Select Board Meeting ~ October 18, 2016

2016-10-18 · Select Board · 1:08:30 · watch on YouTube →

A Select Board meeting that ran mostly through department reports and housekeeping. The board tabled one action item pending an answer from the state police, tabled acceptance of the single bid on the surplus public works office trailer until the electrical service is disconnected, and accepted a $1,360 fully reimbursable homeland security grant for dispatch software for the fire department. It set a budget calendar aimed at having department head budgets in hand by the first week of January, and a review schedule with employee reviews due November 1 and department head reviews on November 15. The road commissioner reported on a long-running effort to establish how far Durham's responsibility on Brown Road runs, resolved with a 1913 court decision found by a local historian, and the board agreed to fund the roughly $15,000 of grinding and rebuilding from this year's budget. It also picked up sketches for a town office renovation, the resignation of a founding member of the Historic District Commission, and what to do about the gazebo at War Memorial Park.

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
   Informal conversation before the gavel

   The recording opens about five minutes before the meeting is called to order, with members talking about flooring, the state of the campaign three weeks out from the election, and a complaint that discharged service members still have to take a hunter safety course to get a hunting licence. The conversation also touched on plea bargaining in protection from abuse cases as a way of preserving firearms rights. None of this was meeting business.

2. 5:14
   Call to order and agenda amendments

   The chair called the meeting to order with at least four of the five selectmen present, and the board said the pledge. Action item A was tabled because Shannon had an outstanding question with the state police and wanted an answer first, and two items were added: a discussion of the budget timeline and one on reviews. No one came forward for public comment.

3. 5:14
   Consent agenda

   The consent agenda was moved and seconded as presented, with no discussion, and the chair declared the motion carried.

4. 5:14
   Bid on the public works office trailer

   One bid was received and opened. It covers the trailer with door keys, the small gas heater, two air conditioners, a 100 amp electrical panel, two sets of steps and the cement blocks used for blocking, at $252 if the town disconnects the electrical service and $52 if the bidder, given as LARB Construction (?), has to do it. The chair set the item aside until the road commissioner arrived, to find out whether doing the disconnection in house would cost the town more than the $200 difference.

5. 5:14
   Budget timeline

   The chair wanted a calendar set so the board would not get caught late as in the two previous years, noting the budget committee has asked to get to it sooner because several members want to travel over February break. The board settled on wanting department head budgets in hand by the start of January so review can begin at its first January meeting.

6. 10:40
   Employee and department head reviews

   October is review month but this was the board's last October meeting, so reviews of staff under the department heads were asked for by the November 1 meeting and department head reviews set for November 15. The board kept its practice of reviewing, having the chair deliver the review, and letting the employee come back to discuss it. For the road commissioner's review the board wants Pownal invited, since the position is shared and Pownal should have input.

7. 10:40
   Homeland security grant for dispatch software

   The fire chief reported that the county's submissions had been approved and Durham was included for $1,360 to buy I Am Responding dispatching software and a monitor for the station. The grant is fully reimbursable but the town has to pay up front and can wait three or four months for the money back. He asked the board to authorise him to sign the acceptance letter.

8. 15:47
   How the responding software works

   The chief explained the software would replace the radio traffic of members signing on: the call comes to a member's phone as a text, the member clicks that they are responding, and a summary shows on the station monitor and to anyone who logs in. The version funded calculates an ETA from a predetermined home base rather than the phone's GPS, which the chief called the downside. Andrew Perava (?), who looks after the department's radios, tested it for four or five months and is now looking for something in the same price bracket that uses GPS, though it was too late to change the grant.

9. 15:47
   Concrete and catch basin at the fire station

   The new concrete apron in front of the doors had finished its 72-hour cure that afternoon and the three apparatus would come back from public works the next morning. When the road crew pulled the cover off the catch basin behind the station the walls turned out to be badly deteriorated; the chief called three masons and one has looked at it, is interested, and may be able to start over the weekend. The paving contractor, named in the recording as Crooked, had the town tentatively penciled in before the end of the month, though the plant had been down for a while.

10. 15:47
    Purchasing policy waived for the catch basin work

    The board agreed the chief could go ahead with the mason with the approval of the chair and the town administrator rather than running the purchasing policy, since he is behind schedule. Members noted the cost is under the threshold anyway, the only complication being that it is a capital project.

11. 21:11
    Catch basin cover sizing

    The existing cover is a non-standard 64 inches and the largest made is 50, so the chief needs to remeasure and make sure a 50-inch cover will sit properly on the blocks. The mason is expected to replace the blocks rather than reuse them, since he has to pull them to cement them in, and a ring and cover are in stock locally and could be had the next day.

12. 21:11
    Line striping quotes

    The fire chief had been asked to look beyond the $900 quote from Crooked for striping the station lot, and came back with $650 for the station and $350 for the town office. He said his own budget was tight after a generator problem that ran over $800. The board said no vote was needed because the amount is within the limits, approved the station work, and left the town office job to whether that budget can find the money.

13. 26:14
    Fire station floor, hydrants and staffing

    The chief did not yet know whether the contractor could get a flooring installer scheduled, and the board agreed the money can be encumbered only if the work is actually scheduled. He had looked at the dry hydrants, bush hogged the field, cleared alders and thinned pines beside the station to let in more sunlight. The assistant chief posting closed on the 16th with three letters of interest, which he would go over with Keith that night; fire prevention week and the school visit went well and the coloring contest will be drawn before the end of the month.

14. 26:14
    Trailer bid returns and is tabled

    The road commissioner, Calvin, said he had not yet been to look at the trailer but believed the crew could remove the panel at the salt shed, disconnect the other end and pull the wire through the floor so the buyer could drive it away. The board decided to call the bidder, who was not in a hurry, and hold acceptance of the bid until the next meeting once the disconnection is confirmed.

15. 31:36
    Public works report

    Erosion control work will run through the fall until snow flies, and shimming of driveways to match the road continues, with all the driveways on Rabbit Run now paved and wedged. Radio equipment should be installed within the next week. A set of paving spending and anticipated cost figures were read out; the numbers are garbled in the recording, but the commissioner said the town is close and hoping asphalt prices do not rise before the work is done.

16. 31:36
    Grant application for the stream crossing

    The commissioner is preparing an application covering road and shoulder repairs and a DEP stream crossing, and needed information from the fire chief about the emergency response impact because that affects the score. With no good alternative route to the area, a closure at the crossing has a significant effect on response times, which the board hoped would raise the score.

17. 31:36
    School bus stop sign

    The school department's transportation director asked for a school bus stop ahead sign at the bottom of the hill approaching the road the recording gives as Raindale, because the bus stops on the far side of the hill. The sign has arrived.

18. 36:40
    Centre line painting on collector roads

    The board discussed painting centre lines on the major collector roads, with members saying new pavement is hard to see at night, and one warning that once a line is painted the town will be repainting it forever, like street lights. There was disagreement over edge or fog lines, one member arguing they make drivers go faster and another that there may be a minimum width between centre and fog lines that Durham's roads could not meet. Reference was made to state work on Route 125 after a fatal accident there.

19. 41:45
    Pricing the striping

    The commissioner agreed to price the work and come back with an estimate and a view on which roads should be done, on the understanding that getting a price does not commit it to the budget. Members noted the DOT painted Stackpole, part of Bowie Hill and some of Davis when traffic was rerouted for the Route 136 project, and that nothing could be done until next year anyway.

20. 41:45
    Working out what the crew's road work cost

    The chair asked for a total of the hours the crew spent on the two road sections, priced not at hourly wages but at what the taxpayer actually pays including workers' compensation and the rest of the package, with a factor added for equipment, so he can answer residents asking what it cost per foot. Ruth will have to help assemble it. The board acknowledged there is no Durham contractor figure to compare against, but that the actual numbers from this year will give future projects a baseline.

21. 41:45
    Brown Road: where Durham's responsibility ends

    After months of failing to find documentation, the commissioner reached Sherry Edrich (?), a historian, who produced book and page references to a 1913 court decision putting Durham's responsibility from Pope's Corner to Hatch's woodlot at a big oak on the side of the road. He and Tim (?) measured from Pope's Corner at Route 136 and from the other end and arrived at the same driveway, though it is unclear whether Pope's Corner was at 136 or up where the old road crossed toward Grant Road. Members recalled a granite marker where three towns met and thought newspaper articles might settle it.

22. 46:52
    Paying for the Brown Road work

    About 150 feet needs grinding and rebuilding at roughly $15,000. There was about $39,000 left in paving on paper, but the commissioner had mixed surface treatment in with it and is over on that line, leaving about $24,000, and members were reluctant to spend money advertised to town meeting for specific roads on anything short of an emergency. Public works is at 65 percent of total expenditures with 75 percent of the year gone, and there is about $26,000 in professional services, with roughly $5,000 for a roof still to come out.

23. 46:52
    Decision on the funding source

    The alternative was to negotiate with Pownal to be billed on January 1, which they would rather not do. The board agreed to take the money out of this year's budget instead. A member asked why the project had appeared so suddenly and was told it had come to the board four or five times, but the boundary line had been a moving target until now.

24. 52:01
    Reviews and budget dates repeated to the road commissioner

    The chair repeated to Calvin that employee reviews are wanted by the next meeting, that the board will hold executive sessions at the end of a meeting to go through each employee, and that preliminary budgets are due the first week of January, likely at the first meeting on the third. He said he had handed out self assessments that day.

25. 52:01
    Town administrator: elections and foreclosures

    Ruth (?) said absentee ballots are available until the Thursday before election day, either in the office or by request, that voter registration is ongoing and possible on election day itself, and that returned ballots are technically due by the close of polls though earlier is much preferred. The town is about to send 30 to 45 day notices of impending foreclosure on about 20 properties, nothing surprising among them, and having had no response to her right to cure notice she expects an executive session at the next meeting.

26. 52:01
    Waste RFP and cleanup day

    The RFP has drawn a lot of phone calls and interest, and Tice (?) Waste Management will attend the November 1 meeting to answer questions. The board asked that he explain how he would schedule a town the size of Durham, since his references do not show work at that scale. Members reviewed what the current contractor, Pine Tree, handles on waste cleanup day: six or seven packers, one on the side and a roll off for steel, and said they do a good job.

27. 52:01
    Budget sheets and the electricity check

    Ruth (?) said nothing stood out in the budget sheets except election expenses, and explained that a couple of bills from the budget referendum had been paid by mistake and the RSU has reimbursed the town roughly $817, which leaves enough in the elections line to get through the season. She also had the town's electric bills analysed by other suppliers, who said the rates were good and they could not beat them.

28. 57:07
    Budget committee at the waste discussion

    A member asked that the budget committee be invited to the next meeting for the waste management discussion, since the board will be making a recommendation to them and there is a large difference between the options. The chair agreed and said the quarterly report would go to the committee as well.

29. 57:07
    Town office renovation sketches

    The code enforcement officer had a meeting conflict but left two sketches for possible renovations to the town office and is looking for suggestions. Ideas (?) raised included a unisex bathroom, moving codes and assessing into the back room and the records room next to it to expand the meeting space, and Paul's suggestion of moving the offices to the narrower side of the building so the wider side could become a larger meeting room. The roof is trussed, so interior walls are not bearing and can come down, and members agreed a renovation would be easier to sell than an addition.

30. 57:07
    Comprehensive plan, planning board, and a resignation

    The comprehensive plan committee intends to hand out its survey at the election and meets the first Monday of November, the day before. The planning board was meeting that same night to solidify its recommendations on the town ordinances. Joe Donovich (?) submitted his resignation from the Historic District Commission after serving since its first meeting in January 2007 and asked that his service be recognised; the board wants something worked up for the next meeting.

31. 1:02:21
    War Memorial Park and the gazebo

    The departing commission member suggested the park's wooded and lowland area could be carefully filled to increase usable space, alongside repairs to the gazebo and a second entrance, so it could be used for events. Members noted there is no parking there, discussed using ditching spoil to build up the useless banking, and mentioned a small parcel near the corner whose pin they could not find without a metal detector. On the gazebo's history they said it originally stood in the middle of the intersection, was found rotting in a ditch in the 1930s and repaired, with further work in the 1990s and early 2000s, and that money appropriated for it was never spent and could be reappropriated.

32. 1:02:21
    Getting an engineer's report on the gazebo

    A member argued the town should hire a structural engineer for a few hundred dollars to set out on a single page what needs doing, so an RFP can simply reference the plan; the obstacle so far has been that nobody knows what to do. The roof and decking are thought sound and the benches are rotten; the work is essentially replacing the uprights one at a time with temporary support, or building a false wall over them. The suggestion was to raise it with Paul and possibly use some of this year's money for the report.

33. 1:07:34
    Next meetings and adjournment

    The discussion closed on how the gazebo posts had been sistered and laminated in earlier repairs and on how long pressure treated wood really lasts. Upcoming meetings were set for Tuesday November 1 and Tuesday November 15 at 6:30 p.m., and the board adjourned.

What was decided

• 5:14
  Action item A was held over because Shannon had an outstanding question with the state police and wanted the answer before the board took it up.tabled
• 5:14
  Approve the consent agenda as presented. Moved and seconded, no discussion, chair declared the motion carried.passed
• 10:40
  Agreed that reviews of employees under the department heads are due by the November 1 meeting, department head reviews will be done on November 15, and department heads will submit preliminary budgets in the first week of January.passed
• 15:47
  Moved to accept the $1,360 homeland security grant for I Am Responding dispatching software and a station monitor, on the recommendation of the fire chief, and authorise him to sign the acceptance letter. Seconded, discussion, all in favour, motion carried.passed
• 15:47
  Agreed to waive the purchasing policy for the fire station catch basin repair so the mason can start, subject to approval by the chair and the town administrator.passed
• 21:11
  Approved the $650 quote for striping the fire station lot without a vote, the amount being within the limits. The $350 town office striping was left to whether that budget can find the money.passed
• 26:14
  Acceptance of the single bid on the public works office trailer was held to the next meeting so the electrical service can be disconnected and pulled first; the bidder is not in a hurry.tabled
• 41:45
  Agreed the road commissioner would get a price for centre line painting on the major collector roads and come back with an estimate and a view on which roads qualify, without that committing it to the budget.passed
• 46:52
  Agreed to pay for the roughly $15,000 of grinding and rebuilding on Brown Road out of this year's budget rather than arranging with Pownal to be billed on January 1.passed
• 57:07
  Agreed to invite the budget committee to the November 1 meeting for the waste management discussion, since the board will be making a recommendation to them.passed
• 1:07:34
  Motion to adjourn. All in favour, motion carried.passed

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

Worth knowing

• 15:47
  The $1,360 grant for I Am Responding dispatch software was approved, but the version it funds bases a responder's ETA on a fixed home base rather than the phone's GPS. The department is looking for a similar-priced product that uses GPS, though the grant itself can no longer be changed.
• 21:11
  Asking for a second quote brought striping at the fire station down from $900 to $650. The town office lot was quoted at $350 and will only be done if that budget can find the money.
• 41:45
  How far Durham's responsibility runs on Brown Road was settled from a 1913 court decision found by a local historian, which fixes it from Pope's Corner to a big oak at Hatch's woodlot. Roughly 150 feet of rebuilding, about $15,000, will come out of this year's budget.
• 52:01
  About 20 properties are about to be sent 30 to 45 day notices of impending foreclosure. Absentee ballots remain available until the Thursday before election day and must be back by the close of polls, and residents can still register to vote on election day.

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 11 decisions summarised.

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