Androscoggin CountyMainePopulation 4,262Sourced from U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2013-2024
Durham in Data

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Select Board Meeting ~ September 26, 2023

2023-09-26 · Select Board · 2:04:41 · watch on YouTube →

Select Board meeting of September 26, 2023, with Heather Roy excused. The board heard reports from road commissioner Calvin Beaumier and fire chief Rob Tripp, corrected the homestead reimbursement on the tax commitment after the assessing software was found to have used last year's 73 percent rate instead of 76 percent, worth about $12,000 more from the state, and sat as assessors to approve four abatements. The auditor presented the 2022 audit, which carried a clean opinion on the financial statements but a compliance finding for over-expenditure, a repeat material weakness on cash reconciliations and two significant deficiencies. Most of the meeting was taken up by an Efficiency Maine lighting grant, which had to be signed the next day and completed by February 28: members disagreed about approving a $73,547 project out of capital reserves without going through the CIP committee or out to bid, and after a first motion covering all four buildings the board carried a narrower motion covering the town hall and the community center only. It also appointed Mr. Philbrook as an alternate on the Board of Appeals, discussed what to do about a committee whose chair has resigned and whose members will not take the role, and noted that Durham had won first place in the 2023 annual report contest for its population category.

Who was there. The town's written minutes record these people present: Joe Tomm (Chairman), Richard George (Vice-Chair), Josh Klein-Golden, Joe Roy, Calvin Beaumier (Road Commissioner), Rob Tripp (Fire Chief), Jerry Douglass (Town Manager). Recorded absent: Heather Roy. Names in this summary are checked against that list.

What was discussed

  1. 7:31
    Call to order, agenda and public comment

    The chair called the meeting to order with a quorum and noted Heather Roy was excused. There were no amendments to the agenda and nobody spoke in public comment.

  2. 7:31
    Road commissioner's report

    Calvin Beaumier said Crooker has finished paving and the crew is working on driveway edges while waiting for the shoulders to be done. Centerline striping was done on Friday with Stackpole (?) added for 4.2 miles, but the contractor ran out of paint 4.2 miles short and returns on the 12th to finish that side of town. He also reported a request for a $150,000 reimbursement from DEP, shoulder work done on both sides while the road was closed, DOT assistance with traffic control at the Route 125 intersection, and his 2024 CIP applications submitted.

  3. 12:42
    Fire chief's report: events and open house

    Rob Tripp said the department was honoured by the town's support after posting the colors at a Portland Sea Dogs game, and that the honor guard is in contact with the Maine Mariners about posting the colors on a tentative date of Saturday December 16 at 6 pm. Fire prevention week runs October 9 to 14, the station open house is Saturday October 7 from 10 to 2, and the public education team visits the school on October 10.

  4. 12:42
    Call volume, staffing and grants

    Rob Tripp said subtropical storm Lee produced no 911 calls despite scattered power failures, and that call volume continues to run 20 percent above last year. Nighttime EMT coverage remains a problem, with only one provider besides himself living in town after six or seven moved away, while 30 percent of call volume falls after 7 pm; part-time EMTs and per diems including Bates College students cover daytime shifts. The Quint goes for preliminary inspection including a windshield cracked at a large fire, and the department is applying again for a recurring $5,000 Wildland gear grant.

  5. 18:03
    Questions on the increase in calls

    Board members asked what is driving the increase, whether it is traffic, population growth or aging in place, and asked for mutual aid given and received over the same period. Rob Tripp said last year's figures were 373 911 calls and 521 responses including 52 motor vehicle accidents, that the department responds to about 10 percent of the town's roughly 4,100 people each year, and that he had been budgeting for 5 percent growth against an actual 20 percent. He agreed to bring demographic and response breakdowns for budget season.

  6. 23:49
    Correction to the homestead reimbursement

    The town's assessing agent reported that at the time of commitment the Trio assessing software still held last year's 73 percent homestead reimbursement rather than this year's 76 percent, and she had not noticed. The correction means about $12,000 more coming from the state, and the board signed the corrected commitment papers; it was treated as clerical rather than requiring a vote.

  7. 23:49
    Assessor's session and the first abatement

    The board moved into assessor's session. The first abatement covered Map 8, Lots 67 and 67B, a property the assessing agent had treated as split because of an exception in the deed when the new owner in fact holds the whole parcel; the two assessments are abated and a single supplemental bill issued.

  8. 29:04
    Remaining abatements

    Three further abatements were taken: a homestead exemption applied for in time but not applied to the property; a trailer assessed as personal property at the campground which the owner had moved to Norway before April 1, where it was confirmed to be on April 1; and a property split in 2022 for Jonathan Benedict where the state Farmland classification did not follow the parcel, abated for both 2022 and 2023. The transcript gives the last as Map 8, Lot 56 A1, while the minutes record it as Account 2207.

  9. 34:57
    2022 audit: opinion and findings

    The auditor, named in the recording as Jennifer Connors (?), said fieldwork was the week of February 6 and the reports were issued on August 17, 2023, with an unmodified opinion meaning the financial statements are materially correct. Under government auditing standards the town received a compliance finding for budget over-expenditure, a material weakness on cash account reconciliations that repeats a 2021 comment, and significant deficiencies on segregation of duties and on preparation of financial statements and audit adjustments.

  10. 40:03
    Fund balance and budget variances

    Total general fund balance rose by about $481,000 over 2021, while unassigned fell because committed funds went from $842,000 to $955,000 and assigned from about $1.5 million to $2.5 million. Revenues came in about $396,000, or roughly 4 percent, over budget on vehicle excise, state revenue sharing and unbudgeted grants, with investment income under budget. Expenditures were about $535,000 under budget, with public safety over budget because of late vendor invoices and public works under budget on overtime and paving.

  11. 45:35
    Committed and restricted balances

    The auditor said tracking of the reserve amounts improved in 2022, with Jerry Douglass able to supply a completed table, and that writing the assigned revenues into a single warrant article made them easier to identify. Of the restricted balances, $13,242 sits in the general fund operating account, while the River Park project and scholarship funds are held in separate bank accounts.

  12. 51:05
    Operating cash position

    Operating cash rose by about $728,000 over the year, leaving about $381,000 available to cover bills as of December 31, 2022 where the equivalent figure a year earlier was a deficit. Once restricted and committed amounts are backed out of the cash balance, given in the recording as both $4.7 million and $4.8 million, about $3.8 million is actually available, which the auditor put at about five months of expenditures against a need of about seven and a quarter months.

  13. 51:05
    Whether the findings will be addressed

    Asked whether bringing in an outside accounting firm will resolve the findings other than the over-expenditure, the auditor said she would expect the material weakness and the significant deficiencies to be addressed. Members noted the town's small office and that the tax commitment timing has been eased by working with the RSU.

  14. 57:08
    Efficiency Maine lighting proposal

    Jerry Douglass explained that the grant requires one of Efficiency Maine's qualified contractors, so Enterprise Electric of Lisbon audited four buildings: the town office, Eureka, the fire station and public works. For the town office the estimate is $18,323 with an incentive of $3,036, a net cost of $15,287 and estimated annual energy savings of $1,770; across all four buildings the incentive is about $12,600 and the estimated electricity saving about $7,400 a year. He said the paperwork had to be signed the next day and the work completed by February 28, and that the only source of funds is the capital reserve accounts.

  15. 1:02:28
    Whether to bypass the CIP process

    Richard George said this is a large amount to commit without the CIP committee ranking it against other projects and without knowing next year's capital requests, and that the board would normally see something of this size in advance. Other members said the board is elected to make decisions in a timely way, that the grant window has effectively passed already, and that the reserve accounts exist so the town can take advantage of opportunities.

  16. 1:13:01
    Arguments for taking the grant

    Members argued electricity costs have risen faster than expected so the return improves over time, labour costs for this work will not fall, and the incentives tend to lag increases in labour cost. One member said the town has historically not put money into the capital reserve accounts and pays interest by borrowing instead, and that the lighting at the town office and Eureka is close to a public safety matter, particularly for the November election. The payback was quoted at 8.22 years.

  17. 1:18:16
    Bidding and policy

    A member asked what the work would cost without the grant if it went out to bid, and noted the town's practice of seeking multiple bids above a threshold. Jerry Douglass said that to get the incentive the town has to use a qualified contractor, that the board are trustees of money the voters have already placed in capital, and that it can authorise spending from capital in a meeting, though large purchases such as a truck have gone to town meeting by choice rather than requirement.

  18. 1:28:20
    Comparing the four buildings

    Members noted the reimbursement is not proportional across the buildings, with returns quoted at about 20 percent for the fire station, 16.5 percent for one building and about 12 percent for public works. It was suggested that if only part of the work were approved, the town hall and Eureka would be the buildings the public most directly uses, for voting and for Scouts.

  19. 1:39:18
    Motion on the full four-building project

    The motion put was to approve the Enterprise Electric estimate for Efficiency Maine lighting at the town hall, fire station, community center and public works for $73,547, with $12,688 coming back from Efficiency Maine and $60,859 out of pocket, amended so that the figure approved is the full $73,547. The chair called for those in favour and opposed; the result is not audible in the recording.

  20. 1:44:41
    Narrower motion on two buildings

    A second motion was made to approve the work at the town hall and the community center only, or to ask the contractor to consider that. The chair said the motion carries and then corrected the record to show the town hall and the community center were the buildings included.

  21. 1:44:41
    Appointment to the Board of Appeals

    Mr. Philbrook of 21 Sunset Lane put himself forward as an alternate on the Board of Appeals and was appointed.

  22. 1:50:08
    Committee without a chair

    Jerry Douglass reported that the chair of the historic district commission has resigned and the remaining members do not want the role, and that without a chair there are no meetings and no decisions. Members said that if the committee cannot fill the chair its duties may have to be distributed, and that updating the ordinances so the planning board has clear direction on historic properties would be the better route. George is to come to the next meeting, and in the meantime planning matters near the historic district would be referred to the town planner.

  23. 1:55:40
    Annual report award

    Jerry Douglass read a letter announcing Durham as first place winner of the 2023 annual report contest in the 2,500 to 5,000 population category. Kimberly and Jessica were credited for the work, alongside a plan of the year award.

  24. 2:01:09
    Consent agenda and upcoming meetings

    The board accepted the consent agenda, which the chair recorded as unanimous. Upcoming meetings were given as select board on October 10 and October 24 and planning board on October 6, with a meeting that had not worked out moved to October 23. No executive session was needed and a motion to adjourn followed.

What was decided

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 SB_Meeting_Minutes_09_26_23.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.

Where the minutes and the recording disagree

Two independent records exist for this meeting: the town's written minutes and the video. For the items below they do not agree, or neither one settles the question. Both accounts are given as they stand. This site has no standing to decide which is right (the minutes are the legal record, the recording is what happened in the room), so the conflict is stated rather than resolved, and nothing here says the town got anything wrong.

Worth knowing

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: 4 passages of motion language, against 11 decisions summarised.

Show the 4 passages

Elsewhere

← 2023-09-12 Select Board2023-10-10 Select Board →All meetings

Source & method

Town of Durham meeting recordings, YouTube auto-captions, and the town's written minutes
Captions cleaned into timestamped transcripts; topics and motions found by pattern matching; summaries written by a language model and required to cite the second each item begins. Every name attached to speech is checked against the attendance list in the minutes, and marked (?) where no record confirms it
https://www.youtube.com/@durhammaine/videos
Summary written by claude-opus-5. Attendance from SB_Meeting_Minutes_09_26_23.txt.
Data as of 25 August 2026 (the date of the newest recorded meeting in the index); retrieved 2 September 2026.