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Minutes of 03/23/2009

March 30th, 2009

Carroll Board of Selectmen
Meeting Minutes
March 23, 2009

"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, Christopher Hancock

The meeting was called to order at 7:03 PM.

Members of the public present: Bill Dowling, Mike Gooden, Carmine Fabrizio, Ann Fabrizio, Jennifer Hancock, Emmit Hancock, Roberta McGee, Art Savona, Donna Matz, Mike Matz, Bill Smalley, Tadd Bailey, Rena Vecchio, Sue Kraabel, Sandy Pothier, Ken Mills, Jim Covey, Lisa Covey, Mary Devine, Ben Jellison, John Trammell, Kelly Trammell, Al Strasser, Lee Hallquist, “Mac” McQueeney, Butch Garneau, Joan Karpf, Evan Karpf, Bill Rines

Pledge of Allegiance

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

Chairman Hancock made a Motion to: Accept the minutes for March 16, 2009 as written. Selectman Moroney seconded and the Motion was passed unanimously.

Chairman Hancock stated he wanted to address the empty Selectman position. Pursuant to RSA42:4, a letter is sent to all people following their election to office which says within six days of receiving the notice, they must appear to take the Oath of Office or to notify the Town Clerk in writing. Chairman Hancock said a letter had been received from Linda Dowling declining the position. Thus, Chairman Hancock made a Motion to: Appoint Ken Mills to fill the vacancy. Selectman Moroney seconded and the Motion passed. With Mr. Mills’ acceptance, Moderator Ben Jellison administered the Oath of Office and Mr. Mills took his place at the table.

Stan Borkowski’s report was not received.

Jennifer Hancock stated the Recreation Committee is hoping to have a family/town lighting ceremony on December 5, at the Information Booth for Christmas. As this requires a bit of planning, she explained she has to start early. It’s her thought this will include sleigh rides, a fire for marshmallows, and caroling, etc., as well as the lighting ceremony. She will be speaking with other town committees and groups to solicit their participation also. Mrs. Hancock anticipates the only costs will be purchasing the lights and the electricity to run them, and this will depend on who participates to help with paying for them. She stated that any money left will be turned over to the Town for the electric bill. The Board requested that she fill out a Use Permit Application just to help us keep track of functions using town facilities. Mrs. Hancock said she will come by the Office to do that. Joan Karpf advised that they should take into consideration parking for the event. Mrs. Hancock said they expected people to use the Town Hall parking lot as well other locations in the vicinity. Selectman Moroney made a Motion to: Accept the event, Chairman Hancock seconded, and the Motion passed unanimously.

The following items were approved and signed:

Town Hall Use Permit Application – Recreation Committee, April 5, Easter egg Hunt;
May 30, Dance for Grades 6 to 10
Land Use Change Tax – Nelson
Federal Surplus Property Program Agreement – This allows the Town to purchase goods,
used vehicles, equipment, etc.
Oaths of Office – Claire Gritzer for Trustee of Trust Funds and Library Trustee and Kenneth
D. Mills

Selectman Moroney read a notice from Joan Karpf regarding a meeting in Lancaster on March 26, sponsored by the Coos Economic Development Corp. and the North Country Council. The
Conservation Commission will be attending and Mrs. Karpf wanted others to know about it also, as all are invited. The speakers work with energy committees around the state in formation, energy inventorying and energy project prioritization. Their presentation will cover from various aspects of energy action to conducting an energy inventory, to choosing energy projects in preparing for funding opportunities, such as the Stimulus funding.

Selectman Moroney made a Motion to: Send the Bretton Woods Land Donation agreement to Legal now that it has passed and find out what we have to do. Chairman Hancock seconded and the Motion passed unanimously. Butch Garneau asked if we will have to tear the building down on this property once this is finalized. Selectman Moroney said no that the building probably won’t be touched until we know the Town has money to do something there. The Town has basically a ten-year contract to act upon it.

Joan Karpf said people had been asking her about the excavation at Billy Rines’ property and wanted to clarify the Intent to Excavate that the Selectmen had signed the week before. It was noted that Stan Borkowski had inspected the site and found nothing that should deter the removal of the material already excavated. The form signed by the Selectmen was for continuation of the removal only of the stockpiles as the year runs from April 1 to March 31, and the current year is about to end. Before Mr. Rines can have any new excavating done, he must make application to the Zoning Board for another variance as his previous one has expired.

Al Strasser said he had comments from having read minutes of previous meetings. First was the issue of the Old Town Road ownership. It is Mr. Strasser’s belief that through letters and documentation submitted by Mr. Gadbois that he has proven his ownership (Mr. Strasser handed over his file from when he was on the Select Board). Mr. Strasser stated that even if it were found that the Town owned the land, we cannot go back and change anything after twenty years – he said the limit is seven to fifteen years. It is Mr. Strasser’s opinion that it is a waste of money to send the map to Town Counsel for an opinion.

Mr. Strasser went on to the new employee manual adopted in January. Mr. Strasser urged Selectmen Hancock and Mills to turn it down as it is his opinion that it violates several RSA’s and is illegal as it does not contain certain required information. He disputed that the Town had no handbook prior to Selectman Moroney being on the Board, and said one had to be done at the time the State found the Town in violation in several areas.

Finally, Mr. Strasser addressed the letters sent to property owners in Bretton Woods when they complained about their taxes. Mr. Strasser said it is not true that the increase in taxes was caused by the revaluation. He said the Town is in trouble with spending and must cut much more than the amount voted on. He said people looking at the new subdivisions in Bretton Woods will balk at buying because of the high taxes. He further stated that our spending depends on the amount of assessed valuation increase that we get from construction, not from increasing values on existing properties. He said it is very important that we have the new construction and warned the Board to buckle down.

Continuation from the week before on cutting the budgets started with Bill Dowling and the Solid Waste Disposal. Mr. Dowling explained how he derived the amounts on his budget and what the various lines covered. It was agreed to leave the figures as they are and revisit in late summer or fall. Mr. Dowling advised that he tries to do certain chores at off-peak times to save on electricity—and that there is a line construction charge of $366.56 per month, that he has no control over. He also told that commodities prices are still down, so he will hold until they come back up. Lee Hallquist asked if there is any savings in fuel and oil since the prices have gone down. It was explained that those items on all the budgets had already been reduced to reflect those reductions.

Street lighting was brought up as this is a big annual cost to the Town. There is currently no map on street lights, so we will have to create one. Chairman Hancock has been talking with PSNH and the State about the possibility of reducing the number of lights in town to help lower costs. In his research, he has discovered there are very few guidelines on street lighting. Mr. Hancock said Greg Placy with the State said they will remove every other one if that’s what we want. However, we do have to be careful of lighting effect i.e. striping, caused by removing certain lights, etc. A brief discussion took place as to whether changing the light bulbs to a different type might help and it was noted that this has been done, but there may be a better bulb now and will be looked into.

Jim Covey spoke about the Chamber of Commerce budget and asked that the music series be reinstated to $2,000. He suggested this could be done by reducing the beautification line to $1,000, thus moving $1,000 to the music line and adding $1,000 to the total budget. In his discussion about having things to do, Mr. Covey said that he has been advised there will not be any fireworks at the Mount Washington Hotel this year and they have offered to give $2,000 to the Town if they wish to do them. The Chamber has been talking about this but there are a number of things to work out yet. Mr. Covey referred to the meeting the week before and wanted to comment. He said questions had been brought up about how the money the Chamber had received from the Town had been spent. He said he had given the Select Board and the Budget Committee the breakdown sometime ago. The Secretary asked if he could get a copy to her, which he said he could. Mr. Covey went on to say that membership has declined from 55 to just over 40, for a number of reasons, and said the Chamber would like to continue receiving support from the Town. He said all of the money the members pay, goes into advertising—on the Web, pamphlets and some publications. It was noted the music goes from July 4 to Labor Day weekend and that live music helps make the town come alive. He tries to have a wide variety to appeal to all people. Mr. Covey said he could reduce it from ten weeks to eight if necessary. Rena Vecchio said she believes that is a very positive thing in town that should be continued and thought maybe a fund raiser could be done if the $1,000 can’t be found. Sue Kraabel said she would be concerned if it is reduced, where that would happen, as it has historically been the July 4 to Labor Day period. Lopping it off in the middle so the holidays could continue to be included, she fears, would affect attendance. Selectman Moroney made a Motion to: Increase the Chamber of Commerce budget to $13,002. Chairman Hancock seconded and the Motion passed unanimously.

The Selectmen said the budget is lower right now but they will work to keep the bottom line at the number authorized for protection. They are very concerned with the vehicle repair lines and will add increase them as they are able to. Selectman Moroney said once these budgets are all set up, she makes a Motion to: Pull a full budget monthly to track progress so they can be revisited as necessary. Chairman Hancock seconded, and the Motion passed unanimously.

Billy Rines brought up his water budget, and Chairman Hancock reopened budget talks. Mr. Rines said for Birch Road and Paquette Drive that don’t currently have fire protection, for this year, he could just go 100 to 200 feet down the roads for hydrants and stem them off. He could save $5,000 on his supplies line, 300. Because of doing less work on the two roads, he also stated he could reduce his expansion line, 800. A brief discussion took place about the amount which to reduce it. Mac McQueeney said that except for hydrants the money for water should be coming out of the water district and asked if a revolving fund should be set up. Mrs. Kraabel said an enterprise fund is already set up and periodically transfers are made from it to the General Fund. Art Savona asked about contract labor and was told there is a bit but mostly it’s for digging. Butch Garneau said he usually gets the jobs -- he tries to do right by the Town and cuts his price for them. He also said if they encounter a problem which must be taken care of and he cannot dig, he does not charge for the time he must sit. Chairman Hancock suggested the expansion line go to $2,500, as the Town has experienced bad breaks in the past. We will revisit this later, also.

Roberta McGee said she had read about the Stimulus package and how a number of surrounding towns had applied but Carroll did not. It was explained that in order to do so, projects had to be ready to go and approval with money also had to have been received. We didn’t qualify because we don’t have the money to begin.

Mr. Dowling said he would be doing more maintenance at the old landfill this year and asked if he had to put an ad in the paper or if he could keep the person who did it last year. The Selectmen asked if he was happy with the work done and Mr. Dowling said he considered it a very good job. Therefore, the Selectmen advised he should keep the same person and no ad would be required.

As there was no further business, Chairman Hancock declared the meeting ended at 8:23 p.m. and moved to go into Executive Session for legal matters. The Board was polled and went into executive session.

At the close of executive session, Chairman Hancock made a Motion to: return to public session and seal the minutes from executive session. Selectman Moroney seconded and the Motion passed.

There being no further discussion, Chairman Hancock made a Motion to: adjourn the meeting. Selectman Moroney seconded and the Motion passed unanimously. Chairman Hancock declared the meeting ended at 9:12 p.m.

Town of Carroll, New Hampshire ®2024