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Minutes of 08/06/2007

August 11th, 2007

Carroll Board of Selectmen
Meeting Minutes
August 6, 2007
"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 Susan Kraabel, Secretary

Board members present: Bonnie Moroney, Allen Strasser, Rena Vecchio

The meeting was called to order at 7:02 PM.

Members of the public present: Roberta McGee, Eleanor Brauns, Carmine Fabrizio, Ann Fabrizio, John Burt, Jeff Duncan, Bill Dowling, Tadd Bailey, Tom Gately, Ernie Temple, John Birknes, John Trammell, Evan Karpf, Bill Smalley, Lori Hogan, Michael King, Tara Bamford, John Sweeney, Billy Rines

Pledge of Allegiance

The board announced the approval of bills and signing of checks.

Chairman Moroney moved to accept the minutes of the July 30, 2007 meeting as written. Selectman Strasser seconded and the motion was passed with Rena Vecchio abstaining, as she had not attended the meeting.

Stan Borkowski’s report has not been received yet.

Michael King and Tara Bamford from North Country Council came to talk to the selectmen and members of the Planning Board about creating a Capital Improvement Plan (CIP). They came because they are aware of all the development in Bretton Woods. Mr. King said from what he’s seen the new resort owners are reputable people that will do a good job, but feels the town needs to look at it because of the large scale of development. The subject of impact fees came up, and Mr. King said a town needs to have a CIP approved by the town in order to charge impact fees, but not for development fees. John Birknes said a CIP had been mentioned before by the Planning Board, but a warrant article would have to be passed. Mr. King said town meeting can put the preparation of a CIP in the hands of the Planning Board, or authorize the selectmen to form a CIP committee which shall include at least one member of the Planning Board and may include members of the Budget Committee or the Board of Selectmen (RSA 674:5). He said there is grant money available that would match the town’s cost dollar for dollar. Our half would be approximately $2,100. They would look at trends from the town, suggest plans for the future. They would look at buildings, roads, bridges, etc., and prioritize, having a 6-year goal. This helps to keep the tax rate stable.

Selectman Strasser stated there is a master plan for Bretton Woods done in 1987. He said the services in Bretton Woods don’t match those in Twin Mountain even though they pay 70% of the taxes plus condo fees to pay for the roads which are all private in Bretton Woods. He said several years ago the town refused to accept some of the roads, but at some point the Bretton Woods people would want the town to take over their roads.

Mr. Birknes said in addition to being the chairman of the Planning Board, he is president of the BWPOA (Homeowner’s Assn.), and has seen some of the plans for development in Bretton Woods. There are currently 350 dwelling units and there will be an additional 900 in the next 10 years. Their first project is Dartmouth Brook which entails 220 units. He said he differs with Selectman Strasser, in that he’s not sure anyone wants to give up the private roads in Bretton Woods. He’s heard no calls for having the town take them over. He stated there is a master plan for Bretton Woods, an agreement with Satter, the former developer, and it details the number of units to be build, density, specifies open space, and calls for police and fire protection. The new owners bought what the Presby group owned. They are currently negotiating for additional acres from two separate property owners. Selectman Strasser said they will shift some of the units called for in Dartmouth Brook to other areas – only 220 units from the original 330 will be built in Dartmouth Brook. Mr. Birknes said the pedestrian village being proposed was not in the original concept plan.

Mr. King said that one of the hard things doing a CIP is coordination with the Budget Committee. The Planning Board, Selectmen and Budget Committee all need to work together to smooth out the tax rate. Ms. Bamford says they discourage impact fees, that the law allows for the Planning Board to require developers to pay for water, sewer, drainage, and town roads. The law also allows them to hire professional help with the cost being borne by the developer. They can also hire someone to act as a planner to oversee a project including reviewing applications and regulation compliance. Mr. Birknes stated they routinely hire an engineer to review plans and in the case of Dartmouth Brook our attorney will review covenants. Selectman Strasser mentioned that last fall the new owners said they will pay for an impact study for the Twin Mountain side of town, perhaps hiring university students to do the work. The need for a fire station in Bretton Woods was brought up, and Mr. Birknes said the resort owners have offered two sites, each of at least 2.8 acres. Selectman Strasser said they would probably want to put in some buildings in excess of our 33’ height restriction, and the town will need a ladder truck which the developer will help pay for. Selectman Strasser said he’d like to see the North Country Council work with ideas for Twin Mountain, as some people are concerned about all the building in Bretton Woods and the impact it will have on the Twin Mountain side of town. He said the pattern for Bretton Woods is pretty much set, although some of the new units will be shifted from Carroll to Bethlehem – units to be built higher up the side of the ski mountain.

Mr. King recommended we do a CIP and an impact analysis. He said the Town Meeting must authorize the Planning Board or a committee organized by the Board of Selectmen to do the CIP, but there are things that can be done before a warrant article is voted on next March. In the early stages NCC would look at financials, talk to department heads plus the administrator. They’d look at the history of development and spending, ask people about their needs; they could start looking at projections.

Ms. Bamford asked if we would like them to submit an outline for the process of completing a CIP, and also indicate what kind of services they have to help with impact analysis and help with larger developments. Ms. Bamford will contact Mr. Birknes to discuss the types of things we want to study, who will be involved, and how a warrant article should be written. Tom Gately brought up the fact that we have two big things we’re working on now – finding a home for the police and replacing the town bridge. When asked, Dr. Karpf reported the revision of the Master Plan should be done by the end of September. When he said he wanted to include maps, charts, etc., Ms. Bamford said they could help with that. Mr. King warned we can’t let the CIP committee become the Master Plan committee. Various members of the Planning Board in attendance expressed an interest in meeting with Ms. Bamford to start the CIP process. It was suggested that Selectman Vecchio be kept informed from the start, as she is both a selectman and a member of the Planning Board. Selectman Strasser said we could transfer some money from the Deputy Town Clerk budget line item to cover the cost of the CIP. Ms. Bamford said she would prepare an outline and contact Mr. Birknes.

Chairman Moroney talked about the safety inspections that were done in February at the highway barn and town hall. She said some things have been addressed, but asked Billy Rines if he would look at the inspection reports and report back next Monday about what items have been completed.

Chairman Moroney read a letter from Heidi Boedecker about the Paquette Circle house that is in such bad shape. The foreclosure sale brought only one bid ($145,000) from the bank, and so far no one has cleaned up the debris, and the house is still wide open and subject to more vandalism. Ms. Boedecker asked that the town write a letter to the bank requesting they fix up this house as soon as possible. The secretary will call the REMAX realtor for bank information.

The selectmen had no objections to a wedding being held at the gazebo at 4 pm on Friday, August 10, 2007, and Selectman Strasser moved to allow it. Chairman Moroney seconded the motion, and it was passed unanimously.

John Trammell presented the Police Activity Report for the month of July. In it he showed that people are calling for more services. Year to date comparative statistics are as shown below.

2006 Calls 1233 --- 2007 Calls 2209
2006 Incidents 74 --- 2007 Incidents 103
2006 Arrests 15 --- 2007 Arrests 55
2006 Citations 458 --- 2007 Citations 866
2006 Accidents 23 --- 2007 Accidents 21

Chief Trammell’s report stated that the department has taken a pro-active response to law enforcement, and has rescheduled patrol hours to make officers more accessible during peak hours. He also stated that as a result of the increased activity, that various budget items have been depleted. They have gone through such simple items as arrest folders, paper, and computer ink. Due to the move there are increased costs for things such as utilities and internet service.

Chief Trammell reported that the resort owners have decided to hire officers for “detail” shifts for events this year. While the town will continue to have normal police coverage, officers will be paid by the resort for special event coverage. While the costs associated will be reimbursed by the resort, the extra expense will show up on the police budget lines, thus making it look like we’re over budget. In 2008, we’ll take these details into account when preparing the budget, but this year because we didn’t expect these items, the numbers will look like we’re over spending. Roberta McGee suggested the Chief report this information in the Coos County Democrat so people will know the reason for the extra expense.

It was reported that all but two people have completed NIMS training and they plan to finish by the end of next week.

The Building Committee has not yet responded to the offer of land in Bretton Woods for a fire station, but they’re working on it. It was reported that the resort owners are not pushing for an immediate answer. Selectman Strasser reported speaking to a resort employee about this issue, and Selectman Vecchio once again objected to his talking town business on his own, and suggested he bring the individual to a meeting of the selectmen.

The secretary stated she’d asked Art Savona to take down the lettering on the town hall while he’s installing new shutters. We have two possibilities for someone to make new letters.
The Public Hearing to spend unanticipated revenue will be held August 20.
The Water Commission meeting will be held August 13.
Veronica Francis will be contacted about providing a link from “Town of Carroll website.
We have started handing out a “Building Permit” sign to post at construction sites.
Chief Duncan and Bill Smalley will check their files for local ordinances and bring them to the office.

The street sweeper that doesn’t work properly was discussed, and Mr. Rines will look into hiring out the sweeping for this year. We could possibly trail a sweeper on the rear of the backhoe, but Mr. Rines said the backhoe already has too many hours on it, and there’s no money set aside for repairs should the sweeping cause problems. Mr. Rines said the backhoe was originally purchased for the water department, but probably has more highway hours on it.

Sgt. Smalley asked the selectmen sign a document authorizing a change of name for one of our town roads. For 911 purposes we should not have two roads with similar names, and somehow these two were both approved. Lauren Road was approved in November 2004 and Laura Court in March 2005. Therefore he asked that Laura Court be changed to Poplar Lane. Chairman Moroney moved to approve the change, Selectman Vecchio seconded, and the motion was passed unanimously.

Bill Dowling said he’d gotten three prices for maintenance work on the old landfill, but had done some research on the warrant article that established a capital reserve fund for landfill closure, and the article did not designate the selectmen as agents to expend the funds. Thus funds will not be available to pay for the landfill maintenance this year. A warrant article will be needed in 2008 to transfer funds for this work.

Ms. McGee asked about the meter reading work that was done last week by Becki Pederson and Jennifer Hancock. She was told they were checking to see which meters work, where touch pads are still needed, and determine touch pad locations. All this information must be entered into the computer.

At 8:32 PM, as there was no additional business, Chairman Moroney declared the meeting ended, and moved to go into executive session regarding legal and personnel matters. This was seconded by Selectman Strasser. The board was polled, and went into executive session.

At the close of executive session, Chairman Moroney made a motion to return to public session and seal the minutes from executive session; Selectman Strasser seconded and the motion passed unanimously.



Action Items:

NIMS Training Progress
Response letter to Bretton Woods land offer
Public Hearing to spend unanticipated revenue – August 20
Property tax exemptions – increase limits
Industrial Park land use - CEDC
Term Limits for Planning & Zoning
Fix sign on town hall
Chamberlain property
Website
Local ordinances

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