Select Board Meeting ~ August 8, 2017

2017-08-08 · Select Board · 2:07:16 · watch on YouTube →

A regular select board meeting with only Kevin Nadeau and Richard George present, Mark Blake and Rob Pontau absent. The board took two residents' drainage complaints in public comment, sat briefly as assessors to grant a tree growth penalty and an abatement, and heard Ruth Glaeser's half-year budget review with members of the budget committee present. It agreed on next steps toward a marijuana moratorium ordinance and a September public hearing, authorised advertising for a new animal control officer, granted a letter of no action for a Stackpole Road house that turned out to sit inside its setback, and approved a CMP pole permit. Fire chief William St. Michel reported that the station's dug well had failed the EPA test for E. coli and was told to try chlorination before the board considers paying for a drilled well. The meeting closed with a motion into executive session on fire department personnel.

What was discussed

1. 0:01
   Call to order and agenda amendments

   After the pledge, the agenda was amended to add item 6, an assessor's session covering a supplemental tree growth penalty and an abatement, and item 7G, a CMP pole permit request.

2. 0:01
   Public comment: Brown Road culvert

   Meredith Weaver of 28 Brown Road (?) said a culvert at the end of her driveway has been heaving for five years, that cars are bottoming out, and that she has been passed between towns and has had unanswered calls to Calvin. Her house is on the Pownal side but on the stretch of Brown Road that Durham maintains; three towns plow different sections of the road.

3. 5:10
   Who maintains which part of Brown Road; a second culvert request

   The board said research had already been done on the split when Pownal was rebuilding its portion, and that Weaver's stretch appears to be Durham's, so the responsibility is not in dispute: only the work. It promised to follow up with Calvin Beaumier and get back to her within a few days. Rebecca Straubler of 427 Runaround Pond Road then said her driveway has no culvert at all, leaving standing water and erosion beside the leach field that has gone from about six inches to about a foot.

4. 10:10
   Minutes and meeting videos not posted

   A resident said the most recent select board meeting on the website was from late May and asked why. The board said Shannon, who handles the postings, has been consumed by another job, that a replacement is being sought, and that a future agenda item will set expectations for how many days after a meeting minutes and video must be posted. Only one candidate had applied until the job was posted on Indeed; three or four promising resumes have since come in and interviews are being set up with Jeffrey Leighton for the following week.

5. 10:10
   Consent agenda and entry into assessor's session

   The consent agenda was moved and seconded. The board then moved into assessor's session, with the statutory citation to be looked up and added afterwards, on the explanation that acting as assessors requires a separate session from acting as selectmen.

6. 15:22
   Assessor's session: tree growth penalty and abatement

   A supplemental tree growth penalty of $152.32 was assessed on Map 14, Lot 6, where land is being withdrawn from tree growth classification. An abatement of $130.70 was granted on Map 1, Lot 69, which had been assessed at 10.3 acres but is actually 5 acres; the abatement covers this year only. The board then came out of assessor's session.

7. 15:22
   Half-year budget review

   Ruth Glaeser told the budget committee the town is on target on most lines. Elections may finish as much as $1,500 over budget; code enforcement expenses are well under because the CEO was only just hired, with an architect meeting on August 22 about the new office and a roof still to go out to bid. She explained the grant revenue and expense accounts, which opened the year a little over $12,000, took $10,000 raised at town meeting and $3,000 in grant payments, paid out just over $3,600, and should end the year around $22,800.

8. 20:35
   Fire per-diem staffing account and small budget corrections

   Account 42 was created to track the $60,000 voted at town meeting for per-diem staffing at the fire station; only about 9 percent has been spent because the money was not approved until April and weekend staffing is still being worked out. Glaeser explained she had transposed the electricity and flags-and-upkeep lines in the version the committee received. The flags line covered the war memorial park flags, help with an Eagle Scout path project and repairs to rotting gazebo posts, leaving about $400, with painting the gazebo still to do.

9. 20:35
   Road commissioner costs after Pownal withdrew

   When Pownal pulled out of the shared road commissioner agreement, Durham had to carry the whole cost for the second half of the year. The road commissioner salary will run a little over $47,000 against about $35,500 budgeted, and with FICA, Medicare, insurance, workers comp and telephone the shortage is about $16,000. Rather than hire another full-time public works employee as the budget assumed, the board has decided Calvin Beaumier will work as a working foreman, and the labor line's projected cushion of $37,861 will more than cover the gap.

10. 25:57
    Workers comp timing, flaggers and equipment shortages

    Workers comp lines running near 80 percent were explained as a timing artefact of paying four times a year. The traffic control line shows nothing spent only because bills have not been submitted; Beaumier said flaggers are increasingly hard to get, with none available today or tomorrow, and that a rental yard told him the machine he took yesterday was the last one they had.

11. 31:01
    Donations, the road bond and dispatch

    Organisations whose donation requests are approved at town meeting are not notified; they send an invoice, and Glaeser chases the ones that have not billed by about November. The public works capital line shows only 4.5 percent spent because the road bond pays half the interest in spring and the rest of the interest plus principal in the fall. No changes were made to dispatch arrangements and neither provider gave notice of a price increase; the county bills a single lump sum while Lisbon bills quarterly.

12. 36:19
    2020 Census local update of addresses

    The Census Bureau has asked the town to take part in LUCA, a voluntary program compiling local address data for the 2020 count. The board weighed the office time involved for roughly 1,600 households against the benefit for a town of about 3,500, noted that the TRIO assessing software could generate much of it, and raised confidentiality concerns about using volunteers. Glaeser agreed to ask Maine Municipal Association contacts at a convention that week for the pros and cons.

13. 41:45
    Marijuana ordinances and a possible moratorium

    The town has begun receiving inquiries about commercial marijuana operations, including one about putting up two buildings 25 feet by 150 feet for growing. The chair proposed having a moratorium ordinance drafted from the Maine Municipal Association template and vetted by the town lawyer, so that it is ready to go if the town needs to put the brakes on, rather than reacting later. Adopting it would require a special town meeting, or possibly a referendum.

14. 46:51
    Whether the moratorium belongs with the planning board

    A planning board representative questioned whether a moratorium fits the planning board's remit, since it is not a zoning ordinance. Glaeser offered to adapt the template herself and send it to the lawyer, noting the moratorium would run 180 days, during which the planning board would work out which zones, setbacks and odor provisions apply; state licences were expected around February 2018. The board agreed a public hearing around the middle of September would be better once people are back from summer, and better still if there is a draft ordinance for people to react to.

15. 52:00
    Animal control officer resignation

    The animal control officer resigned because his full-time job has taken precedence; the board noted he is staying on with Pownal, which is smaller and less busy. Members recalled that Durham had previously shared an ACO with Lisbon and went it alone to save money, and that the position has turned over repeatedly since. Glaeser said no bridges had been burned with Lisbon, which now serves several towns.

16. 57:20
    Reviving the conservation committee

    Glaeser presented a purpose statement and list of duties for a conservation committee, which currently has one member. The trails at Durham River Park, a joint effort with the Androscoggin Land Trust, are in disrepair, and at Runaround Pond Park the Royal River trust has acquired surrounding land, repaired old trails and run a cleanup that turned up trash and drug paraphernalia. Durham owns River Park and is steward of Runaround Pond Park under a lease from the state; public works mows the parks and collects trash weekly at Runaround Pond but does not maintain trail heads.

17. 1:02:37
    Volunteers rather than a committee, for now

    The chair said the draft duties read like a powerful oversight body rather than a group of volunteers to help with the trails, and questioned whether the town should invest in reviving the committee before the comprehensive planning process gives direction. Members suggested defining specific projects that Scout groups or students needing community service hours could take on, on the theory that people volunteer more readily for a Saturday than a three-year commitment. It was also noted that the rocks the board voted to place at the Runaround Pond parking lot have not been installed.

18. 1:07:56
    Letter of no action for a Stackpole Road house

    Jeffrey DeWitt explained that a house built to replace an old block house on a grandfathered sub-acre lot came to closing when a mortgage loan inspection moved the rear boundary in by about 10 feet, leaving one rear corner about 3.8 feet inside the required side setback. The buyers, a senior couple who moved from Florida to be near family and had the house tailored to them, have an occupancy permit but cannot close and are living in a camper. The surveyor's note records a deficiency of 10.10 feet against a deed calling for 200 feet, with the pins found measuring 189 feet.

19. 1:13:19
    The unreachable abutter and the surveying rule

    The owner of the neighbouring lot 30 lives in Vermont behind a post office box, and a neighbour said several people on Stackpole Road have tried to reach that owner for at least five years without success. It was explained that surveyors work to a rule that monumentation takes precedence over distance, so the found pins governed even though the surveyor noted they were lying down and even though the deed calls for 200 feet.

20. 1:18:50
    Options and whether the lawyer should review the letter

    DeWitt said he had worked through the options with the title company and the code officer, and that with the abutter unreachable a letter of no action was the route both recommended, backed by a letter from the title company and an affirmation from the bank. The chair said he had no philosophical objection but asked whether the town lawyer should review it first; it was noted that the previous board had signed one in March without review and that Douglas Title has done the area's title work for 40 years.

21. 1:24:05
    Letter of no action signed

    The letter drafted by the title company was moved, seconded and signed by the board members present.

22. 1:29:17
    CMP pole permit

    Central Maine Power asked for a permit to set a new pole to extend the line to the last few houses in a subdivision. Board members were unsure why a permit is needed when the subdivision plan should already carry an easement, but noted the poles are staked beside the road and in the right of way.

23. 1:29:17
    Fire station well fails the E. coli test

    Fire chief William St. Michel reported that this year's water test at the station failed the EPA primary test for E. coli bacteria. The supply is a dug well about 70 feet behind the station, which the capital plan had assumed would be replaced with a drilled well in another five to ten years. He said signs could be put up against drinking and cooking, but he is not comfortable asking crews to wash their hands there after a call.

24. 1:34:31
    Chlorination versus a drilled well

    Board members described the standard chlorination procedure (bleach into the well, run every line until it smells of bleach, leave overnight, then flush and retest) and urged trying that first as the cheap option. The chief said companies had told him E. coli also requires pumping the well out several times and scrubbing the walls, and that his own recommendation is ultimately to replace the well rather than spend money curing a dug well.

25. 1:39:38
    Interim water supply and capital funding for a well

    The board asked whether a temporary water source, such as a rented wash station, could cover the gap while the well is treated or a new one drilled. The chair said Glaeser had done the legwork and the board has the power to approve money from the fire department capital account to drill a well if needed.

26. 1:39:38
    Fire department report: apparatus committee and staffing

    The apparatus committee met two vendors in July, one for fire apparatus and one for rescue vehicles, and meets again this month with the aim of having recommendations formed. Per-diem weekend shifts are planned to open in September, since evenings are being filled by stipend volunteers but weekend days are not. An aerial operations class runs August 24 to September 19, NIMS 402 is at the station on August 15 at 6:30, and two advanced fire officer classes may follow in late fall or early winter.

27. 1:45:22
    Apparatus maintenance

    Pump maintenance and pump testing were completed; a governor issue on one engine was corrected and another needs rebuild kits on four valves. Rescue 25 had air conditioning work and a vacuum pump control sent to Casco Bay, where an oil leak was traced; at about $8,000 to repair and with the rescue next up for replacement, the department will live with the leak. Truck 24 goes out for annual service and all ladders will be tested in late September or October.

28. 1:45:22
    Administrator report and upcoming meetings

    Glaeser said she would be at the town managers' annual conference Wednesday through Friday but reachable by email. The next regular select board meetings were announced for Tuesday, August 22 and Tuesday, September 5, both at 6:30 p.m. at the town office.

29. 1:51:06
    Road commissioner report: drainage request on Pond Road

    New owners of a house on the road asked for a culvert and a ditch across the front of their yard. Beaumier said the water has run the same way for as long as the road has existed, that a ditch would send it to the downhill neighbour faster rather than through the woods, and that the reconstruction did not touch that section or change any culvert. He also said the work would mean removing the owners' ornamental stone wall.

30. 1:51:06
    What will be done about the Brown Road culvert

    Beaumier said a proper fix would need major construction and taking down large trees, so his plan is to lay cold mix and feather the hump back to the driveway to relieve it, and that it is on the list for this year. He said he had discussed this with Weaver and her husband and understood she would be satisfied with it.

31. 1:56:12
    Why Durham maintains part of a Pownal resident's road

    Asked why the town fixes the driveway end of a Pownal taxpayer, Beaumier said a court case set the split. He found the court documents while working out who paid for what when Brown Road was rebuilt: Pownal takes the stretch from Route 9 to a described landmark and Durham from there to the Freeport monument, rather than the town line running down the centre of the road. He said the same confusion arises on a road shared with North Yarmouth.

32. 1:56:12
    Money left over from the road bond

    Beaumier said roughly $55,000 will be left when the bond paving is finished, against about $75,000 to $80,000 needed to fix Bowie Hill Road as he had promised. He asked the board to start thinking about whether to put it into Bowie Hill Road, another road such as Brickyard Hill, or return it. The chair gave his personal view that since voters approved the money, spending it on roads is fine, and asked Beaumier to come back with a specific proposal and firmer numbers.

33. 2:01:38
    Grant-funded culvert slips to next spring; paving schedule

    The Army Corps of Engineers set an October 2 cut-off that the project cannot meet, because the culvert now carries a six-week lead time rather than the usual two, so the work moves to next spring. The board discussed whether the town's share, which expires December 31, could be encumbered if the work is contractually obligated, and noted the grant funds run two years. Beaumier also reported that Stackpole Road driveway aprons will be shimmed after the chip seal, along with Cedar Pond and Country Lane, this year rather than next, and it was suggested the schedule be posted on the website.

34. 2:06:42
    Executive session

    The chair moved the board into executive session under 1 M.R.S.A. 405(6)(A) on fire department personnel. The recording ends there.

What was decided

• 10:10
  Motion to approve the consent agenda, moved and seconded. The recording carries the call for a vote but no stated result.outcome unclear
• 10:10
  Move the board into assessor's session pursuant to Title 36 M.R.S.A. 841, at 6:45 p.m. Moved by Kevin Nadeau; the minutes record it carried 3-0.passed
• 15:22
  Grant a supplemental tax warrant for a tree growth penalty of $152.32 on Map 14, Lot 6, on land being withdrawn from tree growth classification, issued to William Hotham, Jr. Moved by Kevin Nadeau; the minutes record it carried 3-0.passed
• 15:22
  Grant an abatement of $130.70 on Map 1, Lot 69, assessed at 10.3 acres when the parcel is 5 acres, pursuant to Title 36 M.R.S.A. 841. Moved by Kevin Nadeau and seconded by Richard George; the minutes record it carried 3-0.passed
• 15:22
  Move the board out of assessor's session, at 7:52 p.m. Moved by Kevin Nadeau; the minutes record it carried 3-0.passed
• 36:19
  No commitment was made on the census LUCA program. The board held it pending advice from the Maine Municipal Association and from other towns, which Ruth Glaeser agreed to seek at a conference that week.tabled
• 46:51
  The board agreed on next steps on marijuana: Ruth Glaeser will adapt the Maine Municipal Association moratorium template into a Durham draft and send it to the town lawyer, ask the lawyer whether it could go to a November referendum or must go to a town meeting, and a public hearing be scheduled for around the middle of September.passed
• 52:00
  Allow the AA/TA to advertise and post the animal control officer opening in the usual manner, and also check with Lisbon and other towns about a shared arrangement. Moved by Kevin Nadeau and seconded by Richard George; the minutes record it carried 3-0.passed
• 1:02:37
  The chair said the board should NOT move forward at this time with formally creating a conservation committee, and asked that it be held for a month or a couple of meetings until Mark Blake and Rob Pontau are back, possibly with a workshop first.tabled
• 1:24:05
  Accept the letter drafted by the title company as presented and approve the letter of no action for the Stackpole Road property. Moved by Richard George; the minutes record it carried 3-0.passed
• 1:29:17
  Grant a permit to allow Central Maine Power to plant a new pole, number 13. Moved by Richard George; the minutes record it carried 3-0.passed
• 1:34:31
  The board agreed the fire chief should try chlorinating the station well and retest before any money is spent on a drilled well, and noted it has the authority to release fire department capital funds for a drilled well if chlorination fails.passed
• 1:51:06
  The board agreed NOT to install the requested culvert and roadside ditch on the Pond Road property at this time, and asked Calvin Beaumier to follow up with the owners and explain why.passed
• 2:06:42
  Move the board into executive session pursuant to 1 M.R.S.A. 405(6)(A), personnel, fire department, at 8:37 p.m. Moved by Kevin Nadeau and seconded by Richard George; the minutes record it carried 3-0.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 minutes_2017_8-8.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.

• the Board into Assessor's Session pursuant to Title #36 M.R.S.A., ss. 841 at 6:45 p.mcarried 3-0

  Moved by Kevin Nadeau, no seconder recorded

• Grant a supplemental tax warrant issued to William Hotham, Jr., in the amount of $152.32 for his request to withdraw 4.76 acres from the tree growth program and issue a supplemental tax bill by virtue of Title #36 M.R.S.…carried 3-0

  Moved by Kevin Nadeau, no seconder recorded

• Grant an Abatement request from Donna Hays, CMA pursuant to Title #36, M.R.S.A., ss. 841, for Map #1, Lot #69 in the amount of $130.07 to Meghan Pottle as the property had been assessed for 10.3 acres and the lot is actu…carried 3-0

  Moved by Kevin Nadeau, seconded by Richard George

• the Board out of Assessor's Session at 7:52 p.mcarried 3-0

  Moved by Kevin Nadeau, no seconder recorded

• allow the AA/TA to advertise and post ACO job openings in the usual mannercarried 3-0

  Moved by Kevin Nadeau, seconded by Richard George

• accept the letter drafted by the Title Company as presentedcarried 3-0

  Moved by Richard George, no seconder recorded

• Grant a permit to allow CMP to plant a new pole, #13, oncarried 3-0

  Moved by Richard George, no seconder recorded

• the Board into Executive Session pursuant to Title #1, M.R.S.A. ss. 405(6)(A) – Personnel – Fire Department at 8:37 p.m. preceded by a brief recesscarried 3-0

  Moved by Kevin Nadeau, seconded by Richard George

• Adjourn at 9:28 p.mcarried 3-0

  Moved by Richard George, no seconder recorded

Worth knowing

• 20:35
  Pownal's withdrawal from the shared road commissioner agreement left Durham about $16,000 short on road commissioner costs for the year: a salary of a little over $47,000 against about $35,500 budgeted, plus payroll costs. Rather than hire the additional full-time public works employee the budget assumed, the board has made Calvin Beaumier a working foreman and will absorb the gap from a $37,861 cushion in the labor line.
• 1:29:17
  The fire station's dug well failed the EPA primary test for E. coli. The chief said he would not ask crews to wash their hands there coming back from a rescue call, and the board has the power to release fire department capital money for a drilled well if chlorination does not clear it.
• 10:10
  Select board videos and minutes had not been posted to the town website since about the end of May, because the contractor who does it has been consumed by another job. The board said it will set deadlines for posting both, and is interviewing replacements after re-advertising the position.
• 41:45
  The town has begun getting commercial marijuana inquiries, including one about erecting two buildings 25 feet by 150 feet for growing, with no ordinance on the books to control the use beyond a conditional use permit. State licences were expected from about February 2018.

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 14 decisions summarised.

Elsewhere

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