says public hearing but then it says and then public comment and it says none. But there was extensive input from the public at that and I just want to make sure that that somehow is noted.

Yeah. Well, the the public hearing um the public hearing is separate from the actual public comment section on the agenda. So the public hearing. So there was nothing during the quote unquote public comment period like we're having right now. But like as you say there was a lot mentioned during the actual hearing which was a separate agenda item.

Okay. So does that get documented by the video itself? There's no like written record of that. Is that right? That's right. That's right. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Um, and then I I just wanted to clarify something from the public hearing and then what was said in the meeting, your last meeting, the select board's last meeting. Um, at the public hearing, it was said that the select board was going to vote on the new on the this road ordinance that we're talking about, but then at the last select board meeting, it was said twice that um the town was going to vote. And I just wanted clarity on that.

Yeah. That this this the road ordinance is is one of the uh very small number of instances where that's a select board vote and not a townwide vote. So, what we may have been referring to is is um I do I think it's on the agenda tonight, but um tonight is a discussion because we have like another version of that ordinance and we'll talk about whether we want to put that one out amended or not as Calvin is presenting it to us for another public hearing um on that new version. But it's still it's still a select board vote ultimately.

Okay, that I just wanted to make sure because two people had asked me about that. It's the select board that's going to vote on that, not the whole town. Okay. Okay. Thank you for clarifying. And then um the comment that I wanted to make um was is just that I know that we

had talked about if it h it happened that Rabbit Road had a weight limit or was closed or however we're referring to it that some of that traffic could get deferred to Swamp Road. And part of what the issue that I think we're having is that we don't have like a concrete number necessarily to compare to for Rabbit Road. And so I think it would be important that it would to have a count done now on Swamp Road aside from whatever happens with Rabbit Road. So that if Rabbit Road does something does change about Rabbit Road, we have a point of comparison for Swamp Road down the road. So you have a big sense.

Yeah. Yep. Before like anything changes, if we did something got a count on Swamp Road now, then we would have something to be able to compare it to before any of these changes were made. Okay. Okay. And that's all I have. Thanks. Have a good night.

Right. Thank you. Uh anybody else have uh here for the public comment portion of the meeting? move on to our action and discussion items. 4A tax settlement and recommmitment. Um Ruth, can you give us a little and I'm gonna keep calling on Ruth. I don't I want to acknowledge Kathy, our new town manager, is here with us tonight. She her first official day was yesterday. Um, but I think in terms of uh since she's only been there a day, I'm not going to ask her too many complicated tax recommitment questions. Um, so I think between the two of you, we'll uh we'll tag team it or whatever, but Ruth, can you give us a little background on what what this is about and what we're being asked to to do here?

So, when you change tax collectors, uh, you have to do a settlement. So, basically, you're absolving me of the responsibility of collecting the taxes. Um, and then you need to recommmit the taxes uh to Kathy who's going to be the new town uh tax collector. Um, and there's not a ton of funds involved because we just did the lean last week. And so once the property is leaned, uh, the tax collector's responsibility is over. Um, so that's why it's only about 15,000.

Okay. On the is that on the recommitment or the reconciliation? Both. It's the same amount both for the settlement and for the the recommitment. Okay. So, what what specifically do we need to vote on? Both. No, but I mean, how how I mean like how would how would the motion be worded?

Um, that's a good question. uh you could you could vote to approve the settlement as set forth in the document for the years from I think it's 2008 to 2020. Does that sound right? And then you would make a separate motion to um commit the taxes in the amount of 15,000 and some odd dollars to to Kathy.

All right, let's do one at a time here. Any this, any board members, other board members have questions or comments on this? settlement part? It's the same as the the recommitment. Oh, okay. Well, what's that then? Um, all right. So, in other words, you want me to bring it up? Hold on a second.

Yeah. Well, I just want to I want to make sure we're making a proper motion. No, no, no. That's okay. I just It's just we're not in my office, so I'm having to kind of play this by ear, but that's okay. We got this. settlement recommitment

All right. So the total amount um okay is 15,2 for you have to tell me again how this how this uh motion needs to be awarded to make this all legal. Yeah. Hold on. with you guys. Between the two of us, we'll figure it out. So, this is the total amount. So, it's it's going to be um we're going to to settle the tax

um we're going to settle the amounts for 2004 through 2020 as listed here. commitment to the the tax collection. And then we're going to recommit the exact same amounts to Kathy. Do I have to actually name names in the motion?

Um yes. Yeah, you're going to need to use our names. Um I don't think you have to go through and state every year, but we will um put this as a part of the minutes. Oh. All right. Let me take a crack at this. I'm going to move that we approve the

tax settlement amount of $15,22360 Ruth Glazier uh and current treasurer Ruth Glazier of that responsibility and app also approved the recommmitment amount of $15,22360 Kathy Tombberlli. I'll second that. Any further discussion on that?

Thank you. You can take that document down. Thank you. Um, get your vote. Would I call your name, please? Todd Bullier. Rich George, yes. Rob Panto, yes. Mark Farren, yes. And I am a yes as well. So, okay. Um I'm going to um I just realized

Ruth sent me a text that I just saw that um that Pete Coughlin is here from the main department of transportation um available to answer questions that the board might have. uh in discussing um the latest proposal for a road posting ordinance. So uh unless there's an objection, I'm going to move ahead to 4C on the action uh and discussion items so that we can um not force Pete to sit

here any longer than necessary. Any objections to that hearing? None. Let's go to 4C, discussion of the road posting ordinance. So Calvin, you want to frame this up for us, please? So since the last uh well, I guess just before the last meeting, I sent out a a version that Pete Goofflin and I worked on. Um, we basically took what we had, we backed up to the main municipal association model, which was where our previous or existing ordinance started and somehow it got steered off in a direction and made some um references that shouldn't have been made. So, we backed up, started over with the MMA model and um and and built it from there. uh not a lot of changes but uh we try to differentiate between the permanent year- round restrictions uh roads versus the seasonal restrictions to protect the town's um investment during spring thaw. Um the way it was

written before was really geared toward um uh the seasonal postings and not for uh yearround restrictions in roads. Um so and Pete uh you know added the definition of um uh solidly frozen roads from the main DOT 2019 uh updated uh definition of that.

So uh you guys have it. Um I sent both this and the MMA model so you could look at them side by side and you could kind of look and see that there really isn't a lot of difference. Okay. Uh any board members have questions or comments for for Calvin or Mr. Coughlin?

What we're deciding tonight basically is what uh what form of this ordinance we want to then take to the next step. We'd schedule another public hearing presumably at our next meeting uh towards the end of May. Um similar process as last time, have the public hearing and then um uh potentially have a board vote. So, any questions or comments on this version?

Yeah, Rob, I actually don't have much on the version. I just I want to thank Pete and uh and Calvin, but um you know, Pete's not a Durham resident or an employee of ours and and I appreciate him putting a lot of time into this for us and trying to help us clarify some of that outdated language. So, thank you.

Yeah, agreed. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? I I just had two clarifying ones under section four and the exemptions when it talks about um specifically wondering about the need to call out well drilling equipment when an emergency drought has been called. the way that's worded in in this way, it almost it almost sounds like that's the only time you can get uh well drilling equipment is if there's an actual drought been determined. So, I was a little bit confused on that language.

Yeah, that'd be great. Okay. Uh thanks first for the invite. Um Kelvin and I worked on this after the April 13th version. Uh, thanks Rob for your kind words. Um, so that that section Kevin is straight out of the statutes. It's word for word right out of the law. So that's that's what legislators decided and it lifted cut and pasted right out of the statute.

Well, that what I'm wondering is because it's a section lifted and cut and pasted out of a statute, is it is it missing surrounding context where that would make sense? And are we creating an issue with the wording is so for instance without this is there anything in here Calvin or Pet as you understand it that would prevent a well drilling truck from going to somebody's house to drill a well at any time other than the seasonal other than the seasonal road posting.

Yeah. just during the seasonal road postings and that in which case that this would be an exemption that they would be able to do that by statute, right? Okay. Yeah, they're free to go anytime. It's just this was put it in several years ago when it was realized that uh we had a we had a drought I don't know 10 years ago during spring thaw and uh well

drillers found that they were actually prohibited from driving on posted roads. So some legislator somewhere around the state for his constituents put a bill in and here it is. Okay. Right. My second question, it's not really a question, more of a make sure I'm understanding this right, is I read the frozen road exemption that

the even on, you know, like use rabbit road because that's one we've been talking about the most. Even if that were to stay on the list and be one of the roads that has the year round um restriction, if that road is frozen, that restriction does not apply. Am I am I reading that correctly? Yeah, Calvin, you can comment too, but right on the front page in section three, right underneath the list of the six roads, it says that, right, Calvin?

the last sentence that says this exemption, notice, well, there's a typo there, too. It says this exemption colon, however, shall not apply during the season of late winter when the orange signs are out. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So, so what that so what that said there was that uh so in other words um

this exemption was taken from the existing ordinance that said that roads that are posted if there's a business on that road or there's a service being provided at a residence that they would still be able to do that on the year round roads.

Yes. but it would not those exemptions would not apply um during the spring posting. So, in other words, if they were going to have their land logged off um without putting that in here, they would be able to do anything during their spring postings had that had that not been put here. I think that's a different question than what you were asking, but

yeah, it is. But yes, the the frozen road exemption should have been and if you look up above it says for seasonal restrictions the intent where where does it say that? Uh the second third uh second third paragraph down for seasonal restrictions.

Okay, so the intent was if you look on the first page it says for permanent yearround restrictions and they should have been bolded. Uh and I think I asked Ruth to bold them today. I think she she did but uh um uh so if these these exemptions on the front page were for the year round restrictions and then the seasonal restrictions and these are the exemptions for that on the u on the next page.

Oh I I would agree with you that that needs to be formatted better so that that's more clear. Yeah. One thing, Kevin, is that um most towns use the model ordinance from MMA, which I helped uh put together years ago, and um it's written very very broadly to apply for any time of year that a town wants to post its roads, either seasonally or year or year round. And it's just um even even though it said that it's it's some of the language that talked about the signs it the language it talks about the orange signs seemed to imply that it also applied to the like no through truck signs that you'd see which would be black on white and it just it didn't line up quite right and I got to talk to my friends over at MMA about that. Um, so that's why we took the liberty here to define specifically here's the permanent stuff and then after that here's the seasonal stuff. So they're both addressed separately.

Okay. And so Calvin, are we going to are we going to label these sections like year round and seasonal? Yeah. I we'll just I'll bold those and put bullets in those two sections. Yeah. Okay. Or create it or create its own section. Yeah.

So I just want to go back to my original question. If if a truck over what is it 23,000 pounds. If a truck is registered with a gross weight over 23,000 pounds on one of these year round roads on the list, but that road is frozen solid at the end of January, they can drive on that road loaded.

That is what it says here. Okay. All right. I just want to make sure I'm understanding that correctly. So really the compromise when we get to the public hearing is this ordinance is essentially saying going back to the public hearing that we're okay with the the local businesses with the trucks driving on those roads empty. Um, but if it's loaded, it's during e seasonal restrictions or full-time restrictions except for these exemptions. And the

compromise is they might have to go down, you know, Route 9 and around Eureka Center and back up 136 and then continue on Quaker. That's the compromise we're asking uh based on the public hearing comment. then um I would move that we

uh post this proposed ordinance uh on the town website and other you know legally required matters uh as soon as possible and uh scheduled public hearing for our next uh our next regularly scheduled board meeting two weeks from tonight.

Yeah, Rich, I just want to clear I'll call you, Rich. The board could vote. You know what? We don't want to change anything. We don't even want to put this out there. We're just going to live with what we have now. So, that we could that could be the vote tonight um to not even go forward with the proposed ordinance thing. But, um or somebody could offer an amendment. So, okay, Rich, go ahead.

Yeah. No, I was just curious if there was going to be discussion as exactly what you just said whether or not we're going through with this as a board and um as far as the road selected if there was going to be discussion regarding those roads. Um I know we've had discussion

that would be the time to do that. Yeah. Yeah. There's a motion on the floor and we can discuss and amend and and go from there. Yeah. I you know I think if we're going to post roads, so be it. But you know, why not if it's a town road, why not post all of them? Why are we just specific to most in particular Rabbit Road because that's it's a main thoroughfare through town. It always has been and there's just someone needs to answer that because there's other roads that are just as busy as that that we're not posting.

the when when you when you leave the gravel pit there and run around Pond Road, they're all going to uh Brunswick and Hartwell and I mean it's just steady. It's it's a steady stream of trucks. It's basically a truck route and and that's just the way they're going. Um, I I would rather keep them on the state DOT roads and let the DOT pay for the road repairs. And their roads are obviously, you know, built to a better standard than what we can afford.

if we're if we're not trying to restrict them from runaround Pond Road or Quaker Meeting House Road. Well, they're if if they're not running rabbit road specifically, they have a lot of other options. But when they leave the pit, they're funneled right into rabbit road. Whereas if they took route nine, then they have other options. They not all the trucks are going to use the same pattern. Some will turn right and go down to uh run around pond. Some will go uh swamp. Some will stay right on 125 and go uh uh up up 125

and left on to Soer. I mean, it it won't all be uh put into one road. So, would you consider posting Runaround Pond Road and Quaker Meeting Road? I'm not seeing that the trucks are going that way. They're headed to Brunswick and Harshaw.

Okay. As someone who lives on Quaker meeting house road, I can I think you're crazy on that. I don't want to be that's that's just I I drive that road a lot. I mean, I'm over there more now than I've ever been between school and my mother's house and so forth. That's just that's just not I don't think that's very accurate, Calvin. I think maybe we should do a little more research on that.

Are you done, Rich for now? Yes, thank you. Okay, Rob, I I agree. U honestly, I feel like we should post all the town own roads to some extent. I mean, the the town is used as a cutthrough for other towns basically and uh you know, and we're the ones that pay for it. So to Rich's point, I think it, you know, if we're not going to do Rabbit Road, I'd recommend we don't do any of them and let them disperse as much as possible. Why keep Old Brunswick Road posted and not Quaker Meeting House and and then let the traffic split it as much as possible? Um, but you know, we kind of came up with a list and and it was based on that and you know, it's it's not hard science, but we looked at the maps and figured here's some roots and and like Calvin said, it's a way to disperse them. But I'd have no problem with putting them all on there if you want.

I have no problem with that. I I just I I just think you know there's people's businesses and livelihoods we're talking about here and it just seems to be very hey nonchalant of hey we'll just shut this one particular road down that's in a major thoroughare where a business exists basically on that road or off of that road and I I just don't know how you do that in good conscience. Well, with regards to the to the business, they're all they're all going to be playing on the same level field, right? So, if the road's posted to one company, it's posted to all companies. So, when it comes time

So, Rob, not to interrupt you. So, if I have my pit on 125, you know, a very good friend of mine, Mike Cop does, you're telling me he's not in that as an advantage and it'd be more beneficial for somebody to go over to Mike Coff's pick versus Dugas' pick? because I would go to Mike Copstick if I got to go all the way around town and it just

Yeah. I mean, there's a lot that goes into pricing, right? I mean, every project's different. What What cop's price versus Dugas's price is different. I mean, they all adjust that. But my point is, talk about from a convenience standpoint. Why would I go to Dugas's if I got to go around the Malberry Bush to get to it because the town blocked his business off?

Maybe you wouldn't. You're you're absolutely I know a lot of people would. Okay, guys. Let's keep it let's keep it one at a time. Okay. But every truck that's going from Dugas's, they're all going to have to go around and they're all going to do that. And maybe it does put them at a disadvantage, but it also, you know, it may direct traffic to to Mike and and good for him. And, you know, other trucks that would normally cut across, I don't know, coming, you know, they come down Davis Road to get to Dugas's pit, too. So, that's that's another one that's going to be crumbling pretty soon. So, but you know, you're right. They're the ones that were talking about going around Rabbit Road. It's, you know, I did it's 4.2 mile loop. Rabbit Road, Route 9, Eureka Center, and Rabbit Road's one mile. So, the rest is 3.2. So, you're adding 2.2 to the trip, but everyone's going to pay it. And they're going to pass it on to the people that

are building houses, building roads, buying that gravel. So, other towns, you know, the people that are causing these trucks to travel the roads are going to end up footing that bill. So, and and from a convenience standpoint, I mean, I you're you're right. There may be some instances, but there may be other instances that put other pits at an advantage everywhere, you know? I mean, that being on a road, great for Mike. Good for him. You know, he chose

I'm fine with that. I'm fine with that, Rob. It's just there's there's there's roads out there that are town roads that are off, you know, gravel pits. Take Bowie Hill Road for example. Yeah. That road you take a right out of Mike Fit. That road's, you know, it's obviously sees a lot of wear and tear from trucks

and they hit Davis and then then you go down to Davis and they hit Davis. But we're not we're not shutting down Davis. We're not we're just shutting down this one in a major that majorly impacts somebody's business and an actual town. We're just dispersing trucks all over town now rather than just one road.

Yeah. So what So you would add Davis Road and Runaround Pond Road to the list? No, I would Well, I would do that. I would do that before I just signal out rabbit road because there's really what's what's the cause? Like why are we just picking on the rabbit road? Why are they special versus any other road in the town?

Well, right now that because that's the one that I can see falling apart. I mean, it's looking great now, but it's got the micro fractures and you know, well, Mike, if you drive the if you drive up to the stop sign on on Quaker Meet or excuse me, Rabbit, and then cross over to Quaker meeting, which is a town road, that road's completely annihilated compared to Rabbit Road. We're not even entertaining shutting that road down.

Yeah. And to say that ludicrous. Yeah. There's there's no reason we couldn't shut it down from from 136 to the intersection with Old Brunswick Road. I have no problem shutting down side roads like metal road, things like that that people aren't highly traveling on. But shutting down major roads is just nothing I'll I'll be signing up for and tell you.

Um so Mark, I want to give Todd or Mark a chance to jump in if they have anything um to say on this one. I'm kind of thinking the same thing that that Rich was, you know, I mean, it is a pretty major thoroughare we're talking about and businesses around town. I mean, we you know, they pay taxes, too. And I think that uh you know, it makes sense to to probably not if we're going to post let's post post everything or not make any changes, I guess, is the way I would look at it.

Yeah, I'm I mean that's that's where I've been too. Um so I do like the language and the the improved language in the ordinance. Um so I'm actually going to amend my motion that uh that we put this ordinance uh out to uh public hearing and and then eventually a board vote. But I'm amending my motion to remove Rabbit Road from the list.

I'll second it. Rich second. Okay. So now the discussion is to send the ordinance out to public hearing with Rabbit Road not not on it. We have to vote on the amendment first and then we'll um then we'll vote on the motion. So the amendment is to remove Rabbit Road from the list of roads in the ordinance. So any discussion, further discussion on that, Mark?

Yeah, just real quick. I mean, we're just voting to put this to a town me uh like just a information session and we're going to vote on actually approving it after the meeting. Well, it's an well, it's an actual public hearing. Uh it's so it's because it's an ordinance. It's it's it's more than just anformational session. It's it's a public hearing where we put out there what um what we're proposing to adopt as an ordinance. The public will have their piece and then we vote. We can't amend an ordinance during the meeting um after the public hearing. So, what we would have to do is kind of like we or did this time, we didn't vote on the ordinance as presented when we had the public hearing. We had no vote. Um, but whatever we put in front of the public hearing, the board has to have a straight up or down vote. It we can't amend at that time. So, any changes we want to make have to be made before we

put it out uh publish it. Okay. Yeah. Um I mean if we're not gonna have Rabbit Road on the list and the other there's no meaningful legislation or or reason I guess to post the other roads because like you know they're not cutthroughs. They're not used by trucks. So, I would recommend that we just put this through as just the winter roads or the frozen roads ordinance section and take all the others off the list and at least disperse the trucks as much as possible and and let them use whatever because that's why, you know, you talk about Quaker meeting houses destroyed because they don't use old Brunswick. All the trucks go down Quaker Meeting House. So to me it's like if we're not going to take, you know, and I get it. It's a political decision as much as a road preservation decision. So let's let's just take them all off the list.

You mean even the ones that are currently posted? That's what you're saying? Yeah. Yeah. I think we just take them off and just do just a winter road ordinance posting. Yeah. But I think there's other reasons other than just traffic why some of those roads are posted. you know, like uh Old Brunswick's a pretty it's a pretty tight turny um road. Um Shiloh is the same way, you know. I mean, even though I live on Quaker Meeting House Road, those trucks should be going down Quaker Meeting House Road and not Old Brunswick Road. That's that's where they should be going because it's a much wider, better road with better sight lines and whatever. So, um

strongly agree with that. Um what you just said, Kevin. All right. Any further discussion on the motion to remove Rabbit Road uh from the list? All right. I'll call for the vote. yes. Mark Farren, yes. Todd Bully, yes. Rob Panto,

no. And I am a yes. Okay. So, the motion as amend amended is to uh put the ordinance uh out to public hearing and then and then a board vote as Calvin has presented it to us without rabbit road and with the formatting of the headings and the sections to clarify um the meaning. So, that's the motion on the floor right now. Any further discussion on that?

Rich George, yes. Todd Buller, yes. Mark, I'm sorry. Todd, did you say something else? We just voted. We voted on the amendment. Now we're voting on the entire ordinance to put out to public hearing. So Oh, yes. Okay. Mark Farren,

yes. Rob Panto, no. And I'm a yes. All right. So, four to one. That motion passes. That That's the ordinance that will go for a public hearing at our meeting uh two weeks from tonight. very much for joining us and and answering our questions. Uh, unless you want to stay for some captivating further town discussions, you uh you can enjoy the rest of your night.

Okay, thanks much. Glad to help. Thanks, Pete. Sheriff, see you. Take care. to um 4B, the special town meeting mailer. So, um Ruth or or Kathy, someone do you want to put the um put it up on the screen if you have it handy?

Yes, I'm doing it right now. Great. Thanks. We're looking for it. We've never, you know, it's not written down anywhere, but it's been our our policy and our best practice over the last couple years whenever we have a a town meeting or a special town meeting or or big public hearing, you know, maybe about a major ordinance change or whatever that we uh mail notices to all um households in town. And so this is a draft of what that mailer would be. Um

so it looks like what is this? a two-sided 8 and 1 half by 11 sheet of paper. That was what I understood you wanted. Uh, no. I Whatever format worked. I just didn't think it was going to fit on a postcard. Um, yeah. Not with all of the words,

right? Um, so how will this what's the format of mailing? Is it going to be like trifolded and taped or what what is it going to look like? Um, it would just be biffolded, folded in half in half and then and then as a and then it's what sealed along the bottom edge somehow or how how does it

Yeah. So go to the second page. half. You would seal it and then at the top of that there's a place where you would put the address. We would do the uh the multiple mail puts in town. All right. We're not hearing you very well. Um I'm presuming it would go into kind of the top portion of this page here on on top of the seal.

here. Okay. Should I'm should the layout be so that the headline is visible when you um Yeah. Like so should the town of Durham special town meetingformational sheet. Should should should should that be where it starts underneath the seal there where the address is so that it calls attention to what what it actually is?

We can. like this is easy to lodge the mail. The other suggestion I had was or question was like, should we do this on like screaming neon yellow paper or hot pink paper or something like that? guys want. I mean, I can rearrange it so that the first thing you see is the town of Durham special town meetingform informationational sheet. Um, and we can put it on bright color paper. I'm not really sure. It'd probably be a little more expensive, but probably not a ton.

Okay. Anybody else have questions or comments or I mean or I mean we're gonna we have to vote whether to send a mailer at all because we're going to need to spend some money to do that. Make sure everybody's on the same page. Um but um

any other Anybody else have questions or comments on this? Yeah. Well, just real quick. Um, Ruth, exactly in the town, and maybe you don't know the answer to this, but how many direct emails do we have to residents? How big is our mailing list?

The email, that would probably be more of a Kathy question because that would probably be something that would go out uh via the the newsletter um mailing web page or web web um emails. And so I think there's about 700 or so, but Kathy may be able to tell us. Kathy uh D might be able to tell us more. Uh exactly.

Well, if you want to give me a few minutes, I'll see if I can find it on Mailchimp. I think it's somewhere around 630, but I'll I'll check it out and I will um chime in. I don't necessarily need an exact number. I was just curious as to what type of um how many contacts we have. Now granted, some of those might not necessarily be town residents either. That some might be some people that just want to keep up the news. Um, so I was just curious. I was just wondering, you know, if we if we did that the mass mailer and the or excuse me, did do a mass mailer, just sent out the emails and put this on the web page for two weeks. I mean, how do we have a traffic count on our web page? How many people go to that?

are you questioning whether we need to do a mail or Rich? Yeah, just trying to save as much money as possible as usual. But I mean, I like the mailers, but I do think I agree with you, Kevin, about I I'd say probably 30 to 40% of them end up in the trash

or using as kindling or something for the next bonfire outside. I don't know. Um, you know, other than certified mail, there's no guarantees of people actually seeing it or reading it. Um, yeah. No, I I agree. But I I think we have to at least try and you know and

yeah, we've heard over the years. I think the cost is reasonable. I was just curious as to the numbers. I think the cost is reasonable. It's worth a shot. Any other comments on this one? we um send the presented town mailer out to all uh households uh in Durham uh as

soon as possible. And I would add the suggestion for bright colored paper and the formatting realignment that I talked about so that the headline is visible from the outside about special town meeting. Rich second. Any further discussion? All

right, I'll call for the vote. Todd Buller, yes. Mark Faren, I abstain. Rob Panto, yes. Rich George, yes. And I'm a yes. So 40 motion passes. All right, we are now on to um 4 D, approval of the town warrant for the special town meeting on the 22nd.

So Kevin, yeah, on this one too, I want to add um you guys have to approve the school warrant as well. I thought we did that last meeting. No, you guys put it off to this meeting. Oh, because we didn't have Right. Do we have it now? Uh, you should. I think Becky sent it to you like the day after.

Two weeks ago. You expect me to keep track of stuff I got two weeks ago? Yes. Yes, we do. All right. Do you expect Ruth to keep track of stuff she got two weeks ago? Yeah, that's kind of the job, isn't it? Well, she's giving it back to you.

all right. Well, let's let's um Okay. Well, let's put the town warren up first because I think you probably have that one more handy. Yep, I do. Oh, maybe. Oh, what did I do? You look happy. You look like your monitor is mounted on the ceiling the way you are. So, we're looking for kind of doing both. Trying to Yeah. stay six feet apart and all that.

Well, yeah. There it is. question warrant. One first article is to elect the moderator. The other one is the language for that spec specific article that we um approved at our last meeting. Um, I'm going to move that we approve the uh warrant as presented for the special town meeting on 22nd.

A second. Todd seconds. Any discussion on this? yes. Rich George, yes. Rob Panto, yes. Mark Farren, yes. And I'm a yes. Okay. So, now we also need to approve the RSU warrant for that. Um, this is for the budget referendum vote on June 8th, I believe. Is that right?

Yes. All right. You want to see that, please? Yeah. budget validation referendum, this is um because of the pandemic, they're not u there's no big three town town meeting where a lot of these uh would be voted on individually. So, it's a secret ballot referendum vote. Um, and uh, Ruth or whoever's controlling the mouse, do you want to scroll through this?

I can't go down. Yeah, it's not. Hold on. We got this. I can just look up. Yeah, I'll try not to make you guys look at my nose. Yeah. So, there's the article one a the moderator and there's the school budget and then I got to scroll down but if you want me to go back

yeah just show what the articles are. I mean yeah so that's it's pretty standard format. It's um I think it's the same format that they used for the school budget last year. Yeah. So there's always there's the general budget article. Then there's the adult ed which is always a separate article. Then there's capital reserve um articles

and I don't know what the CTE oh that's the region 10 budget that's again always a separate article along with adult ed CTE capital reserve funds. Uh that would go to voters on June 8th. Yeah. and then you guys vote down here.

uh approve the RSU5 school budget referendum warrant as presented. Mark seconds. Any discussion? Rich. Rich, did you have something? Yeah, I just it was more of a just a quick question probably just for you or maybe somebody can answer it, but why when it's directed like this is for the town of Durham obviously to vote. Um

how come we don't put our recommendation on there like we would with the town for the voters to have something to that's that's part of the state how the how the RSU budgeting process is laid out in state law that I I agree with you that's a gap. There's no there's no budget committee equivalent in a multi-town RSU. Um,

so we're voting on something that we don't even to put forward to the people of the town, but we don't really have any say in it whatsoever. We're just voting. It's it's pretty much done, right? Well, we have three people on the school board and then

Oh, yeah. Okay, that's fair. And then the the r say is the vote. But they I will say that um the R I didn't attend them this year, but the RSU they have many many many public you know input question opportunities. You know sadly people take advantage of those or say anything um until it gets to the very end and then they see a big number and they go, "Holy crap." you know, and um

yeah, but there is opportunity there if people choose to avail themselves of it. No, I get I get the opportunity aspect. I just don't get the purpose of us putting it forward if we don't really put our stamp on it, per se. We just are just passing this just to allow it to happen in our town that they could take a vote. I just don't get why we need to approve this.

Yeah. because well because we're legally our town is legally part of the school district and uh it's just part of the procedure each town because it's it it goes out to vote in each town and because we're a town meeting form of government which means that votes to the town appear on a warrant and the select board has to approve anything that goes out on a warrant. So, it's it's really as far as we're concerned, it's pretty much a procedural pass on. Okay.

To authorize the question to go on a warrant for voters. We're just checking a box is all we're doing. Yes. Okay. I got it. Um, good question though. Todd, did you have a question? Do we even know how many millions this is higher than last year?

Um, I I don't I think last year's numbers were was Ruth was around what two or 3% for Durham? Something like that. Yeah, it's it's about I think it's about 2%. I I looked at it a while back, but it's it's been a while. They have um if you go to the RSU site, Todd, they have a they have a budget um header at the top and they have um pretty good documents. They have if you want to get in the weeds, there's all kinds of detail there, but they have pretty good summary pages, too, that can give you a high level, you know, this year versus last year and um what it looks like. It's not a it's not a huge increase this year, low singledigit percentage.

Buller, no. Rob Panto, yes. Mark Farren, yes. Rich George, yes. Nama, yes. Okay. um sorry I'm trying to get back to the right spot in my email here in the midst of the transition from town administrator to town manager and we have some overlap at that time and so in order to um legally enable Ruth to continue uh for the next period of time to um do transactions at the window and handle money and things of that sort Um, we need to approve an oath for her as a deputy treasurer.

for Ruth Glazier as deputy treasurer for the remainder of her employment period with the town of Durham. Second Mark second that first. Any further discussion? Call for the vote. Rob Panto. Yes. Mark Farren. Yes. Todd Buller.

Yes. Rich George. Yes. And I'm a Yes. Okay. All right. So, I believe that completes the um action and discussion items. Uh, one note for the next meeting while I while I think of it is um if we could please put the uh discussion of bulky waste

alternatives on our agenda for the next meeting. We did hear back from Cassella and they're willing to um have us uh have access to their transfer station on two consecutive Saturdays rather than just one as the you know kind of make good on our bulky waste day. So um the

discussion and decision for the board will be whether we want to do that option or hold you know something closer to our traditional bulky waste day but later in September. So that'll be on the agenda for discussion um at our next meeting.

reports. Uh Calvin, you are first tonight. Road commissioner report. um forwarded the bid tab documents from the uh Krooker construction for the uh contract um of the bid documents that reflect uh Krooker signed the bid tab and I sent those two pages to you. Um, so I'd like to authorization sign

uh for that on the 18th. We rescheduled it till the 18th. though, Calvin, if there's something you actually want the board to vote on, that should be an agenda item under action and discussion items. Okay. Okay. All right.

All right. Um, Calvin's request? one? You know, you you know how to word the public works ones? Uh, let me think. Calvin, do you have the exact figure right in front of you? motion. It's a $282,000. Uh $282 $282,900. That's for one year.

Yes. Oh, you want the whole three years? I want the full three years because we're going to authorize the three-year contract. Total was $917,25. the contract with Kirker Construction um for three years and it was $917,025.

Todd seconds. Any uh any discussion on the motion? Yes. Todd Buller, yes. Rich George, yes. Rob Panto, yes. And I am a yes as well. Okay. Do you want to go ahead, Calvin, you can continue? So, the Army Corps of Engineers permits um I did not hear back. Uh I know there's u there was some issues. The Army Corps wanted um more um elevations

up and downstream. um the engineers working on that um petition the D to see if they could uh put it out to bid without that being finalized. I haven't gotten an answer back. So that's hopefully I'll have at this point it's getting pretty late in the year. It's likely it's going to be a next year project. I mean, we can put it out to bid still if they come in, you know, if people are booked and the prices come in high, we can just elect to do it uh u next and reject all the bids and do it next year or we can wait and put it up to bid next year. So, um we'll just see when when we are ready for bid and I'll see what you guys want to do. Okay.

Um the weight ordinance, we've just gone through that. Um, I've been in discussion with DOT regarding the Meadow Road 125 intersection. Um, they uh wanted to to to back when we were working together and they were going to join our crooker contract. Um, we had agreed on a point that we were going to stop and they were going to to to come up and marry into that and then um that person retired. someone else is in charge and so now they were they only wanted to go to their point on their plans which would have left a gap between where we left off and where they're going to leave off with just a shim and overlay and you know my argument to them was well it's just not going to work that's going to fall apart so then they came back with well we'll add three in of pavement and they said it's still not going to work I got the engineer involved and he said no it's not going to work so we finally agreed that um they're going to box cut

it cut the pavement come back to our point and um they're going to put an average of 12 inches of new gravel. By cutting three inches of gravel off, they were able to make it fit in the budget and it's still going to work just fine. So, um as an average, many places there'll be more than that. Um right at the transition, uh there'll be 12 12 ines.

So, that's on top of what we already have. So, working on the gravel roads, uh, getting adding gravel and everything we do every spring, repairing the pothole, shaping them up, and, uh, um, so that we've been working on that, pretty much wrapping that up, and we've started working on the town office, uh, today um because we want to get that ready for uh, cleaned up and ready for the town meeting. So, we did made some improvements over there. will probably work over there again tomorrow. And then next week we're planning to do um crack sealing u out sealing up the cracks in the roads. And so that's another reason why I wanted to get to the town office today because I don't know if we would get to it we wouldn't get to it otherwise uh for for town meeting in time for town meeting. So and that's uh that's all I've got.

Okay. Anybody have any questions for Calvin? Yeah. So you're doing the crack sealing yourself, Calvin? Yeah. Double croxes. Yep. Okay. You get new uh get new crack sealer or Oh, no. We rent it. Well, we buy the blocks. It's what we do every year. We rent we we get the machine given to us for two weeks if we um buy a certain amount of blocks. So, we'll do some now and some a little bit later on.

Are you hitting all town properties with that? Fire station. We're going to the fire station, town office. We start with those and then start working on the road. Fantastic. Thank you. Okay. Chief Moore, you are up next.

have much tonight. Um we're just continuing to work. Um people will see trucks around town on the side of the road for a little while. Uh we're doing our annual hydrant testing, so just be mindful of that. Um there may be crews out there directing traffic um uh for safety reasons. Um our annual hose testing is coming up this week. We have a contract with an outside company that comes in and does that uh more safely and efficiently than than we could get it done in a reasonable time frame. That's been done the last several years. Um still waiting on news of when the air packs will arrive. Uh and we're working on the uh transition for the new EMS billing system. That's all I have. Okay, great. Any anybody have questions for the chief?

I think chief, we want you to join us for the first part of the executive session um at the end of the meeting if that if that works for you because Oh, okay. talk about a little bit about the transition plan. So, okay. Um All right. Town manager report. Well, I'm on day two here, so I don't have a lot to report other than um I did have an opportunity to go through all of the town um properties. Um Ruth graciously took me through and gave me the grand tour. Um, I also did get a chance to meet with Calvin um and discuss some um issues and maybe some opportunities to streamline some processes particularly as related to uh subdivisions and roads and um coming up with some better ways to maybe track and communicate between uh departments. Uh I plan on meeting with um the town planner um George the Barge next week. I believe he is out this week. So, um, I'll catch up with him and try to get up to speed

what's going in on in land use in the planning department. Um, and I would also like to meet with others as well, just so that I can kind uh, including the select board members just so I can kind of um, catch up with everybody and see where everybody's at and uh, start to look at priorities and what I should be looking at. Um, we worked a lot today on the financial aspects and transitioning over um, technology, emails, bank, all of that good stuff. So, we'll be working with a lot of that this week. Um, and I look forward to serving you guys and I look forward to being here. I'm I'm glad to get started and I'm in deep already. So,

great. Well, we're glad to have you here. Thank you very much. Does anybody have any questions for uh for Kathy? Try not to challenge her too bad on our first night there. No, other than welcome. Award. Yes. Welcome, Kathy.

All right. Well, thank you. We'll keep moving. Um consent agenda. Any board are there is there anything on the consent agenda that a board member wants to pull out for discussion? approve the consent agenda as presented.

Rich seconds. Any uh actually no discussion. Call for the vote. Todd Boler, yes. Rich George, yes. Rob Panto, yes. Mark Farren, yes. and I am a yes. Okay. Upcoming meetings. Um the biggest one is Saturday 9:00 am town office parking lot special town meeting uh to vote on uh that one budget article to reconcile our what we can raise versus what people wanted to spend for the um for the year. Uh and then our next regular board meeting will be Tuesday, May 25th, and the one after that, Tuesday, June 8th. So with that, I'm going to move us into executive session pursuant to 1 MRSA section 4056A for discussion of personnel matters.

Second. Rich seconds. All right. Call for the vote. Todd Buller, yes. Rich George, yes. Rob Panto, yes. Mark Faron. Yes. And I'm a yes. Okay.