Androscoggin CountyMainePopulation 4,262Sourced from U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2013-2024
Durham in Data

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Select Board Meeting ~ June 27, 2023

2023-06-27 · Select Board · 2:30:47 · watch on YouTube →

The select board met on 27 June 2023 with all five members present. It heard reports from the road commissioner and fire chief, set the tax rate at 21.35 on the assessor's recommendation, and took up what to do about roughly $40,000 in unpaid ambulance bills. After a long discussion the board moved to send those bills to a collection agency and to adopt a written ambulance collection and waiver policy, having heard that 19 of 20 comparable towns use collections and that the agency takes a third of what it recovers. It accepted a $2,000 donation from the Shiloh Church, given after the church took the fire station's old generator, and after debate placed it in miscellaneous revenue rather than earmarking it for employee appreciation. Appointments to the Union Church committee were put off to 11 July and the application period extended to 10 July because of the level of interest.

Who was there. The town's written minutes record these people present: Joe Tomm (Chairman), Richard George (Vice-Chair), Josh Klein-Golden, Heather Roy, Joe Roy, Jerry Douglass (Town Manager), Rob Tripp (Fire Chief), Calvin Beaumier (Road Commissioner). Names in this summary are checked against that list.

What was discussed

  1. 13:12
    Road commissioner's report

    Calvin Beaumier reported spring cleanup continuing and a second round on the cemeteries before 4 July. The truck bid opened with Ripley and Fletcher low at $86,975 for an F-550 dump truck with plow, coming to about $99,000 with body, sander and lettering against $105,000 allocated. Crack sealing was done, roadside mowing is booked for 10 to 14 July with the machine shared with Pownal to split about $400 of delivery cost, ditching starts this week, and the crew has cut lumber and made templates to rebuild the town's rotted picnic tables on rainy days.

  2. 18:43
    Warning lights at Dead Man's Curve

    Heather Roy said the flashing lights at the curve had not appeared to work on several occasions over two weeks and asked whether the lack of sun had left the solar units flat. The road commissioner said he would test them, explained that a vehicle pulling out past the sensor will not trigger them and that the sign is angled so the lights can be hard to see, and confirmed the town owns the sign and is responsible for its maintenance. Members were also told the Route 125 bridge will be one lane until November 2024.

  3. 18:43
    Fire chief's report

    Rob Tripp reported a long-term loan from Androscoggin County Sheriff Communications of five portable and two truck-mounted radios, worth about $25,000, letting Durham talk to Lewiston and Auburn while its own ageing radios fail. A further $25,000 radio grant has cleared the first round at state level and goes on to FEMA, with confirmation expected in the autumn; together the two represent about 10 percent of his budget. The station generator has been installed and the gas company tested and replaced four regulators, some 22 years old.

  4. 23:58
    Paramedic training and mutual aid

    The chief said Chris Higgins has obtained his paramedic licence after a two-year commitment and is already covering shifts, and that three other members are in paramedic school on associate degree tracks. The department has been asked to help Lisbon with the Moxie parade, sending an engine company and two members for traffic control at the bridge.

  5. 23:58
    Night EMS coverage slipping

    The chief said three or four members have moved out of town, leaving him, Chris Higgins and about two or three EMS providers at night. The department has run over 200 calls so far this year, on pace for well over 400, with about 35 percent between 7pm and 7am. The $35 night stipend is drawing about four sign-ups a week and he has covered up to ten calls himself, which he said is not sustainable; he has relaxed the requirement that responders be in Durham. He suggested a night per diem may be needed.

  6. 29:21
    Town manager's report

    Jerry Douglass reported a planning summit with the chairs of the planning board, appeals board, historic commission and Conservation Commission, describing a lot of ambition and warning that the town planner has only 20 hours a week so the committees will have to do the work. The financial services contractor is now handling accounts payable and will take on payroll at the end of the quarter. He listed his leave dates, including 11 July when the clerk will cover the meeting, and said the ARPA report is still held up because he cannot get into the Treasury portal, but that no sanctions are expected.

  7. 35:05
    Select board members serving on committees

    Heather Roy asked whether the board is comfortable with members helping committees with their workload. Members agreed there is no problem, provided they switch hats when they return to the board and do not present themselves as speaking for it, and that quasi-judicial boards and budget work are the exceptions. One member noted she stepped down as chair of the Conservation Commission on being elected but stayed on the committee.

  8. 35:05
    Ambulance billing: the comparison towns

    The town manager said he had the fire chief telephone the ten towns above and ten below Durham in population; 19 of the 20 send unpaid ambulance bills to collections. He also circulated a sample policy from the Town of Union. The chief said roughly $40,000 is outstanding and asked for direction: write it off or use the collection component of the billing process, with the hardship application available at any stage.

  9. 40:25
    How collections would work

    The chief said the collection agency that works alongside the billing company takes 33 and a third percent, operates at will with no contract or money up front, and deposits monthly, so recovering the full $40,000 would return about $26,667 to the town. He said everyone with an outstanding bill has already had three notices at 30, 60 and 90 days with the hardship application referenced. In the last quarter alone 36 patients did not respond at all, two had bad addresses, two were deceased, three insurers paid the patient directly and the patient did not pay, and one report was filed after the insurer's deadline.

  10. 46:01
    How far back to go

    The debt runs back to about 2021, when the town started with the billing company Comstar. Members noted that before that, through the pandemic and a period of short staffing, billing was not going out at all, and agreed it would be wrong to bill someone now for a ride they were never billed for.

  11. 51:01
    Debate on fairness and the policy

    Josh Klein-Golden offered a friendly amendment to adopt the written collection and waiver policy alongside sending the debt to collections. Richard George said he would rather have a policy in place before sending anyone to collections, and was uneasy that someone who rode the day before the Comstar switch would never be billed. Others said residents who paid their bills would feel burned if non-payers were let off, and Heather Roy said the change of billing company is a defensible catalyst because it is where the reliable data starts.

  12. 1:01:13
    Where the recovered money should go

    The town manager suggested the money could go into an enterprise or reserve account towards a future ambulance rather than into the general fund. Heather Roy noted the town used to run separate accounts of this kind and that town meeting voted to consolidate them into undesignated funds. The board agreed to keep that as a separate discussion.

  13. 1:06:29
    Motion on ambulance collections

    The motion as finally put was to send the outstanding balance to collections through the billing company's collection arm and to implement the ambulance collection and waiver policy. The chief confirmed the draft policy's 30, 60 and 90 day timetable mirrors Comstar's own process and that hardship applications go out even at the collection stage.

  14. 1:06:29
    Tax commitment

    The assessor reported about $2.5 million in new value and said the town's ratio has fallen from 80 percent to 67 percent, which affects exemptions. Against a current rate of $20.70 she offered three options a nickel apart: 21.30 with very little overlay, 21.35 with a $23,000 overlay and 21.40 with a $42,000 overlay. Last year's overlay was about $135,000; she and the town manager recommended 21.35 to keep the rate as low as possible while leaving something for abatements and errors.

  15. 1:12:05
    Vote on the mill rate

    Heather Roy and another member said they wanted to understand the commitment process better and were invited to meet the assessor, who is in on the first and third Mondays. The board accepted the recommended rate of 21.35. The assessor noted this is the first year of billing under the tax stabilisation programme.

  16. 1:17:11
    Shiloh Church donation and the old generator

    The bid for the new fire station generator required the contractor to remove the old one, which the town had decided not to try to sell. The day before removal the Shiloh Church asked for it, having spoken to the generator company, and the fire chief suggested that if they took it a donation to the town would be appreciated, since the department had spent over $2,000 this year keeping the old unit running against a $550 maintenance line. The church donated $2,000.

  17. 1:22:47
    Debate over the donation

    Joe Tomm said his difficulty was that the town had said it was not in the surplus business and no one else was given the chance, and that the optics would be easier if the generator company had given it away. Members noted Shiloh is a stakeholder that houses people during extended power outages and is who the chief calls for bereavement and hardship support. Josh Klein-Golden moved to accept the money, direct the town manager to use it to thank town employees generally, and publicly thank the church.

  18. 1:27:48
    Where the donation was placed

    Members said the money reads as a purchase rather than an earmarked gift and would normally go to miscellaneous revenue, and that it falls into next year's budget since this one is set. The motion was amended to place the $2,000 in the miscellaneous revenue fund rather than direct it to employee appreciation.

  19. 1:32:49
    Setting board priorities

    Heather Roy asked for a session to establish the board's priorities following the GPCOG workshop, so the board works proactively rather than reactively. Scheduling was worked around the Casella representative coming on 25 July to explain expected cost increases ahead of budget season, and members agreed both could be taken the same night. Heather Roy also asked to hear from EcoMaine or North Yarmouth about how North Yarmouth generates about $86,000 of recycling revenue.

  20. 1:43:41
    Other business

    Members raised adopting written rules of order for meetings, putting the new ambulance policy on the town website, and publicly recognising Chris Higgins's paramedic licence in the newsletter or on the town Facebook page as the town has done for other staff awards. The consent agenda was then approved.

  21. 1:43:41
    Union Church committee applications

    Eight residents had applied. Josh Klein-Golden moved to accept all eight, but a member wanted to discuss one appointment, so the motion was withdrawn and the board went into executive session.

  22. 2:18:27
    After executive session

    Coming out of executive session the board tabled the Union Church committee appointments to the 11 July meeting and extended the application period to 10 July, because of the level of interest and to reach people who had expressed interest but not yet applied.

What was decided

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 sb_meeting_minutes_06_27_23.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.

Worth knowing

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 8 decisions summarised.

Show the 2 passages

Elsewhere

← 2023-06-13 Select Board2023-07-11 Select Board →All meetings

Source & method

Town of Durham meeting recordings, YouTube auto-captions, and the town's written minutes
Captions cleaned into timestamped transcripts; topics and motions found by pattern matching; summaries written by a language model and required to cite the second each item begins. Every name attached to speech is checked against the attendance list in the minutes, and marked (?) where no record confirms it
https://www.youtube.com/@durhammaine/videos
Summary written by claude-opus-5. Attendance from sb_meeting_minutes_06_27_23.txt.
Data as of 25 August 2026 (the date of the newest recorded meeting in the index); retrieved 2 September 2026.