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 ~ March 26, 2024

2024-03-26 · Select Board · 1:16:59 · watch on YouTube →

The Select Board met on March 26, 2024, ten days before the annual town meeting, and spent most of the meeting preparing for it. It reviewed and signed the town meeting warrant, went through the slide presentation Joe Tomm will give at the start of town meeting, and agreed to post the budget, capital charts, annual report and land use materials on the town website beforehand. Calvin Beaumier (?) presented five paving bids and the board authorised him to contract with Crooker for 2.47 miles of Auburn Pownal Road. Solid waste committee chair Curtis attended to discuss the committee's draft bylaws and charge, with the board asking for short-term savings during the coming five-year collection contract and options for after it. The board also heard the town manager's report, took up the consent agenda with the hazard mitigation plan added, and went into executive session on an abatement.

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

What was discussed

  1. 1:00
    Call to order and agenda amendment

    Joe Tomm called the meeting to order with a quorum. Paving bids were added to new business and moved to the front of the agenda because Calvin Beaumier was present.

  2. 6:54
    Town meeting warrant

    The board reviewed the warrant, with Jerry Douglass having made changes following an exchange with Josh Klein-Golden after the previous meeting. No further changes were raised and the board moved to approve and sign it, with the signing done later once the printed copy arrived.

  3. 6:54
    Town meeting slide presentation

    Joe Tomm reviewed the presentation he will give at the start of town meeting, which now includes a slide on the Union Church and a slide on the three land use ordinance amendment articles added after input from Josh Klein-Golden, Richard George and George. The board agreed the presentation would be a high-level overview with questions held until each warrant article is taken up.

  4. 11:59
    Posting town meeting materials in advance

    Heather Roy asked that residents be able to see the budget and level funding material before town meeting rather than at it. The board agreed to add a town meeting section to the website holding the presentation, the three capital charts, the select board budget, the annual report and the planning board's land use materials, and to add a line showing the interest paid on the town's outstanding debt.

  5. 17:43
    Paving bids

    Calvin Beaumier (?) reported five bids, of which the bottom three were from companies that make their own pavement. Crooker was low on paving, with a total difference of $2,800 between it and the next two, and was the highest bidder on shouldering. He said keeping the whole job with one company avoids disputes over who caused a defect, and that he could do the shouldering himself if quantities ran over.

  6. 22:44
    Abatement letter

    Richard George asked about a letter to Jerry Douglass dated the 19th requesting an abatement, which was not on the agenda. It was identified as an executive session matter and left until later in the meeting.

  7. 27:46
    Solid waste committee bylaws and charge

    Committee chair Curtis attended. Jerry Douglass had drafted bylaws with a purpose section built from notes sent by Heather Roy, and told the committee it could edit them. The board asked the committee for data on the options for the town's solid waste and offered to share contract and tonnage information; Heather Roy offered to serve as liaison.

  8. 33:13
    Solid waste options and the five-year contract

    The current collection contract expires at the end of June and the five-year replacement takes effect if the budget article passes at town meeting. The board asked the committee for short-term measures to cut cost during that contract and a long-term recommendation for after it, including food waste separation, composting at the Public Works site, and whether a transfer station would pay.

  9. 38:15
    Food waste diversion and hauler licensing

    Curtis (?) described food waste diversion figures from his own experience and said public education is what makes it work, because residents respond when shown the saving. He cautioned that anyone offering roadside pickup in Durham should hold a waste hauler licence and insurance.

  10. 44:05
    Town meeting format

    Joe Tomm set out the running order: pledge, scholarship presentation, the overview presentation, then warrant articles with motions alternating between the select board and the budget committee. The Historical Society's presentation on the Union Church was moved from just before its article to the beginning, and the Freeport scholarship representatives will be invited to speak at the start as well.

  11. 49:44
    Opening prayer and hallway tables

    Heather Roy said residents have raised the opening prayer after past town meetings, and Joe Tomm said he asks for a neutral moment rather than a prayer. Tables in the hallway will include the fire department, the Historical Society, the historic district commission and the Girl Scouts.

  12. 49:44
    Town manager's report

    Jerry Douglass confirmed the paving is on Auburn Pownal Road, gave May 18 as bulky waste day, and reported that Public Works mechanic Mike Rivera is retiring at the end of the month with Ryan Henry hired to replace him and overlapping for a couple of weeks. He also noted the annual audit was under way that week and that he would attend a town and city managers conference in Bangor on Friday.

  13. 55:23
    Revaluation bids and fuel bids

    The revaluation was rebid after only two of seven or eight firms responded and both gave 2027 completion dates against the 2026 date in the bid; the rebid drew the same two, who are being asked to attend the April 23 meeting. Fuel was bid cooperatively and came in below last year for propane, with the contract taking effect July 1.

  14. 55:23
    Bulky waste day advertising

    Heather Roy said the May 18 bulky waste date depends on the budget passing and must be advertised as pending approval so residents are not expecting a service that may not be funded.

  15. 1:00:30
    Building permits and unpaid back taxes

    Heather Roy asked whether the town issues building permits to owners with multiple years of delinquent taxes, saying residents raise it when the annual report is published. Jerry Douglass said there is a policy that largely follows state law and offered to walk her through it rather than discuss it at the table.

  16. 1:00:30
    Board member reports

    Joe Tomm reported attending the historic district commission and conservation commission meetings and said he intends to keep attending committee meetings; he was unable to get to a housing event in Portland. No new items came out of those meetings ahead of town meeting.

  17. 1:05:57
    Police coverage

    Josh Klein-Golden said that after Chief McGee's presentation he spoke with the chief deputy and the cost was much higher than he had expected. He asked for a workshop at the first meeting of the new five-member board, followed by a meeting with public comment, noting the model discussed was 24/7 coverage similar to Poland's.

  18. 1:11:18
    Consent agenda and Region 10 signature page

    The consent agenda covered minutes and the accounts payable warrant, plus a Region 10 signature page for a bridge between the facility's buildings, part grant and the balance repaid at zero percent interest over ten years. Jerry Douglass explained the signature only places the question on the RSU referendum ballot. The board amended the agenda to add the hazard mitigation plan adoption, then accepted the consent agenda as amended.

  19. 1:11:18
    Announcements and executive session

    Municipal elections are April 5 at the Eureka Center from 8 to 8, town meeting is April 6 at 9:00 am at the school, select board meetings follow on April 9 and April 23 and the planning board meets April 3. The board then moved into executive session on an abatement.

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_03_26_24.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

← 2024-03-12 Select Board2024-04-09 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_03_26_24.txt.
Data as of 25 August 2026 (the date of the newest recorded meeting in the index); retrieved 2 September 2026.