TranscriptSelect Board Meeting ~ April 5, 2016

I just say I'm saving paper. We just say I move to appoint committees as listed on set sheet. want to read them all. I mean at least put every name out there. So So that maybe we could just do a committee by committee. Jeff could read them and we could Oh,

only these people. Okay, that's good. That means you don't have any Bas. That's right. I bet they know my name. and Ruth uh corporation did the same deputies as last year too, right? When they did their when they did their corporation.

No, no, I haven't. I assume that I haven't heard that they did [laughter] something different and I think we would have heard that, right? But okay. Well, is Chief going to be here tonight? As far as I know, I haven't heard that he isn't.

I haven't heard that he isn't either. your name. Sure. Ken Dowy. D O U G HD T Y Ken's last name. Scripper. Scrier. I hate to admit that, but I remember before we had these new phones, I knew probably a hundred phone numbers in my head at any given time.

Yeah, that's it. There's so many people my number if I lost this phone. Yeah, I'd be I'd lose contact with a lot of people. It's made things too easy. It's incredible. Oh, sorry. I don't necessarily want to be available all the time. You know, there used to be a period in your life where you could just like, you know, if you weren't home, you didn't have to answer [laughter] the phone.

were home, you could look caller ID and have to answer, too. Yeah. I was always too cheap to, you know, pay the $3 a month to add that to [laughter] my landlord. Of course, before then, there was a time when you could just pick up the phone and listen to what your neighbors were saying, too.

Oh, yeah. I remember that. Like, can you guys we want to order a pizza. Can you guys hang up for about 5 minutes? [laughter] the three body line. Yeah, three body line. And back then we only had to dial four digits to get anywhere in town. So

growing up, we only had to dial in our town, we only had to dial the last four, but we didn't have party lines. We had everybody had their own line. We when they went to the seven digit, we started getting a lot of calls for the Glouloester because our the first five three of ours was 657, which was the Glouloester exchange. So if they forgot to put

a one or something in front Yeah. It used to make me mad though that people right around the corner would be long distance. Yep. [snorts] Bronze long distance. 926. They're right around the corner. All set. Rock and roll.

We'll call this meeting to order. We do have a quorum. All five selectmen are here. And being the uh first meeting after town meeting, uh we do need to do election of chair and vice chair. I nominate Jeff Wakeakeman as the chair.

Second. Any other nominations? I nominate Sarah Hall as vice chair. Second. Okay. So, we are there any other nominations for either chair or vice chair? Okay. Uh for chair, all in favor of Jeff Wson. Sarah Hall. Thank you, gentlemen. [laughter] All right. Could we please rise for the pledge of allegiance?

United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Are there any amendments to the agenda? Uh just two new on the consent for correspondence, a citizen complaint and a a letter from Xfinity.

to Calvin? No, but I probably should. That's probably where it needs to go. [laughter] All right. Thank you. Um public comment. Any public comment this evening uh two additions. I move we accept the consent agenda as presented.

Second. All in favor? Motion carries. Um action and discussion items act on code officer title and hours. Um so with the uh passage of the administration budget at town meeting we had put in to make the uh codes official a full-time position. And so we need just need to discuss how we're going to handle that. Um, I did talk with uh Paul this afternoon to see if he had any thoughts and at this point he was uh thinking that it would probably be best to add the hours on Friday, which is the other day the town office is open, but to make the uh public hours um uh like 1 to 4

and the morning hours would be so um he could work on things that he hasn't been able to do during when when when he's being uh when the public's coming in and and having to do inspections and things like that. So, he has a block of time that's kind of set aside for other other things that need his attention.

Sounds right. So, what's that title going to be? Um at this point, we I I haven't we haven't Why would the title change? Well, we had talked about possibility of uh ch uh town planner type thing or something like that uh with the uh especially with the uh second item here getting ready to

start on the comprehensive plan and so on. But um at this point I think we can probably keep the title as ch the same but we we can always add to it. But so I'll make the motion. Yes. Um, just a second. Go ahead. Uh, well, what were you going to say?

I just say, are we going to uh designate certain hours for for codes and certain hours for some of these other things that we were looking at having done or Well, just we have public hours for codes right now. Right. I I would leave that to that's what I was asking. Yeah.

We were going to add more public hours on Friday, right? And then in Friday morning it was we were going to have uh time that was not set aside as public hours so we could work on some other things but but flexible depending on what drives what way up

right I mean it's it's every it's always flexible I mean depending on how how things go and if we find that we need to add more public hours we can um you know it that it's it's it's a flexible thing and it's up to it's kind of up to his discretion if somebody comes in here that really needs something done on Friday morning. It's not likely that he's going unless unless he has something he has to get done for something else. He's he's

I just I'm just asking because I know people have asked so kind of put it out there so that they'll understand. So, and you had a question. I I [clears throat] just want to be clear. Is the decision been made to bring Paul on as a permanent position? Is that what you're talking about or are you discussing it? this. So, this is the discussion on making it full-time. Um, if if we add these hours, he becomes full-time. Okay. By our

I have a couple of comments. If if uh if I could address the board, could you state your name? Jeff Dwit. And if you could come up here just so that the microphone can pick you up. [clears throat] almost 30 years, second or third generation. Um, I have experience in the building industry. I've built houses all around the area, Cumberland, Yarmouth, Durham. Um, we're a community. We're a close-knit community and we're all going to have, you know, I I'll, you know, sometimes we disagree with one another and I think it's I think it's prudent to bring it out in the open and I think we have to have open discussions about it so that we can hopefully work together and I've got two concerns. Okay. Uh, number one,

uh, I have had some disagreements with Paul. We we've talked it and worked together on it, but we did have some disagreements and we didn't totally disagree with each we didn't totally agree with each other. That's not a problem. Construction is rough and tumble. I can deal with that. Um I have no problem following the codes and I think I've talked with quite a few of the builders in town and most of them are professional. They do a good job and they're not out to do anything illegal. I have no problem following the code. That's our duty. Uh, but sometimes there are gray areas that that are not in the code and you have to use your discretion to figure out the best way to deal with it. And Paul and I have had some disagreements about that. And I can deal with it because I'm I'm not afraid of confrontations because I think if you can get through it, you can you both of you are better for it. Uh, but there are

some people that may be intimidated by it. So, I just want to publicly say that there have been some issues and I and I guess I'd like to ask you, have you had any other complaints uh about the code enforcement officer, mostly from people who have been um

having disagreements with and so on. There have been there have been a few there have been a few. No. Um that's where it comes down to a lot. I have family that are builders in town and yeah, I've heard several people have come to me and and at at upfront they're they're not very happy with the way things are.

I've let them know that in particular, what do you mean not happy with the way things are? Things are different now. Is different expectations and and following things to the tea and and I let them know that if they would write things down and bring them to me that we would address them and they've never written anything down to bring to me. Yeah. I want to be clear though. I have no problem with following the code. We should follow the code. He's the authority and he should be I have no problem with that at all. I just want to make sure that we have a a working relationship so that there's respect on both sides.

And you know it I'm the fir I'm not perfect. I make plenty of mistakes and I'll be the first guy to if I make a mistake I'll try and correct it. But I want that same respect towards me as a a builder. Um, and you know the looking

out and beyond this situation right here, the other thing that that I'd like you can to consider um at the town meet, you know, there's never enough revenue from the town to take care of all the needs of the town. Never. There's roads that got to be rebuilt. There's all these expenses, the schools, and the revenue's got to come from somewhere. And I know that new

construction homes bring in revenue. Not only do they bring in revenue and the economy is improved by it, but also the tax base. And the majority of the tax base in this town comes from residences. Mike Cop's business a few years ago that was a revenue stream for for property tax and that's gone. So now it's on the other side of the ledger and you you know that's another issue alto together. But the long and the short of it is I'm hoping that we can all work together and I'm hoping we can have an, you know, a a cooperative we can all work together and make things work. And I, you know, as I said, Paul and I have had some issues. I think we've worked through them, but I just want to make sure that um, you know, if we have a full-time position that, you know, I those are my concerns. You know, the other concern I have, and I don't know, you may know better than I do, and maybe Paul can address it. You

know, we've had 30 or 40 years of part-time code enforcement and right now we're not in an economic boom. I mean, I was here and probably many of you were when we had 40 building, you know, we had a moratorium on building because we couldn't keep up with it. Well, there's a there's a glut of of lots and there's all kinds of land available and all these developments. Nothing's moving. So, I don't see a big uh I don't see a lot of action and and uh so I I'm just curious about it, that's all. But and the only other thing I would say, and I'm not against a full-time position. I guess I just question whether it now is the right time or whether we have a little more time to see if everybody can work together and that it's really necessary. Maybe go through this building cycle and see if it if it works out. And then if everything is going good, [clears throat] go for it. That's just a suggestion. So that's about all I've got

to say. I'll sit back here for a minute in case you got any questions, but thanks very much. Thank you. uh vice commander the Ambbits Post near Nurham. And uh we had our meeting last night and uh our commander was approached. He couldn't be here tonight. He would have been here um but he couldn't. He was approached by an individual in town. I won't say who. And that individual asked that we file a complaint against Paul Baines for uh an incident that happened earlier this year. Um and uh there was an incident

involving Paul and one member of our post who decided to shoot his mouth off a little recklessly and tried to speak for the post on behalf of the rest of us which we didn't appreciate. He had no right to do that and he was completely wrong. The Post stands behind Paul Baines. Um, the unfortunate thing, the

unfortunate part of Paul's job as the code enforcement officer is he's got to hold people's feet to the fire. And our last code enforcement officer didn't do that at the Anvets Post. And there are a bunch of us young veterans that are now at the post, part of the post, and we're trying to change the culture and improve that post. And Paul is working with us, but he is also holding our feet to the fire and making sure that we're following the code. And so we don't have a problem with Paul Baines, but there seems to be this public perception that we do and the Ambits Post does not and we support uh code enforcement officer Baines.

Thank you. One of the things that I think has coincided is that we've also adopted the Mubec than the code that we had in the past. And I think that people tend to assume that somehow that it's it's Paul holding people to a stricter standard, but we did we were obligated by state law to adopt that code. And it does have some changes in it from sort of the way things were and my father was a builder. My husband's a builder. I've grown up in around the building trades and and I know there's stuff in the code that they both roll their eyes at, but you know, they they deal with it because that is what the the new the newest code provides. So,

and the two guys that I that have come to me, I mean, one of them was wound right up the first time he called me and he's like, "Who's this freaking Paul Baines guy?" You know, and uh I I told him the same thing. I said, you know, if you've got valid complaints, I said, write them down and bring them to the board. We will address them. And both of them, I believe, have changed the way they do things. I don't think either one of them have had problem with Paul.

Yeah. Again, I just I [clears throat] just want to be clear. I don't have any trouble at all with with Mr. Baines and and is and the code. Sure. I will follow the code as we should. That's not the issue at all. I have no problem with that. and only person I ever talked to and uh um you know in construction and he said at first he had a problem Paul he says I don't know what this guy's problem is and then uh as he got to as we got talking more and more a month or two later he says you know what he says he's no Danfeny that's for sure and he says I I like the way he is now I like he's pretty clean and clear he says and I enjoy working with him now I won't say his name but he has red trucks all over this town and uh he actually enjoys working with Paul now

one one other thing I would say the purpose of me being here is not to beat up on my friend Paul Baines that's not it at all as I said this is a community I family business relationships whenever you have a beef or you have a disagreement I believe in airing it

and and hopefully that uh you know my hope is to have a a cooperative working relationship so that everybody benefits that's that's why I'm here yeah I think you've been nothing less than than professional tonight so and It sounds like uh your concern more is whether you think we should have them full-time or not. And that's kind of what I was gathering from that more of that than really whether or not you should or shouldn't follow the code, which is kind of two different things. And I think and I actually I believe if I remember right, Jeff mentioned something about it when the question came up at town meeting that we was going to look at that and it actually came up in a budget meeting too. uh you know what happens next year if if everything dies down and we ain't giving out more than two or three permits a year. What do we do?

Well, if the job doesn't warrant ours, we would have to reevaluate. It'll be tough, but we'll have to reevaluate. I mean, and part of looking at this moving forward wasn't just for code for the building end of it. It was other things that the town has actually slipped up on and not finished or completed that they should have. Somebody needs to do that and it looks like it falls in that direction.

Part of the work that he's he he's inherited boxes of incomplete documentation that he now has to go through and fix. That's part [clears throat] of the hours. Keny I'm also part of the Abat post over and um before this started transpire transpire I was the one that had met with the state fire marshall's office that had come down because we have to meet state and federal code being that it's a public meeting place one of the frustrations that was there was that there was there's a gap between Durham and the state and I'm not putting fault anywhere um only from the fact of

we didn't know where Durm Codes code enforcement officer kind of left off. So when she showed up um she actually stated that Durham is 12 years behind on code from where it actually should be. And she had uh statistics for all towns. It's not just Durham. Um but there was a um you know just that uh overlap of gap of of for us to to get with a code enforcement officer. Of course at that time he's not full-time either. So I don't know if [clears throat] that kind of helps in your decision of you know where we stand as far as having somebody here. And I know the Amb Post is more than likely accepts a rule in Durham because there's probably not that many public buildings here, but that was kind of an issue for us during that rebuild project that we had this last year.

Thank you. You got one more. And [clears throat] um I don't think it's fair to bring Paul on as full-time and then say, well, maybe later on it's not going to be I wouldn't want to do that to somebody. I think I I get as again I just want to reiterate [clears throat] I have no problems following the code. I have no problems working with anybody. I just want to make sure we can all work together and we've got unity. That's it. [clears throat] And uh I don't have an issue, you know, other than that.

And we also look at this as as being a little bit broad with the full-time hours as as broadening a little bit. We are we have to update our comprehensive plan. and we're required by state law to do that and sort of look at at some bigger overall sort of long-term planning

decisions. And so we are we are hoping that Paul will spearhead [laughter] some of of that as well. Well, there's a honeymoon experience when when you know there's a getting used to each other and that's that's where a lot of it's coming from I think as far as what I've heard from folks. Yes. So, I don't know whether Paul will want another date with me or not. [laughter]

If I could suggest as a code enforcement officer myself that whenever you have a job title that has the word enforcement in it, you're going to have people that are not going to be happy. You are going to get complaints because that's the nature of the job. You're making people tow a line that they don't want to tow or that's that's costing them money to. So, they go hand in hand. People are not going to be happy all the time. If they are, the code enforcement officer is not doing his job. I can go into a town and I can tell if there's never been an appeal in the last 10 years, someone's not doing their job. [clears throat] So, just throwing that out there.

So, I Oh, I see another [laughter] codes on a periodic basis and stuff. that uh and I actually have it's always been a frustration of mine that we don't necessarily enforce the codes the way we should and stuff and I really think that's that's what we're seeing is we have somebody on board now that's actually enforcing and and meeting the code requirements and [cough] I think causing frustration with a lot of people initially but I think in the long term most people know what the rules and regulations are. They just haven't been held to the the mark and been made to live by them. I I actually hope you do make it full-time because I enjoy working with him. It's uh been a plus having him to talk to on different things that I do get dragged into and I hope we strengthen the the bond as we move forward. So hopefully you will make it a full-time position. Okay. So, I'll actually go ahead and make the

motion as kind of as as I present uh suggested before that we make the coach's official a full-time position. Is that 32 hours? Um I believe it's at least I think 32 is the minimum threshold for 4 days. Um and the additional hours will be on Friday um with uh published hours of 1

to 4 on Friday. Um and the other the rest of the time can be used to do do things outside of the normal normal flow. But so that would be my motion to make him full-time and that the hour new hours would be on Friday. I'll second it.

Any discussion further? All in favor? Motion carries. So that and this would be effective starting when? Um when's the next when's the next full work week? It would start Friday start the new full work week. So, uh, we'll make that the effect of the next full work week, which is Friday the

make a public comment. Friday the what? Paul would like to speak. Yeah, just uh Friday the 8th, I think. Yeah, that's that's that calendar needs to be changed. It's in January. [laughter] Uh, I I'd just like to say in response to to what I've heard here tonight that um I appreciate all the work all the builders, all the homeowners and stuff have done and trying to adjust to the way that I'm handling the office. Um, and I did want to say that if any publicly say that if any builder or any homeowner feels that they're being asked to do something outside of either the ordinance or the code, they are free to challenge me on it. that the the codes and and the ordinances are here. Happy to sit down with them and look at them and see if perhaps I have aired or to help them understand what in the code it is that is that I'm required to look at in regards to their project. So I I appreciate meaningful challenge and

meaningful solutions. Um so uh I just hope that the public understands that in a way that they're uh they're willing to do that. I I do try to stay open about it. I know I get a little bit on my high horse because I've been in the building industry for over 30 years and I have a sense like most of the other builders independently that I know what the heck I'm doing. Thank you very much. Um, you get a couple of guys like that in a room and it gets interesting real quick. But, um, I would I would like to say they're free to come here and challenge me on those issues and we can look at the book and, you know, and I'm open to alternatives that meet the [clears throat] same intent, you know. So, u, thank you for your patience.

comprehensive plan committee. Um, we've we've had some preliminary discussions that we want to get started on that. Um, we don't have much in the way of funds to do it that do do much this year, but we can get the committee going. I think one of the things that need h is supposed to be done as a survey and we can probably do that with little to no funds and um there can be a

lot of research that can be done as to what we need to do and then we can start next year looking at funding it better but um that's sorry so Paul and I have actually been talking about that and he's been formulating I I've I've started started out trying to put together a Gant chart, a flowchart in regards to comp plan often times takes as much as two years to put together. um first the you know so Ruth

and I have been sharing some ideas on how to how to kind of get the ball rolling on this and and as soon as we can put some sort of a plan together, we'd like to to sit down with you guys at a meet and share with you what we what we have in mind to make sure that it seems like it's fitting with where you think it needs to go. Um, I know there's going to be some concerns about expenditures that are going to be required to complete this over time that we don't wind up getting ourselves in a bind. Um, but there's a lot early on that the committee can do about team building and learning how to work as a committee. um some stuff that shouldn't take a lot of financial backing to kind of get the ball rolling into regards to taking apart the the existing comp plan, saving the parts that still apply and are coherent, looking at the ones that aren't, just kind of getting an overall idea about which sections we're going to

do and how to go about it. So, um I don't think it'll be a big hard hit all at once. the one the the the groups that I know that have done this successfully spent most of the initial time getting the committee to understand how to work well together with disparate ideas because as a town there's a lot of different ideas about how this town should grow and all of those ideas should be heard and considered and try to figure out how to put them all together in some way that works. So that's was where our conversations went. Are you asking us to put this out now for a call for volunteers or are you wanting to wait for until you can kind of get that initial

I think a call for volunteers is the place to start. We need the people. Do you have a sense of how big a committee I think it's important to have all different viewpoints represented but I also think if we get too big it becomes increasingly unwieldy. So, I didn't know if you had any thoughts about how big a committee.

Uh, you know, in my eight years in public realm, I've never seen a committee that was too big. [laughter] Fair enough. [clears throat] So, um, uh, typically because of the timeline, the length of time it takes to do this, uh, oftentimes it is good to start big because some of the folks that may realize that they don't have the time right now may still have time later on in the process to get reinvolved. Um

so the the I mean the biggest part about this is that whoever happens to be facilitating the committee with the chair and the other members um has a good structure with which to work with and a fairly good understanding of the task at hand and keep the overall task the you know the week toe tasks or month-to-month task small enough uh to be achievable because forward progress is always something that keeps momentum going on a group. if it just come in here once a month to argue, you're not going to get anywhere very fast. So, so

you know, I hadn't actually thought about too big. I didn't I didn't expect that could probably be an issue. If it is, I guess we'll have to figure out. So, I just was thinking that there's so many different sort of perspectives on the future of of this community. So, I was thinking at this point if we just put out a call for volunteers and not even define what the committee will look like yet, but we can start

we will need the board to sanction a committee when we get ready to actually sit it down. We'll put out the call for volunteers so that they can fill out the applications and so on and at some point uh we maybe give it a month maybe early May we can start looking at whatever applications we have and

we can post it on the on the website. We can post it on the TV station. It wouldn't hurt to put a few things up maybe down at the get and go or a couple other places. We might put put something in the uh tri town as well.

So, and I do believe that we have had some people over the last year or so express an interest and so there may be some applications on file because we have been sort of talking about the need to do this for a while and some people have already expressed some interest in in being involved in it. And there is one other part there that I'm also sure you guys are going to love, but it would be really it would be advantageous if we had a member of each board in town.

I think the chair would be a good guy to be out there. [laughter] Just I'm just throwing it out there on the committee. You're throwing out there. I'm just throwing a name out. He's very smart. Um [laughter] so it would it it's a it brings a real valuable approach is because in planning board, you know, ordinance ordinance has to follow comp plan. So someone having a coherent idea of of how to manage working with an ordinance can start to look at a comp plan as to how it's going to affect it and help look into those things and stuff. So

can can you reach out to the uh different committees? Um that that would at least that would uh seem like it makes sense that somebody up from them would uh well I can approach the planning board tomorrow night and historic district commission is meeting on Thursday. Uh provided I can make both of those meetings. some family stuff going on right now that may interfere, but I'll get the word to whoever if I can't make it, I'll get the word to somebody either through Ruth or the chairman of either of those committees to or those boards to um to make that request.

So, um I don't know that I mean we're general consensus that we'll put this out. We don't need to necessarily make a vote on that yet, but um then we when we get some applications back then we can look at forming. Okay. Okay.

So, they're going to put out the paper and town channel, stuff like that. We sounds good. With an understanding hopefully for people that this is not a short-term No, this is couple of meetings that that really doing the plan is going to take an extended period of time and it is a time commitment.

On different committees that I've been on, except for one, typically seven to nine people is what I've seen work. But with something like this, you may need more feet on the ground for more. So I guess we could kind of leave that open and see how it goes

to begin to begin with but and as things go you'll probably notice it kind of whittleles down to a core group or pediatrician. There's always the important factor to me is going to be the type of representation. I really want a broad representation and we've got some real disperate opinions here in town about where things should go and I'd like to see everybody at the table so nobody feels left out.

Right. I mean yeah everybody has their own view of what Durham should look like and it's not my Tom. It's your town. Yes. So, yeah, that would be great. [snorts] Let's get a sidewalk. Let's get a sidewalk down by the bridge so that they're not spilling out into an intersection. [laughter]

Elvin's all over that. We need a sidewalk. Keep the cows out of the way. All right. Uh, act on reappoint of town committees. We have a list here and I'll kind of go down through it committee by committee and we can maybe do the vote that way.

Yeah. So for conservation committee we have uh Roberta Rosinski, Russell Jabau and Steve Sicei. I move we accept the conservation commission as presented. Second discussion. All in favor? Motion carries. Historic District Committee we have Benjamin Love, Candace Dipkis,

Joseph Donovic, Paula B. Erdman, Perie, and Seth B. Koig, and as alternates, Cliff Peterson, and Karina Edith Miller. Move we appoint the members of the historic district commission as presented. Second. Discussion. All in favor? Do we know that these people are all still interested in serving on these committees by the way as we just appoint them [laughter] willy-nilly?

We've done them the best that we can. And if they if they if they don't, they just won't take the oath and we'll have to No, no. At this point, they'd have to send us a letter of resignation. [laughter] That could be short and sweet.

The mailbox to resign. Thanks. [laughter] All right. Cemetery Committee, Jennifer Fitzpatrick, Joseph Donovic, Linda Bowie, Philip Baker, Richard Thompson, and Tian. [clears throat] I move that we appoint the cemetery committee as presented.

Second. All in favor? Motion carried. Eureka Committee, Eureka Community Center Committee. Okay. Um, Anita Sers, Kathleen Lowe, Nancy Decker, Pearl Scribner, and Roa Demchek. We appoint the members of the Eureka Committee Center

Second. All in favor? Motion carries. Abreviation through me. Yes, it did. Me too. Telecommunications Committee, Jeffrey Leighton, John Genius, John Ricker, Chris Koig, and Milton Simon. We move we appoint the telecommunications committee as presented.

Second. All in favor. Motion carries. Memorial Day parade committee. Chad Burke, Christine Rando, Rando, Riendo, Colette Wagner, Joseph How, Nancy Decker, and Karen Pike? Move we appoint the members of the Memorial Day parade committee as presented.

Second. All in favor? Motion carries. [snorts] Um, is Sandra no long no longer on that committee? She never signed her her thing and she never showed up to any of the meetings. Okay. All right. So, Durham Scholarship Committee, Kendra Okonnell and Kristen Nam.

I move we appoint the members of the Durham Scholarship Committee as commit as presented. Second. All in favor. Motion carries. All right. The next many were going to be uh election [clears throat] clerks or with one one exception which I'll note. So for election clerk Anne Thatcher, Charlotte Wink, Cheryl Sherburn, Dolores Pillsbury, Duncan Chesley, Mary Frell,

Nancy Swinton, Philip Gillixson, Priscilla Higgins, Rocky League, Barbara Jabro, Beth Moral, Gary Spring, Mary Fel. She's on there twice. I was wondering about that. Kathleen Corel, Annne Neman, William Blae, Phyllis Brandon, Celeste Crowley, Christina Thornton, Wendy Chase or Ka

Kay, I don't know Cassie K. I apologize for not knowing the name exactly. Victoria Harris, Karen Pike, Michelle Tibo, Jeffrey Boon, Vivian Boon, Pamela Cluty, Cloocci Cluchi. Yeah. Evan Pratt, Barbara Carrian, Cheryl Smith, and for Warden, Jill S. Tiller.

I move we accept that list as election clerks and warden. Second. All in favor? Motion carries for forest warden, fire rescue chief, and EMA director, William St. Michelle. I move we appoint William St. Michelle as forest warden, fire rescue chief and EMA director.

Second. All in favor? Motion carries. Town clerk, register, deputy tax collector and deputy treasurer Shannon Plur. I move we appoint Shannon Floyd as town clerk, register, deputy tax collector, and deputy treasurer. Second.

All in favor? Motion carries. It's register. Sorry. Register. That was me. [laughter] I was one. Yeah. Uh codes enforcement official, building, plumbing, and electrical inspection. Paul Baines. I move we appoint Paul Baines as CEO, building plumbing, electrical inspector.

Second. All in favor? Motion carries. Deputy TA clerk, Treasurer, Tax Collector, Deputy General Assistance, Admin, Pam Kluchi. I will be appoint Pam Cluchi as Deputy Clerk, Treasurer, Tax Collector, Deputy GA admin. Second.

All in favor. Motion carries. General Assistance Admin, Treasurer, Tax Collector, Administrative Assistance, and Town Administrator, and Deputy Clerk, Ruth Glazier. So moved. Second. That's That's easier. Yeah. So seconded.

All in. [laughter] All in favor? Motion carries. Assistant EMA Director William Dong. So move. Second. All in favor. Motion carries. Deputy EMS Chief Lisa Groves. So moved. Second. All in favor. Motion carries. And finally, Deputy Fire Chief Keith Russell.

So moved. Second. All in favor? Motion carries. Name spelled right. I was going to say I think that spelled ei. Yeah. Okay. I'm going to have to do a new one then. Okay. spell check didn't work out. So back to departments and committees. Um we have a written report from the chief who had to leave.

Yeah. Um got two price quotes for work on the meeting room floor and we'll review them. and he passed his uh fire inspector one class and exam and has to do some inspections and turn them in. Yep. And noting that the new EMS coverage seems to be working pretty well. So um code enforcement.

paper. That's awesome. Yeah. Um, I'm sorry. It's been a really, you know, it's been a bit of a week for me. So, with these new hours, Paul, we'd really like you to start bringing us a PowerPoint. You know, that'd be great. [laughter] [clears throat]

Careful what you ask for. I take it back. Um, the new ordinances, but the land use ordinance and the, uh, historic district commission ordinance that were passed at town meeting have now been posted online, so folks that want to review any of the changes and stuff can see the new ordinances there. I I'll make a note on that because I asked you about the fees fee schedule and and so on. That is what's included in that order.

Oh, okay. We're all set on that. We had a little moment of panic [laughter] Saturday. I I recognized that when the email came through. We already discussed the comp plan stuff. Um I would like to continue with the ordinance review group that we had started last year to start to look at more ideas and share more ideas about upcoming changes to the ordinance. I think in this particular regard we would, you know, we'll see where the where the folks want to go, but I know there's some interest in in tuning up the backot ordinance. Uh there's some um uh some decisions that have come down from the law court in regards to boards of appeals that we need to dissect and reconstruct are the appeal section of our ordinance [clears throat] to see that we're trying to stay in compliance with state law and give the people in town the rights they need for appeal. Um some of the decisions that came through

there's a and we have the same problem in our ordinance. There's sort of a bifocated plan. If you need a variance to do something under conditional use, you have to get the variance from the appeals board before you can come before the planning board with your conditional use. However, any finding by the board of appeals is open to challenge. So while that one's being challenged, there's still no permit has been issued. then they can challenge the planning board and this whole thing can get pretty convoluted and eat up a lot of resource for town. So, um we've got some really good folks in the program that we can sit and kind of look at that structure to see if there's a way we can put it together to not uh not short circuit anybody's rights involved in it, but have it all happen at the right spot in the process to not not take enormous amounts of time and

resource to create a single path rather than Yeah. because it's the way it's set up right now and and I understand where the law court went with it. Um I don't necessarily agree completely. They've been really they've been all over the place on this. Um essentially their ruling came down on behalf of the municipalities because it cost the municipalities a lot of money to have to pursue these long-term battles among citizens for stuff that's in the ordinance. So hopefully we can sort some of that stuff out. question on ordinance review and how far we go with that with the creation of a uh comprehensive plan committee and so on. We're going to be looking at that. How how much how much sweeping type changes are we really are we going to want to do before we have something in place for the comprehensive plan.

There's there's only a couple of places in the ordinance we can do substantive work. The appeal section is one. Back lots is one. Uh there's been a lot of talk that the backlot ordinance really hasn't worked well. uh it really needs to be reviewed, you know, both in what the end result is for the folks in town that have back lots as well as the municipal burden for producing them. Uh so we'll be looking at that and the board, you know, the board may have some other ideas and some of that in the way to go. Uh they may want to be looking a little bit at subdivision. Um, so I'm not I'm not exactly sure where that's going to wind up, but other than that, there isn't a lot of room, like you say, until we've got far enough down the road with the comp plan to start to apply those changes to be in step with it. And that's the other reason why it was important to get the comp plan going so we can really start to pull our

ordinances back in. Um I think uh we should look at the growth ordinance and try to determine the structure of that that needs to be handled because it has to be reviewed and by the state every three years it has to be reviewed. There's a tremendous amount of records keeping that has to go with that ordinance in order to maintain it. Um you know I know Jeff Dit didn't think there's a lot of new homes gone out this year but 12 of the last 15 permits have been for new homes since mid December. Um that's a lot. that was twice as many as overall last year. So, if the trend continues, a lot of real estate agents are talking about different lots in town in different subdivisions. Uh, you know, their price point's pretty good right now. Interest rates are still pretty good. Uh, we, you know, we'll see where it goes, but um there there may be some circumstances through the middle here. We'll see where

we land and we can talk a little deeper on the growth ordinance and how we feel we want to approach that if it looks like that threshold's going to be an issue for us this year. Uh so that's that. Um the runaround project home project is going before the planning board tomorrow night as a question of review. I don't believe the planning board needs to review it. Uh if the planning board agrees with me with that, uh Tom Lcut will get my information to the state and they will be we will be on a schedule for runaround pond. If they feel it does, we'll be on next month's docket. It's that simple. So I'll let you know more next week or the week after how that turns out. Um, I did look into main pers. There are no choices for town employees to main pers. It's an all in or nothing thing. So, um, I was able

to go back and look. There's a there's a I think it's a it's a 30-year threshold. If you've paid into Social Security for 30 years, there's no penalty for main purse on Social Security. I'll have to double check that a little bit. So, well, thanks for thinking of me and that, but we don't really have a choice. And that's pretty much what I have. I would like to ask the board if I can be excused from the rest of the meeting. I've got stuff pretty intense stuff I've been dealing with. I got to take care of.

Any other questions? Bye. Thank you very much. Have a good evening, administrator. Um well, I printed out um our budget sheets for the first quarter this year. Um I've looked through them. There doesn't seem to be anything extraordinary on them. Um, and then I just wanted to remind you guys that I will be gone for the next meeting.

Okay. Um, are you is somebody going to be able to get a a uh an agenda to us? I'll I'll do the agenda before I leave on Friday. Would it I'm wondering if it does it would it do any good to have someone like Pam here if if we need if we have any questions. We can have

if if she's willing. Yeah. If she's willing to come in and uh Yeah. Make sure she puts a time down for it. Yes. And this is 2016. Yes. Yeah. Well, one question. I did have one quick question about it. If there had been some unusual Did Did we purchase a piece of equipment or something? I wondered why at at a quarter of the way through the year we were almost 42% of the way through the office supply line. Uh well that's kind of a confusing one to us too and the reason being is that um for some reason we had a huge number of copies in December and I'm not really sure why but we've gone back over the counts over and over again. And

were we into budgeting then? I can't figure out how I can say that we didn't have them. So that was $500 right off the top. So that was the because the March is the outlier at almost $900. Yes. Well, we didn't we we didn't pay it for a while because we were looking into it to make sure that it

um and as I asked before, if we can forward this on to the budget committee and change the date. Yes. uh change the date and maybe uh I I believe they they had mentioned something about they they might want to get together earlier this year

and so on. Um I'm not sure that they necessarily need to meet with the board right away unless they if there's a desire to, I'd be happy to have them show up. Otherwise, we can wait until like uh July after our second quarter.

Yep. I think when uh you had your last joint meeting, you selected uh the second um Tuesday in June. I believe it's the 13th for them to come and join you. June, not July. Okay. June. July. July. July. That's what I Okay. So, we did we did actually select a date. Okay. Okay.

Nope. I'm good. Thank you. Anything for her? Okay. Uh, road work commissioner. Sure. Actually, yeah. This one didn't have anything on it. Get the one. Oops. I guess I grabbed it. I can press there. We can I grabbed it off the printer and I guess Huh. I don't know what happened.

We got plenty. Well, I can I can listen. I guess I should have uh Yeah, guess it's the wrong date. [clears throat] Oh, second. Oops. [laughter] Okay. Sorry about that. Yeah, sorry. Um so tomorrow morning all states is coming to uh do the test borings on runaround pond route [sighs] and I've heard some rumors that you know we've paid to have this done once and now we're paying to have it done again and that's not true. Uh runaround pond all states simply uh [clears throat] wants to get their own testing done to so they have an exact how how they make the formula and the mix and that something they need they need to do. So, they're paying for it on their own. Nickel. All we're doing is providing traffic control and a little gravel put back in their holes. And

and you said that at town meeting. I remember hearing that they were paying for it at But I just want to make sure I reiterate that cuz there's some rumor going around that we're paying for it twice and it's just that's not the case. So, um, so we've been cutting trees along Runaround Pollen Road. I've gotten started at least. We'll be getting back to that. um unposted all the town roads last Friday. Um I've been working quite a bit on panels u [clears throat] um capital road plan attending CIP committee meetings and so we're in the middle of their budget right now. We got go right from one to the next. So we're uh back I'm back to Durham's capital plan. I got a draft done of it which I gave you a copy of which I've got to go back and just do some ground truthing and tighten that up. And I do have some prices that I can give you as a result of that. I guess I could pass these around

is still a work in progress as well, but it gives you an idea of what it would cost us just to maintain all of our paper if they were done and we're just in a maintenance maintenance stage. If you look at u 24,800 you wouldn't have any shoulder work because you're just shimming the middle of the road wheel ruts and a 3/4 shim. So, one and a quarter inch overlay is $66,173 a mile. Inch and a half overlay 78,573 a mile. Chip seal single chip seal is $29,943 a mile. So, if you take those figures and come down to the 10-year plan and the 7-year plan, the 10-year plan is uh paving at the current $70 ton price. I mean, that could skyrocket, which would throw this whole plan out the window, but just we'll go with that. That's a high number right now. We're going to be doing quite a bit better than that this year. I think we'll be in the low to mid mid60s. Um, so just looking at that, if we were to

do a half inch shim and an inch and a quarter overlay, we got um um we'd have to do 4 4.72 miles a year. Um [cough and clears throat] would be uh if if we did the 10-year plan. I think that number up top changed just a little bit. Uh I think it was well oh I see. Okay. Forget that number up top. It's the 47.2 that we're looking for up top on the paved town roads.

relevant for the Shimon overlay and the pavement pavement maintenance. So divide 47.2 2x 10 is 4.72 mi a year we'd have to do and we would be those are your costs with the inch with a/2 inch and one4 inch overlay be $438,000 a year $435 and a 3/4 shim and inch and a half overlay would be $552,000 a year.

Um [clears throat] we're sitting at $225,000 a year. What we got to spend is what you're saying. So, I'm just just just showing you uh I'm working on come down to the chip seal um and look at uh a half inch shim and a chip seal either you you have to do on a seven-year plan because that doesn't last as long as it trim over the pavement. So, you put that to a seven-year plan you're at uh 6.74 miles a year, 378,000 a year. uh and 461. So these are just

some numbers, the numbers, you know, these are concrete numbers as far as um um and do these numbers reflect strictly contracting it out or they do they reflect doing some of the labor inhouse with our existing crew? Well, these are all things that we can't do. These are something that only the paving company can do because

I didn't know if it was like a soup to nuts quote or just the paving piece. The only thing in the paving and the three quarter shim uh and the half inch shim with the overlays have uh they have shouldering which we're doing the shouldering with that's 2 and 1/2t shoulder with 4 in of gravel. [clears throat] So that number is calculated in that u shim and overlay

whereas with the chip seals you don't you wouldn't have any shoulder work. Um, I'm working on getting some other options. Um, doing a crumb rubber around $4 a square yard and and so I will expand that. I'm looking for more options to try and um get this number something that's palatable. So I'll

try to get our roads out of a 25 year slump. Well, you know, that dollar. Yeah. I mean, if you're doing a mile a year and we got 472 miles, I mean, we'd be 50 years before we get back to this road again. It's not going to work. So, just trying to come up with a, you know, and of course, that doesn't include that's just to maintain what we have. So,

that doesn't cost getting us there. Yeah. Yeah. So, anyway, just want to give you those for just to look at, but when I get it complete, we'll go over some other options and then we'll come up with so we're still still uh doing road patching that'll be ongoing and that's something that you know if we get our roads went around pond and rabbit rubber hopefully that'll cut down on our patching costs. Today the crew attended the class in Augusta roadway fundamentals so [clears throat] they were up there until 3:30 today. Um,

when do you guys switch? Are you on a five day or a four When do you switch over to 410s and or are you doing that this year? Yeah, we're uh I'm playing it by year. We wanted to start the first of the month and it just the weather hasn't been we've still we're still out. Yesterday we are treating the road. So there's snow flurries and so I'm going to go to the middle of the month 15th and um if if that looks good at that point then we'll go for it. If the weather still isn't looking good then we'll we'll hang on a little bit longer. I think Freeport starts the 15th and I don't know you guys you guys stay on fors or

No, they started uh this week. Oh they did? Yeah. So they started a month ago. Yeah. So, we'll hold look for another week or another week or so and see how it looks. Okay. Um, so way just for in the summer when the day when there's more light the crew our public works crew switches to four 10hour days and then in the winter they do four nines and a

four. Yeah, [snorts] makes sense. That's so that the people uh the trucks are available to get the roads treated in the morning for school buses and commuters. And so once we get out of the woods on that then we really it's advantageous to not have that extra day of lunch times and break times and startup time and take down time and you take a whole day of that away and that saves you quite a bit. So, um, tomorrow I'm meeting with, uh, Skip from Freightlininer to go over some of the specs on the trucks. Um, revising some of them, some of the stuff that he felt we were had that we were a little too beefed up on last time and some of the stuff we didn't quite have heavy enough for the truck. So, we're going to go over all those com all those tomorrow and see um see if we agree on that. So before I send that out, there's only about four or five vendors to send it to anyway. Kenworth, Western Star, and [clears throat]

International, so it's only about four or five. Yeah. Yeah. So it'll go out to four. And we have the software for Freight Liner. Yep. So there's presumably some some value in making it [clears throat] if we can afford it buying a freight liner since we have all the diagnostic [laughter] software already. Well, they're typically tend to be the lowest price truck anyway. So,

um, talked to Mike a little bit, too. What's your plan on putting out putting out for the for Runaround Pond and and Rabbit Road as far as I assume we're going to uh put it out to bid. Well, the paving we've been using the same contract that we've had for the last three, four years. just um with

a project like this, we must have a packet we're going to have have other people bid on it. A pike or story brothers or whoever wants, you know, they can use whoever they want. They can use crooker or they can use pike or whatever. You must have a certain

Yeah. What we were looking at doing is the same thing with the paving that we've been doing is using crooer for the paving and we'll look at the earthwork. The earth work we would uh Yeah. The it's just I mean we've been on this what three years, four Yeah. and on a major on a major I mean they they've got

it's probably a good price and so on but um it does it is good for us to look around um especially on this amount of money and and so and and we're really the town's people expect us to look around and make sure that we're get we're getting a good price and crooer said they'd honor this right y and so on but

but it's one of those Yeah and I'm sure whoever goes So, whoever is going to bid on this, whether it's the Story Brothers, they're going to go to Kirker and say, "We need you to give us a price to do this in Durham and they're going to give them the same price or whatever. I don't care."

Well, the other thing also to factor in is to the extent that there's savings of scale, if whomever is is doing panel and Freeport. I know there have been some discussions about the three communities trying to time their paving at the same time

to save some money. So that's sort of another moving part to as far as the paving goes. But I'm talking we're building the road and construction on the road. I mean it's they're going to have whoever paves it and they can go along with with the surrounding towns. But we got a lot of construction going on that road and I'd like to see a lot of bids come in or most we can get and people are hungry right now. They got to start planning out their year. So I was wondering if you've got a packet for people to pick up or when do you plan on getting that out there?

We don't even have it engineered yet. So that's that's the way we had to wait to see if the budget got approved to get the engineering money and there we go. So now that we have that done, uh, but what we've I think we've two years into the contract with Crooker, which they would own at the same price, but they would use what's called the escalator, and we would

which in this case would hopefully deescalate, right? And so that would drop the price. Uh, so so this was a multi-year Yeah. thing that we went in with Cooker, but yeah. So um, and everybody bid on it at that time and they were the best. They were the lowest. So they're keeping that same contract. It's just that as the price of asphalt goes down,

Mhm. their price goes down to match it. So, okay. Uh it's essentially the same contract except the pavement gets cheaper as the price of asphalt drops. But we're not doing just an overlay, right? We're doing we're doing a

right rebuild. So, all the paving that that uh and Freeport's uh paving went up to bed and um for all their paving with the school. So, Poundal Elementary was in there, Freeport Schools and um Freeport Roads. But that was that was the extent of that.

And I I was going to also suggest whatever we do that we throw the uh fire department parking lot. That's what I was I was going to leave him a note today and say uh because he would he would qualify for our discount anyway. So,

but in his report, his written report mentions that, I think. Yeah. So Kevin, we're going to have to wait before we get the engineers input to get a the scope of this work. They're going to be bidding out to everybody. Is that what we're going to do?

Yep. Okay. And plus meet up with them quick as we can. Is that what we plan on doing? Yep. So um [clears throat] I will uh I I I will get that out to u I know you're busy. Yeah. Um hopefully sometime in this week. Okay. So,

we have some engineering done and I'm going through that, but I don't have any road profiles and I'm thinking maybe there was one done. I just haven't located yet. So, I'm going to call that engineer and see if maybe we already got one. It appears the engineering was done from the park to the Pel Town line,

that section of road. Yeah, there was a survey done and that that sounds right because that was the worst part of the road and I believe that sounds right for what we did. Yeah. So, I don't want I don't want to reinvent the wheel. If it's already work done in that section, I want to use it. So,

I know the contractors out there are going to start filling up their a year and I like to have them bid on it and well, they get two filled up and they say, "No, we just we're too busy to bid on that." I just want to try to get it out to them.

Yep. And one of the things that we have to factor in because our tax commitment doesn't go out until July is we don't have the funds to pay for it until the latter part of the the paving season. Well, that was the next question is how we pay for it. Um the bond bond bond banks um their their spring season's ended. So,

well, so this would be through a municipal right through our bond. So, we have to and likely so far the way we've always we've done loans and so on. We've gone to banks. Banks have actually given us better prices than the bond banks than the B. And so likelihood is we'll go that way where we've missed the spring one anyway. We'll probably go that way anyway and see what we can find.

So we're going to need your signature quite a bit. So when we go through that, right? So the would that cuz I and I don't know did you ever get an answer on bond anticipation note? Did you have to have the approval from the bond bank before you could get one of those?

I wouldn't think so. A question came up. I know we've had this discussion in pound was Scott thought that you would need an actual approval by the bond bank. You'd have to apply for it and wait until they approved it. So if that's the case, we'd be we'd be we wouldn't be till September or so.

We need to start moving unless we go through a bank and just do a loan. But a bond anticipation note would be through a local bank. So I don't know. I mean, so yeah. And but I wouldn't think you'd necessarily need a need that because what if you're just doing it as as anticipating getting a loan from a bank, you know, it's

Yeah. If we did we did a bond anticipation note with the public works. Yeah. Okay. So if So I guess we need to start looking into that process. Yeah. So we know where we're going to get the money. If we got to go to a bank, we need to start that.

Can we can we get some of that done before you head out on vacation maybe. Yeah, I have a bond council that we work with. as well. Call her up and I'll see what she cuz with that project we don't have to worry about the right that I forgot that that was bonded that that's a

okay we don't have any capital money anywhere else set [laughter] aside set aside for just check the couch cushions the the slush fund [laughter] I didn't know if you've been putting away money for these things for a while or no just thought I'd ask

our our town meeting to town meeting. That's a while. You guys all ready to go? Get your feet on the ground, feet under you, more legs more under you this year. They're ready to go. After they're listening to the town meeting there and cross analysis being thrown around and you got the truck by one vote. Uh people are watching to to say the least.

Well, I've done some math. We have 560,000 ft of ditch line. I think you think that was the number you came up with. Something like that. Yeah. So I was thinking um divide that by for heavy ditching it. So anyway it's it's a lot of days trying I'm working on coming up with a plan like the road plan for a ditching plan and we had in fact in the class today.

So make sure you just add our crew not pound crew in on that. So people want to know what Jarm's pay not what we paid to have. We already got money that was owed to us. We ought to get back. Oh no we actually owe them money now. So yeah or actually which way are we now? you know, they owe us money. Yeah.

One or the other. We're It's very close. But anyway, it's uh so you know, coming up with a digging plan is going to be it doesn't do any good to put all this money in the roads and then have them underwater. So, um in fact, we took that class today and the instructor said, "How many how many people here have a ditching plan?" He says, "Don't lie." Not many hands went up. [clears throat] So, it [laughter] was uh something uh [snorts] that I actually have a plan, not just when I get to it or if I get a chance. That was was what most people that's most people's approach to a ditching plan. But

so that's that's what I've got. Anything else? All right. Thanks, Just so I'm clear now. Uh just think Oh, I found the rest of them. They were stuck with one of them. Just Just so I'm clear. Uh the budget's approved. So the budget is approved at the at the levels that we presented to the panel.

Okay. So we can get the um engineering for whatever home and get that going and um you're going to work on getting us some money. Yep. To build a route. Yes. So we'll discuss that at the next meeting what our plans are for that part of it.

Okay. and then so that means we wouldn't have to wait until July. Okay. All right. Thank you. Um upcoming meetings, regular selections meetings held here at the town office Tuesday, April 19th and Tuesday, May 3rd at 6:30 p.m. Um anything else for announcements? Okay. I'd like to move that we go into executive session pursuant to one MRSA 4056A personnel personnel matters wage raises.

Second. All in favor? Motion carries.