TranscriptSelect Board Meeting ~ December 26, 2023

I [Music] demand thank you all right we're gonna call to order the um select board meeting for 1226 23 Durham select board um we got a quorum this evening and um let's see rich and Joe are excused this evening uh while we stand up for pledge

of the United States of America for it stands one nation God all right let's see amendments to the agenda anybody have any amendments I have one Amendment I'd like to um take off the budget discussion for this evening till we have a a full Quorum later on in

have nobody from the public here um I'll hand this over to uh either the road commissioner or the fire chief gentlemen you have your how you going the first end of the year with the latest uh storm flooding events that uh was a little much worse than was forecasted or expected so we uh we adapted to that as we went along still working on that but worked with fire depart Town manager Irish Transportation schools trying to get kids home get them buses were getting stock so we had to negotiate with them how to get around things U and with the with the different

utility companies and do um we're still assessing the damage and repairing and picking up debris brush and uh repairing shoulders blhs um continued work with loss mitigation department on proper deficiencies and repairs got the stairs fixed on the U modular building up behind the fire station and some other deficiencies the floor at the entryway and fix the doors the water's not coming in I've had some people look at the Eureka and the Timbers under the foundation still waiting for the full report to come back on that of the the I know we had had that fixed a few years back but there's a lot of water coming from the parking lot into the basement between the between the stones and I know I looked at the wall on the 136 side and I thought that the granite slabs were tipping out and the guy that came to look at it said you might want to look a little lower and he said it's not that they're tipping out is that the

stone wall below is coming in and if you stood there and look down you could see it so that's what it's doing so he said every year that's going to get worse the frost is going to push that in more and more so there's some work that needs to be done at the on the foundation when I get all that together I'll give it to Jerry to hopefully either put some money aside I figure out what we're going to do with that um we continue work on the 2024 budget numbers processes how that's going to go Jerry Jerry's got the cassella was with met with the with the um the RFP he's got the results of that

up great Calvin you guys did a great job uh responding to the storm like you say short notice on that one uh I know the National Weather Service is begging otherwise that they gave everybody plenty of warning but I'm not not sure everybody expected it to be that bad so uh that was quite traumatic for a number of people so thank you great job well especially two weeks earlier we were had a St that was going to have high WIS when you get any so right yeah the opposite this time yeah certainly did the other question questions Mr Calvin no great thank you thanks [Music]

it uh some of the numbers have certainly been updated since uh the fire department responded to 25 911 calls for service for the two-day storm uh 21 on that first day on the 18th 25 overall uh we did another one certainly Christmas Eve couple on Christmas uh those numbers continue to grow and they don't account for telephone calls for service uh or sto storm damage assessments going out to 136 meeting with the do half a dozen times meeting with Calvin uh pretty much at the middle of the night out on Bowie and stack pole um a complete Department recall was ordered by 910 a.m. Monday morning um we spun up the EOC uh because

no nowhere else had power so uh the town manager Calvin his crew so we could all talk together plan have power uh fed all of his guys uh it's really the way it's supposed to be and it worked seamlessly uh that day I pressed the town manager into action and helped us uh respond to a shed fire and a generator fire so it was literally all hands on deck um I almost had to take the extinguisher away from him uh Tuesday at noon the state do

in conjunction with uh your durm Emergency Management shut down 136 uh that was from Davis to stack pole um it started with one lane of traffic down by Stack pole they they brought in the temporary uh stop lights because it was flooding but then it continued so we made the decision it's a DOT road but uh Emergency Management fire chief still has discretion of safety so it was in conjunction with do and Calvin the town manager was well aware of it uh and that was later pushed back all the way to Auburn because of flooding there dot uh the Eureka Center that day uh Tuesday morning was open as a charging and a warming center from 9 to 4: uh with fire department staff and no visitors so between Monday and Tuesday that was open tried to do that out uh social media which was difficult our phones went down again I I'll remind the people you know just leaving messages about damage doesn't help 911 is the only way to go

um multiple times a day we went out to Snow Road Road subdivision and 136 I also checked the Lisbon Dam uh several times on Wednesday the power was restored to the fire station uh and the town office approximately 10:37 that's when the Inogen River was at moderate flood stage that was at 20 feet point2 and major flooding is considered 22 so we were just 2et away from major and that's straight from EMA County EMA and they were talking to the state hydrologist so uh talk about some good uh information CMP at that time recognized over 40,000 customers out of power just for the county not Durham they wouldn't give me Durham numbers but for the county um and the fire station I I had never seen this before but it makes sense was taking orders for drinking water uh and flooded basement so drinking water we put out a hose you know to flush and whatnot you lose all Wells if you don't have a generator um

also gave out bottles of water that we we have and in reserve on Thursday route 136 was reopened After the flood water receded that was in the morning dot inspected cleaned out the road uh and then we lost power again uh both of course here I'm sure the town Manel briefy on it and at the fire station for a few hours uh that was CM P choice to restore other areas uh for safety uh again we're not kept in the loop on any of that which I'll explain the fire station did experience some damage our flag pole uh which Calvin's helping to fix some interior flooding that first day water was just sort of pouring through and uh some loose roof panels uh that's a metal roof and they were iffy if they were flying off um some notes Mo mostly for folks at home Facebook is not an official way of communicating um the fire department does not monitor in real time social media we do try to press out road closures and and whatnot but uh

that's difficult our whole cable system went down so we were doing remotely uh from people out of the area uh the phone systems went down so all the voicemails uh we were unable to get for days so I think I had about 20 voicemails of damage and lines down and whatnot uh I remind everyone to down 911 for an emergency don't worry about if if you think it's not but we'll make that decision uh we worked with other agencies and it's not an exact science so EMA CMP do uh we were in constant communication with the road commissioner Town manager uh we will have a major critique of all a uh facets in preparation response and Recovery um I've said this before and to the people at home CMP does not fill us in I don't know when we're getting power back I don't know why we lost power I I don't know that they're going to cut power again to us our generator at the station which is brand new uh was Flawless but we did have to take a

propane delivery in the middle of it uh we're working on a larger tank um very difficult storm it really was as everyone know but when you don't have power you sort of lose communication I tried everything with CMP I went through all the proper channels called EMA direct called dispatch direct told them that the fire station the EOC the warming Center that Communications tower for the county were all without power and fell on De ears that they do what they do and I'm not going to discuss it anymore I'm very concerned with their uh actions but

there's nothing we can do y well again everybody did a great job you guys responded flawlessly the communication between the three of you that day was great um and uh the teams you know the it's all all about the the teams you guys uh have out there did a great job um everything that I could hear um and uh know about um it it went went really well um um seems like everything was given the situation uh under control very under control oh we appreciate that thank you I think so any questions about that sure um do you think that if the temperatures had been lower you would have seen more people come um it says no visitors recorded do you think that if the temperature had been I mean we were kind of like you know high 30s low 40s we were lucky with the temperatures I've seen it before it's difficult Duram mites are really Hardy and a lot of them have generators a lot of them have support systems a lot of

them check on their neighbors that type of stuff uh which is appreciated in the way small communities are supposed to be really um I think if it really got cold maybe the second third day possibly again we're a charging station it was well predicted the weather with loss of power this time um I don't know maybe it's just lack of knowledge knowing that it's open that's part of the thing I was wondering is that the people that I worry about um you know like it was posted on social media that that was a warming station and I just wonder how any of those other people that may not even have social media would learn that that was available to them I I know in the past and where I've come from you know you have a a a senior center if you will you have volunteers with a list that list has expired I looked into it you know of neighbors or those that uh need a tele phone call just to make sure so again it's family and neighbors where

I get to on the um you know leaving messages is a lot of people just called because you could get through but we couldn't get that and of course they don't know is oh can you check on so and so at this address you know have you been in contact with that person so that makes it difficult uh that we don't know um we don't have a list and we don't have the staff currently to really sit down make phone calls so one thing that I I would just like to just you know suggest was that when Roberta came here um and we did that Proclamation um for resiliency building resiliency that was definitely something that she and that group of people were interested in doing and when you said the thing about um people needing to get drinking water and then water to be able to flush and whatnot um I think that that's something that that group of people is really interested in being able to support the community that way but then also take

that burden off of you sure um so maybe just you know put that on your radar that she may be able to coordinate and kind of get some of that off your plate somehow we can try that uh I hope the town manager discusses you know working with re B really on some other projects um and I put in for a uh you know a generator for here um it it just makes it difficult when we're it helped that we're all out of one building yes um but you know no power here just added another layer for that was one of the things that I was wondering about was the because we do have a generator here it was just broken we can talk about that when we get to well we can I mean we're r on subject so we yeah we do and it's dead we fired it up a couple it just doesn't stay running there I don't know exactly what's all wrong with it I think it it overheats I think there's some wise in there that are melted but uh when we're when we're down we're

we're dead in the water I mean there is just no like I said no cable no Internet Internet no phones no nothing I mean I had more I didn't realize I had all the phone messages that I had until I got here this morning people calling and no answer you know and they they they really didn't understand why right so that's kind of you know so um but like I said she's put

in for a grant don't know that will get it don't know how long it will be um that's just the nature of the grant business so if we don't a grant for a generator for this building yes feale yep okay yeah through the brick program we even had someone come to to look at it and he fired it up four or five times it runs for 20 seconds 30 seconds and it just dies so we tried but is there a

generator at public works now yes oh there is but it was just better for them to be there your generator was also not working work oh we found um activating an EOC having everyone in one room um it would have been easier actually here as an EOC more Communications uh quieter you know you're not dealing with the fire station with you know 20 people coming in uh in and out uh road closures there has to be one point of contact so so that we don't telephone tag type of stuff right and that's what we did and of course the fire station was perfect but if we open a warming Center or or other stuff it just takes space okay you know we have that one space okay uh we appreciate it and it's it's being built out too I'm in contact with FEMA on the local side about building out more computers you know uh a weather station you know real time data uh that type of stuff um I know it was asked recently you know

about you did 25 calls you know your call volume's up last year we had twin um nor easers in December and that was 25 calls there'll always be weather related calls whether it's power flooding uh this was I'm told like the second worst flooding you know in history and that road has been built up I'm told like is it like 12 14 feet depends on who you talk to yeah it got pushed back and Snow Road was fine I know we got trucks in there I know there was a couple of gentlemen I took pictures of them but he went in and out and we had plans so they're Hardy on Snow Road they understand uh where they''re bought and where they're living um the our boat was ready to go and and I talked to several citizens over there so um never really a concern uh it was mostly traveling through 136 when you shut down the major right thoroughfare in town and you know Cedar Pawn that whole area they're used to it but um I

was I was pretty worried about the power and multi-day type of stuff so people on oxygen need power we run out of generators real quick for those people um and then just Staffing because we staffed Around the Clock so okay all

okay move on here um no old business uh new business we sure you have the yeah so just a solid waste the bids come in we got one um Cella um I just basically get a summary for you right here on the spreadsheet just sharing the information with you now I think the uh only option

is to seller if you still want to continue with trash collection um trick question right uh basically they're going to go up five 5% uh every year or whatever the CPI is for uh trash collection so that it's a 5year contract um year two or three they're going to be adding the cans that they'll manage uh uh how that will work is there'll be a barcode on each can that will be tied to an address so they know that it belongs to that person and they will manage it when that program kicks into place there'll be an additional 880,000 added to the that yearly or that a yearly

charge going forward from then on the 880,000 well no but when to replace the the um uh cans won't be 80,000 but to get it all started up so initially not annually right right and that but but there'll be addition but you know the cost of the cans whoever loses it will have that we won't really know there's a lot in here we can't really figure like the uh average commodity Revenue there's really no way to put a a quote on that so all I did up here was just add the uh curbside collection and the municipal Solid Waste Disposal per ton and those figures come from uh 22s tonnage I don't have all the 23s yet but it's pretty close they all run and you just it's hard to to nail down an exact figure I think we budgeted like

uh 350 I think um and I think we're going to be okay with that again like I said it's hard to know uh we get into some programs where you know we can sort of teach people what they can throw away and what they don't and I mean in the in the next 5 years we talk about a uh a uh what do you call it uh where

people put their food waste compost we do a compost thing collection you know we talk about that but uh that will help keep cost down as far as T cuz that stuff's heavy right so but anyway that they're the only bid those are the breakdowns I recommend you if you want trash collection you you pretty much have to go with C no I will put probably I will look at

a little bit closer I'll find out what 23's actuals were but I'm probably going to budget put in the budget somewhere between 350 and 370 for for this contract for that for that okay yeah so that's that's it that's the only that's the only bid we got that's the only thing okay questions for Jerry my only

question would be where the I mean I knew that we were going to end up in a situation where we couldn't figure out a long-term Plan before we had to enter into this and I I'm completely like I get it um I'm just wondering if the solid waste committee has made any Headway on any kind of long-term plan or if they were kind of waiting to see how this yeah I think I and I think they're still sort of waiting on like what exactly are they

poised to do you know is it just looking at uh potential place for a transfer station and where that would be and the cost I think it would be good if I brought in Curtis and we could talk to him to see what direction you want him to bring that Committee in okay so I'd be in favor of that I think that's a good idea you know because I don't think they know what report or and there is a set of bylaws but there's no direction in the bylaws just that it's set up with ex members and this many alternates and

just that sort of stuff but nothing really giving them what they're sort of looking at like like a compost do we want to have them look at that is there a place for one do we you know I know there are some public works out there that have Compost Facility at their place is that something Durham would like to do it it's some of those things they could look at um but we could talk about that and bring them in so they can meet and actually now that we have like we're going to go towards well I mean we have to have first but now we're going to like enter into a 5year situation that really gives a good amount of time to come up with a a good long-term plan right and I will say the the rep was taken aback a little bit by the fact that we got to get approval every year to to fulfill a five-year contract you know when they from their eyes we signed that contract they're on for five years right what happens that's a good point you

know I mean so I don't know if that just becomes a line and a in our operation and that is what it is I don't know how that would work but I it should be discussed yeah I don't I don't remember how how we do that year to year because we've had multi-year contracts before so right but we go to town meeting every year asking for that Solid Waste but yeah we are in a contract with them to do it anyway I believe it's it's a although we ask it's a it's a it's a you have to go do it line item it's it's not really an option even though you have to put it on the on the warrant there is a provision I think in the warrant where we say that if it doesn't pass we can at least spend up to the previous year's approval so that would cover at least up to the previous year's amount and then it would just be the 5% that would have to yeah I don't I don't remember how that's worded I'd have to look it up yeah but we can we can talk about

that that's that's it for solid ways at least all right um all right anything else all right we're going to move right to uh let's see historic district commission we have two applicants um so go ahead so Lois wanted me to bring these to the board for uh for approval

um so David would be the full voting member and Sandra would be the alternate um they've met they're endorsing these two uh candidates to be on that committee so there you go okay I'd like to make a motion to appoint um David Mullen and Sandra Hilton to the

historic district commission as a full number I was second Josh second had the motion is that Josh second it um any discussion if we have any discussion we'll have to go in executive session no just make sure we're clear for that that is for David to be the full member and to be the Alterna yep okay all in favor Huma all right no

opposed motion carries thank you David and Sandra for joing the historic district commission we appreciate your help all right does that leave any open there now I I'll have to ask Jessica I don't have those probably not because they would have made Sandra full voting member if they had openings manager report J yes I got a few things here for you

so I've been in touch with the lawyer waiting for a memo from him um so the gist is we and we'll talk about the union church at a more appropriate time when we have time uh we're you know we're getting into budget season soon there's still some information to find out but the the quick information is to transfer the the church if that's what you decide to do that can be just a quick claim deed over to the historical societies have to go the money that has to be approved at town meeting you can't just you know we'll have to put that on so and you can you can ask the people at town to transfer the building too if that's what you want to do because you got a warrant that gives you that Authority you don't have to that's that's just your discretion on what what you can do and there's some other questions that need to be answered too so when we get some of those answers or I get some of those answers I think

the lawyer might be on vacation this week um once I compile a bu more information we'll have it as an agenda item for a full full discussion before we because we'll have to draft up some warrant language and that's going to be coming up here in the next month or so so it'll happen soon just we're just not ready right now so that's the update on that so

I sent you regarding Mark which was sort of unfortunate news um so he is leaving the firm and so we need to uh think about doing some other things so what I'm going to do is I'll Outsource payroll so I'm working on that that is going to happen soon I mean we got to I have to get that going that's really important I'm probably I've met with someone to talk about it previously to now but then I talked to someone today and I'm going to talk to someone else but uh that trip that trigger is going to get pulled probably this week just to get it going that on boarding to do that takes takes a month to get it all going and um that'll be good that'll at least get that the AP we going to have to bring that back in house this all kind of hit me last week during the power outage and everything so I haven't had a ton to think about it and I quite frankly I didn't want to think about it over the Christmas holiday but uh it appears

we'll be bringing it back in at least to get started on it so Mark's not going anywh he's going to be here on the 9th for the president budget presentation so he's not really leaving until you know March so we still have him and not All Is Lost I it is a bummer it's it's it it's a gut punch to me there's no doubt CU he's just so good at what he does um

but not we have a new chart of accounts we have a clean slate so it's all good it's just unfortunate that you know whatever happened to him and we'll just we're just going to pick up the pieces and exactly so but we're in good shape so there's no worries there it's just going to take me a little time to get it get things lined up so and and correct me if I'm Mark's firm was the only firm that does yeah they're pretty specialized because they get into Trio they know the whole gby 34 the whole gby government accounting and they're not just your bookkeeper regular accounts they know the whole ins and outs of Municipal and School budgeting Municipal budgeting County budgeting it's all different it's government accounting so there's there's different standards and there's different ways of doing things and they knew it pretty well so we'll see I'm still talking you know obviously with Mark and you know maybe there'll be some

Consulting who knows I don't know like I said it's uh it's all new but uh no worries we'll we'll we'll get going and first thing is payroll that's the first thing that we got to get straightened out so there's that um those are the two major things that's that have happened I guess the only thing that I really want to mention here the day after Christmas is how staff has just been unbelievable um stepping up I mean we had a we had an employee go down with a broken leg the other employee stepped right up and especially Cindy I mean she basically had to you know pick up a lot

while Jessica was out she did a fabulous job and helping me put the budget together but they've all done gun working with Kimber just we have a really good staff a really good culture and I'm really proud to be on that team they're just awesome so I just new we got a new year coming and I'm looking forward to to working with them they're just a great group so right yeah I just like to add a little anecdote to that that I have a friend that had a very weird car situation where she bought a car in Massachusetts and there's some rules or whatever the guy had to drive it up here you guys lost power when they were coming over here to try to register it and she immediately when the power came back on there was like no hesitation you guys were right back up and running again the guy was sitting in our kitchen like while they were waiting um and I know how appreciative she was that as soon as the power came back on

everything just like was up and running and there was no hesitation um and he was able to make the 1:00 train to be able to get back down there to go to Boston and so I think that that just speaks to you know the fact that you guys really were here for the community and you know working together to make sure that all these things were getting done um and I know that she was really appreciative of that so I think that speaks to the teamwork here too yeah thank you yeah no it's a great it's a great team like I said I couldn't be any more proud to to be on their team it's they're awesome so great um that's really about it those were the two big things I want to catch you up on um next you know next meeting though will be budget presentation is there'll be a lot to cover so there there may not be much else on the agenda except for that if you have something that's light we can take care of right away that that' be up

to to Joe but it's really going to be budget oriented the whole meeting because A lot's changed in the budget for the better that's our Focus right now that absolutely right so yeah that that pretty much concludes um my report great thank you Jerry all right um any uh board members have uh any reports this evening anything to report I think the only thing that I would like to say is that um I just want the public to know that we as a board are working on our our own bylaws and we've seen um some drafts and we're all you know doing our edits um to those drafts and that we will have a meeting um where that's discussed and voted on um but I just you

know I don't want people to show see that on the agenda the first meeting and be like where did all of this come from you know how how are they where they are already so I just wanted to put that out into the universe that this board is working on a draft of bylaws to be discussed at a future meeting okay anything else all right consent agenda excuse me I have a motion make a

motion to accept the consent agenda soov Josh seconds any discussion all in favor um select board on one n and um let's see and 123 um and then planning board is on 13 of 24 can't believe we're in 2024 here okay um any other need to go into any need to go into an executive session Jerry anybody else no I'm good all right

by motion to adjourn yes so move second Heather seconds all in favor all right motion carries thank you everybody happy New Year we'll see you all next year appointments just to oh yeah that go I don't sure I don't have over here they're not there's