Select Board Meeting ~ October 4, 2016

2016-10-04 · Select Board · 1:36:59 · watch on YouTube →

A regular Select Board meeting with four of the five selectmen present; Joshua Libby was at the MMA conference. Sheriff Eric Samson and Chief Deputy William Gagne came to introduce themselves and left a summary of calls in Durham, and answered a request from town clerk Shannon Plourde about a police detail at the polls, which at $49 an hour with a four-hour minimum they said would probably be cost prohibitive. The two solid waste and recycling bids were read out and set aside for review on 1 November, since nothing can be accepted before town meeting; the representative of the incumbent, Pine Tree Waste, questioned whether the other bidder owns the equipment to do the job. The board put the website design request for proposals out, adopted a credit card policy and chose a Capital One card, and approved up to $900 for striping at the fire station. Long reports from the fire chief and road commissioner covered the station floor and catch basin, stop-ahead pavement stencils, a new Welcome to Durham sign, and two culverts an engineer says need replacing within two years.

What was discussed

1. 0:02
   Before the meeting

   The recording opens with informal conversation, including a reference to interviews and an investigator in a pending matter, and a note that Joshua Libby was away at the MMA conference. The board then called the meeting to order with four of five selectmen present.

2. 0:02
   Amendments to the agenda

   The approval of the 20 September selectmen's meeting minutes was removed from the consent agenda because adjustments were still needed, and approval of the 27 September minutes was added in its place.

3. 5:19
   Public comment and the consent agenda

   No one came forward for public comment. The consent agenda was held back because a selectman had a question about gasoline usage and the road commissioner had not yet arrived.

4. 5:19
   Sheriff and chief deputy introduce themselves

   Sheriff Eric Samson and Chief Deputy William Gagne said they are working through the towns the county serves so that residents and officials have a face to a name, and that Durham was the fourth or fifth. They left contact information with the clerk and offered to come back quarterly or sit on committees. They brought a summary of calls in Durham, which reflects six months of each year because of the call-sharing agreement with the state police.

5. 5:19
   How coverage is shared with the state police

   The county covers Durham in the even months, so it was covering October and would return in December. When it is covering, patrols run day and night, and deputies will respond outside their month if free and asked. The agreement broadly gives the state police the calls that need substantial follow-up or investigation. Abandoned 911 calls, meaning callers who hang up, are all responded to.

6. 10:57
   The call figures

   A board member noted 90 motor vehicle accidents in the six-month summary and observed that doubling it would be about one every other day. The sheriff said Poland is high too and that Durham seems to attract cars off the road in snowstorms, and suggested the fire and rescue service could give a fuller number.

7. 10:57
   Types of call and how they have changed

   The administrative paperwork figure covers subpoenas and protection orders. Bad cheques are now handled by giving the complainant a packet rather than as they were in 2005. OUI and domestic violence cases now consume considerably more patrol time in follow-up and bail checks than in the 1990s.

8. 10:57
   Speeding and daytime call volume

   The sheriff said the commonest complaint the county hears from Durham is speeding, and that grant-funded details have put officers on particular areas of town for three or four hours at a time. He said Durham's daytime call volume is higher than at night, which he attributed to a large and growing share of the population being out of town during the day, and that overall the figures are consistent with other small towns. When patrolling Durham the deputies also cover Wales, Greene and Leeds.

9. 16:11
   Police presence at the polls

   Shannon Plourde had asked about security at the November election. The sheriff said the county's detail rate is $49 an hour with a mandatory four-hour minimum, set by the commissioners to cover the detail rate plus FICA and associated costs, and that it would probably be cost prohibitive. With two patrolmen on during the day he could not assign one, but the county could pass the concern to the state police lieutenant for periodic checks.

10. 16:11
    Whether there is a problem to solve

    Both the board and the sheriff said Durham has historically had no trouble at the polls, and that concern this cycle appears to come from the wider election atmosphere and the use of schools. Durham has one polling place, at the school, which will have a professional development day so no pupils are present and firearms are not permitted. The board asked the clerk to bring a costed proposal to the next meeting; a 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. stretch was put at about $200.

11. 21:24
    Solid waste and recycling bids read out

    Two bids were received for the period 1 July 2017 to 30 June 2020. The Pine Tree Waste bid covers weekly curbside collection and disposal of solid waste, weekly curbside zero sort recycling and processing, and once-a-year collections of bulky waste and white goods and of universal and e-waste, with an optional item for automated tote collection; its year-one figure is garbled in the recording.

12. 21:24
    The second bid

    The other bid, from a company in Norway named in the recording as Ty Waste Management, is $187,000 in each of the three years and covers curbside pickup of solid waste and recyclables for approximately 1,648 households plus the town's yearly bulky waste needs. It is based on the tonnages the town supplied, with a clause to come back and negotiate if solid waste or recyclables rise by 10 percent, and states that the bidder's banker has committed to funding a new compacting truck on acceptance.

13. 26:38
    The incumbent's concerns and a date to review

    Karen McNaughton (?) of Pine Tree Waste (?) said she has been in the industry a long time, drives through Norway and Paris regularly and had never heard of the other company, and was concerned it appears not to own equipment and could not collect trash and recycling on the same day with one truck. She has served the town for 16 years and asked to be told when the bids are reviewed, offering to bring general manager Nate Chapman; the board agreed and said the other company would be told as well.

14. 26:38
    Points to check on the bids

    The board noted it cannot accept any bid until town meeting but must decide which to put forward. Questions (?) raised for the review included whether the packer is large enough for the tonnages the town produces, and whether the second bidder is aware there is currently a charge for recycling at the Lewiston plant. The second bidder lists the Lewiston Auburn Landlord Association as a reference.

15. 26:38
    Public works gasoline usage

    A selectman asked Calvin Beaumier about a fuel delivery in mid-September, after which 125 gallons were used in four days. There were three bills from the supplier, two of about 200 gallons and one of 125, adding to nearly 500-odd gallons in a month, or about 132 gallons a week. He said it should not be that much and agreed to check; the board agreed to pay the bills meanwhile.

16. 31:39
    Website design request for proposals

    The board asked whether the new site would let residents download building permit and other application forms, and was told it would and that permits are already downloadable. The administrator said her ambition is a site that is accessible, easy to navigate and easy for each department to keep up to date, with the vendor providing the look and feel while the town controls content. A specific complaint was that the meetings tab and the videos are hard to find on the current site.

17. 31:39
    Wish-list items in the RFP

    The administrator had left several items in as a wish list rather than an expectation: mobile design, possibly an app, social media sharing, and a citizen request management system letting residents file complaints online. The town has no social media accounts yet and she doubted Durham was ready for all of it. The board suggested moving them into an explicitly optional section, priced separately, rather than deleting them.

18. 36:44
    Why the town wants credit cards

    The telecommunications committee has a $10,000 grant to spend and much of what it needs comes from Amazon and similar suppliers where no account can be opened. The road commissioner needs a card for the software used to plug the trucks in. The fire chief said he had to put a card down to get a contractor to do generator work at the community center and to get a service company out to Truck 24.

19. 42:04
    Departmental cards, limits and invoices

    The view was that each department should have its own card, with limits for anyone beyond a department head. The fire chief said arrangements had until now been verbal, that the department's existing Bank of America card has no rewards, and that combined invoices are hard to split by department; the town's Verizon cell phone bill was cited as a case where separation was promised repeatedly and never delivered. He also noted the two-week meeting cycle makes it hard to get payment authorised inside a billing cycle.

20. 42:04
    Choosing between cards

    None of the cards considered carries an annual fee, and there is no interest if the balance is cleared in time. The Chase card pays 5 percent back on items such as cell phone bills and more at high spending levels; the Capital One card pays a flat one and a half percent, which the administrator preferred given the town's likely spending. A suggestion to check local banks and credit unions was noted, with the board agreeing the administrator could come back if she found something better.

21. 47:18
    What to do with the cash back

    The administrator asked that cash back rewards be used for employee incentives or gatherings, on the basis that it costs taxpayers nothing. Members asked whether that needs to go before the taxpayers, since the rewards are earned on public spending but have not been appropriated, and suggested holding the money for the year and adding a budget line to appropriate it. There was also a suggestion to spread it across departments.

22. 47:18
    Code enforcement report

    The code officer was absent but had submitted a report. He is working with Mike Copp (?) on improvements to the offices. An appeal held in superior court has been sent back to the appeals board, and the board's reading was that the appeals board had not done anything wrong and the court simply exercised its prerogative. A blocked urinal drain at the office is being worked on, and mitigation work is to be handled by a contractor whose name is garbled in the recording.

23. 47:18
    Fire chief: apparatus testing

    Ladder testing was carried out on 21 and 22 September with no number one repairs, meaning nothing that takes a truck out of service. There was one number two repair, the remote operation of the platform nozzle, and a few number three repairs which have been sent to Northeast for a schedule and will be done together. Rescue 25 was inspected on the 22nd and passed its state inspection.

24. 47:18
    Station concrete work

    There has been no word back on the Homeland Security grant. Tiger Concrete has cut the paving in front of the bay doors and the bollards and sonotubes are back, with the excavation still to be scheduled. Once digging starts, three trucks will have to be stored elsewhere and the rest shuffled from bay to bay as the work moves across; the chief expected at least one section poured before the next meeting.

25. 52:35
    Catch basin at the station

    The cover crossing the road is rotted out and the basin was full of water. Replacing the tile, frame and cover was put at about $300 against roughly $3,500 to have the paving contractor rebuild it, and the drain has nowhere better to go without crossing Route 9. DOT has been replacing culverts on Route 9 in Pownal but the road commissioner said they told him they would not touch this one, calling it a sketchy situation. The basin has been there since the 1970s and the culvert was originally the state's.

26. 52:35
    Striping quote for the station

    The fire chief brought a quote from the paving contractor for striping the station parking spaces and the backing lines into the bays, to be done once the paving is complete, and asked the board to approve it so the work can follow on.

27. 58:06
    Whether to seek other striping prices

    The chief had only the one quote and nothing to compare it against, and the board noted the paving contractor subcontracts the striping anyway. Suggestions included a local contractor who used to do it, borrowing a striping machine from Lisbon, renting a machine, or the road commissioner doing it. The town office lot also needs striping badly, and the chief was asked to price both.

28. 58:06
    Station floor and the labour inspection

    The flooring contractor cannot start before December; the chief asked for the first week so he could clear the invoice, and the board confirmed the work can be encumbered so an invoice arriving in January still falls on this year's budget. His Department of Labor SHAPE inspection is on 28 November and Risk Services has already written the floor up, so he expects the same finding, though the programme allows time to correct defects before re-inspection.

29. 58:06
    Dry hydrants and the station pond

    The chief and road commissioner were to meet to look at the Rabbit Road and Beaver Woods dry hydrants, one of which needs raising and the other putting back in service. The pond at the station has grown in with alders to the point that it was hard to find, and someone is coming in to cut it out, leaving small brush piles; the chief noted his impounded ponds tend to fill in with cattails over five to ten years.

30. 1:03:59
    Assistant chief position and fire prevention week

    The assistant chief and assistant EMA director position was posted at the station on the Monday, with written letters of interest rather than resumes due by 16 October; the chief said he was not certain anyone would apply. Fire prevention week runs 9 to 15 October, with grades K to four visiting on the Wednesday and Thursday for stop-drop-and-roll and 911 presentations.

31. 1:03:59
    Recruitment notice

    The chief proposed a public service announcement combining a recruitment appeal with telling residents the station is short of staff, to go on the town channel, the town website, the department website and possibly the Tri-Town newspaper. An insert was discussed at about $150 for the paper plus the cost of printing 1,500 copies. Timing was debated ahead of the 24 October event, with the view that about a week to a week and a half's notice works best.

32. 1:09:11
    Stop-ahead pavement markings

    The road commissioner brought a DOT diagram, noting that the only thing worse than poor signage is improperly placed signage. He wants eight-foot stencils and a white bar across the pavement so drivers see something different in new black pavement where side roads meet Route 9, following what was done at Elmwood Road. He had called a sign company for prices, and said owning the stencils would let the town do Rabbit Road, Quaker Meeting House and other approaches.

33. 1:09:11
    Where the accidents happen

    Members said the worst intersection used to be Route 125 at Quaker Meeting House until a blinking light and advance warnings were installed. The fire chief said accident reports track rush hour closely, roughly 6:30 to 8:30 in the morning and 4 to 6 in the evening.

34. 1:14:47
    Recent accidents on that stretch

    Two weeks earlier a vehicle went off the road just before the intersection and a helicopter was called, and in the same week there was a two-car accident at Route 136 and Rabbit Road. A couple of years ago there were accidents at successive intersections within two hours, two involving extrication. The view was that these are inattention rather than speed on a straight through-route from Gray to Brunswick used mainly by non-local drivers, and that the state is running its own internal review of a flashing light.

35. 1:14:47
    New Welcome to Durham sign

    A design was circulated. One member suggested dropping the town seal, which is too busy to read at speed, moving the name up and adding the incorporation date the way Lisbon does. DOT has given final approval through its various departments, and the code officer said the sign meets the ordinance. The sign was put at $2,200 with granite posts at $130 each, $260 for the pair.

36. 1:19:58
    Sign details and more signs later

    The brackets were said not to rust and the sign is carved red cedar rather than painted. Members raised doing similar signs over time at Route 125 and Route 136 at the Freeport line and Route 136 at the Auburn line, accepting that they could not all be done in one year, and discussed and set aside a planter because of who would water it.

37. 1:19:58
    Road commissioner: ditching and driveway aprons

    Ditching is ongoing and driveway aprons cut back for paving have been shimmed with reclaim and brought back to a plowable grade. A few that the contractor paved were left an inch and a half low and need a shim.

38. 1:19:58
    Whether to surface Rabbit Road this year

    The road commissioner recommended leaving the surface coat until next year, on the ground that other towns including Lisbon are waiting and that it is better to let the road go through a frost season and settle. The counter-argument was the risk of petroleum prices rising, though the Crooker contract carries escalators so an increase would be passed on. He undertook to bring scenarios to the next meeting showing what a price rise would mean.

39. 1:25:10
    New plow truck, winter readiness and flaggers

    The new plow truck arrived that day and the old plates were transferred; the road commissioner made sure the dealership would take its name off the door. The trucks are ready for winter. Flaggers have become hard to get, so the crew is using one contracted flagger plus radios, as it did the previous week.

40. 1:25:10
    Roof quote

    The roof quote came in at $29,000 after the contractor came down about $900 against the per square foot figure the town had used, and would have been closer to $30,000 otherwise. The contractor's references, including schools he has worked for, all checked out.

41. 1:25:10
    Culverts and the stream crossing grant

    An engineer's report covers culverts where holes are developing in the road, with replacement recommended within two years and the first two the worst; the road commissioner said there is effectively no bottom left in them. A stream smart open-bottom crossing was priced at $90,944, against roughly $50,000 to have a conventional replacement done by a contractor or about $19,850 for the town crew to do it, and a grant could pay $90,000 to $95,000 with no local match. Slip lining was ruled out because it is only worthwhile with seven or eight feet of cover.

42. 1:30:19
    Applying for the grant and budgeting either way

    DEP has rated the culvert a 50 percent block to fish passage, which scores well, and the engineer's note indicates the next application round is likely this autumn. The road commissioner intends to apply and see what happens, but wants the town to budget for the work anyway, warning that a big rain event could take the gravel around the pipe and leave an open road that has to be fixed.

43. 1:30:19
    Other road work and the gasoline follow-up

    Roads have been paved, and Brown Road and Lawrence Road are torn up with new pipes going in. Returning to the fuel question, the road commissioner said the crew keeps a sheet recording mileage, date, who fuelled and which vehicle, and he would add those up against the delivery figures. He noted the one-ton has been used heavily for shimming driveway ends.

44. 1:30:19
    Town administrator's report

    The administrator was at the MMA conference on the Wednesday and Thursday and asked to be reached by cell phone. She reported the bond work going well and that the town looks likely to get a good rate.

45. 1:35:22
    Generator repair and a mailing list

    The board asked whether the community center generator repair had been paid for, what had been replaced and whether it works; it cycles weekly and has been heard running, but nobody was sure it had been tested under load. A member asked whether the town can produce a mailing list of addresses that does not send duplicates to people owning several properties, for the comprehensive plan questionnaire; the answer was that one could be sorted. Roughly 1,600 mailing addresses were cited against a population of about 3,300.

46. 1:35:22
    Upcoming meetings

    Regular selectmen's meetings were announced for Tuesday 18 October and Tuesday 1 November at 6:30 p.m., and the town office will be closed on Monday 10 October for Columbus Day.

What was decided

• 16:11
  No decision was made on hiring a police detail for the polls. The town clerk was asked to bring a costed proposal, showing where the funds would come from, to the next meeting, with a comparison against what the state police might provide that month.tabled
• 26:38
  Set the 1 November meeting, at 6:30 p.m., to review the two solid waste and recycling bids, with both bidders to be notified so they can attend. Nothing can be accepted until town meeting; the board is choosing what to put forward. Agreed in discussion, no motion made.passed
• 31:39
  Approve the consent agenda as presented, with the understanding that more information on the gasoline used by public works will be provided. The town's minutes record it as moved by Sarah Hall, seconded by Michael Stewart, carried 4-0.passed
• 36:44
  Put out the request for proposals for web design, with the mobile, app, social media and citizen request management items separated into an optional section and priced separately. The town's minutes record it as moved by Sarah Hall, seconded by Mark Blake, carried 4-0.passed
• 42:04
  Accept the credit card policy as presented. The town's minutes record it as moved by Sarah Hall, seconded by Mark Blake, carried 4-0.passed
• 42:04
  Go with the Capital One Spark Business card on the town administrator's recommendation, on the understanding that she can come back to the board if a local bank or credit union turns out to offer something better. The town's minutes record it as moved by Michael Stewart, seconded by Mark Blake, carried 4-0.passed
• 47:18
  Whether the card's cash back rewards can be spent on employee incentives without going before the taxpayers was left open. The suggestion was to hold the money through the year and add a budget line so it can be appropriated, and the chair said it would be addressed later.tabled
• 52:35
  Repair the station catch basin cheaply, putting it back the way it was with a new tile, frame and cover at around $300, rather than having the paving contractor rebuild it. Agreed in discussion; no motion was made.passed
• 58:06
  Approve up to $900.00 for striping at the fire station, with the chief to look for one or two other prices and to see whether both the station and the town office lot can be done within the same figure. The town's minutes record it as moved by Mark Blake, seconded by Michael Stewart, carried 4-0.passed
• 1:19:58
  No decision was taken on whether to put the surface coat on Rabbit Road this year. The road commissioner recommended waiting until next year and one member said he agreed with that reasoning, but he undertook to bring cost scenarios to the next meeting before the board settles it.tabled
• 1:35:22
  Adjourn. The town's minutes record it as moved by Michael Stewart, seconded by Mark Blake, carried 4-0, at 8:05 p.m.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 select_board_minutes_10-4-20161.txt. It owes nothing to the recording or to a model: the clerk typed it, with the vote. Where the summary above claims a decision this list does not carry, the summary is the part to doubt.

• approve the Consent Agenda with the understanding more information on gasoline usage is neededcarried 4-0

  Moved by Sarah Hall, seconded by Michael Stewart

• put out the RFP for Web Designcarried 4-0

  Moved by Sarah Hall, seconded by Mark Blake

• accept the Credit Card Policy as presentedcarried 4-0

  Moved by Sarah Hall, seconded by Mark Blake

• go with Capital One Spark Business Card per AA/TA Glaeser's recommendationcarried 4-0

  Moved by Michael Stewart, seconded by Mark Blake

• approve up to $900.00 for striping at the stationcarried 4-0

  Moved by Mark Blake, seconded by Michael Stewart

• Adjourn at 8:05 p.mcarried 4-0

  Moved by Michael Stewart, seconded by Mark Blake

Worth knowing

• 10:57
  The sheriff's six-month summary showed 90 motor vehicle accidents, which a board member noted would be roughly one every other day if the year ran at the same rate. The sheriff said Durham attracts cars off the road in snowstorms and that its daytime call volume is higher than at night, which he put down to a large commuting population.
• 16:11
  A police detail at the polls would cost $49 an hour with a mandatory four-hour minimum, about $200 for a 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. stretch. The sheriff said it would probably be cost prohibitive and that neither Durham nor anywhere else he knew of had a record of trouble at the polls.
• 21:24
  The challenger's solid waste bid is $187,000 flat in each of three years, covering curbside collection for about 1,648 households, and states that its banker will fund a new compacting truck only on acceptance of the contract. The board can put a bid to town meeting but cannot accept one before then.
• 1:25:10
  An engineer says two culverts need replacing within two years and holes are already opening in the road. A stream smart open-bottom crossing was priced at $90,944, against roughly $50,000 to have a conventional replacement contracted out or about $19,850 for the town crew, and a grant could cover $90,000 to $95,000 with no local match.

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 11 decisions summarised.

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