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Minutes of 7/29/2013 DRAFT

August 8th, 2013

Carroll Board of Selectmen
Meeting Minutes
July 29, 2013
DRAFT
"These minutes of the Town of Carroll Select Board have been recorded by its Secretary.
Though believed to be accurate and correct they are subject to additions, deletions and corrections by the Select Board at its next meeting when the Board votes its final approval of the minutes. They are being made available at this time to conform to the requirements of New Hampshire RSA 91-A:2."

Minutes recorded by Maryclare Quigley, Secretary

Board members present: Paul Bussiere, Bill Dowling, Bonnie Moroney.

The meeting was called to order at 7 PM by Chairman Bussiere

Members of the public present: Mike Gooden, Ann Fabrizio, Greg Hogan, Michael Hogan, Dianne Hogan, John D’Urso, Eric Schloss, Dave Scalley

The meeting was not filmed.

Pledge of Allegiance

The Board announced the approval of bills and signing of manifests.

Selectman Moroney made a Motion to: Accept the minutes of 7/15/2013 as written. Selectman Dowling seconded and the Motion passed unanimously.

Chairman Bussiere announced there has been no change on the Water Department debt information.

Chairman Bussiere said the Transfer Station item had to do with hours and Bill Dowling said he had also asked about workload up there. The Chairman said the question came about because when Mr. Dowling went to the Budget Committee it was for one person, the Supervisor, to be at 32 hours, which Eric would eventually take and Mr. Dowling would step down to 24 hours. However, since then both have remained at 32 hours and the question had been asked why one had not been reduced in hours. Thus the question of the workload had come up. Mr. Dowling said he had the numbers for the first six months of the year and newspaper was up 15 tons from last year, mixed paper up 22 tons, cardboard 43.08 tons up, and glass is 60 tons to date and his high for that was 90 tons so he anticipates it will go close to 100 tons. Chairman Bussiere asked an approximate percentage of increase in work and Mr. Dowling said he didn’t have that, but explained they bale at 1,200 pounds and must do several a month of each category which they put in the trailers, to make room to accept more and this takes time to do. The Chairman said they’re talking an 8 hour shift basically. Mr. Dowling continued listing the numbers and differences with the various other products: TV’s, fluorescent light bulbs (which have to be packaged so they don’t break. If they break, they have to clean it up as well as notify DES), the various plastics, steel, etc. He also spoke of the various pieces of equipment which must be maintained, some have to be done twice monthly, others twice yearly. He went on to also say they have piles i.e. brush, debris, etc. that at times they must move from one place to another. He said they also try to help the contractors when they come in and it all takes time. Mr. Dowling said since 2004 he has seen the volume increase each year on the recycle items. The Chairman asked if the two positions were to be kept as part time at 32 hours per week and Mr. Dowling said yes.

Ann Fabrizio asked about recycle bins which she has seen given out in other towns. Mr. Dowling said he could get them and give one to every household; they are $5.75 each and he could put it in his budget. Mrs. Fabrizio said she felt it would encourage recycling. Dave Scalley asked if trash is generated by only townspeople or others and Mr. Dowling said it was only townspeople and reiterated it was only the recyclables which he spoke of earlier. Though he did say trash is up 6.28 tons over the same period last year. Michael Hogan asked about the stickers at the Transfer Station and Mr. Dowling said they are still used. Dave Scalley asked if we are generating income from the extra tonnage and Mr. Dowling said we get about $2,000 for every 20 tons, which is a trailer load; and we are making money between the income generated and the labor paid out. Mr. Scalley asked if there could be a spreadsheet for the Budget Committee regarding this. Dianne Hogan asked why the hours are not spread evenly among the three employees and Mr. Dowling said the third person is only for fill-in.

Chairman Bussiere recommended that they table this another two weeks to find out a little more. He feels one of the big things which he wanted to be clear about is that these positions are part time without benefits. Selectman Moroney said her concern was that Bill was supposed to leave and now isn’t so she felt there was no need to keep the 32 hours. Chairman Bussiere said he is trying to understand the change in hours as Bill Dowling was the one to set the hours and then changed them. He also said it runs very smoothly so this shouldn’t be taken wrongly.

The following items were approved and signed:

Application for Reimbursement for Federal and State Forest Lands – DRA
Intent to Cut – Evans
Water Warrant – Panarello

Other:

The Secretary said at a previous meeting, Chairman Bussiere questioned that he had said what the minutes of June 17, attributed to him. She said she had listened to the tape and believed it was written correctly, however, she offered the Chairman the opportunity to listen for himself as she may have misinterpreted it. He said he would come in the office sometime to do so. The Secretary went on to say something else had been called to her attention in the same minutes and there was a correction. In the part when Evan Karpf spoke about renaming the Transfer Station the “William Dowling Transfer Station” the minutes read “when the town voted” but it should have read “when the vote was taken.” The minutes will be corrected.

Bill Dowling, Transfer Station Supervisor, advised the Board that last Friday when the construction dumpster was changed by Casella, the truck damaged the road at the Station. Mr. Dowling called the Company and they said they will pay for the repair. Mr. Dowling will proceed with getting the repair made.

John D’Urso was in attendance and said he had some issues. One is that he would like to open the brown garage he owns on Route 3 South as a car dealership and said the State has looked at it but can’t do anything more without approval from the Town. Mr. D’Urso said this was the use prior to closing it, as well as being used to work on vehicles. Discussion took place regarding conditions that had been placed on the previous owner as to number of vehicles allowed and hours of operation, etc. Mr. D'Urso said he wasn’t sure when it closed. Selectman Dowling recommended that the Board take this under advisement and get a legal opinion. Mr. D’Urso said he’d return in two weeks about this.

Next, Mr. D’Urso said he wants to reopen his red store (known as Hank’s by its previous owner) and make it a pawn shop. Chairman Bussiere said he believed this, also, should go to legal and the Board agreed. This will also be followed up at the next meeting in two weeks.

Lastly, Mr. D’Urso asked who decides the water bills i.e. who gets charged and how they charge. Selectman Moroney explained rates are set up based on expenses and the Select Board approves them. Mr. D’Urso said he feels exceptions are made for certain people and went on to say he’s been told anyone with a curb stop pays a water bill whether they use water or not. He said he knows of someone who has a well and a curb stop and they are not paying a water bill. Selectman Moroney said that it is illegal in the State to be hooked up to both a well and a town system, and these people had to decide which source they would use. Thus in fairness to those with wells and no hook-up to the town system, the Board made these property owners exempt from this regulation. Mr. D’Urso went on to say that he has issues with both of his buildings as neither one has water access – the garage because of a leak and the store because there are no pipes in it. It was noted he purchased the garage this way, as the shut off is on another property. He said when he purchased the garage, he paid $700 to take care of the mess and the town agreed not to charge for water until the problem was taken care of. Regarding the store property, he was reminded he did not own the property when the pipes were cut out and he purchased it that way. When asked for documentation, Mr. D’Urso said he had a verbal agreement but they can verify by looking at past water bills as he had none for six or seven years, and then when the new policy took effect, he started receiving them. Chairman Bussiere said they need to look at this and see what’s right and what’s fair – from both sides. He said they will try to give him an answer in two weeks.

Greg Hogan, Road Agent, told the Board he had been looking at taking care of the roads and a major part is filling in the cracks because when water gets in it ruins them. He looked at machinery to do that and had three bids, which he said were quite different in price. Two were very high, but the third was from a company who built a machine just for municipalities knowing they can’t go out and buy the expensive, commercial ones. Mr. Hogan said this can do what the others can, they are just smaller, and the only thing they may have to do in the future is purchase a trailer specifically for it. Chairman Bussiere asked about how many miles of road we have and Mr. Hogan said it is about 13 miles, having just accepted a new development. The Chairman went on to note that quotes were close to $40,000 and the smaller one is $10,761 ask if they were to even round up to 20 miles, if it would be cheaper to contract this out. Mr. Hogan said he had gotten a quote, not for the new development just accepted and which have to be done, but for Brian View, a little by the Fire Station and down Fieldstone Lane and it’s over $5,000. The machine is good for 20 year plus so that’s already paying for half of it and they haven’t even started on the other development, which though he doesn’t have a price, believes it would be at least $2,000 to $2,500. Chairman Bussiere said he didn’t realize it cost that much and Selectman Moroney said several years ago they did a small section of Little River Road, though she couldn’t remember the terminology, but they filled in the cracks and then laid out the covering, and that was ten or fifteen thousand dollars. Mr. Hogan said if they were wondering about the money, he had put $5,000 in his budget as he had planned to do that, and he has $5,000 in for sidewalks, which he could skip this year. He said this would pay for the machine and they could accept the new development which the town voted on and take care of those cracks and it’ll be done. (He gave the Board copies of a letter he had received from Michael Palmer regarding the new roads, attached.) He said he sees it as a benefit to the Town, protecting our assets and it could be used on all the roads. He said he would recommend the smaller machine – he’s talked with all three companies and believes that’s the best one for us.

Michael Hogan asked if he had looked into renting rather than purchasing and how many hours he anticipated using it. He also asked if it were advantageous to purchase rather than rent. He said he thought renting one each time would mean have a newer machine that may do other things also, rather than an old one if they purchase it. He wondered if they’d use it a lot one summer and then it sits for several years. The Road Agent said he did not know if there are any rental machines available. Selectman Dowling said he didn’t know where they’d be able to rent one. He also said he thought size might be a problem and that he felt rental would be high. Chairman Bussiere asked if utilization is low, would it be legal or possible to rent to other towns to offset costs. The Road Agent said he wasn’t a big fan of it as they had a chipper they rented out once and it came back with a burned out motor – they stopped doing that. He said he will look into renting one. When asked, Greg Hogan said there would be training at no cost. Dave Scalley asked if he would need to hire a new employee and he said no, it would be scheduled and two people can do it. They want to keep up with the newer roads which will be where they start, but it’s too late for the roads in bad condition now as it would be a waste of money to try using this on them. Ann Fabrizio asked if the Road Agent had been on Ridgeview Drive and he said he had. Currently they are patching by hand with cold patch and doing the best they can. They are only doing potholes now as they can’t do cracks with cold patch. The machine would be a better, longer-lasting procedure. Greg Hogan said he’s hoping to make it town-wide repair rather than piecemeal. He said he knows other towns that are doing it and it’s working well. He asked about accepting the roads from the new development and was told to let them take care of it. Discussion ensued about accepting the roads contingent upon the cracks being filled in and paid for. Dave Scalley said it would make sense to have the town do it and put the money toward the purchase of the machine, but Selectman Dowling said they are still private roads and the law is that we cannot spend money on them.

Greg Hogan then handed out three quotes for the sidewalk snow tractor: MB Tractor, Lancaster (Spaulding) John Deere and Blackmount Equipment. He said the John Deeres came in quite high, and the three are as comparable as he could get them. He said he had a little trouble with size because most are too big to fit between the guardrails and the bridge. He believes both Deere and Kubota are very good machines. The Chairman read the quotes: Kubota $33,745; John Deere, $39,900; John Deere, $51,100. The Road Agent said one thing with the Deere is they have high horse power, but the next lower, is too low. The Kubota has a plow, spreader, and loader as well as the snow thrower. They could also use this for summer projects that they wouldn’t need the big equipment for. Selectman Dowling made a Motion to: Approve purchasing the Kubota for $33,745. Selectman Moroney seconded and it passed unanimously.

Dave Scalley referred to the lawsuit regarding Hunt property subdivision and said he spoke with the Courthouse in Lancaster and they told him the Planning Board will have a meeting in September to make a decision. They weren’t sure why the Board is meeting again and he wanted to know why they are. Selectman Dowling said he can definitely know but would have to ask the Planning Board. Selectman Moroney said Mr. Scalley can stay for non-public for legal. Mr. Scalley said the town is getting sued and the Selectmen are in charge of the town, not the Planning Board, so they are not getting sued, and they do not make the decision, he said it would be the Select Board to make it.

Mike Hogan said he just wanted to make a statement and that is that businesses should be encouraged to come here. He knows there are rules and parameters from the Planning Board and Zoning Board but in the 28 years that he has been coming to this town, it has only gone downhill. He thinks anyone who wants to spend a penny in this town to do something to bring others here should be highly encouraged and not discouraged. He thinks we should be on the side of anyone who wants to bring business – understanding the parameters, etc., but working to bring this town back to what it used to be. Chairman Bussiere added that whatever policy has been in place for the last 28 years hasn’t been working and decisions that have been made to protect the town have not protected anyone except maybe a few private interests. He agrees with Mr. Hogan following parameters, but someone is going to have say what has been done in the past is not working. Getting people to stop, getting the town revived is not by closing things down and making things impossible to do.

As there was no further business, the Board was polled and went into non-public session for town aid and legal matters at 8:15 p.m.

At the close of Non-Public Session, Selectman Moroney moved to return to Public Session and seal the minutes from Non-Public Session. Selectman Dowling seconded and the Motion passed unanimously.

There being no further discussion, Selectman Moroney made a Motion to: adjourn the meeting. Selectman Dowling seconded and the Motion passed unanimously. Chairman Bussiere declared the meeting ended at 8:30 p.m. The next meeting will be Monday, August 12, 2013.