Select Board Meeting ~ October 3, 2017

2017-10-03 · Select Board · 1:19:38 · watch on YouTube →

A Select Board meeting that opened with the annual round of junkyard and automobile graveyard permits and the annual general assistance maximums, then heard MaineDOT present its 50 percent design for rebuilding the Route 125 and Meadow Road intersection at an estimated $360,000. The board took up a foreclosure waiver on the old town dump, two tax abatements, a request from the ozone monitoring organisation to take down a tree at the fire station in exchange for planting a replacement, and the fire chief's request to send out RFPs for a replacement engine and a replacement rescue. The longest discussion was the town office renovation, where a member argued the town has a $30,000 budget and a list of ideas but no plan, and the board redirected the administrator to bring in an office planner and look at off-site archiving before anyone knocks holes in walls. Members moved the 31 October meeting to 4:00 p.m. so it finishes before trick-or-treaters are out, and put off a proposed change to a first-and-third-Tuesday schedule until after the new year. Selectmen also asked to be on the fire department's next meeting agenda to talk to members about the process for filling the chief's position. Few of the votes in this recording carry an audible tally; each decision below says whether the result was announced by the chair or taken from what the board did next.

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. 0:02
   Agenda amendments and consent agenda

   Ruth (?) added a list of 2015 tax liens maturing in November and the animal control officer's report to the consent agenda, and an abatement for map 10, lot 55C to the assessor's session. Nobody was present for public comment. The consent agenda was then moved and accepted with the additions.

2. 0:02
   Junkyard and automobile graveyard permits

   Calvin, described in the meeting as the assistant or associate code enforcement officer, had visited each site and found them much as last year. Barrels of oil that needed removing at one site had gone when he checked again that evening; the vehicle haulers now take them.

3. 0:02
   Automobile recycling licence

   One operator runs a recycling facility rather than an automobile graveyard, which the state licenses differently: vehicles come in, parts come off and the shells are crushed. Calvin (?) proposed a condition that within 60 days he apply to the Secretary of State for an automobile recycling facility licence and be fully licensed by next year's inspection. The operator did not object, saying he understood it to be paperwork and that other operators he had spoken to hold both licences.

4. 5:18
   Permits voted one at a time

   The board had intended a single motion covering all the permits but was told they must be done individually, so five separate motions followed.

5. 5:18
   General assistance maximums

   The town is required to vote each year on the general assistance maximums in appendices A through D. Durham falls within the Lewiston-Auburn area figures the state provides, and the town has always adopted those rather than setting its own.

6. 5:18
   MaineDOT at Route 125 and Meadow Road

   Rob Betts brought the working set for reconstructing the intersection, with Randy Illen (?) as designer. The work corrects grading and sight line problems and realigns Meadow Road for better visibility pulling out. The project is at about 50 percent design and is expected to cost about $360,000 in total.

7. 5:18
   Schedule

   Final design is expected about February, followed by roughly eight months negotiating with property owners, which could put the job out to a contractor around October. Betts (?) said he does not anticipate work in 2018 and that 2019 is more likely, though they would come sooner if they could.

8. 10:27
   Abutters

   DOT met the most heavily affected abutters in the preceding weeks. Betts (?) said the feedback should improve the design and that the abutters were relatively in favour, understanding the need.

9. 10:27
   Changes on Route 125 itself

   Sight distance had been short for the posted 45 mph; tree cutting helped but the road still falls short of standard, so the vertical profile will be adjusted. The centre line is also pushed out around station 11 to give a more gradual curve and open up the inside of the corner, which reduces the impact on the property owners there.

10. 10:27
    Meadow Road paving

    DOT will rebuild whatever it disturbs on Meadow Road, running back to the first driveway, a few hundred feet. Members pressed, half in jest, for the work to run further and were told that is as much as can be justified for this project.

11. 10:27
    Flooding

    A spot that floods every year, around station 1250, will be handled by opening up the ditch line and crossing the road with a larger pipe, upsized to 18 inches from 15. Betts (?) said a drainage structure would cause more problems than it solves and that a bigger ditch also gives more snow storage; the property owner is content with the design.

12. 10:27
    Comment deadline and hearing status

    Betts (?) asked for any town comments in the next couple of months, because adjustments become significantly harder once the design is final. He confirmed this presentation was the public forum for the project, the abutters having been met individually, and agreed to send the final design to the town and the road commissioner.

13. 15:42
    Plain-language plans for residents

    Members asked whether DOT produces a layman's before-and-after diagram, perhaps a design over an aerial photograph, that the town could post on its website. Betts (?) said DOT does that for larger projects and offered instead to meet residents one to one on questions the plans do not answer.

14. 15:42
    Route 125 and Quaker Meetinghouse Road

    That is a separate project with a different manager, but Betts (?) offered to pass questions on. A member who lives near the intersection said neighbours fear it will be worse before it is better once it becomes a four-way stop, because a driver waiting on Quaker Meetinghouse Road may pull out expecting an approaching car to stop when that driver does not yet know the pattern has changed. He asked for evidence on how well flashing warning signs work and whether money exists for extra law enforcement through the transition.

15. 15:42
    Tree at the fire station

    The ozone monitoring organisation asked to remove a tree beside its station. Mr. Gregory (?) told the administrator that relocating the monitoring station would be prohibitively expensive and that moving a tree of that size costs a great deal, but offered to buy a replacement from a nursery of the town's choosing and plant it where the town wants. He also said the tree would likely need attention before long because of the power lines.

16. 20:44
    Choosing the replacement tree

    Members discussed species and location, raising a red maple and then setting it aside as non-native, and noted that the three maples there were planted about ten feet from the power line and will have to be cut back as they mature. Rather than pick a spot themselves they settled on letting the fire chief choose the species, nursery and location.

17. 20:44
    Old town dump

    The property at map 6, lot 14, also said as lot 114, is the old town dump, about 70 acres, and includes the old tire dump. The board needed to act so that foreclosure would not go through on it.

18. 20:44
    Who owns the dump

    A member asked why the town does not own land it used as a dump; the answer was that the town paid to run it on private land and the state did much of the cleanup. The estate of John Emerson (?) was never probated, so nobody clearly owns the property, which was described as an orphan landfill. Members said the only way to collect the taxes would be to take the land, and taking it would bring whatever is in the ground with it.

19. 25:49
    Liability argument

    One member said that since the town created the dump, somebody should take responsibility, fix it and sell it, or it will sit forever. The fire chief said the tire dump was the third largest in the state when he took over and was part of why the state stepped in, and that material from other contracts went to the site as well as the town's.

20. 25:49
    Tax abatements

    On map 8, lot 56A a discrepancy of 288 square feet in the measured building area was worth $7,000 in value and produced an abatement of $131.95. On map 10, lot 55C the record showed two full bathrooms where there is one, and the abatement figure was spoken as $7163 with no audible decimal point, so the amount as recorded is garbled.

21. 25:49
    Fire station water test

    The first water test since the well was shocked came back good, with E. coli and bacteria clear and a reading noted on one item. The chief has left his signs up.

22. 31:02
    Second water test

    The chief will retest in late November into December to be sure the result is not just the bleach wearing off. A member noted the results will arrive in time to decide whether a new well needs to go into next year's budget.

23. 31:02
    Stipend coverage

    Coverage is going slowly but well, with a couple of people sticking with it and four more at various stages of training. Scheduling by text message, email and word of mouth has become the bottleneck, so the department will trial scheduling software in November.

24. 31:02
    Ladder truck outrigger

    The aerial operations class lost its last day when the left front outrigger settled under load and would not hold level. The truck goes to the vendor first thing the next morning, with a valve suspected rather than anything serious. Ladder testing of the ground ladders and the aerial is booked for 18 October, which is what makes the repair urgent.

25. 31:02
    Hose testing and rekeying

    No contract could be arranged in time for hose testing, so the department did it in house again and has now completed it. The chief proposes to use that money to rekey the station with commercial keypad locks rather than a computerised system; he does not need to know who opened a door, only to be able to withdraw access when someone leaves. He expects to start at the end of October or the first part of November.

26. 31:02
    Apparatus committee

    After many meetings the committee's consensus is to keep pursuing the replacement of Engine 22 broadly as specified before, with minor tweaks rather than a reconfiguration. An RFP and vendor list were forwarded to the board, along with a second RFP for the rescue that is close to the one used in 2007 with industry changes.

27. 37:03
    Rescue chassis

    The committee wants an F550 rather than the E-series van because diesel is not available in the van series. Members on the committee felt the 450 was marginal on braking and suspension, and the 550 carries 2,500 to 3,000 pounds more payload. Four-wheel drive is preferred over the onspot chains now fitted, at about $5,000 more, because the chains often fail when they are needed.

28. 37:03
    What the RFPs commit the town to

    Members confirmed that sending the RFPs out binds the town to nothing and is the only way to get the financial information needed for a recommendation, which would then have to go to town vote.

29. 37:03
    Engine specification

    The specification is deliberately vague on chassis manufacturer and dimensions so any vendor can propose. It calls for a 1,000 gallon tank, a pump rate the recording garbles, and a hose load figure the recording also garbles; the chief noted the vendor list is the same one that responded in the past two years and the documents need updating to current NFPA standards.

30. 42:20
    RFP vote and rekeying cost

    A motion was made to have the chief send out both RFPs as written. Asked what the rekeying costs, the chief said the earlier quote was about $2,950 but the scheme has changed since, dropping access control on interior doors the public cannot reach and adding keypads, so the figure is out of date. He said the work could be phased rather than short-changed.

31. 42:20
    Filling the chief's position

    Selectmen (?) asked to be put on the agenda of the fire department's next meeting, the second Thursday, 12 October, at 7 p.m., to talk to members about the process for filling the chief's position, what the board's thinking is, and what part the department would play. The chief welcomed it and noted he will be away moose hunting that week, so he will not overshadow the conversation; Curtis would cover for him.

32. 47:30
    Server changeover

    Ruth has an appointment for Wednesday 18 October to switch over to the new server.

33. 47:30
    Fire alarm quotes

    Quotes came back for fire and alarm systems in the buildings discussed, but all carry a substantial initial setup fee, put at under $10,000. It is not in this year's budget, so it would have to go into next year's.

34. 47:30
    Town office renovation

    Ruth (?) said she feels she is chasing her tail. The project began when the previous code enforcement officer found his office too crowded and wanted more room in the meeting room as well, but the wall cannot easily move because the electronics are mounted on it. The budget committee provided $30,000, and there have been several iterations since.

35. 47:30
    The current concept

    As drawn, the men's bathroom becomes unisex; the women's bathroom becomes fire-rated storage with a two-hour wall and a three-hour door for the older books; the back storage room gets egress windows and becomes the administrator's office; and the shared codes and assessor office splits into two. Other material would go to the modular or public works, the modular being easier to reach.

36. 52:35
    One bathroom

    Members agreed one bathroom is enough for the traffic the building sees, generally three or four people plus occasional public use. The toilet is 15 inches where 17 is needed for accessibility, and removing the urinal and its partition would give wheelchair room.

37. 52:35
    A list of ideas, not a plan

    Kevin (?) said he sat on the budget committee when the $30,000 was approved and now thinks that was a mistake, because the board went straight to a solution without stating requirements. He questioned a dedicated office for an assessor who is in the building two days a month, suggested a laptop rather than a desktop, folding tables on casters to make the meeting room usable, and different desks in place of what he called aircraft carriers, and argued for hiring someone who does office space planning before anyone knocks holes in walls.

38. 52:35
    Where the earlier quote came from

    Ruth's quote covered a specific scope she had described, including bricking up a wall and a vault-rated room. A member said he had already pushed back on the brick-up and on paying $2,500 to $5,000 for design work to move a few pieces of furniture; the reply was that the town had handed the designers a solution rather than a problem.

39. 57:43
    Office planning firm

    A member who has done three offices at work described a firm with state bid pricing that charges nothing for the design if the furniture is bought from them and only a few hundred otherwise. Members also separated the two problems in front of them: a storage problem and an office layout problem.

40. 57:43
    Fire rating

    Members questioned whether a three-hour door is required at all, one having been told that a nearby town asks only for 90 minutes, and floated simply adding a layer of five-eighths fire code sheetrock. The fire chief said that with the building unoccupied at night everything inside burns until somebody spots it from the road, so monitored detection matters more than the door rating.

41. 57:43
    Alarm monitoring cost

    The modular has fire detection and the station has fire but no burglar alarm. A figure of about $8,000 for a commercial fire and burglar setup was disputed against consumer monitoring at $30 to $40 a month, and members suggested approaching Comcast, the town's franchise provider, about a business installation.

42. 1:08:08
    The records and why they cannot move

    The back room holds old assessing books, vital records and some 1700s maps. They cannot go to the modular because it has an alarm but no climate control. Ruth (?) said she would prefer a walk-in vault but that it is very expensive, and that in her view the current scheme does not go far enough to protect what is back there.

43. 1:08:08
    Off-site archiving

    A climate-controlled storage unit was raised at around $100 a month for material that is rarely accessed. Ruth recalled a woman, whose surname she thought was Miller, who offered a couple of years ago to photograph the records and put them on disc, but it could not go into that year's budget and she never came back. A member added that public works may have a spare upstairs room. Both office rooms are 7 1/2 by 11 feet.

44. 1:08:08
    Direction to the administrator

    Members told Ruth to contact the office planning firm and to look into archiving rather than proceed with the drawn scheme, and said explicitly they were not leaving her hanging but wanted cheaper and more creative options examined first.

45. 1:08:08
    Meeting schedule proposal

    With a meeting falling on Halloween, a member proposed moving permanently to the first and third Tuesdays of each month rather than every other Tuesday, which would drop two meetings a year and free weeks for special meetings.

46. 1:13:20
    Objection to changing now

    Another member said his calendar runs two or three months ahead and is already set around the current pattern, and he did not want to move commitments for the rest of the calendar year. He was content to look at the change after the first of the year.

47. 1:13:20
    What to do about 31 October

    CMP was booked to discuss the power line plans and Alan Sterns (?) of the Royal River Conservation Trust to discuss the Royal River and the Runaround Pond Recreation Area work. Both would be moved, with CMP possibly brought to the 17th. Members also raised whether the warrant must be signed in a meeting at all, which nobody could answer; Ruth (?) said she would ask the next day. Three members would be needed either way.

48. 1:18:21
    Halloween meeting at 4:00

    Members settled on coming in at 4:00 p.m. on 31 October to sign the warrant and deal with anything urgent, finishing before trick-or-treaters are on the road by 4:30 or 5:00. The 17 October meeting stays at 6:30.

49. 1:18:21
    Other meetings

    The comprehensive planning committee meets Wednesday 25 October at 6:30 and the planning board the following night at 7 p.m., both at the town office.

50. 1:18:21
    Executive session

    The chair began moving the board into executive session and the recording ends mid-sentence.

What was decided

• 0:02
  Accept the consent agenda as presented with the additions, being the list of 2015 tax liens maturing in November and the animal control officer's report. The chair announced it accepted as presented.passed
• 5:18
  Approve Larry Emerson's permit with the condition that within 60 days he apply to the Secretary of State for an automobile recycling facility licence and be fully licensed by next year's inspection. Moved and seconded; no tally was audible, but the chair acknowledged the vote and called for a motion on the next permit in the series.passed
• 5:18
  Approve Kenneth Carl (?) II's junkyard permit. Moved and seconded; no tally was audible, and the board moved directly to the next permit.passed
• 5:18
  Approve John Peeler's junkyard permit on the code enforcement report. Moved and seconded; no tally was audible, and the board moved directly to the next permit.passed
• 5:18
  Approve Elvin C. Dennison Junior's junkyard permit application. Moved and seconded; no tally was audible, and the board moved directly to the next permit.passed
• 5:18
  Approve Troy Peterson's junkyard permit application, the last of the five. Moved and seconded; no tally was audible, but the chair closed the series and moved on to the next numbered agenda item.passed
• 5:18
  Approve the general assistance maximums for appendices A through D as presented on the summary sheet, adopting the state's Lewiston-Auburn area figures. The chair announced that the motion passes.passed
• 20:44
  Let the fire chief work with Mr. Gregory to choose a species, nursery and location for a replacement tree, and allow the organisation to remove the tree beside the ozone monitoring station. Moved; no tally was audible, and the board moved directly to the next agenda item.passed
• 25:49
  Waive foreclosure on the old town dump at map 6, lot 14, so that the town does NOT take ownership of the property and does NOT take on the liability for what is buried there. Moved and seconded; no tally was audible, but the chair then moved the board straight into the assessor's session as scheduled.passed
• 25:49
  Abate $131.95 on map 8, lot 56A, after a discrepancy of 288 square feet in the measured building area worth $7,000 in value. Moved and seconded; the response to the call for the vote is garbled and may be a 5-0 tally, and the board moved directly on to the second abatement.passed
• 25:49
  Abate tax on map 10, lot 55C after the record was corrected from two full bathrooms to one. The amount was spoken as $7163 with no audible decimal point, so the figure as recorded is garbled. Moved and seconded; no tally was audible, and the board moved directly on to the fire chief's report.passed
• 42:20
  Ask the fire chief to send out the RFPs as written, for the replacement of Engine 22 and for the rescue, and get proposals back. Moved and seconded; no tally was audible, and the chief closed his report on the strength of it.passed
• 42:20
  One or two selectmen to go on the agenda of the fire department's meeting on 12 October to discuss the process for filling the fire chief's position. Settled in discussion; no motion was made and no vote was taken.outcome unclear
• 47:30
  Put the fire and alarm system installation into next year's budget rather than proceed this year, the setup fee being substantial and no money being in this year's budget. Settled in discussion; no vote was taken.outcome unclear
• 1:08:08
  Rather than proceed with the renovation as drawn, have the administrator bring in an office planning firm to work from the town's requirements, and look into off-site climate-controlled archiving and spare space at public works. Settled in discussion; no motion was made and no vote was taken.outcome unclear
• 1:13:20
  The board did NOT adopt the proposed first-and-third-Tuesday meeting schedule at this meeting. A member objected that his calendar is already set around the current pattern for the rest of the year, and the question was put off until after the first of the year. Settled in discussion; no vote was taken.tabled
• 1:18:21
  Hold the 31 October meeting at 4:00 p.m. instead of 6:30 p.m., to sign the warrant and deal with anything urgent, and move CMP and the Royal River Conservation Trust to other dates. Settled in discussion; no vote was taken.outcome unclear
• 1:18:21
  Move into executive session. The chair begins the motion and the recording ends mid-sentence, so no second, vote or result is on the recording.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.

Worth knowing

• 5:18
  The Route 125 and Meadow Road reconstruction is estimated at about $360,000, with final design due around February and roughly eight months of property owner negotiation after that. MaineDOT expects construction in 2019 rather than 2018, and asked for any town comments within a couple of months because changes get significantly harder once the design is final.
• 20:44
  The old town dump at map 6, lot 14 is roughly 70 acres and includes what was once the third largest tire dump in the state. Because the owner's estate was never probated it has no clear owner, and the board waived foreclosure specifically so the town would not inherit the liability.
• 52:35
  The town has $30,000 voted for a town office renovation and no plan to spend it against. A member said approving the money was a mistake because the board went to a solution before defining requirements, and asked that an office planner be engaged before anyone knocks holes in walls.
• 42:20
  Selectmen (?) asked to attend the fire department's 12 October meeting to open the question of how the fire chief's position will be filled and what part the department will have in the process.

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: 3 passages of motion language, against 18 decisions summarised.

Elsewhere

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