Select Board Meeting ~ February 10, 2015

2015-02-10 · Select Board · 38:29 · watch on YouTube →

A February select board meeting in the middle of a heavy winter. The board sat briefly as assessors to grant an abatement on a property assessed for two bathrooms when it has one, agreed to post the animal control officer position rather than keep contracting with Lisbon, and approved the budget overview going to the budget committee, amended to add $3,000 for the war memorial park flags funded from the recreation fund so it does not affect taxes. Road commissioner Shawn Bennett reported 29 treatable events and 86 inches of snow to date against 53 inches at the same point last year, with crews working over 100 hours a week. Fire chief William St. Michel urged residents to dig out their house numbers, doors and vents, and reported on the SAFER grant, the SHAPE award and federal approval to raise the tower at the station. The recording ends with a motion to recess until 7:30 for two real estate executive sessions.

What was discussed

1. 0:01
   Call to order and consent agenda

   The chair called the meeting to order with a quorum present and took the pledge. There was no public comment. The consent agenda was moved, seconded and carried, and the board then moved into assessor's session.

2. 0:01
   Abatement request

   The town's assessor's agent recommended granting an abatement on Map 9, Lot 17E, where the property had been assessed as a two-bathroom home when it has only one. The figure read into the record was 7659. The board granted it and came back out of assessor's session.

3. 0:01
   Animal control officer

   Working from figures pulled out of the Maine Municipal Association salary survey, a member said what the town pays Lisbon looks high and proposed posting the position instead. Sabattus, which also contracts with Lisbon, had been asked what it pays and had not replied; a figure of $4,800 was mentioned. Someone had already expressed interest, but the position still has to be posted.

4. 5:04
   Timetable and pay structure for the ACO post

   The board wanted a job description ready for the next meeting so the posting could run close to a month with interviews after, since the decision has to be made by about the middle of April. Hiring would not make sense until July because the town pays Lisbon through July, but it needs to know somebody would take the job. On pay, members noted the survey shows both monthly stipends and hourly rates based on response time, and that a monthly stipend is far easier to budget because call volume is unpredictable, as with the fire department.

5. 5:04
   War memorial park flags

   The one thing overlooked in the budget workshops was money for the war memorial park and flags, which can be done as an appropriation from the recreation fund rather than raised in taxes. An Eagle Scout looking into the project had visited but was not ready to report and may bring a fundraising element of his own. Research put flagpole prices anywhere from about $100 to $1,500, and members agreed that if it takes two years it takes two years, but it should be done properly or not at all.

6. 10:27
   Budget overview to the budget committee

   The board took the budget overview as a block rather than item by item, amended to add $3,000 to parks and recreation and $3,000 on the appropriation line, so the flag money comes out of the recreation fund and the amount raised in taxes does not change. The chair said he was not thrilled that the package is a 5.5 percent increase, but that a great deal of time had gone into looking for cuts and nobody had a better answer; members noted the town has held it down for several years to offset costs on the school side and cannot do so indefinitely.

7. 10:27
   Workers compensation line

   A member said the $18,000 put in for workers compensation last year did not pass the sniff test, since the town spent about $12,000 in total, most of it from the fire department and the town office. He intended to have the line taken out rather than leave a figure that would raise more questions than he could answer, while acknowledging a full year of public works might have brought it closer.

8. 10:27
   Mowing: contract or buy a mower

   Members could not recall having actually decided whether to put mowing out to contract or buy a mower, and concluded they had left the budget as it was. Because the money sits in several separate lines it cannot simply be moved to public works, and buying a mower at perhaps $10,000 to $15,000 would have to be absorbed within the public works budget; the department does have a part-time summer position at 15 hours a week that could cover the labour. The sense of the board was to contract it this year and have public works take it on next year, or leave the call to a new road commissioner if one is in place early enough in the spring.

9. 15:41
   Road commissioner report: a truck and a pole

   Shawn Bennett reported that one of the trucks caught a telephone pole on Stackpole Road with its wing, with no damage to the truck and no injuries, and that the town will probably see a bill from CMP or FairPoint. Members complained the pole sits too close to the road with the splintered parts facing traffic and asked that it be dealt with.

10. 15:41
    Winter figures

    Bennett said the crew has been doing a phenomenal job, with most of the men working over 100 hours in recent weeks out of the 168 in a week. The winter has brought 29 treatable events and 86 inches of snow, against 25 events and 53 inches at the same point last year, already past last season's total of about 84 inches and within roughly six inches of the highest of the past five seasons. Across materials, fuel, compensation, utilities for both facilities and equipment maintenance the department spent $195,872 for part of November plus December and January, about $2,798 per mile, which he expects to reach the $3,500 range by year end and which puts Durham in line with comparable departments.

11. 15:41
    Upcoming meetings, nomination papers and NIMS

    Regular meetings were announced for Tuesday February 24 and Tuesday March 10 at 6:30 p.m., plus a meeting the following Tuesday at 6:00 with a subcommittee of Pownal and Durham selectmen to work through job descriptions and the contracts with Pownal ahead of advertising a road commissioner post. Nomination papers are available for one selectman and assessor three-year term, one RSU 5 board three-year term and three budget committee three-year terms, with a filing deadline of Tuesday February 17 at 4:30 p.m. The daytime NIMS class at Androscoggin County EMA has been cancelled and the chief will try to arrange one closer than the session running that night in Livermore Falls.

12. 21:00
    House numbers, doors and vents

    The fire chief said crews on a call that evening had real difficulty finding the address: mailboxes are buried in snowbanks and perhaps 75 to 80 percent of the homes that are marked at all are marked only on the mailbox. The addressing ordinance requires four-inch numbers on the house, or on the mailbox or post where the house is not visible, and is not being observed. He also asked people to clear their doors, since front and back doors are means of egress that are often snowed shut, and to clear vents, noting Windham had just sent six people from an apartment house to hospital with carbon monoxide poisoning from plugged vents.

13. 26:37
    SAFER grant application

    The 2015 SAFER application period opened at the start of the week. The town came close last year, getting its rejection only at the finish line when the money ran out, which the chief read as scoring above about the 80th percentile. The grant funds recruitment and retention, which for Durham means part-time staffing, and he will strengthen the narrative and bring a draft to the board for comment, having learned at a fire act grant peer review that narratives should be read many times over, ideally by people who do not support the project.

14. 26:37
    SHAPE award and the tower project

    The Department of Labor completed its final inspection, the letter and plaque tag have arrived, and the town's SHAPE award runs to November 2016. Federal approval also came through on the environmental and historical protection application for the homeland security grant, clearing the way to add 40 feet to the tower at the station: a package of $18,425, of which $8,318 was approved locally from the grant match account and the balance is federal money through Maine Emergency Management. Work will be scheduled with the radio company for mid to late spring once the ground firms up, and will move a guy wire off the corner of the station so the roof finally clears snow.

15. 32:06
    The January blizzard and a federal declaration

    The blizzard ran roughly from Monday evening January 26 to Thursday afternoon January 29. The chief was not confident of a declaration, since the county needs to reach about $400,000 in emergency costs and the figures so far fall short. Public works numbers are hard to gather when storms stack up and crews are still in active response rather than cleanup, and the threshold will only be crossed if other towns' snow removal costs come in, which many, including Lisbon, have not yet had a chance to incur.

16. 32:06
    The grant match account

    A member noted the grant match account holds $17,000 and the tower project takes $8,318 of it, leaving about $9,000. A pending fire act grant of roughly $90,000 would need a 5 percent local match of about $4,500, which would leave about $4,500 for the rest of the year. No article has been put in to replenish the account for several years, and members agreed it would be a shame for the chief to win a grant the town could not match, though they stopped short of committing to an article this year.

17. 37:37
    Recess ahead of executive session

    Two real estate executive sessions were on the agenda for 7:30, though the parties had not been spoken to for a couple of weeks. The board moved to recess until 7:30, with the option of adjourning if nobody turned up. The recording ends there.

What was decided

• 0:01
  Approve the consent agenda as presented. Moved by Sarah Hall and seconded by Mark Blake; the minutes record it carried.passed
• 0:01
  Move the board into assessor's session at the request of Donna Hays, C.M.A., pursuant to Title 36 M.R.S.A. 841. Moved by Jeffrey Wakeman and seconded by Mark Blake; the minutes record it carried.passed
• 0:01
  Grant the abatement on Map 9, Lot 17E, in the amount read into the record as 7659, on the assessor's agent's recommendation that the property had been assessed for two bathrooms when it has one. Moved and seconded, and the chair declared the motion carried.passed
• 0:01
  Move the board out of assessor's session. Moved by Jeffrey Wakeman; the minutes record it carried.passed
• 5:04
  The board agreed to post the animal control officer position rather than continue contracting the service from Lisbon, with a job description to be brought to the next meeting so the posting can run close to a month and a decision be made by about the middle of April, and with a monthly stipend preferred over an hourly rate for budgeting.passed
• 10:27
  Accept the budget overview as amended for transmission to the budget committee, adding $3,000 to parks and recreation and $3,000 to the appropriation line so the war memorial park flag work is met from the recreation fund rather than raised in taxes. Moved, seconded, and the chair declared the motion carried. The package represents a 5.5 percent increase.passed
• 10:27
  On mowing, the board confirmed that no decision had in fact been made and none was made now. The money stays in the existing lines and the work goes out to contract this year, with the question of buying a mower and taking it in house left for next year or for a new road commissioner to advise on.tabled
• 32:06
  On replenishing the grant match account, a member said he was NOT advocating an article this year but that the balance should be watched. The discussion ended without a settled position on whether to put money in this year.outcome unclear
• 37:37
  Move the board into a brief recess until 7:30 p.m., at which time it will go into executive session on real estate. Moved by Jeffrey Wakeman and seconded by Mark Blake; the minutes record it 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.

Motions the minutes record

The town's own written account of what was decided, taken from bosmins2015_2-10.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.

• approve the Consent Agenda as presentedcarried

  Moved by Sarah Hall, seconded by Mark Blake

• the Board into Assessor's Session, at the request of Donna Hays, C.M.A., pursuant to Title #1, 36 M.R.S.A., ss 841 at 6:32 p.mcarried

  Moved by Jeffrey Wakeman, seconded by Mark Blake

• the Board out of Assessor's Session at 6:32 p.mcarried

  Moved by Jeffrey Wakeman, no seconder recorded

• the Board into a brief recess from 7:10 p.m., until 7:30 p.m., at which time the Board will move into Executive Sessioncarried

  Moved by Jeffrey Wakeman, seconded by Mark Blake

• the Board into Executive Session #1 at 7:28 p.m., pursuant to Title #1, M.R.S.A., Chapter #13, cc. 405(6)(C) –

  Moved by Jeffrey Wakeman, no seconder recorded; no outcome recorded

• the Board out of Executive Session at 7:40 p.m. ACTION TAKEN

  Moved by Jeffrey Wakeman, no seconder recorded; no outcome recorded

• authorize the Administrative Assistant to send a letter to outline what was agreed upon by the Select Board in regard to foreclosed propertycarried

  Moved by Jeffrey Wakeman, seconded by Mark Blake

Worth knowing

• 5:04
  The town will advertise for its own animal control officer rather than keep buying the service from Lisbon, because the Maine Municipal Association salary survey suggests what it pays Lisbon is high. The decision has to be made by about the middle of April, though a new officer would not start until July since Lisbon is paid through then.
• 10:27
  The budget going to the budget committee carries a 5.5 percent increase, which members said they could not find a way to cut further after several years of holding it down. The one addition was $3,000 for the war memorial park flags, taken from the recreation fund as an appropriation so it does not change the amount raised in taxes.
• 15:41
  The winter has brought 29 treatable events and 86 inches of snow, against 25 events and 53 inches at the same point last year, with most of the crew working over 100 hours a week. Public works spent $195,872 from part of November through January, about $2,798 a mile, expected to reach the $3,500 range by year end.
• 21:00
  The fire chief said crews are struggling to find houses: mailboxes are buried and most homes that are marked at all are marked only on the mailbox, though the addressing ordinance requires four-inch numbers. He also asked residents to clear their doors as a means of egress and to clear vents, citing six people sent to hospital in Windham with carbon monoxide poisoning from plugged vents.

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 9 decisions summarised.

Elsewhere

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