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Minutes of 11/17/2014 APPROVED

December 2nd, 2014

Carroll Board of Selectmen
Meeting Minutes
November 17, 2014

APPROVED

“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: Bonnie Moroney, Paul Bussiere and David Scalley.

The meeting was called to order at 7 p.m.by Chairman Moroney.

Members of the public present: Greg Hogan, Mike Gooden, Joan Karpf, Donna Foster, Dianne Hogan, Michael Hogan, Scott Sonia, Sean Moran, Imre Szauter, Debbie Szauter, Terry Lapoint, Steve Lapoint, Jeremy Oleson, Ben Jellison

Pledge of Allegiance

The meeting was filmed by Joan Karpf.

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

Chairman Moroney asked for a moment of silence for Darren Pelzel, who had died in an ATV accident the day before. He had been the husband of Kim (Martin, Wright) Pelzel.

Selectman Bussiere made a Motion To: Approve the minutes of 10/29/2014 as written. Selectman Scalley seconded and the Motion passed unanimously.

Selectman Bussiere made a Motion To: Approve the minutes of 11/3/2014 as written and Selectman Scalley seconded. The Motion passed unanimously.

Selectman Bussiere made a Motion To: Approve the minutes of 11/7/2014 as written. Selectman Scalley seconded and the Motion passed unanimously.

Ben Jellison, Moderator for the Town of Carroll, spoke about wanting to purchase a voting machine. He said he was looking to do so before the end of the year so it could be put into service for the next voting. He said there is money left in his Moderator’s budget to put toward it and was in hopes that the Selectmen would be able to help with the balance. This is a one-time purchase of $3,500 for the hardware and initial setup. He said he has money in his budget for the maintenance and ballots, etc. Mr. Jellison said he believes the money saved on labor will either pay for the machine or come very close to doing so. He also said it is getting more difficult to find people willing to help with counting. He said there is only one vendor and one machine accepted in the State of NH and these are LHS Associates and the AccuVote-OS voting machine.

A brief discussion took place regarding the ballots which will be different from those we currently use and how they are counted. Any not filled in properly will be kicked back and counted manually or it will be discovered when the voter hands the ballot to the Moderator, so the voter will have an opportunity to correct it; but in any case, all votes will count. Mr. Jellison said of course, State and Federal election ballots are provided, and that the local ballots will be about .25 to .30 each. Training will be provided on site and as he had said, his goal is to have it available in March. He said this is not new technology as it has been around for many years, and thus has been proven again and again. After perusing the budget and discussion of funding, Chairman Moroney made a Motion to: Allow the Moderator to purchase the AccuVote-OS for $3,500. Funding will be as follows: $1,000 from the computer capital reserve fund, $1,000 from the Selectmen’s budget and the remainder from the Moderator’s budget. Selectman Scalley seconded and the Motion passed unanimously. Mr. Jellison thanked the Board.

The item for employee medical insurance was tabled as the comparison figures for 2015 have not been received yet.

Chairman Moroney read the Employee Manual as follows: “As you review this Manual, you will notice that terms such as “workplace” and “premises” appear in many of The Town of Carroll’s policies. For most employers, such terms encompass the buildings and surrounding property that they own or lease. However, the nature of our work as a municipality requires that our use of these terms have a broader definition. Accordingly, whenever our “workplace” or “premises” is discussed in this Manual, please understand that we are discussing not only Town of Carroll buildings, facilities and properties, but also any remote job site to which you may be assigned to work and any vehicle in which you may be traveling or using for Town of Carroll related business.” She continued with the addendum being added:

“a. For the safety of the public and our employees; and to limit the Town’s liability exposure, employees only will be allowed to enter offices and/or town buildings unless otherwise specifically permitted to do so. The Town Hall is the exception insofar as entering the building to conduct town business or other to attend meetings or functions. In this case, the Offices will be limited to employees only.”

Selectman Bussiere made a Motion to: Accept the Addendum as written and Chairman Moroney seconded. The Motion passed unanimously.

Given that the subject was on the Employee Manual, the Secretary said she had been asked numerous times over the past years about sick time accrual limit being increased. Currently it is 80 hours, which is extremely low compared to other towns and does not take into account an illness or injury not covered by Workers Comp and not long enough for short term disability to kick in. When asked how the time was received, the Secretary said the employee earns eight hours per month and noted that many employees have been “throwing away” time. Using herself as an example, the policy went into effect in 2010 or 2011 and after the first eight months she has “thrown away” sick time every month. Chairman Moroney asked that this be tabled until a later meeting and that the Board be given copies of the Manual.

Building Permit process and fee structure papers were looked at and briefly discussed. Selectman Scalley said he felt there was too much to be discussed at this time and that a meeting devoted to this subject only should be scheduled. His colleagues agreed and they are in hopes of accomplishing this before the end of the year.

Discussion of quotes for a server was next and the Secretary said the change to “the cloud” or “off-site hosting” has been less than expected or hoped for. With problems ranging from extreme slowness to absolute frustration with computers freezing and having to phone support, the office staff wants to return to our own server. As it is, we have to maintain at least a portion in our office as the State will not allow the Town Clerk’s work to be on any “cloud” but their own and they do not have one yet. We’ve been told a major issue is our Time-Warner connection is too slow and this may be solved by having a tower in our own location which would reduce transmission length, and at an extra fee. Cost was also brought up, as even with various maintenance fees, over the seven-year life of a server it does not amount to the cost to lease at around $21,000. Selectman Bussiere said he does not understand what’s going on here as he is on the cloud at home and believes his transmissions are much larger than what we have, and he has no issues at all. He offered to talk with Time-Warner about this. Chairman Moroney made a Motion that: Selectman Bussiere should speak with Time-Warner to discuss this situation. Selectman Scalley seconded and the Motion passed unanimously.

Selectman Bussiere then brought up discussion about the bid process for the water main river crossing. He said this is the pipe that is exposed on the bed of the Ammonoosuc River which will have to be replaced in the next few years. He said the Town has been advised to get the engineering report in 2015 which will allow us to prepare to do the job in 2016. The idea of doing the job without an engineer had been talked about, but we want to be sure it’s done correctly and if we try to get any grants, we will be required to have one. Greg Hogan was asked if he could start the process. After further discussion about engineering firms, it was thought he should speak with the people in St. Johnsbury where they are in the process of doing something similar, and with whom Greg has already spoken. It was also suggested that DES might have a list of companies from whom we could solicit bids. When asked, Scott Sonia said the pipe has been there since the 1920’s, and consensus is that we could be living on borrowed time with it as it is.

The following items were approved and signed:

Water Warrant – Sophis
Certificate of Occupancy – Snitko/Boedecker
Town Hall Use Permit Application – Trammell/Fire Dept.; Surprise Birthday Party; Parks & Rec
Afterschool basketball program
Intent to Cut Wood – Timberwolf Logging

Selectman Scalley abstained from voting on and signing the Certificate of Occupancy.

Sign Permit – CNL Lifestyles,Inc./Cog Railway was tabled to the next meeting to allow the Board to gather more information and to make a site visit. They felt they were not clear enough on the actual location and specifications.

Other:

Discussion was brought up about people who are looking for Building Permits and Chairman Moroney said all current rules apply as there has been no change yet.

Joan Karpf commented that the town value went up and asked if we have been revalued or how that could happen if we weren’t and asked if it could be new construction. She also asked if the Town was advised monthly or otherwise periodically through the year about our value or if it was just at the end of the year. She was advised it was just at the end of the year when we set our tax rate. Chairman Moroney said we had not been revalued as it was just done in 2012 and that it would be connected to new construction and yearly pick-ups. Mrs. Karpf also asked if the Town has a policy for Unassigned Fund Balance retainage, which she was told we do not. It was explained that the Town looks at the numbers and decides if and how much money they might use to help reduce taxes. It was noted they used $350,000 this year, as stated in previous minutes. It was also explained that the DRA advises a percentage range based on the amount of appropriations be kept in UFB at all times, which we do. Mrs. Karpf also asked if the amount of money in our UFB has an effect on the town’s credit rating if we want to go for a bond and the Board said they believed it does not.

Donna Foster suggested when they are working on the Building Permit fees, perhaps for repairs, they could give a minimum of size, etc., i.e. doors, windows, steps. Michael Hogan said they should be able to make home repairs such roof, siding, etc., and that common sense should be there.

As there was no further business, the Board was polled to go into non-public session, per RSA 91-A-3 for personnel at 8:40 p.m. Selectman Scalley voted yes; Selectman Bussiere voted yes;
Chairman Moroney voted yes.

At the close of non-public session at 9:15 p.m., Selectman Bussiere moved to return to public session and seal the minutes from non-public session. Selectman Scalley seconded and the Motion passed unanimously.

The Selectmen asked Greg Hogan about the culvert on School Street. He had spoken with them at an earlier meeting about a possible repair and they wanted to know the status. Greg said he cannot make the repair as they had hoped so all they can do is to keep a close watch on it. Chairman Moroney asked if he wanted the Board to close the road for the winter and he said he didn’t feel that was necessary as the concern is more for when melting is occurring and there is a lot of water needing to through. The Chairman told Greg to let the Board know if anything changes and he feels the road should be closed. Mr. Hogan thanked the Board for their support.

As there was no further business, the Board was polled again to go into non-public session, per RSA 91-A-3 for personnel at 9:25 p.m. Chairman Moroney, yes; Selectman Scalley, yes; Selectman Bussiere, yes.

At the close of non-public session at 10:25 p.m., Chairman Moroney moved to return to public session and seal the minutes from non-public session. Selectman Scalley seconded and the Motion passed unanimously.

Chairman Moroney made a Motion to adjourn the meeting. Selectman Bussiere seconded and the Motion passed unanimously. Chairman Moroney declared the meeting ended at 10:26 p.m. The next meeting will be Monday, December 1, 2014.