Androscoggin CountyMainePopulation 4,262Sourced from U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2013-2024
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Select Board Meeting ~ June 14, 2016

2016-06-14 · Select Board · 1:14:55 · watch on YouTube →

A regular Select Board meeting with all five selectmen present. After a short assessor's session dealing with a tree growth penalty and two abatement-and-supplemental corrections, most of the evening went to Rabbit Road, where the town had replaced two culverts and one abutter complained that the pond behind his house had dropped about a foot. The town's consulting engineer explained that the original pipes had been laid at a negative slope, silted up over 20 years and raised the pond artificially, and that the replacements sit at essentially the original elevation and fall within the DEP permit-by-rule exemption; the board took no motion and let the work stand. Fire Chief William St. Michel reported that the department's gear extractor had failed and got approval for Gary Lane's $9,385 painting and trim quote. The board also approved a printer service agreement with BEU, held the phone service decision pending more information on FairPoint's contract, and authorised the road commissioner to spend up to $8,000 on rubber cleats for the excavator tracks before going into executive session on real estate.

Who was there. The town's written minutes record these people present: Jeffrey Wakeman (Chairman), Sarah Hall (Vice Chairman), Mark Blake (Selectman), Michael Stewart (Selectman), Joshua Libby (Selectman), Ruth Glaeser (AA/TA), Calvin Beaumier (Road Commissioner), William St. Michel (Fire Chief/EMA Director), Paul Baines (Codes Official). Recorded absent: Jill Toher. Names in this summary are checked against that list.

What was discussed

  1. 0:05
    Call to order and agenda amendments

    The chairman opened with all five selectmen present. A second payables warrant was added, approval of the June 7 minutes struck because they were not ready, Rabbit Road (?) added as an action and discussion item, and an executive session for personnel added. The fire chief was moved to the front of the agenda because he had a class to teach.

  2. 0:05
    Assessor's session: tree growth penalty

    The board went into assessor's session with three items. The first was a 2015 supplemental tax warrant of $161.10, a tree growth penalty on map 1 lot 98, incurred because the owners took the property out of tree growth.

  3. 5:20
    Abatement and supplemental for a mis-assessed property

    Ruth Glaeser explained that the assessor had assessed a property to a personal representative, who objected when it went to lien in her name. On MMA's advice the tax was abated on that account and reissued as a supplemental against PJ's Auto Parts, since the corporation had not been disbanded at the time. The amount was $1,973.16, moving from account 961 to map 4 lot 152.

  4. 5:20
    Second abatement and supplemental

    A further abatement and supplemental tax warrant of $139.20 was described as the same type of correction, and accepted. The board then came out of assessor's session.

  5. 5:20
    Fire department equipment and station work

    The NOX MedVault, backup camera and security cameras are installed and operational on Rescue 25, and the building security cameras need only wiring and setup. The chief described a restructuring of how the department handles EMS responses and equipment checks, agreed with most members and starting in July.

  6. 5:20
    Gear extractor failure

    The gear extractor, in place since 2003 and used to wash carcinogens out of turnout gear, failed about a week and a half earlier; two parts have gone, including the motor. Repair is $2,737; a replacement is $7,389, since the 42-pound machine is no longer made and the 45-pound model is the substitute. The chief said he cannot make $7,400 work and expects to repair it and apply for a grant, adding that he had only recently got the members reliably cleaning their gear after every fire.

  7. 10:34
    Painting and trim project

    The only proposal came from Gary Lane, who had been supplying the price estimates used for budgeting. His quote for the painting and the trim replacement around the doors was $9,385 against $10,500 set aside; the two optional interior painting items came to $4,900 together and could not be afforded. The chief recommended proceeding and scheduling soon, since contractors are already booking end-of-summer work.

  8. 10:34
    Rabbit Road: how the culverts came to be replaced

    Calvin Beaumier said a resident, Sam Miller, had been pulling debris out of the pipe by hand because a blockage floods his basement. Two attempts to clean it failed because the pipe was in upside down, sitting a foot higher at the outlet than the inlet, so there was never any current to flush the sediment through. The crew cut the pavement, built a coffer dam, pumped the site dry and replaced the culverts, after which a neighbouring landowner asked for the pond to be restored to the level it had been at.

  9. 15:46
    The engineer's account of the hydraulics

    The consulting engineer, introduced as Al Hudson, explained that the original culverts sloped back toward the pond, so sediment dropped out and built up until only about six inches of clearance remained at the top of the pipe. That sediment, not the outlet, had been controlling and raising the pond level over 20 years. The replacements have a positive slope, so sediment passes through rather than settling.

  10. 15:46
    Why the work is exempt under the NRPA

    The engineer read the permit-by-rule exemption at Chapter 305 for maintenance and repair of a crossing: erosion control measures were taken and the site was worked dry behind a coffer dam, fish passage was not blocked and is arguably improved, and the replacement culverts are the same 24-inch diameter and the same length. He said he had discussed the report and photographs with Mike Mullins at the DEP office in Augusta, who confirmed it was exempt provided those conditions held.

  11. 21:23
    Why the pond cannot simply be raised

    Raising the pipes another foot would leave only about a foot of gravel cover over them, which the engineer said would not protect them. It would also mean the water had to rise another two feet for the pipes to run full, which is about the level at which it would back into the neighbour's basement. He added that the old corrugated pipes were rotting out and that a heavy rain event would have brought it to a head.

  12. 21:23
    The abutter's case

    The landowner who asked for the level to be restored said the pond has never been this low in the more than 40 years he has been there, that he now has a mud hole rather than a pond, and that he was not disputing the quality of the work. He said the original pipes had been set that way deliberately to hold the pond level, that the pond once held trout, and that he could not understand why raising it a few inches was such a problem.

  13. 26:33
    Neighbours disagree

    Sam Miller and the other abutter argued that the culvert had been plugged for 20 years, that they had cleaned it out themselves for years, and that the water level people remember reflects the blockage rather than the design. Discussion also covered whether the water body is properly a pond or a bog, and how often the road has washed out or been closed over the years.

  14. 31:55
    The taxpayer objection

    A resident of 41 years said the culvert has been replaced four times in that period and installed badly each time, that beavers and high water have killed trees along his edge of the pond, and that he could not sell his house with a threat of water in the cellar. He praised the crew's work and argued it would be poor judgment and a cost to every taxpayer to dig up an installation the engineer and DEP had accepted so that someone could have a view.

  15. 36:58
    The board's conclusion on Rabbit Road

    The engineer restated that the pond today sits where it was the day the old pipes went in 20 years ago, and that the old culverts were a ticking time bomb. Members said the engineer and the crew had each done what they should, that the board's responsibility is to protect the road and follow the law, and that the level should stay. Beaumier added that the area is in drought, that he had shot the elevation off the top of the pipe because the bottom was rotten and is probably an inch and a half high, and that the pond filled completely the morning after the first rain.

  16. 42:13
    No motion on Rabbit Road

    The chairman asked whether a motion was wanted and the board agreed none was needed, letting the work stand as installed. Members noted that repositioning the pipes would be a considerable expense to the town.

  17. 42:13
    BEU printer service proposal

    The proposal covers the three smaller office printers, not the large Canon which is under contract to 2018, and includes drums, toner, maintenance kits, parts and labour for $40 a month with a five-year fix-or-replace warranty. From January 2015 to date, 17 months, the town spent $822.40 on drums and toner alone against $680 under the agreement, a saving of $142.40 before any service calls. Volume above the estimated monthly level is charged at 2 cents a page.

  18. 47:42
    Phone service quotes

    The town pays $5,552 a year for landlines at the town office, fire department and old town hall. Comcast would be $4,311.36 with a $300 startup, saving about $941 in the first year; FairPoint is running a $20 a month offer including long distance that would save roughly $2,000 but requires a three-year contract. Members wanted to know the early-termination penalty, whether the rate is a limited-time special, and whether the town's numbers can be transferred; voice over internet was raised as a future option.

  19. 53:24
    Appeal on the Meadow Road stop work order

    Codes official Paul Baines reported that the appeals board upheld his stop work order on the Meadow Road property. He had reissued a permit on an abandoned project on the strength of a letter from a previous code official, and the applicant had not disclosed significant foundation problems in a structure left exposed to the weather for years. It cost the contractor, the owner and the town money.

  20. 53:24
    Change of policy on abandoned permits

    Baines said he will no longer accept a letter from a previous code official where a permit lapsed without a certificate of occupancy; he will require an engineer's report. He cited the code official's authority under the IRC to require evidence of compliance, said the change is within his jurisdiction, and argued the burden on applicants is justified by the protection it gives future owners and first responders. A further appeal was scheduled for Monday the 27th.

  21. 53:24
    Runaround Pond work and permits

    Baines said the project was due to start that week, that he had already pulled the plumbing permit himself under the CMR 241 rules, and that the applicant had asked him to pull the remaining permit on the town's behalf, mainly for the record. He said he would scrutinise the application carefully. The portable unit has been removed from the site.

  22. 58:25
    Gazebo at the park

    Money is in the budget but nobody has been found to do the work, since the construction trade is busy. Baines suggested asking a local contractor and said opportunities may open up if things slow down in the autumn; he undertook to keep looking.

  23. 58:25
    Administrator's report

    Ruth Glaeser said most of her report was in the packet, and that she had a meeting the following morning in Lisbon about the opening of the bridge, with anything she learned to be emailed to the board.

  24. 58:25
    Letters to residents about paving

    Beaumier brought two draft letters, one to Davis Road and the roads around it explaining why pavement went on the good section rather than the bad, and one for the Runaround and Rabbit Road work inviting landowners to call him about fences and other concerns. Members supported it, suggested doing something similar monthly and posting the letters on the town channel and website. At 47 cents a letter and fewer than 150 properties between the two roads, the cost is small.

  25. 1:03:32
    Tree cutting and a firewood dispute

    Far more trees came out than expected, several hundred, on the basis that this was the one opportunity to do it rather than returning year after year. The resident who had put signs on three maples was satisfied after Beaumier met her with a crew member present, but she later reported a man in a blue one-ton truck taking the cut wood, telling her it was taxpayer wood. Beaumier gave her his mobile number and told her to get the plate number.

  26. 1:03:32
    Rubber cleats for the excavator

    The excavator's steel tracks leave rumble-strip marks in new pavement. Rubber cleats to bolt onto the existing tracks would cost about $6,900 including bolts and take two or three days to fit; renting a rubber-tracked excavator is $3,500 a month, so $7,000 to $9,000 for the job. Members preferred the cleats because the town would keep them for future work.

  27. 1:08:38
    Questions about the cleats

    Members asked whether the cleats would wear if left on, whether they should come off in mud, and how they compare with true rubber tracks. Beaumier said he had asked a crew member to research the manufacturer and ratings, and that they are steel track covered with rubber rather than a soft rubber track. He said he needed to act quickly because delivery takes four or five days and fitting two or three, with the old bolts having to be burned off.

  28. 1:08:38
    Paying for the cleats

    The cost would come out of the bond-funded project, which members said had about $180,000 in it and enough room after engineering, flagging and tree work. It was framed as a cost of doing this job that the town benefits from in later years, and the board authorised up to $8,000 to allow for movement in the price.

  29. 1:08:38
    Upcoming meetings

    Selectmen's meetings were announced for Tuesday June 28 and Tuesday July 12 at 6:30. The first meeting of the comprehensive plan committee was set for the following Tuesday, June 21, at 6:30.

  30. 1:14:05
    Executive session

    The board went into executive session on real estate under 1 M.R.S.A. section 405(6)(C), preceded by a brief recess, with a second session on personnel to follow. The recording ends at this point.

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 select_board_minutes_6-14-20161.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: 3 passages of motion language, against 17 decisions summarised.

Show the 3 passages

Elsewhere

← 2016-05-31 Select Board2016-06-28 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 select_board_minutes_6-14-20161.txt.
Data as of 25 August 2026 (the date of the newest recorded meeting in the index); retrieved 2 September 2026.