Town of Carroll, New Hampshire

• Town Services
• Town Meeting Minutes
• Planning Board/ZBA
• Applications & Forms
• Town Clerk/Tax Collector
• Map
• Home

Minutes of Town Board Meetings

• Planning Board
• Board of Adjustment
• Select Board
• Budget Committee
• Building Committee
• Energy Commission

Minutes of 1/11/2010

January 23rd, 2010

Carroll Board of Selectmen
Meeting Minutes
January 11, 2010

"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

Roll Call of Board members present: Chris Hancock, Bonnie Moroney. Ken Mills attended by Skype.

The meeting was called to order at 7:00 PM by Chairman Hancock.

Members of the public present: Roberta McGee, Bill Dowling, Jim Covey, Lisa Covey, Frank Maturo, Dan Walker, Tom Gately, Mike Gooden, John Trammell, Kelly Trammell, Scott Sonia, Evan Karpf, Al Strasser, 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 January 4, 2010 as written. Selectman Moroney seconded. Chairman Hancock took a roll call of votes: Chairman Hancock, Aye, Selectman Moroney, Aye, Selectman Mills, Aye. The Motion passed unanimously.

Dan Walker, Emergency Management Director for Carroll, spoke about his meeting with his state field representative and said he learned that he could apply for a grant to purchase a generator for the Town Hall. Mr. Walker said he would like to proceed and asked what the best way to do that would be. He went on to explain this is a 50-50 match and it is what is called a “soft” grant – that half of the total cost can be in-kind or donated, and the Town does not pay first and then get reimbursed; the money (half of the total cost) will be sent to us as soon as the project is approved. If it is not approved, it will not be done. Mr. Walker said if the town can install the pad and do any grading and dirt work necessary, for example, this can all be considered for the match. He said the deadline for the grant is January 31, and he will write it with help. The Selectmen thanked Mr. Walker and because time is getting short, they suggested that he use the warrant article from 2009 for information. The article must be ready for Wednesday, January 13, as the Budget Committee has scheduled that night for the public hearing for warrant articles that have money attached to them.

Allen Strasser thanked the Selectmen for reducing taxes for 2009 and said it is appreciated. He went on to discuss the Employee Handbook and said it was on the cover that it was for a year and that he had been told it would be reviewed at that time. Chairman Hancock said they had started the review process on January 4. Mr. Strasser talked about increases in overtime, sick leave and vacation time and what he called were excessive numbers. He also talked about bonus pay, which he was apparently referring to the special details the police work on. Though it was stated that all special details are charged out and totally covers all expenses, including the town’s portion of taxes, etc., he explained in detail how to charge for these. He also asked about lawsuits the town is involved in because of the $25,000 for legal fees. He was reminded that the Town has been involved with a suit with the AMC for some time, and that we were advised by Counsel to hire a professional to research and testify on our behalf. This person has been involved with the hotel and tourist industry for many years and is currently a professor in the field. Mr. Strasser agreed this is the right thing to do.

Chairman Hancock read a letter from Det. Rick Brown requesting that the Board write a letter of nomination for an additional Bail Commissioner to the Lancaster District Court; specifically, that they appoint Paul Lemeieux of Twin Mountain. The Town currently has two Commissioners who provide excellent service, but occasionally they are both unavailable at the same time and as the Police Department is required to use a Bail Commissioner in any arrest, they have to wait for a Commissioner to arrive from another town. Chairman Hancock made a Motion to: follow through with the request for another Bail Commissioner. Selectman Moroney seconded and a roll call was taken. Chairman Hancock, Aye, Selectman Moroney, Aye, Selectman Mills, Aye. The Motion passed unanimously.

The following items were approved and signed by roll call vote: Chairman Hancock, Aye,
Selectman Moroney, Aye, Selectman Mills, Aye

Northern NH Fire Mutual Aid Pact Agreement for 2010
Water Warrant – Carlson-Cunningham Trustee, Collins
Yield Tax Certification – Jellison, Carlson
Yield Tax Warrant – Jellison, Carlson-Cunningham Trustee
Updated Transmittal for Town Medical/Dental Insurance
The Selectmen were able to change the Plan to reduce the cost from the original Plan as
discussed at the previous meeting.
Commendation for Det. Richard S. Brown
At the recommendation of Sgt. Smalley and Ptl. Bailey, Det. Brown received the Chief’s
Achievement Award for excellent service in his duties as Carroll Police Dept. Prosecutor.
Det. Brown single handedly prosecuted 387 arrest cases in 2008 and 2009 (copy
attached).
Letter to State DOT on Behalf of the Chamber of Commerce
The Chamber of Commerce has been given for display, an engine and coal car from the
Cog Railway. They wish to locate it at the intersection of Routes 3 and 302 and because
of State property and rights-of-way, the Town is interceding on behalf of the Chamber
to attain permission to allow this. The Board thanked Jim Covey for all of his hard
work on this project.

The Board revisited the warrant articles to verify their recommendation, or not, of each. The first batch was numbers 1 through 13. Number 3 was eliminated by Bill Dowling, who had put it in. Selectmen Moroney made a Motion to: Recommend as written, articles 1 through 13, minus #3. Chairman Hancock seconded. A roll call vote was taken, Chairman Hancock, Aye, Selectman Moroney, Aye, Selectman Mills, Aye. The Motion passed unanimously.

The next batch was articles 14 through 20 which are all capital reserve items. Article number 15 needs to be corrected so the written amount matches the amount in numbers, which is $18,000. Selectman Moroney made a Motion to: Recommend as written, with the correction on #15, articles 14 through 20. Chairman Hancock seconded and took a roll call vote. Chairman Hancock, Aye, Selectman Moroney, Aye, Selectman Mills, Aye.

Brief discussion followed about the public hearings for the budget and it was noted the Budget Committee would be going over the lines and changes may be suggested to the Committee at that time. During this, Tom Gately reminded Selectman Moroney that the Budget Committee had voted not to recommend articles #17 and 18, having to do with the Computer Technology Capital Reserve Fund and the Library Improvement Capital Reserve Fund, and asked if the Selectmen still meant to recommend them. It was noted that the computer fund currently has $13,336.69 and the Library fund, $10,867.23, and no one has attempted to use either of these, at least in recent memory. Chairman Hancock made a Motion to: Revisit the vote on Warrant Articles 17 and 18 and change to NOT recommend them. Selectman Moroney seconded and a roll call vote was taken. Chairman Hancock, Aye, Selectman Moroney, Aye, Selectman Mills, Aye. It passed unanimously and those articles will NOT be recommended by the Selectmen.

The third batch consisted of articles 21 through 27. Selectman Moroney made a Motion to: Recommend all articles as written. Chairman Hancock seconded and took a roll call vote. Chairman Hancock, Aye, Selectman Moroney, Aye, Selectman Mills, Aye.

Article 28 is a new one: To see if the Town will vote to change the name of the fund created in 2001 warrant article 11 and amended in 2007 warrant article 20, from Recycling Equipment Special Revenue Fund to Recycling Special Revenue Fund. Also to expand the purpose of the fund to be expended for a specific purpose related to the fund or source of revenue or for the purpose of reducing the principal of the Recycling Transfer Station Bond obligation approved in 2003? (2/3 majority vote needed).

And Article 29 was slightly changed: To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum of $30,000 (Thirty Thousand Dollars) for the purpose of paying off a portion of the principle of the bond approved at the 2003 Town Meeting to build the transfer/recycling station, and to authorize the withdrawal of that entire sum from the Recycling Equipment Special Revenue Fund established by the 2001 Town Meeting for that purpose. No money will be raised from new taxation.

Selectman Moroney made a Motion to: Recommend articles 28 and 29 as written. Chairman Hancock seconded and a roll call vote was taken. Chairman Hancock, Aye, Selectman Moroney, Aye, Selectman Mills, Aye. The Motion passed unanimously.

Articles 29 through 39 – new numbers 30 through 40 (with the addition of #28 above) were the final articles. Chairman Hancock made a Motion to: Recommend all as written, Selectman Moroney seconded. A roll call vote was taken, Chairman Hancock, Aye, Selectman Moroney, Aye, Selectman Mills, Aye. The Motion passed unanimously.

Selectman Moroney asked that Bill Rines look into lockboxes for the thermostats in the Town Hall. It has never been a problem but recently at least one had been turned up by someone using the building in the evening.

Bill Dowling said he has his final tonnage amount for 2009 and it was up by 20 ton over 2008.
He will be adjusting his budget at the deliberative session since he won’t be able to do it at the public hearing. He also spoke about his electricity line and said because it will be going up, he’ll need to also adjust that line at the deliberative session. Mr. Dowling also referred to a meeting several weeks ago when the Selectmen spoke of raising the wage of one of the Highway crew because he had received his CDL. He said he has his CDL as well as his level 4 Manager/Operator certificate and has not heard of raises for those. He also advised that his assistant will go in March for her license.

Evan Karpf said when Al Strasser had been at a meeting several months ago about budgets and finances in Town with his charts showing comparisons, he had suggested that the Select Board counter the presentation and wondered why they had not. Selectman Moroney said they haven’t been able to – they all have full time jobs and there is only so much time in a day, as well as that they were advised to acquire annual reports from the towns in order to do actual comparisons. They’ve been told there are a number of towns who hire outside agencies for various jobs that the Town of Carroll employs people to do. Mrs. Moroney reminded Mr. Strasser that they had done a substantial amount of work making graphs and comparisons previously when so many Bretton Woods property owners had written letters about their valuations.

Dr. Karpf also asked about town plowing, as he had come to the conclusion that Bill Rines, Road Agent, was plowing private property. Mr. Rines assured Dr. Karpf and the Board that he was only moving high snow banks as there was a dangerous situation where there was little or no visibility for cars entering Route 3 south. He said he has always done this where ever safety is compromised. The Board suggested that because of budget concerns, cost of repairing equipment, etc. that this probably should not be done anymore. It was adamantly stressed that no plowing was being done on private property.

As there was no further business, Chairman Hancock declared the meeting ended at 8:14 p.m. and moved to go into Non-Public Session for Personnel Matters. The Board was polled and went into Non-Public Session.

At the close of Non-Public Session, 10:02 p.m., Chairman Hancock moved to return to Public Session and seal the minutes from Non-Public Session. Selectman Moroney seconded and the Motion passed unanimously.

There being no further discussion, Selectman Mills made a Motion to: adjourn the meeting. Chairman Hancock seconded and the Motion passed unanimously. Chairman Hancock declared the meeting ended at 10:03 p.m. The next meeting will be Monday, January 25, 2010.

Town of Carroll, New Hampshire ®2024