Select Board Meeting ~ July 25, 2017

2017-07-25 · Select Board · 1:24:27 · watch on YouTube →

A select board meeting dominated by roads. Residents had complained about the material used on Cedar Pond Road, so the board brought in Jerry Douglass of All State Materials, a former Maine DOT local roads program manager, to explain why cold mix rather than hot mix was the right choice on a fatigued road carrying under 500 vehicles a day, and what the chip seal will do to it. The board then declined to put a new culvert across Cedar Pond Road for the Bergeron property, agreeing instead to check dams and reshaped culvert inlets, and heard the road commissioner explain why ditching is running level with the paving rather than a year ahead. Other business included accepting donations to the Eureka Community Center capital fund, the Local Road Assistance certification, the Auburn Pownal Road stream crossings and their detour, and a first discussion of what the town should do about marijuana ahead of state licensing. The written minutes also record that, before the recording, the board met in executive session to interview for the codes official post and then voted 5-0 to offer the full-time job to Nathaniel White subject to references.

What was discussed

1. 0:02
   Call to order, agenda and consent agenda

   The chair opened the meeting and took the pledge. Public comment was folded into the Cedar Pond Road heading rather than taken separately. The consent agenda was moved, seconded and carried unanimously.

2. 0:02
   Cedar Pond Road: why cold mix

   Jerry Douglass of All State Materials (?) explained that cold mix and hot mix use the same ingredients (sand, rock and liquid asphalt) and differ in how they are produced. Cold mix stays flexible, which makes it the better product on a road that is fatigued, rutted and cracked, because hot mix goes rigid as it cools and reflective cracking comes back through much sooner. He said the material will stiffen as the light ends come out and must be sealed within one to two years, which the chip seal scheduled for later this month will do.

3. 0:02
   Ruts and the trash truck

   The board put the two complaints it had received directly to him: that ruts almost seven inches deep were being filled in places, and that the trash truck was still leaving marks. Douglass said fresh cold mix stays soft and marks under tires but firms up, and Calvin Beaumier explained the deep spot arose where there had never been a ditch until he put one in, that they have filled ruts twice that deep elsewhere which are still performing, and that cutting out and repairing a 50-foot piece later would cost about $200.

4. 5:35
   Cost and traffic volume

   Cold mix costs less because there is no heating cost; it is made in a pug mill at ambient temperature. Douglass said the material choice matters less than what it goes on and how much traffic the road carries: under 500 vehicles a day cold mix makes sense, whereas All State would not have recommended it for a road carrying 3,300 to 3,500. No weight restrictions are needed, though it cannot be laid less than an inch and a half thick.

5. 10:39
   What the chip seal does

   An emulsion truck sprays on top of the cold mix and a chip spreader drops hard three-eighths inch stone into it; it sets rapidly and can be driven on almost immediately, with sweeping two or three days later. It is coarse and loud at first, but after one plow season Douglass said it will read as ordinary pavement. A chip seal a mile long and twenty feet wide costs about $28,000.

6. 10:39
   The Country Lane transition

   A member raised the roughly three-inch lip where Country Lane meets Cedar Pond Road and the risk to a plow truck. Beaumier said he had looked at it and it needs shimming; Douglass agreed that is an apron and that big lifts at driveways and joining streets always need addressing, and suggested that is where the trash truck lost traction and tore the surface.

7. 16:09
   Douglass's background and comparisons

   Asked about his experience, Douglass said he spent 17 years at the Maine DOT as program manager for the Maine Local Roads Center, running training for municipal public works and rebuilding a road surface management software package. He pointed to the Golden Road north of Millinocket as cold mix carrying heavy trucks. Board members agreed that residents who took the surface for hot mix were right to ask the questions they did, and that the town should communicate better in advance.

8. 16:09
   The Bergeron culvert request

   Rob Pontau reported that Mike Bergeron (?), who had attended a meeting two weeks earlier, had written again. The Bergerons accept that their basement is low, but believe the roadside ditching will increase the flow reaching them, and asked the town to put a culvert across Cedar Pond Road before the chip sealing, offering to pay for it. Beaumier said the ditching moved the same water from one elevation to another and did not change the watercourse.

9. 21:28
   Permitting and the engineer's view

   The engineer advised that replacing existing culverts in kind is straightforward, but adding an 18-inch pipe alongside the existing 24-inch amounts to about a 50 percent volume increase and would trigger DEP review, and that he does not think it would solve the problem anyway. Members recalled a case in Dixfield where trying to appease a resident led to years of follow-on work, each fix creating a new consequence.

10. 26:30
    Liability and cost

    The board asked who would be liable if it let a resident change a town road, and whether the permitting process would even answer where the redirected water ends up. Because the residents do not own the road, the town would have to apply on their behalf while they covered the costs, estimated at $5,000 to $8,000 including permits, culvert, work in the road and rip rap.

11. 26:30
    Where the water actually backs up

    Working from a sketch, Beaumier explained the town has two 24-inch culverts at the low point, and that the stream itself is not the problem: the smooth bore culverts should handle the stream, but a ditch line coming down the hill joins it there and causes the backup. The proposal was to intercept the ditch water with a 12 or 18 inch culvert upstream so it does not join the stream at that point, though it rejoins downstream anyway. Members observed the house appears to be barely above groundwater and that the walkout was built where one should not have been.

12. 32:13
    Check dams instead of a culvert

    Beaumier offered a low-cost alternative: check dams in the ditch to slow the flow, and backhoe work to open up the mouths of the existing culverts so water enters smoothly, perhaps half a day of crew time. The board was comfortable with that, and agreed a culvert across the road would be the residents' project to permit and fund and would have to come back to the board. Pontau agreed to reply, noting the letter had come from Bergeron's wife.

13. 37:25
    Eureka Community Center donations

    Donations had been requested in an obituary for a man who had a lot to do with the reconstruction of the Eureka Center, so the board was asked to accept the gifts and to specify that they go entirely to the centre's capital fund.

14. 37:25
    Local Road Assistance certification

    The town must certify each year that it spent the previous year's Local Road Assistance money on capital road projects. That was $53,664, and next year's allocation is expected to be $54,520, all of which must be spent on roads. The form needed signatures rather than a motion.

15. 37:25
    MMA elections

    The Maine Municipal Association's annual ballot was uncontested. Mary Sabins (?), the town manager of Vassalboro, was standing for vice president, with three further candidates for the other seats. A member suggested nominating people at large next year.

16. 43:04
    Road commissioner report: ditching level with paving

    Beaumier reported Cedar Pond and Stackpole finished, three miles in all. He explained that most towns ditch a year or two ahead of the paving plan and Durham has not had that luxury, having gone from less than a mile a year to four miles a year with the crew ditching just ahead of the paving contractor, finishing on a Saturday night at eight against a July 14 deadline after five hours breaking ledge with a rented hammer. Options floated to get a year ahead were subcontracting a year of ditching, taking a year off paving, or cold mixing one year and chip sealing the next.

17. 43:04
    Communicating road work better

    Beaumier accepted he should have got in front of the cold mix questions, noting the product is being used in Augusta, Turner and North Yarmouth and that a contractor he knew used to mail out literature explaining how to treat a new surface; he will produce something for mailboxes next time. On announcing the chip seal dates, members agreed to post them as tentative with weather qualifiers rather than as fixed, and the chair suggested a regular public works page or blog on the town website.

18. 48:09
    Stump grinding and Runaround Pond Road

    A contractor ground out large oak stumps in place for $500 rather than pulling them, which would have taken half the road with them. Work on Runaround Pond Road has been under way about a week and should finish in a couple of weeks, after which the final layer of pavement can go on.

19. 48:09
    Auburn Pownal Road stream crossings

    The engineer has completed the design of the open bottom stream crossings and the work goes out to bid next week. Environmental permitting confines the work to a window between September 15 and November 15, and since it takes about three weeks the contractor has to start by around October 15. The structures are arch culverts on multiplate footings.

20. 53:21
    Detour planning

    Beaumier will have to coordinate closures with the fire chief, the police and school bus transportation, and will require the contractor to put up digital signs a week in advance. Members initially thought there were no houses between the two crossings, then established from an aerial view that there is one, so access has to be maintained and the crossings may have to be done one at a time. The preference was to route the detour down Stackpole Road to Route 136 rather than signing traffic onto Bowie Hill Road given its condition.

21. 53:21
    The cost comparison spreadsheet

    Beaumier's figures put the saving on Cedar Pond Road at about $194,000 for cold mix and chip seal against reclaiming with binder and surface. A member objected that the comparison is not like for like, since cold mix and chip seal realistically gives about a ten-year life against twenty for a reclaim, but accepted that annualised it still comes out cheaper and that having several tools in the toolbox stretches the dollar.

22. 58:28
    Historical society and the town's old buildings

    Ruth Glaeser reported that the historical society now has co-chairs, Paula Erdman (?) and Linda (?), who would like to take part in the walkthrough of the Methodist church and the old town hall. Their meeting is at 6:30 on August 15, which the board could have worked around, except that the NIMS training is at the fire station the same evening.

23. 1:03:29
    Scheduling the walkthrough, and building condition

    After ruling out September 5 as the first day of school, the board settled on trying August 22 at 5:00, before its regular meeting, allowing roughly half an hour at each building. Glaeser reported the Methodist church roof is holding up but the foundation needs serious work and the front steps need repair, while the old town hall seems to be in reasonable shape. Members agreed the buildings should be looked at before budget season.

24. 1:03:29
    Fire chief's vacation

    With the chief absent, Glaeser raised his emailed vacation request; the board had no objection and she said she would let him know.

25. 1:08:34
    Marijuana inquiries and a permit already in hand

    Glaeser had emailed the board, and the chair and vice chair of the planning board, because inquiries are coming in and state licences are expected in the spring. Beaumier said he already has a permit request for two buildings about 25 feet by 150 feet, described to him variously as agricultural, nonprofit and medical, and he does not know what to do with it: he cannot refuse a building permit for a structure, but the use would go to the planning board, and there is no marijuana use in the land use ordinance table.

26. 1:13:56
    Moratorium mechanics and next steps

    A moratorium requires a town meeting (the board had hoped for one in April and it did not happen) and would run six months, extendable in further six-month increments to a total of eighteen while the ordinance is written; development impact fees would require an approved comprehensive plan first. Members discussed odor, the federal illegality and its cash-business consequences, the possible county policing cost of a social club, and the fact that a town can allow grows while barring social clubs. They agreed to gather information from the Maine Municipal Association, consider an online survey, and hold a public input session in the autumn.

27. 1:13:56
    Adjournment and a human rights complaint

    A motion to adjourn was made, seconded and carried. Discussion then continued over accounts payable, and it was explained that the town has a Maine Human Rights Commission complaint against it that has been running about six months, with the complainant's response just received and an investigator's questions expected in one to four months; the claim is covered by the Maine Municipal Association. The board moved to take that into executive session at 7:51.

What was decided

• 0:02
  Accept the consent agenda as presented. Moved and seconded; the chair declared it unanimous.passed
• 32:13
  The board agreed NOT to install a new culvert across Cedar Pond Road at the Bergeron property. Instead the public works crew will put check dams in the ditch and reshape the mouths of the existing culverts, about half a day's work. If the residents still want a culvert, they would have to obtain the permits and studies themselves, at their own cost, and bring it back to the board.passed
• 37:25
  Accept the donations made to the Eureka Community Center in memory of a resident who worked on its reconstruction, with the money specified to go entirely to the centre's capital fund. Moved by Mark Blake and seconded by Todd Beaulieu.passed
• 37:25
  Cast the town's vote in the Maine Municipal Association elections. Moved and seconded; the chair declared it unanimous.passed
• 1:03:29
  Hold the walkthrough of the Methodist church and the old town hall on August 22 at 5:00 p.m., before the regular meeting, rather than August 15, which clashes with the NIMS training at the fire station.passed
• 1:03:29
  The board indicated it had no objection to the fire chief's vacation request, which Ruth Glaeser said she would confirm to him.passed
• 1:13:56
  On marijuana, the board agreed on next steps rather than any ordinance: Ruth Glaeser to circulate a condensed version of the Maine Municipal Association material and examples from other towns, consider an online survey from the town website, and schedule a public input session in September or October before any decision on a moratorium.passed
• 1:13:56
  Motion to adjourn, moved and seconded; the chair declared the meeting adjourned.passed
• 1:13:56
  Move into executive session at 7:51 p.m. to discuss the Maine Human Rights Commission complaint. The recording captures the proposal and the time but not a motion, second or vote.outcome unclear

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

Motions the minutes record

The town's own written account of what was decided, taken from selectmins20170725.txt. It owes nothing to the recording or to a model: the clerk typed it, with the vote. Where the summary above claims a decision this list does not carry, the summary is the part to doubt.

• the Board into Executive Session pursuant to Title #1, M.R.S.A., and ss. 405(6) (A) — Personnel — Codes Official Interview at 5:41 p.m

  Moved by Kevin Nadeau, no seconder recorded; no outcome recorded

• the Board out of Executive Session at 6:21 p.m. Action Taken

  Moved by Kevin Nadeau, no seconder recorded; no outcome recorded

• extend an employment offer to Nathaniel White to be full time Codes Official subject to satisfactory references at a rate agreed uponcarried 5-0

  Moved by Kevin Nadeau, seconded by Mark Blake

Worth knowing

• 5:35
  All State's representative told the board cold mix is cheaper because it needs no heating, and is the right choice on a fatigued road carrying under 500 vehicles a day; the firm would not have recommended it for a road carrying 3,300 to 3,500. The surface stays soft and marks under tires until it stiffens, and the chip seal that follows costs about $28,000 for a mile of twenty-foot road.
• 32:13
  The board turned down a resident's offer to pay for a culvert across Cedar Pond Road, on the engineer's advice that adding an 18-inch pipe next to the existing 24-inch would be about a 50 percent volume increase requiring DEP review and would probably not fix the flooding anyway. The town will instead put check dams in the ditch and open up the culvert mouths.
• 48:09
  The open bottom stream crossings on Auburn Pownal Road can only be built between September 15 and November 15 for environmental permitting reasons, and the work takes about three weeks, so a contractor has to start by around mid-October. A house sits between the two crossings, so access will have to be maintained through the closure.
• 1:08:34
  The town has no marijuana provision in its land use ordinance and already has a permit request in hand for two buildings roughly 25 feet by 150 feet. A moratorium would need a town meeting, which the board missed in April, so it agreed to gather information and hold a public session in the autumn before deciding.

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 9 decisions summarised.

Elsewhere

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