TranscriptSelect Board Meeting ~ August 9, 2022

the durham board of selectmen to order on august 9 2022 please stand for the pledge of allegiance united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all

um one slight amendment to the agenda or under number four reports we're going to add devin with an i.t report any other amendments to the agenda uh reports uh we do not have the fire chief or road commissioner here this evening so john our planning board shares here's please come on up sir thank you that will be short and looks like you could set a record for shortest meeting or no doubt we've we've been under out of here in under 20 minutes before well i don't think that'll happen tonight mr chairman members of the board thank you for the opportunity my name is john talbot 636 stackpole road here in durham and i'm here on behalf of the planning board and a few months ago i and i appreciate this opportunity to do it but i just asked for some time occasionally to come in and give you an update on where we are and uh what's going on and keep you informed if you've got any questions or whatever i'd

be happy to address them or take them back to the board so since last i was here uh or this last month we had two uh projects before us one is a continuation of the deer creek crossing which is that 13 lot cluster subdivision up route 9 aways past the school that is still going through the process we've had our public hearing we've had a hearing we hope that next meeting will have all the paperwork and the ability to make a decision on it yay or nay so this is still in the preliminary plan phase if we vote nay then obviously the project dies if we vote yay that lets them move into the final plan drawing up the final plans and getting ready for final plant approval which they then have to come back before us so that's that one the second project is celebration farms which is a christmas tree farm on bowie hill road they've been in business i think for a while they've come before us with it and i

think they've been here in the and i think we're the next stop for them uh they're coming before us and have appeared before us to get a non-conforming use to do educational they've split their property christmas tree farm and then the rest of it to get permission to do educational classes some arts and crafts and also use the bus that's on the property for camping rental whatever it may be in in conjunction with or so they've said initially at least with educational uses so which is they're going to have seminars and then the bar the other use that they like is the barn to use that for weddings and special events and so that came before us we had their presentation the owners of celebration farm and then the board asked some questions kind of give them a feel for issues that we'd have going forward they've taken that and then we continued or asked them to come back for our september meeting where we'd hold a

public hearing they've since asked if it would be okay to come back instead of september come back our october meeting so the first wednesday in october uh they would get some they needed some stuff to put together and so on and so forth so a public hearing is not required by our rules but we elected voted to have one so that in the interest of transparency and and also let the folks who are not affiliated with that have their say on the project good bad or otherwise so uh we believe what the next meeting will continue them until the first wednesday of october and the other thing we talked about last month is as you know we're working on a couple of different changes to ordinances one is there's four of them total historical commission is working on their own uh to kind of determine their future and how to how to organize and they're working that the conservation commission is working on the resource protection maps

in response to the community asking to have both what's come what's going out and what's coming in uh so they're working on that our role on that would be once they've had their public input not a public hearing but they're planning to meet with citizens get some input from them and then the planning board would be the place that goes for the uh the formal public hearing prior to coming to you to write up the uh the article and then of course before the town meeting in april the planning board is taken on two missions one is and we've talked about this before the state has changed it's created a law that talks about buy right adding additional dwelling units to property uh existing existing property uh and i say buy right so that would mean that if there's basically if there's one one dwelling unit on you could put up to two more and the definition of all this is really hazy and it's still uh and george

thibar's the town planners working with mma and the town attorney to make sure we get it right and i hate to say we don't do any more than we have to but we we say okay this is what we're required to allow on those lots so if it's an empty lot it would be they're you're like they would be allowed by right to put on a duplex so what town allows duplexes but there are uh stricter requirements for duplexes lot size so on and so forth uh those uh we don't think would we'd be able to apply so basically if it's a single family lot they would have the right to put in a duplex assuming it they perk test and you could get a well and all those eat all those all those health and same with a single family lot all those health and safety rules would still apply so mr debargus marked up the existing ordinance to modify that we'll go over that he introduced it to the board this last meeting we'll go over that in a little

more detail in september the plan for all of these off uh there's one more you asked us to take a look at um how a town accepts a private road making it a public road and so our intent is to say as you you asked to recommend that that only the town meeting can approve that so we don't have the planning board doesn't have the approval authority the select board don't it has to go to a town meeting to be accepted as a public road so we're writing that up uh our two pieces will also have some public input workshops to introduce them to people and then we'll hold the public hearing late january early february on all four but probably be multiple public hearings with the goal to be in to you all at the end of february with uh verbiage that that you can um well i i believe i don't know that's secret pal i'm trying to think okay yeah that's still this time sorry i was mixed up i was thinking we needed to have the warren article

questions like 60 days before town meeting but that's only if it's a referendum secret ballot format with our regular open town meeting i think as long as we have the questions for board approval you know like 30 days before the meeting or you know close to that we should be good but we have we're trying to do this far enough advance so we all have plenty of time to say work with the new town manager and mr d barge when he comes on board say hey we really need them by the middle of january at this point i think certainly from the planning boards perspective uh we can get there and if that's necessary the other two will as well so yeah yeah because i think one of the things we've heard from citizens is that they that they want there to be an opportunity to make an adjustment to the question if something comes up in the public hearings um that it's you know not that we're not so far down the road that we can't react to

something that we've um that should be and i'm not saying we should react to everything that somebody says in a public hearing but sometimes people raise a valid point so i think they want a little bit of time to react to it if we need to and we will hopefully have gotten some of those maybe not all of them you know this fall november so we can start incorporating them and we certainly if we need to do in january we'll work with the new town manager and mr thi barges to make sure they're written up correctly and has have all that input and probably i'd be back before you all in that first meeting of february to say here's what we heard here's what we did [Music] but we don't want it something that's dead on arrival that doesn't have your support doesn't have town support or right yeah so one of ours is yeah one of ours are real easy so the state says we have to do it so you know we're going to try to make it

as simple as possible any questions i i have one sure going back to the celebration farm uh topic and we happen to have before us tonight an application for a catering permit for an event there in september um is there and you said they've been to the appeals board or whatever already about something is there does that raise any red flags for you it does a little it does a little bit i'm not saying you should deny it but one of the things they've asked for is permission to use the bar now i'm not sure whether they want to do it this is for a wedding and this the catering permit so the business the caterer is submitting this application um to position a uh bar trailer behind the main barn for a wedding with for 110 people attending

it does i mean they've come to us i can't say that that's right or wrong at this point but it it they have come to us with a request to allow them to do those kinds of things because i mean i would think there's a distinction because anybody might have a wedding at their house one time and hire a caterer and do whatever and not necessarily after the planning board but if if it starts becoming a business then that's a different deal yes and i think that's what their thought is is that uh so is there any uh do you have any concerns about approving this about the board approving this single uh catering permit um i guess i do in that if it doesn't set a president if in fact and i'm not saying they will but if they get denied and i can't go into too much because it seems to be what they're asking to our perm the town's permission the planning board's approval of non-conforming used to do to use the

barn for that purpose now if they're putting up a tent it gets we've kind of had that discussion gets into a real gray area it doesn't say the events in the barn it says the trailer's parked behind the barn so this is just for the trailer yeah this is just for the caterer i think it's for fishing um it's really about the liquor license for the trailer to be on property and serve alcohol that we have no voice on okay that's what i figured personal opinion but no voice yeah yeah okay great thank you

devin come on up sir a written report i'm basically just going to go through all the points the prerequisite updates and upgrades that we need to do to this building the fire station and public works before comcast can come in and install new phones and internet um i have one of those quotes for the one for this building

responding and they don't have the quotes because they are doing a bunch of projects for other clients so i'm trying as best as i can to stay on top and get as soon as i can all the information that quote and we can go over it if you have any questions about it it's basically just a new poe network switch because the one we have now does not provide power through the ethernet cable and we want that to happen so that the phones can just be plugged in with one cable don't have to worry about plugging in the wall on top of being plugged in

so that the computers at those stations can also be plugged into the phone so they don't have to be plugged in separately there's a five port switch that we need to get for the front desk because there's going to be too many devices that we don't have ports for right now um and that that was basically it for here the biggest

improvement is at the fire station there's a whole bunch of new line that needs to be put in um so until i have that i just know that it's going to be a lot of work and public works is easy because they don't have a lot of necessarily complicated stuff going in so they're pretty much just take out the old put in the new um okay i have continued to work on getting town staff and board and committee members on with the their internet or their email it's a continuing process i've i'm sure you've all seen i've sent out an email last week to try to get people to be active and to check to see if people are looking at their email and those that haven't by well technically monday because i had a few late people but um people that haven't gone back to me by now are going to be found and helped

couple of email boxes that we no longer need so i've saved the town eight dollars a month every penny that counts right right yeah um so i'm working on that um i'm going to try and at some point set up a quote-unquote seminar have people come in and it'll be in here and i'll try to teach them how to use their yeah because a lot of people i've found don't know how to do it and that's totally fine so i'll try to set up a time where people can come in and i'll try to teach everybody um

for new workstations um i just want to say that i've been told by multiple town employees that they have experienced a lot of frustration with how slow their computers are running besides the internet being slow important to have a regular three-year cycle when it comes to computers especially in the business world um and that will give you better in security and reliability um as these machines are on all the time they get used all day long and when it comes to mission critical work you don't want to ever see one of those fail especially when there's a long line

how old are the ones we have uh right now they're five years old at the oldest there's a couple that are three years old but um most of them are five years old the ones we use the most are probably the oldest right yeah i think a couple were replaced after the email hack around that time frame yeah but um a majority of them are still the old five-year-old computers i got a question devin is um so i agree with the three-year upgrade cycle there um i'm not not remembering all the numbers off the top of my head but something maybe cip could actually stick in their little bottom line tally i know it might not add up to the ten thousand dollar um lower limit i mean going forward and going forward in future years there might be something to add to their list to keep track of the say yeah won't map out you know somewhat a plan with maybe what devin comes up with that yeah no i agree and it doesn't have to

even be identified as specifically for laptops it could be know along those lines in that you know when you're in a situation where potentially replacing everything or close to everything all at once after that you want to get on a staggered schedule so that means you know in some cases you know you know if there are stations that can wait a year let's wait a year and stagger them and then when we do like if we buy you know let's say 12 you know let's we're gonna need to get four years out of some of those machines and maybe five out of a couple so that we can get it on our regular trucks all right right get it on a regular cadence yeah and then it becomes like just part of the annual budget it doesn't seem like a lot but everybody kind of chokes on it and that'll be something that the new town manager will do right and kind of also along those scenes but this is this is really good information i appreciate you

keeping us up to date i think um at this point you know continue to collect the the data and the cost quotes and whatever and then you know kind of wait to get it all and then um you know frame it up think about you know a new town manager coming on and and maybe put together a little along these lines just expand what you've already done okay here were the issues these are the these are the problems these are the this is what we're proposing this is the cost and we're going to fund it through opera so that the new manager can come in and understand what the issue is understand what the proposal is to do something about it and um and then they can you know they can take it from there and and work with the specifics of well are we gonna buy 15 computers or 12 or 11 or are we going to do this or we got to do that that's really going to be driven at the town manager staff level um yeah so does any of these programs offer

um with respect to the computers a leasing option um that maybe can be looked at that's a good question because i know at ll bean businesses we're on it we're on a three-year cycle but it's all leased yeah it's all these stuff yeah that's how everybody's pretty much going these days how do they that's my only possible concern with that is that right now we really don't have anything in terms of a spare computer situation um if we do buy new computers this time we will have at least a couple pretty good spares in case of an emergency situation um just not typically when you lease them there's usually a policy in there to have you know um a response on them within eight hours during during a normal work business day or okay 12 hours after hours or something of that nature i'll have to look more into that yeah that'd be that's a good call to look into that

about it but yeah it is you know yeah it's definitely definitely awesome yeah there's a cost with everything so it all all right thanks devin brings us the town manager's report um not a lot here uh um we received an mma dividend workers compensation this happens most years um and so our dividend this year was 2 37

um that seems i think that's one of our lower dividends actually in recent years um but we've had a couple of claims over the last couple years so that makes sense um insurance return for fire truck repairs less thousand dollar deductible so it was like fourteen thousand dollars

especially with the fire truck and um we uh you all have before you um or i i think you all have before you or or maybe this is the only copy i think copies were made but the auditor's report for uh fiscal 21. no no no significant red flags everything looked good um so that was that was what mitch would have talked about tonight mitch is attending just some family matters tonight um he's in new york but he will uh he will be back with us at our next meeting even though our next meeting our new town manager will officially be on board um mitch will be here you know and he's gonna help us through the transition i've spoken to him a couple of times and he's basically however we want to manage it he's open to so and i think that'll largely be between he and jerry like how much i would think there'll be some period of time where they're both kind of in the office together and you know mitch has given him a little

town manager 101 you know kind of stuff and especially you know as we're you know it won't be long before we're like thick into budget season uh again for next year so yep so i think getting getting jerry you know in a good spot to be ready for budget season is probably the biggest priority for him or else you know we're going to have a repeat of what we had last year and nobody wants that so oh all right um all right so that's it for what we have for taliban's report under old business uh just the general view tao meeting and war articles for for our special town meeting next week um i talked to town clerk before the meeting and everything's uh looking good um we're all set bill schneider is going to be the moderator for us it'll be at the eureka center they'll set it up jessica and devin so the town clerk and i t um officer are they're going to go they purchased the new camera for recording and they're going to go test

that tomorrow and make sure that their they have ability to record that meeting and and and then post it later uh online so they're paying a lot of attention to that we're focused on recording not necessarily live broadcasting if we can do the live broadcast on youtube in addition to great but we've definitely told them that the priority is a recording that can get posted on the website that people can then watch whenever they want so all right but uh though in the the budget committee uh i'm told uh unanimously approved all four of the art war article questions um and um after some lively discussion i understand and uh exciting oh yeah and um so anyway so that's we'll go into town meeting and and hopefully get the voters approval and we can move forward with those things so all right mr chairman if i would yes one of the questions that came up led to some of the lively discussion was how

many computers the town will end up with what 43 45 000 8 000 is i think firewalls and that kind of stuff so it may not hurt to kind of know going to that meeting how many computers it's not going to be i don't think it's all 18 or if it is that that may be that my expectations that is a question that will come yeah so we'll try to have a better idea of that i don't you know it's only a week away and he's still waiting on some info yeah no that's what i understand and we'll definitely you know i think uh will prioritize things like you know security and firewall will get prioritized over you know a number of laptops for instance you know so um but you know i know i know there was some question about the you know there was a belief or thought opinion that you know five-year computers were not old but i'm i'm i disagree with that and i think most people that work with technology and business would disagree with that but

somebody brought that up yeah yeah so anyway um it's too bad because people don't even keep their phones business um we have a byob application uh i believe this was for yeah for a wedding thank you john hey john uh for a wedding in october and so basically what these are these they're filling out the state application and the state wants to know that the local community is okay with it before they approve it and so that's what this is a wedding um uh let's see on maplewood lane so this is a pro it's not a business this is a private um yes thing oh are you going you on the list i might go first all right it's our business oh it is yes ah okay yes well i saw our um i'll be parking cars

sleeve up [Laughter] so all right so um the byb byob application for 58 maplewood lane on october 15th so moved i'll second so i think you should recuse yourself from this one so i recuse myself that so um all right so move the motion all right you move is there a second uh i'll second for discussion okay i do have a question yeah discussion i do too so so my question is we just had the conversation that's uh about about a business needing to go before the planning board and getting town approval and if this is a business do they have i believe they've already been through that process okay they have their conditional use permits okay yeah yeah no but that's a very valid question it's a good question i thought you guys had gone i just wanted to make sure yeah

liquor license for each individual event no all those in favor all right and todd is recused so we have a four over okay all right and then so the other one is the one i mentioned um for a similar although this is for this is like oh this is the same thing it's just an updated form it's okay it's still a catering permit

caterer is providing the liquor and they will park their bar trailer on premise i will let's get the emotion on the floor and then we can do discussions so i would entertain a motion to uh approve the catering application for 125 bowie hill road for an event on september 17th is there a motion i'll make a motion i'll second it for you seconds for discussion okay so open for discussion

i thought so the catering application is really a liquor license application or this says uh i need to be i thought this is a bureau of alcohol beverages and lottery operations division of liquor license again enforcement application for a catering permit yeah so one of them's byob the other is so when i had a party at the eureka center we got a byob yeah if i was catered the caterer would have come in and done the the separate thing that's how it works like the ambets came in and they had just they wanted uh i believe uh maybe it was liquor licenses it depends on who's bringing the letter in advance catering you typically think of food but this particular is a as an alcohol vendor is what it is they've hired a bartender they've hired a bartender that's a great way to put it there

actually because there's a liability consideration there in terms of who's providing and serving the alcohol right exactly um huge yeah [Laughter] so um so i don't i think i underst i personally don't it doesn't feel like there's any anything different here other than it's a hired bartender versus byob it's an individual event um and i i think uh yeah so it doesn't yeah my only question to that was being that that particular property was flagged for not just like we just as taught or you have you gone through planning board and so forth this sounds like it's is this for their personal event or is this a business event that's a very yeah that's a really valid question and i think um if their daughter's getting married i'm cool with it but if it's up if it's a if it's a business i think that's a legit question i think i would want an answer to that i'm surprised they're not here yeah when i got mine i was here just most

people i did i it sounds like if i correct me if i'm wrong that we're going we want to know if this is for a personal function or if they've actually leased or rented out their property right for an event and if they have they might need to go to the planning board before they can do that they need their their um the other uh permit or yeah to be able to run the business yeah right but that's part of it i would think i would i would agree with that i mean like i said if their daughter's getting married or their son's getting married uncle harry's getting married that's fine yeah family private entity getting married on their property that sounds more i think the question is is are they getting paid to lease the space or not right right that's another way to put it and if it is for fee is that does that trigger does that trigger the need for a planning board review or not i don't know if somebody

would have to go through the ordinance and see yeah i was under the impression this particular property is trying to get that right so that's why it was like yeah i think that's why we asked todd the question that's yeah that's what raised it for me yeah that's likewise because usually these are uh you should pass go and collect your two hundred dollars there's really not a lot of red flags with these but when they're uh you want to call them well when john tell them just said that they brought into them let's call them because um yeah i wouldn't want to hold them up because their event is september 17th right and it takes a little while to get a license through the state right that's okay if i call the number on the application was that gonna be for the caterer or is that gonna be i believe it's for the caterer uh actually wouldn't

yeah cause the well i guess so the per just to kind of muddy the waters for lack of better words the person that is requesting this isn't the actual problem yeah you're right it's it's an actual business somebody that's it's a third party that's being hired so it's a little bit different than todd's well no no because if if this were well that's a licensed individual it would be the same thing if the event was at todd's place unless you have your own absolutely the same maybe if you don't yeah the same application you know the same situation except do we have a permit and actually well and it would be the same if we were doing it in my backyard but the difference is yeah i wouldn't be leasing out if it was my own function i'm not renting out my backyards yeah in this case

it's kind of it's kind of tough to to wait but i just don't i mean if there's a number and you can reach somebody and get that answer i i would be okay this is the number of the caterers not the number of the property probably the owner

about changing in the future is having the property owners present for some of the zombies here yeah i mean they haven't since we started there hasn't been someone here on any of them but well right and that was only because i raised the alarms with them when i texted my friend and ambassador said what is this about when i did mine i i there was no question i was i was here even though right so i i'm surprised that no one comes for them um but i mean the the issue i have is i'm not going to be the next meeting and we're kind of waiting it's going to be closed for the event and right so i don't know how to get around that but that's an issue if there's a way to resolve it um

uh not deny it tonight and basically make them come back um uh at our meeting on the 23rd and that would still give them three weeks before the event and i i think that's enough time because i know the amvets have been here in the past and we've signed an application and they've driven to augusta the next day once you get the approval it's you just go to the yeah the place i think that's easy i i we have a motion on the floor right so um

don't think we should table this till our next meeting but i don't know if you can table something if there's a motion i think the motion can be withdrawn but we can withdraw the motion yeah we can just deny it but i mean they can resubmit yeah we can deny it have it on the next agenda i guess my question and maybe nobody knows the answer to this encounter john is um by approving this and let's let's just say it is for a function outside of a family event are we as a town condoning the use of that if they are in front are we setting a precedent i my opinion would be no i just think it would you know it would be uh um

so part of me is part of me is definitely thinking this might be where you are it's like you know what this is let's um let's we could go ahead and approve this and use it as a start the conversation with him look if if this is going to be an ongoing thing you need you need to go through the process yeah because it's one thing if it's one thing if you know in terms of impact let's talk about because part of the the reason for conditional use impact fee is about impact to neighbors right so if you if we approve this one you know the impact to neighbors there is no different than if we approved one at any other address in town for a private function right it's when it becomes multiple like every weekend these guys have got a band playing in the backyard because they're hosting weddings right that's the type of thing that you that's why we have the conditional permit i would think also that the code

enforcement officer would play a hand in this if this were to go on for any type of you know thing other you know if it was if they weren't given a conditional use well the role yeah if they were the role of uh or before that the role of the community so the the code enforcement is the first gatekeeper right right and so what what that what he would do is say you know if you know what you need a conditional use permit for this you need to go to the planning board right and it's that's the handoff right so um it sounds like it's with the planning board already for some extent well it sounded like for something let's see that's

you know if the barn i'm sure all kinds of cold stuff will come into play if you want to use a barn for public events but that's what this application's for barnard oh it's not it it doesn't say barn on it doesn't it it's to put the trailer behind the barn trailer behind the liquor trailer behind the barn no one wouldn't get close okay that's hard because i'm concerned about parking there because i've seen it they do it often yeah but what if they have events there before and they have people parking on the side of the room yeah but if it was just somebody having their private function at their home you had people probably have the same issue right so that's why where i'm kind of in in order to you know not completely you know reign on their wedding parade or whatever to approve this one but make sure we before there's another one make sure that we get clear on follow-up what they need yeah follow up with them and you

know yeah so i look at it as kind of a common sense you know kind of an approach versus a you know um for non-conforming use right yeah much yeah yeah i think that was related to more related to the school thing yeah we don't know it's not in a barn and it's not in the house so i'm good with it yeah i mean right so so so you do have a little range yeah right all right but it says outdoors they may have a tent right yeah um so the motion on the floor is to approve the permit um [Music] so any further discussion i don't think we can make sort of a conditional or say you know this one time but is there a way that someone can communicate with them and say you know it sounds like people are going to support it this one time yeah not again you know what i mean yeah no i think i think a follow-up from uh um from the town would be yeah and and i can follow up with with jessica about the best way to approach

that you know um or or maybe with with code enforcement actually the best way to i wish we had a secondary form that gets filled with these for us i get that goes to the state but just a town form that said the property owner et cetera et cetera here's the back page

contact if we have questions like like the questions we have yes pretty much that's why it would be helpful maybe even the property owner be present if they want a application to be approved for them there's a little diagram on the back yeah so you know there's bowie hill road you come in the driveway there's the barn does the trailer this is the stanchioned or fenced off area where alcohol will be allowed it is an outside area but the barn is within that area so but you know what um i don't know

and bring it to the attention of a code enforcement officer to maybe or or uh might be planning board it's probably codes to follow up and say hey if you're if this use is happening like if you're if you're renting your facility your your property right that's one of these events then you need to go through the conditional use permit process right and that that kicks it to the planning board much like you know todd's family business had to go through yeah and regardless of if this is approved or not they might get yeah shut down that's why i'd like that right so it has a property address has contact information has the property owners um it has has this gone through plan board like so todd's not going to be a constant question every time a new board comes up yes this is an approved site for this particular yeah or an unapproved site one-time event yeah all right i'm good and i think more to

rich's point that maybe uh a conversation with jessica about you know when they come in you know urge them to come yeah oh yeah on future app people we recommend you show up when you're on the agenda to answer questions right 50 50. yeah okay all right any further discussion

application he votes against the competition he can't win for like how's that going we have uh a few tax abatements to deal with and i think have we done this with you guys here before yet okay so periodically we get these and it's usually because of you know a mistake or an oversight or something in the recording of property or the assessment of taxes

agent donna or the property owner usually comes that's where it usually is they question their assessment and then they find something so um i'm not sure if you realize this but when you were elected selectmen you were also elected as uh town assessors we are the board of assessors and we are also overseers of the poor that is our complete title um so when we do this assessing stuff we have to go into a separate assessor's session so that's what i'm going to move right now that with the board goes into an assessor's session

favor okay so we are the board of assessors now and we have three uh abatements to consider this first one please be advised an abatement should be granted to yvonne and brenda goulet for the value of a tiny home assessed as personal property this year this property is owned and was assessed to annette sainz but the billing went out under goulet in error i have attached necessary paperwork for your signatures if you have any questions please let me know and so basically this is an abatement of

for the goulets because they were taxed for property they shouldn't have been taxed for success to scenes so is it is it like a land lease is what's going on here for example they're tiny homes on somebody else's property they own the home but somebody else holds the land like like a trailer like a trailer like a russian

i don't know that this paperwork you read you read this it sounds it sounded to me like it was it was assessed as a personal property tax yes and then but also assess to the other people so we're removing the personal property tax oh yeah that's why we're not seeing that that's right supplemental assessment out there yes they weren't filled correctly right right yeah that's what it sounded like to me so maybe bought it or sold it to saints no it's just an error of who we're asked to yeah it's just it's just a bad record of it that's what these that's what's really all it is all right so any uh something over to my attorney for me any further discussion on that one all in favor okay 5-0 next one um please be advised an abatement should be granted to arthur and elizabeth wonder for a homestead exemption that was not applied to their property record this year in error um let's see for the abatement is the

amount of 414 dollars is there a motion to grant this abatement so moved rich moves also joe seconds any discussion all in favor 5-0 and the last one this one does i believe have a uh else um please be advised that an abatement should be granted to jason and jessica turcotte for the value of a new home and law improvements that should have been assessed with land that was split this year likewise an abatement and supplemental should be approved for property owned by christopher staples the owner of the new home when the lot was split this year and this is donna writing when the lot was split this year i was unaware that the new home was part of the sale these abatements and supplemental correct the error and ownership of attached necessary paperwork fear signatures so we are it's an abatement to the turcottes of uh 25 52 31 and

i'm seeing an abatement to staples of 972.90 supplemental tax assessment to staples of 3504.51 so so you remove the property tax and yeah right gives credit some people and supplemental assessment to the others the people that actually own it what are those numbers again just i don't know if they're going to tie out um they should so 25 52 31

what do you get for that yeah this is 3504 51 so i don't know there might be some other minor adjustment in there but um up before but it was so hard i mean it was a property transfer we don't know what was paid like allocated at the time of closing all that stuff that's pretty close yeah it's cool so it should just be you're you're baiting the tax for the home to the the sellers you're baiting the tax on the property to the buyer and then you're basically those are getting added together and assessed in total to the buyer right so they should add up

970 290 970 290 and twenty five fifty two thirty one twenty one so it's about twenty dollar difference yeah do you still have that number on your calculator 35 21 35 25 21. subtract 3504 51. yeah so it's like just 20 bucks difference somewhere and that you know what what we don't know is like it could be it could be in it could be a rounding error and how she comes up with the assessed values like when you're taking a piece of property and combining it with another piece of property um might have been look raw now it's improved yeah so many variables if she did she could hurt responsibility

if we need to but let's get a motion on the floor richard moving approval of the moving approval okay is there a second josh any further discussion okay so um let's add this there's a big signing pile tonight before we leave so um okay so [Music] the consent agenda has uh the minutes and the warrant entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented so we're so moved by josh that's like second by todd all in favor

meetings the first special town meeting august 16th at 6 p.m at the eureka center and then our next regular select board meeting is august 23rd here at the town office at 6 30. a couple of other announcements from the town clerk i've been asked to let everybody know that applications for absentee ballots for the november election not the ballots themselves but applications for absentee ballots are now available here at the town office and also electronically i think it's via the state election website it's not on the durham website it's on the state website um so those are those are out there now she's received a few applications already and then also we are accepting the applications for the um maine has a new property tax stabilization program which it's a new program and it's essentially um for those uh 65 and over and if you meet some other requirements similar to the homestead exemption

then in effect in effect stabilizes your property tax to whatever it was um the previous uh the previous year no it's 20 years ago continue to qualify for the program and you renew every year you do have to fill out your application every year yes 20 years from now your taxes would be the same as they are today so so get out in front of that one

state gives in the differential yeah the state reimburses the towns for the uncollected money yes yep so all right so anyway it's just an announcement that that the application for that is available those are available here

announcements from other board members nope okay oh sorry what time is the special time meeting 6 00 p.m six o'clock yep okay that's what i ended up not 6 30 6 p.m i'm gonna make sure that i got him i'm hoping we're done by 6 30. that's probably

yeah he might be though that one i think would go quick you think so yeah it should but i wouldn't agree that it said anything like last week is it three minutes with the microphone one time up i'm sorry it should be something with that effect yeah you've never never done the we've never really done that at town meeting as last town meeting made very obvious i mean there were some people that were on motorized treadmills circulating through time after time after time so um that you know who they are everybody knows who they are yeah all right we don't need an executive session tonight um really so i would i don't think we do do something i don't know do we need one no no okay okay all right all right i know all right uh then i would take a motion for adjournment so i'll move raise your hand we have to come out of assessment first oh yes thank you we do um we should have done that before the

consent agenda sorry all right so i'll move us out of assessor session and back into select board regular session second all in favor and looking for unanimous consent to under the consent agenda um that we did an assessor session any objection to that okay all right that was the only thing we did yeah we're good and then announcements so okay so uh now i'll take a motion to adjourn so moved rich moves seconds all in favor all right we're adjourned thank you devin thank you devin oh we did it under an hour