Select Board Meeting ~ November 1, 2016

2016-11-01 · Select Board · 2:00:48 · watch on YouTube →

The main business was information gathering on the town's solid waste contract ahead of budget season, with five of the nine budget committee members invited so they would have the same evidence as the board. Both bidders appeared: the bidder recorded in the town's minutes as Josh Tice, of a company four and a half years under his ownership with no municipal contracts, who bid $187,000 flat for each of three years, and Nate Chapman and Karen McNaughton of Pine Tree Waste, the incumbent of close to two decades, whose bid rises to $210,716 by year three. No decision was taken; the board will make a recommendation in February and the contract cannot be signed until the town votes at the April town meeting. Other business included accepting the single $252 bid from Larrabee Construction for the public works trailer, authorising the town administrator to apply for a town credit card through Androscoggin Bank rather than Capital One, and the annual waiver of foreclosure on the Emerson tire dump. The fire chief and road commissioner both gave long reports, the latter including a settlement of the Brown Road town line at Pope's Corner from a 1995 survey. The recording ends with the motion to go into executive session on a fire department personnel matter; the town's minutes record that the board then voted to suspend an employee indefinitely without pay and adjourned at 9:52 p.m.

What was discussed

1. 0:02
   Before the meeting

   The recording starts several minutes before the gavel and carries informal conversation. Terry Kirk asked for figures he had requested and was told the 2016 year-to-date numbers should be ready by the end of the next day. A department head with nothing to raise was excused after leaving a written report.

2. 5:15
   Call to order and agenda amendments

   All five selectmen were present. Two items were added: a fourth item under 8C, correspondence from Shiloh Chapel to the fire department, and 9G, a notice of return for an RSU 5 vote that needed signing. No one came forward for public comment.

3. 10:48
   The two solid waste bids

   Two bids had been opened at an earlier meeting. Pine Tree Waste bid a rising figure reaching $210,716 in year three; the recording drops the leading digits on the first two years, though year one was later put at just over $202,500. The other bidder quoted $187,000 for each of the three years.

4. 10:48
   Timeline for the decision

   The board explained it is gathering information for budget season and will make a recommendation, but cannot sign or approve a contract until the town votes at the meeting on the first Saturday in April. Budget committee members were invited so they would be working from the same information when making their own recommendation; five of the nine attended.

5. 10:48
   The challenger introduces himself

   The bidder, recorded in the town's minutes as Josh Tice and rendered in the recording as Jeff Ty, said he had owned the business four and a half years, that it was previously Harris Brothers Rubbish Removal and had been going 22 years, and that he had bought out a company in Bridgton. He said he would purchase the compaction truck the town requires on acceptance of the contract, backed by a letter from his bank, and that carrying that cost now would be unnecessary for his current work.

6. 10:48
   His current fleet and recycling arrangements

   He said he runs six trucks with four in regular use, Ford 350s and a 550 with dump bodies, which suit customers on dead-end and camp roads. He services fifteen towns, of which Bridgton is the only one on single stream, and said his plan for Durham would be to keep the recyclables sorted and sell them to a contractor in Mechanic Falls, because sorted material fetches more.

7. 15:56
   Lead time and bulky waste day

   Asked whether an April signature leaves enough time to get a compactor, he said his bank moves fast, the money is there and he has a truck identified from a company in Ohio with another option in Pennsylvania. On bulky waste day the board described six or seven packers plus a roll-off, trucks swapped out when full and a queue half a mile long; he said he had already arranged with another hauler to place compactor machines and roll-off containers on site.

8. 15:56
   A reference's concern about overreach

   The board put to him that one of his references was concerned he might be juggling too much and overreaching. He answered that people see a small operation and that he has faced and overcome that before, having doubled the customers and the income since buying the company.

9. 21:15
   The bar the town has set

   Board members said the town has been with Pine Tree Casella for close to two decades and residents' expectations are correspondingly high, so any change would have a high bar to meet. They also noted that participation in recycling was poor under the old sorting system and rose markedly after the move to single stream.

10. 26:34
    Kevin Nadeau on open trucks and an opt-out

    Kevin Nadeau of the budget committee asked whether the trucks are open-backed, and was told they are dump bodies with covers available because some towns require them. He asked whether the contract could carry a one-year evaluation and opt-out. The board said the request for proposals went out for three years and that any such change would have to be run past the town's lawyer.

11. 26:34
    Terry Kirk on the risk to the contractor

    Terry Kirk argued against a one-year opt-out, saying a compactor is not something bought off the lot and that ending the contract after a year could bankrupt the contractor. Others noted that failure to provide the service would be a breach of contract and would give the town its own way out.

12. 26:34
    How the price stays flat for three years

    A budget committee member said he was not impressed and was surprised the price would not rise across three years. The bidder said he had built in the increases he has seen in fuel and tipping fees over four years, that facility increases typically come every three or four years and have just been made, and that his smaller overhead leaves room to absorb what-ifs.

13. 32:19
    A budget committee member on startups

    A member who said he has been in town over 30 years described the Emerson dump and the silver bullet years and said what the town now has works with a precision it did not before, in a town that offers residents few services. His concern with startups is that costs and capacity are unknown until two or three years in.

14. 32:19
    The bidder's answer on experience and service

    He said he bought a going concern that had been running 22 years, that he and his wife also own a limousine business, and that he rides in the trucks himself five mornings a week. He described the service touches customers pick him for, including putting lids back on and carrying shovels and brooms to clean up split bags. He serves about 700 customers in Bridgton including a hospital, colleges and restaurants, and has no municipal contracts at present.

15. 32:19
    Pine Tree Waste: municipal collection is a different animal

    Nate Chapman introduced himself as the new general manager for Pine Tree Waste in southern Maine and asked the board to make sure it was comparing like with like. He argued municipal collection differs from subscription work, questioned what the backup would be if a single truck handling two commodities broke down, and said the request for proposals calls for compaction on route.

16. 37:33
    Permitting, licensing and hours

    Chapman said a stake body cannot contain recycling or the liquid from trash, which DEP takes issue with, and that any vehicle hauling trash needs a non-hazardous waste sticker. He said a packer requires a CDL driver and brings DOT rules on shift length and time off, so drivers cannot simply be run late into the night, and that Pine Tree has 150 drivers, 200 trucks and mechanics on duty around the clock.

17. 37:33
    Karen McNaughton on Pine Tree's operation and recycling

    Karen McNaughton said the drivers live locally, are radio dispatched from Scarborough because CDL holders may not use cell phones, and are drug screened. She said she remembered the silver bullet years and would hate to see the town go backwards, that towns are moving to single stream rather than away from it, and that Durham's material now goes to a facility Pine Tree built in Lewiston with the city rather than to Charlestown.

18. 42:59
    Why the larger company is not cheaper

    The board said it had expected economies of scale to work the other way, and that the challenger was beating Pine Tree by an average of almost $20,000 a year, which is hard to justify to taxpayers. Chapman said recycling used to be roughly cost-neutral and no longer is, that Pine Tree now pays $20 a ton to process it against as much as $38 four months earlier, and that truck, mechanic and driver costs are rising while they compete for CDL drivers with oil delivery and construction.

19. 48:08
    Whether the annual increase ever levels off

    A selectman pressed that Pine Tree's bid adds about $4,000 a year and asked whether that would ever stop. Chapman said there are other ways to collect, that food waste diversion is coming fast, and that an automated cart system with two or three carts per household could save money through truck efficiency if depreciated over a longer contract. Durham produced 270.83 tons of zero sort recycling in 2015.

20. 53:35
    Trash tag revenue

    Terry Kirk cited 2015 trash tag sales of $15,586 against 167.71 tons and noted only $11,484 so far this year. The administrator said the year is only ten months through and most tags sell late, and later calculated that at a steady rate the year would land near $13,780, about $1,800 below last year.

21. 53:35
    Terry Kirk against automated cart collection

    Terry Kirk said an automated system where the driver never leaves the truck would mean nobody removes the trash tag or checks the 30-pound limit, and that the tag system was put in place specifically to force recycling and has worked. Chapman said he was describing what exists rather than proposing it, and that carts carry tags read by scanners with camera systems, or a pay-per-lift model can be used with recycling free to lift.

22. 53:35
    Fairness as well as recycling

    A board member added that the tag system is not only about encouraging recycling but about fairness: households that produce more trash buy more tags and so pay more.

23. 58:40
    Enforcement history and comparing the two programs

    The board noted that tag revenue was considerably lower in 2012 with curbside volume higher, and that revenue jumped in 2013 after Pine Tree was asked to enforce the rules more strictly. The challenger said most of the towns he serves prefer sorted recycling because they earn more on cardboard and number two plastic, and Karen McNaughton noted the Oxford County facility at Norway and Paris is disbanding next year as its towns have moved to zero sort.

24. 1:03:41
    Only two bids, and whether to seek better prices

    The board noted only two bids came in, against one three years ago, and that a company from Auburn that used to bid had not done so for six years. Asked whether Pine Tree could be sent back to sharpen its pencil, the board said that would be unfair once prices are known, but that all bids could be thrown out, though there is not much time before the April deadline.

25. 1:03:41
    Weighing the risk of changing contractor

    Members said the biggest question was the risk of the first year falling flat, and that a breach of contract would be the town's remedy. One warned from a smaller contract earlier in the year, where the contractor did not fulfil it and the town had to go elsewhere, that a price on returning to a previous contractor can rise sharply.

26. 1:08:53
    Cost per household and the automatic increases

    A board member put the roughly $20,000 gap at about $12 per household per year across 1,650 households. Terry Kirk questioned the automatic 2 percent annual increase when fuel has dropped by a dollar or more a gallon, and said that at 2 or 3 percent a year the contract becomes unaffordable ten years out. The chair asked the budget committee for its input ahead of the February recommendation.

27. 1:13:54
    Website request for proposals

    Twelve or thirteen proposals came in, ranging from about $6,000 to $48,000. Shannon (?) has started going through them and will take them to the telecommunications committee, with recommendations expected back in a few weeks.

28. 1:13:54
    Public works trailer bid

    One bid was received after the full process, for $252 from Larrabee Construction. The road commissioner said the crew can do the electrical work themselves.

29. 1:13:54
    Town credit card

    The administrator reported that the Capital One card she had previously proposed would require her own name and credit rating on the account and would make her personally liable for charges. She asked instead to apply through Androscoggin Bank, which offers cards to governmental entities without that condition and with similar rewards of about one and a half percent.

30. 1:13:54
    Emerson tire dump

    The town liens the property every year because the taxes are years behind, and then waives foreclosure because it does not want to own it given the liability. The board was asked to vote the waiver again.

31. 1:18:54
    What has become of the tire dump

    The tires have been removed and the site cleaned up; the recording is not settled on whether that was done by DEP or EPA. There is said to be a lien of around $2 million on the property from the organisation that cleaned it, and a man has expressed interest in buying it for ATV use and hunting, in which case he would likely come before the board about waiving some of what is owed. The board's position is that it never wants to be in the chain of ownership.

32. 1:18:54
    Vacant county budget committee seat

    The seat that became vacant was held by someone from Durham, so the town has the chance to appoint a replacement. Mark Blake (?) had been looking for a candidate and would contact Paul Chase (?) on a suggestion from Ellie Esping (?). This year's county budget season is effectively over with the public hearing the next day, so there is no rush, but the board wants either to name someone or to pass the chance back so other communities can.

33. 1:18:54
    Notice of return for the RSU 5 vote

    A vote is coming in January on the track and field, covering bond questions on lights, using savings for the building, repurposing money for the fields and borrowing more. Members asked what they were signing and were told it is the posting of the election notice, purely formal, and not a vote by the board or an expression of support.

34. 1:18:54
    Fire chief: catch basin at the station

    The catch basin at the station is complete apart from the cover, and the chief needs to check with the paving contractor about fill. The contractor had talked about starting the paving at the end of that week or early the next.

35. 1:24:00
    Parking lot striping

    The striping contractor had quoted the station and the road commissioner's lot as a two-part job and had not planned on cold weather work despite being told paving was coming. The chief was unsure it could be done before the cold sets in and thought it might be better to wait until next year, while noting the board had approved $650 for it. The crew would backfill and compact around the catch basin the following day.

36. 1:29:41
    Assistant chief appointment and recruitment results

    Curtis Demick (?) has been selected as assistant chief and assistant EMA director, and the chief asked the board to appoint him once papers are ready. The 24 October recruitment event cost money to advertise but worked far better than the previous two: six people attended on the night and three more before and after, producing five applications, four of which are progressing to interview. None already hold licences or certifications.

37. 1:29:41
    Meeting room floor and other station work

    The floor project started the previous Friday, the hole is cut and the rebar in, with the pour due the next day or Thursday and tiles not going down until late November or early December. The chief thinks a floor drain that was capped with concrete but never properly plugged may have been the long-standing cause of the problem and wants it sealed before the pour. The station van has been fixed and a dry hydrant on Rabbit Road needs raising.

38. 1:29:41
    Drought public service announcement

    The drought notice produced a good number of calls, more people than had reported before, and several have drilled or are putting in wells. The chief stressed it is not free money but access to low or no interest loans, and that people need to call him or the state hotline so he can report the numbers to EMA.

39. 1:34:55
    Insurance inspection and apparatus

    An insurance inspector, Lance Lemieux (?), went through the station on the same day as the fire truck rides. The chief expects the only write-up to be a requirement for netting or solid covers on the ends of the crosslay hose beds. Pump repairs are done, and Truck 24 has breaks in the wiring running up the ladder channel so that voltage does not reach the tip; the harness is on order from the manufacturer and the truck remains in service with only the nozzle affected.

40. 1:34:55
    Road striping prices from GPCOG

    Following a resident's emailed complaint about road paint, the road commissioner brought the GPCOG 2016 striping prices and had spoken to the contractor, who will be back in Maine in a couple of weeks. Double yellow works out at roughly 7.4 cents per linear foot, about $400 a mile. Runaround Pond, Rabbit and Quaker Meeting House together, to get from Pownal to Route 125, come to 16,275 feet.

41. 1:40:00
    Whether to stripe now or budget for next year

    Adding Swamp Road and others brings the total close to ten miles and somewhere around $4,000 to $6,000 a year. The contractor said he paints down to 30 degrees, but the current marking is a binder coat and pavement is going over it next year, so the board decided to budget for it rather than paint now. Temporary markings would not survive plowing.

42. 1:40:00
    Storm washouts and erosion control

    After a storm, a swale put in at the end of a driveway near the church had not been armoured enough for the volume of water; erosion control, jute matting and check dams were added and it held through the next storm. Barry Baldwin's driveway also let go and was ditched with erosion control. A four percent swale on a four-wheel-drive road worked without erosion. Six inches of rain had found the weak points.

43. 1:40:00
    Other public works work

    A school bus stop-ahead sign was put up on Runaround Pond Road, with the $22 bill sent to the school department. The crew was being brought in to work on trucks and to catch up on odds and ends at the fire station, ditching being largely up to date, and the garage trim boards have been painted.

44. 1:45:12
    Pavement stencils and finding a sprayer

    The town has the paint and the eight-foot stop-ahead stencils but no sprayer, and the road commissioner said people are reluctant to lend sprayers because they are ruined if not cleaned. He was considering rolling the paint despite the risk of bleeding under the stencil, or borrowing a machine, and wanted it done that week while it was still warm.

45. 1:45:12
    DOT four-way stop at Elmwood and Route 9

    DOT has approached the town about putting in a four-way stop with flashing lights at the Elmwood junction because of the number of accidents, and would pay for everything except the electricity, said to be about $20 a month, which it already pays for the existing blinking light. The board noted that vehicles routinely run the existing control. The GPCOG study of dangerous intersections was cut short when DOT decided to go ahead regardless.

46. 1:45:12
    Route 9 at Runaround Pond and Rabbit Road

    The study of that intersection is finished but DOT has not said it will do anything there. The road commissioner and the fire chief had both been asked for input. The town's own plan is pavement markings and a white line at the stop sign.

47. 1:50:17
    The wider safety problem on that road

    A member argued the danger is not confined to the intersections: the road itself is fine but drivers do not keep to the speed limit and are unfamiliar or inattentive. He said his email had pointed out at least four fatalities in the last six years that happened away from intersections, and that adding stops would not resolve that.

48. 1:50:17
    Brown Road and the Pope's Corner town line

    The road commissioner reported on the boundary question raised at the last meeting. A 1995 article showed that the historical societies of Durham, Pownal and Freeport had jointly hired a surveyor, named in the recording as John Man (?), to fix the location of Pope's Corner; he produced a 52-page report and set a monument marked D and F. A 1951 letter from the county commissioners' office to the chairman in Freeport recorded a court ruling on how far each town's responsibility runs, and the distance measured from the monument lands exactly where the town stopped maintaining the pavement.

49. 1:50:17
    The misleading town line sign

    The court ruling gave Pownal two rods and Durham one rod of the road width, with the boundary running about a third of the way in from the left side, and split the length two-thirds to Pownal and one-third to Durham. The Durham town sign stands 145 feet back from the true point, which the road commissioner said makes it look as though you are entering Durham when the left-hand side of the road has been in Durham all along.

50. 1:55:23
    Removing the signpost, and paving benefits

    Pownal went out with the road commissioner to see the monument, so the boundary is no longer disputed, and he recommended simply removing the sign as deceiving; a question about whether state law governs town line posts was left unanswered. He also reported residents pleased with the paving, noting that beyond the 3.89 miles the town paid for, Durham taxpayers get the benefit of another 1.29 miles the town does not pay for. He is still working on the DEP application due in January.

51. 1:55:23
    Town administrator's report and the election

    Shannon (?) had called the state troopers, who cover the town and will look in at the polls on the 8th, so no sheriff's detail will be hired. Thursday at 6:30 p.m. is the last day to obtain an absentee ballot. About 820 absentee ballots had been requested and 674 returned. The administrator also asked residents walking in the dark during hunting season to wear something fluorescent and carry a flashlight.

52. 1:55:23
    Upcoming meetings and department head reviews

    Meetings were announced for Tuesday 15 November and Tuesday 29 November at 6:30 p.m. Department head reviews were to be held in separate sessions, taking the fire chief first and then the road commissioner.

53. 2:00:23
    Executive session

    With the meeting running late the real estate item was put off, and the board moved into executive session on a fire department personnel matter. The recording ends there.

What was decided

• 5:15
  Approve the consent agenda as presented. The town's minutes record it as moved by Joshua Libby, seconded by Michael Stewart, carried 5-0.passed
• 10:48
  No decision was taken on the solid waste contract. The board is gathering information, will make a recommendation to the budget committee and the town warrant in February, and cannot approve or sign a contract until the town votes at the April town meeting.tabled
• 58:40
  The board asked both companies for their lists of allowable recyclables so it can compare what a sorted programme and the current single stream programme each accept.passed
• 1:13:54
  Accept the bid of $252.00 from Larrabee Construction for the public works trailer, the only bid received. The town's minutes record it as moved by Michael Stewart, seconded by Mark Blake, carried 5-0.passed
• 1:13:54
  Authorize the town administrator, Ruth Glaeser, to apply on the town's behalf for a credit card from Androscoggin Bank, in place of the Capital One card previously considered. The town's minutes record it as moved by Sarah Hall, seconded by Joshua Libby, carried 5-0.passed
• 1:18:54
  Waive foreclosure on Map 6, Lot 114, the Emerson tire dump, so that the town does not take ownership of the property. The town's minutes record it as moved by Jeffrey Wakeman, seconded by Joshua Libby, carried 5-0.passed
• 1:18:54
  The notice of return for the RSU 5 vote was signed rather than voted on. The board established that it is the posting of the election notice and carries no position on the bond questions, and specifically declined to table it.passed
• 1:24:00
  The parking lot striping was left to the fire chief's judgement: if he can get it done this year at the $650 the board had already approved he will go ahead, otherwise it waits until spring. No vote was taken.passed
• 1:29:41
  Appointing Curtis Demick (?) as assistant fire chief and assistant EMA director was held over to the next meeting because the appointment papers were not ready.tabled
• 1:40:00
  Do not stripe the roads this year. The board agreed to put the GPCOG striping into next year's budget instead, on the basis that the present surface is a binder coat with pavement going over it next year. No vote was taken.passed
• 2:00:23
  The real estate review was put off to a later meeting because of the late hour.tabled
• 2:00:23
  Go into executive session pursuant to 1 M.R.S.A. 405(6)(A), personnel matters, concerning the fire department. The town's minutes record it as moved by Jeffrey Wakeman, seconded by Joshua Libby, carried 5-0.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 select_board_minutes_11-1-20161.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 as presentedcarried 5-0

  Moved by Joshua Libby, seconded by Michael Stewart

• Accept the bid of $252.00 from Larrabee Constructioncarried 5-0

  Moved by Michael Stewart, seconded by Mark Blake

• Authorize AA/TA Glaeser to apply on the Town's behalf for a credit card from Androscoggin Bankcarried 5-0

  Moved by Sarah Hall, seconded by Joshua Libby

• waive Foreclosure on Map #6, Lot #114, the Emerson Tire Dumpcarried 5-0

  Moved by Jeffrey Wakeman, seconded by Joshua Libby

• the Board into Executive Session pursuant to Title #1, M.R.S.A., ss. 405(6)(A) – Personnel – Personnel Matters – Discussion of Fire Department Reviews, preceded by a brief recess at 8:20 p.mcarried 5-0

  Moved by Jeffrey Wakeman, seconded by Joshua Libby

• suspend the employee indefinitely without paycarried 5-0

  Moved by Jeffrey Wakeman, seconded by Joshua Libby

• Adjourn at 9:52 p.mcarried 5-0

  Moved by Joshua Libby, seconded by Michael Stewart

Worth knowing

• 10:48
  The two bids are far apart. The challenger quoted $187,000 flat for each of three years; the incumbent's bid rises to $210,716 by year three. The board put the difference at almost $20,000 a year on average and had expected the larger company's scale to work the other way.
• 48:08
  Durham produced 270.83 tons of zero sort recycling in 2015. Pine Tree (?) said it now pays about $20 a ton to have that processed, having paid as much as $38 a ton four months earlier, and that recycling no longer washes its own face as it once did.
• 53:35
  Terry Kirk warned that an automated cart system would undo the trash tag scheme, because a driver who never leaves the truck cannot pull a tag or check the 30-pound limit. The board agreed the tag system is the main reason the town's recycling rate is what it is, and also serves fairness, since households producing more trash buy more tags.
• 1:50:17
  A member said at least four fatalities in the last six years happened on that stretch of road away from the intersections, caused by speed and inattention rather than the road, and argued that adding stops will not resolve it.

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: 2 passages of motion language, against 12 decisions summarised.

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