Select Board Meeting ~ October 17, 2017

2017-10-17 · Select Board · 2:22:19 · watch on YouTube →

A regular Select Board meeting with Kevin Nadeau, Mark Blake and Richard George present; Todd Beaulieu and Rob Pontau were absent. Two long presentations took up most of the evening: John Carroll of CMP and Avangrid on the New England Clean Energy Connect and the companion Maine Clean Power Connection, which would rebuild about five miles of transmission line on the west side of Durham, and Paul, a former New Gloucester town manager, on how to set up a capital improvement program, which Durham does not have. The board took no position on CMP's request for a letter of support, asking instead for sample letters so the town administrator could draft one for the full board to review at a later meeting. Routine business included appointing Paige Atherton (?) to the historic district commission, swearing in Robert Forest as code enforcement officer, building inspector and electrical inspector, accepting the winter sand bid from Albert Blackstone Jr. Excavation, and letting two video and cable subscriptions lapse. Hunter Howe was given a certificate of appreciation for his Eagle Scout project on the war memorial walkway. The recording ends as the board moves to go into executive session on a public works personnel matter; the town's written minutes record that it then promoted Carl Schaeffer to mechanic at $18.00 per hour.

What was discussed

1. 0:11
   Call to order, agenda amendments and public comment

   The meeting opened with the Pledge of Allegiance. Items 7F, 7G, 7H and 8A had been added to the agenda before the meeting; no further amendments were offered. Nobody came forward for public comment, the chair noting that everyone in the room was already on the agenda.

2. 0:11
   CMP on the New England grid and the Massachusetts RFP

   John Carroll, who does government communications for CMP and Avangrid, introduced himself and described New England's growing dependence on natural gas, which he put at 55 to 60 percent of generation on most days. Massachusetts had directed its utilities to seek 1,200 megawatts of capacity and 9.45 terawatt hours a year of clean energy, which he said is about 10 percent of all the electricity produced in New England in 2016.

3. 6:01
   CMP's bids and the western Maine corridor

   Forty-six proposals were submitted in response to the March request for proposals and CMP put in five of them; a decision was expected on 25 January 2018. CMP had quietly bought a 50-mile greenfield corridor from four landowners running from its existing system to the Canadian border.

4. 11:27
   What the project would mean in Durham

   Both versions of the project would involve rebuilding two lines that run through Durham, which CMP calls sections 62 and 64, as 115,000-volt lines. About five miles of line in town would be taken out and rebuilt; Carroll said the corridor would not be widened and no new lines added.

5. 11:27
   Benefits claimed for Maine

   Carroll put the effect on future prices at about $3.9 billion across New England over the 20-year contract and about $45 million a year for Maine consumers. He also cited an average of about 1,700 construction jobs a year over a four to five year build, peaking at 3,300 to 3,400, and roughly $18 million a year in new tax revenue spread across host communities.

6. 16:30
   Who pays, and permitting status

   Asked whether the power would in effect be owned by Massachusetts, Carroll said Massachusetts customers buy it but the energy goes onto the regional grid, and that there would be no cost to Maine ratepayers. CMP had filed its state, Army Corps, Public Utilities Commission and presidential permits, and the DEP had accepted the application as complete the previous Friday, starting a 185-day clock.

7. 16:30
   Competing projects and price

   Carroll named Northern Pass, which he said had been trying to permit for seven years, and TDI's submarine cable under Lake Champlain. He put Northern Pass at $1.6 billion, TDI at $1.6 to $1.8 billion and a New Brunswick to Boston submarine cable at $2 billion, and said CMP's bid was hundreds of millions less than any of them.

8. 22:08
   The ask: a letter of support

   Carroll asked the board for a letter of support to attach to CMP's periodic filings, said at least a dozen towns had provided one, and offered to send drafts and samples. He said the letter would commit the town to nothing and would not let CMP bypass local ordinances or permitting.

9. 27:22
   Route through Durham and visual change

   The corridor runs about five miles north-south on the west side of town, crossing Stackpole Road and the Auburn Pownal Road among others. The main objection Carroll anticipated was height: existing H-frames of roughly 45 to 55 feet would be replaced by single monopoles in the 75 to 80 foot range.

10. 32:23
    Electromagnetic fields and line noise

    A board member pressed on whether adding that much power means more electromagnetic field. Carroll said the studies had not been done yet, that they would form part of the permitting review, and that levels on the 115,000-volt sections would rise only while another component such as the 345,000-volt line was out of service. He said the 345 line is the one people occasionally hear buzzing and that replacing the smaller lines was unlikely to add noise.

11. 37:34
    Sensitive stretches of the route

    Carroll described about 20 miles between Coburn Mountain and the Appalachian Trail as the hardest part of the route, including crossing Moxie Stream and the Kennebec Gorge. CMP was looking at going under the Kennebec, which he called very expensive, because rafters felt strongly about the view.

12. 37:34
    Eagle Scout recognition for Hunter Howe

    The board presented Hunter Howe with a certificate of appreciation for his Eagle Scout project on the war memorial walkway and flagpoles, and signed his final report. He raised $975 for the work and the town's own expense was under $300.

13. 42:41
    Why the town is looking at a capital improvement program

    Paul, a former town manager of New Gloucester, was asked to explain what a capital improvement program involves. The chair said questions from residents at the April town meeting about replacement schedules and capital plans had shown the town has no comprehensive CIP, though the fire department and public works keep their own replacement schedules. Paul (?) told the board up front he would not chair such a committee.

14. 47:44
    A committee separate from the budget committee

    Paul (?) said the process matters as much for building public understanding as for prioritising, because projects get vetted in open committee meetings before town meeting. He recommended a CIP committee separate from the budget committee, with a selectman and one or two budget committee members on it, and told the board not to expect a ranked list ready for this year's town meeting.

15. 52:58
    Writing a CIP policy

    The first step is a policy or handbook covering scoring and process steps, which Paul (?) said can largely be borrowed from other towns. He warned that New Gloucester appended its CIP to the comprehensive plan, so any change requires a comp plan amendment, and suggested asking the town attorney whether Durham's policy needs approval by the legislative body. Three form templates are needed: the request form, the replacement schedules and the five-year plan.

16. 58:10
    How requests move through the process

    Requests come in two kinds: money into a reserve for a purchase several years out, and money for a project in the coming year. The manager meets each department head to test need against want, assembles the five-year plan, and brings it to the selectmen roughly six or seven months before town meeting, where the board can decline to move an application forward.

17. 1:03:20
    Notebook, committee meetings, scoring and ranking

    Staff assemble a CIP notebook holding the handbook, five-year plan, pavement management plan, replacement schedules and each department's requests. The committee questions department heads over about four meetings, members then score each request against set criteria, and a fifth meeting accepts the ranking, which goes to the selectmen and the budget committee.

18. 1:08:31
    No cherry-picking from the ranked list

    Paul (?) said the board can draw a line partway down the ranking, or fund an item at less than requested, but should not skip an item to fund one below it. Each surviving item goes on the warrant as a separate article, so voters can pick and choose even though the board does not.

19. 1:13:47
    Paving kept outside the ranking

    Paving is usually excluded from CIP scoring but the paving schedule is published alongside it so residents can see when their road comes up. Asked about maintenance paving versus full rebuilds, Paul (?) suggested separate maintenance and generic road reconstruction accounts, and said the largest rebuilds normally need a bond, TIF money or a special town meeting.

20. 1:18:50
    Departmental reserves and unspent operating money

    Asked whether it is normal for unspent operating funds from fire and public works to go into those departments' reserve accounts rather than back to the undesignated fund, Paul (?) said he thought it unconventional and that he is not a fan of it, though he added the board need not change it if it works.

21. 1:23:57
    Undesignated fund balance

    Paul (?) said New Gloucester put back somewhere between $150,000 and $300,000 a year, which is how a rainy day balance gets built. Board members said Durham had drawn on undesignated funds for years to hold the tax rate down, leaving the balance significantly lower than it should be, that the auditor requires three to four months of operating funds on hand, and that nothing had been taken out for about the last three years.

22. 1:23:57
    Planning services

    The chair said his research had convinced him planning and code enforcement are different skill sets that one person cannot realistically cover, and that the planning board had gone a long time without any planning resource. He wanted the full board to consider contracting for planning services and possibly including it in the 2018 budget request.

23. 1:29:29
    Town pole permit

    Calvin Beaumier explained that a new house going up on the Auburn Pownal Road near the Auburn town line needs a roadside pole to bring power in. It is outside the shoreland zone and the utility already has a blanket easement through the town, so the board only has to sign the permit.

24. 1:29:29
    Two expiring subscriptions

    Tammy Quimby reported that two subscriptions expired on the 20th. One held the older meeting videos online, now largely superseded by Town Hall Streams; the other, Total Info, supplies the weather and this-day-in-history filler slides on cable channel 13. The telecommunications committee had suggested dropping both.

25. 1:34:41
    Cost of the subscriptions and access to old recordings

    Total Info was quoted at $950 a year and the video service at about $1,970. The board was satisfied that roughly a year of meetings would stay on Town Hall Streams and that residents could request a copy of anything older, with Tammy Quimby suggesting a request form on the website.

26. 1:34:41
    Oaths for the new code enforcement officer

    Two oaths had been prepared for Robert Forest. One covers code enforcement officer, building inspector and electrical inspector; the second, for licensed plumbing inspector, was held back because the training must be completed before appointment and the town was waiting to hear whether that would be waived. Calvin Beaumier continues to do plumbing inspections in the meantime.

27. 1:39:42
    Fire chief and EMA director job posting

    The posting had been changed from requiring a candidate to live within 20 miles to within 5 miles of the town boundary. Board members said 5 miles would narrow the pool too far, and one said changes should not be made on the fire chief's input alone without going through the board first.

28. 1:44:46
    Road commissioner's report

    Calvin Beaumier reported driveway culverts and cross pipes replaced, trees cut and the road widened on one road, and that the crew had spent the day in class. The paving contractor had told him liquid asphalt injection was no longer permitted after 15 September, so the job would switch to cement reclamation and was waiting on the cement supplier to come back.

29. 1:44:46
    Winter sand bids opened

    Sealed bids for winter sand were opened by the road commissioner and the town administrator. The low bid came from a pit in Durham; Calvin Beaumier said he had sampled the sand and wanted sharp, gritty, well-draining sand rather than fine material, and that this met it. He noted Portland Sand and Gravel had raised its price by about $2 a yard once it had to bid.

30. 1:49:48
    Picking the sand up versus having it delivered

    Delivery was quoted at 7.50 a yard, about a dollar fifty a yard more than collecting it. Several board members argued the town cannot run a truck and a driver for that, while the road commissioner wanted to control the pace because the sand has to be mixed with salt as it is stacked.

31. 1:54:58
    Road striping and warning signs

    Striping was completed from the Brunswick town line to the Pownal town line, drawing positive emails, and orange reflective warning signs were installed on the stop-ahead and stop signs along that corridor. A board member said the stop-ahead sign coming from Runaround Pond towards Route 9 sits too close to the stop sign; the road commissioner said he would check it against the setback distance while stencilling the following day.

32. 1:54:58
    Public works odds and ends and winter readiness

    The deck staining was finished, a bridge guardrail reported as falling over was repaired with new timbers and bolts, and the shouldering at Cedar Pond and Stackpole was still outstanding with the contractor saying October. Trucks are in good shape for winter, but the crew is not fully staffed for plow drivers and the road commissioner expects to be in a plow truck himself.

33. 2:00:05
    Fire chief on the posting's requirements

    The fire chief said the 5-mile figure matched what department volunteers must meet, and that a 20-mile radius conflicts with wanting a chief visible in the community and present at major responses. He recommended EVOC or AVOC certification within a year, noting Maine EMS will not accept a CDL in its place, and fire officer certification, saying six or seven members already hold it.

34. 2:05:10
    Lisbon's request for proposals for ambulance service

    The fire chief reported that Lisbon Emergency, a private service covering Lisbon and Bowdoin, cannot cover its staffing costs and has gone to the town of Lisbon for subsidy, and had sent Durham a request for proposals to provide contracted ambulance service. He said the capital costs make it not worth answering, and that mutual aid remains the sensible arrangement; he also said a cost-sharing arrangement might have worked with Lisbon alone but not across Lisbon and Bowdoin.

35. 2:05:10
    Rumour that the town is selling the Methodist church

    Paula Erdmann-Purdy, head of the historical society, said she had heard at her own meeting that evening that the town had decided to sell the Methodist church and that two people had been told so. Board members said no such decision had been made: they had only asked the town attorney what constraints applied, and had separately discussed the building with Christopher Clauss, who said he could try to sell it with a stipulation that a new owner renovate if the town ever chose to.

36. 2:10:26
    Old town hall, church buildings and estimates

    The board said its position on the old town hall is status quo for the foreseeable future. Christopher Clauss had prioritised a list of work from a site evaluation the town paid $300 for, but no estimates came with it, and foundation and structural people still need to be brought in for three quotes. A warrant article passed each year lets the board dispose of town real estate, so a separate town meeting vote would not be needed to sell.

37. 2:15:37
    Maintenance of the town's church properties

    Public works was asked to add the Methodist church to the mowing schedule and to clear trees falling on the buildings, including branches over the Union Church. A neighbour had been mowing the Methodist church lot for about 20 years. Paula Erdmann-Purdy also gave the board copies of a 1989 bicentennial report on Durham's history.

38. 2:15:37
    Town administrator's report

    Ruth Glaeser reported that the Congregational Church had donated $600 to the town's heating fund from its lunch collections. She asked permission to change over the office copier lease with Canon, which currently ends next October, to a new five-year lease at slightly more per month but with much cheaper copies and hole-punching and stapling.

39. 2:20:42
    Upcoming meetings

    An abbreviated selectmen's meeting to sign the warrant on 31 October at 4:00 p.m. with no other business, regular meetings on 14 November and 28 November at 6:30 p.m. at the town hall, and an extra comprehensive plan committee meeting on Wednesday 25 October at 6:30 p.m.

What was decided

• 0:11
  Approve the consent agenda as presented. The town's minutes record it as moved by Mark Blake, seconded by Richard George, carried 3-0.passed
• 32:23
  The board did not decide whether to give CMP a letter of support. It asked CMP to send sample letters to the town administrator, who would draft one for the full board to review at a meeting after the abbreviated 31 October session, at which point it would decide whether to sign.tabled
• 1:23:57
  Discussion of contracting for planning services was put off until the two absent board members are present, with a view to possibly including it in the 2018 budget request.tabled
• 1:34:41
  Let both expiring subscriptions lapse: the online video streaming service holding older meeting recordings, and the Total Info slide service on cable channel 13. The town's minutes record it as moved by Mark Blake, seconded by Richard George, carried 3-0.passed
• 1:34:41
  Appoint Paige Atherton (?) to the historic district commission. The town's minutes record it as moved by Richard George, seconded by Kevin Nadeau, carried 3-0.passed
• 1:34:41
  Administer the oath appointing Robert Forest as code enforcement officer, building inspector and electrical inspector. The town's minutes record it as moved by Mark Blake, seconded by Richard George, carried 3-0.passed
• 1:34:41
  The second oath, appointing Robert Forest as licensed plumbing inspector, was deliberately not taken up. It was held over until the town learns whether the state will waive the training requirement, and was expected back at the next meeting.tabled
• 1:39:42
  Take the mileage requirement out of the fire chief and EMA director job posting entirely, rather than keeping either the 20-mile or the 5-mile figure. The posting will instead ask that a candidate live or be willing to move within reasonable proximity of the town's boundaries. Agreed by the board in discussion; no motion was made.passed
• 1:49:48
  Accept the winter sand bid from Albert Blackstone Jr. Excavation. The town's minutes record it as moved by Kevin Nadeau, seconded by Mark Blake, carried 3-0.passed
• 1:49:48
  The board declined to specify whether the sand should be picked up or delivered and left that to the road commissioner's discretion, while noting the delivered price looked like the better deal. No motion was made.passed
• 2:05:10
  The board agreed with the fire chief that Durham would NOT submit any proposal in response to Lisbon's request for proposals for contracted ambulance service. Stated longhand: the town decided against responding, and against pursuing a cost-sharing arrangement covering Lisbon and Bowdoin, preferring to continue mutual aid. No motion was made.passed
• 2:15:37
  Give the town administrator permission to go ahead with the new five-year Canon copier lease. The town's minutes record it as moved by Mark Blake, seconded by Richard George, carried 3-0.passed
• 2:20:42
  Go into executive session pursuant to 1 M.R.S.A. 405(6)(A), personnel (public works). The recording ends as the motion is made; the town's minutes record it as moved by Kevin Nadeau, seconded by Mark Blake, 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 selectmins20171017.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.

• go into Executive Session — Pursuant to 1 M.R.S.A. 405(6)(F)- Confidentialcarried 3-0

  Moved by Kevin Nadeau, seconded by Mark Blake

• exit Executive Sessioncarried 3-0

  Moved by Kevin Nadeau, seconded by Mark Blake

• deny abatement pending additional information at 6:25 pmcarried 3-0

  Moved by Kevin Nadeau, seconded by Mark Blake

• Approve the Consent Agendacarried 3-0

  Moved by Mark Blake, seconded by Richard George

• let them gocarried 3-0

  Moved by Mark Blake, seconded by Richard George

• put Page on the Commissioncarried 3-0

  Moved by Richard George, seconded by Kevin Nadeau

• grant the first onecarried 3-0

  Moved by Mark Blake, seconded by Richard George

• accept the Winter Sand Bid from Albert Blackstone Jr. Evaccarried 3-0

  Moved by Kevin Nadeau, seconded by Mark Blake

• give permissioncarried 3-0

  Moved by Mark Blake, seconded by Richard George

• go into Executive Session — Pursuant to 1 M.R.S.A. 405(6)(A)- Personnel — Public Workscarried 3-0

  Moved by Kevin Nadeau, seconded by Mark Blake

• leave Executive Session — Pursuant to 1 M.R.S.A. 405(6)(A)- Personnel — Public Workscarried 3-0

  Moved by Kevin Nadeau, seconded by Mark Blake

• promote Carl Schaeffer to mechanic at a pay rate of $18.00 per hourcarried 3-0

  Moved by Kevin Nadeau, seconded by Mark Blake

• adjourn at 9:11 pmcarried 3-0

  Moved by Kevin Nadeau, seconded by Richard George

Worth knowing

• 11:27
  CMP put the value of the project to Maine at about $45 million a year in suppressed energy prices over a 20-year contract and roughly $18 million a year in new tax revenue across all host communities. What Durham would actually get is the tax value of about five miles of rebuilt line.
• 27:22
  The visible change in Durham would be pole height: the existing H-frames of about 45 to 55 feet would be replaced with single monopoles of 75 to 80 feet along the whole five-mile corridor on the west side of town.
• 1:23:57
  The board said Durham had drawn on its undesignated fund for years to hold the tax rate down and the balance is now significantly lower than it should be. The auditor requires three to four months of operating funds on hand; nothing had been taken out for about three years.
• 2:05:10
  Paula Erdmann-Purdy came straight from a historical society meeting on a report that the town had decided to sell the Methodist church and that two people had been told so. The board said no decision had been made and that it had only sought a legal opinion on what constraints applied.

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 13 decisions summarised.

Elsewhere

← 2017-10-03 Select Board2017-11-14 Select Board →All meetings