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DRAFT Minutes of 1/3/2012

January 9th, 2012

Carroll Board of Selectmen
Meeting Minutes
January 3, 2012
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: Mark Catalano, Bonnie Moroney, Bill Dowling

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

Members of the public present: Edith Tucker, Dan Tucker, Sue Kraabel, Karen Moran, Jeff Duncan, Butch Garneau, Ben Jellison, Buddy (Albert) Pearce, Carmine Fabrizio, Guy Jubinville, Joan Karpf

Pledge of Allegiance

The meeting was not filmed.

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

Selectman Dowling made a Motion to: Accept the minutes of December 12, 2011, as written. Selectman Moroney seconded and the Motion passed unanimously.

Selectman Dowling said he had a correction for the minutes of December 19. On page 4 it says “Barbara Reid of the DRA” and it should “of the LGC.” Chairman Catalano made a Motion to: Accept the minutes of December 19, 2011, as corrected. Selectman Moroney seconded and the Motion passed unanimously.

The following items were approved and signed:

Certificate of Occupancy – 754 Chestnut St. Property Mgmt./Audesse
Yield Tax Warrant – Flumerfelt
Property Tax Abatement – Harris Family Trust – this was a “housekeeping” issue only, for
correction of the books.
Water Warrant – Johnson, Bochynski

Selectman Moroney noted that the Board had given approval to Greg Hogan, Road Agent, to purchase materials to build a “lean-to” type covering for equipment (plows, etc.) which they allocated to Repairs & Maintenance of Town Buildings. Selectman Moroney also spoke about the money the Board had agreed to move within the budget to help pay for the new cruiser to replace the one wrecked in the accident ($4,000 from the Contingency line) and to fund the hiring of two part time police officers. The amount for the officers was $3,088.46 and was moved as noted: $1,000 from 01-4240.10-203 (PI, Third Party Review) to 01-4210.10-303 and $2,088.46 from 01-4312.10-304 (HW Maint. Resurfacing) allocated as: $370 to 01-4210.10-303; $1,478.46 to 01-4210.10-306; $240 to 01-4210.10-308, all of which are Police Department budget lines. She reminded the Board that the money in the cruiser Capital Reserve Fund was invested and they did not want to take a loss, so they chose to transfer within. Chairman Catalano agreed all was as discussed previously.

Chairman Catalano then moved on to warrant articles and read the first one:
“To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum of $189,996 (One Hundred Eighty Nine Thousand Nine Hundred Ninety Six Dollars) for the reclamation of New Straw Road. New technologies will be used for the reclamation with the allocation of the costs being estimated as follows: Full-Depth Reclamation—Local Roads (materials & labor), $107,044 (One Hundred Seven Thousand Forty Four Dollars); Slip Lining One 6 (six) Foot Culvert Using Trenchless Technology (materials & labor), $75,000 (Seventy Five Thousand Dollars); Replacement of 3 (Three) Small Culverts (materials & labor), $5,952 (Five Thousand Nine Hundred Fifty Two Dollars); 2 (Two) Soil Tests, $2,000 (Two Thousand Dollars).” Selectman Moroney said she felt there was more information than necessary in this and that it should be used as a selling point; where the funding is going, etc. She also felt it made the article too confusing. The question was asked if the work was to include culverts and it was stated that it will. After brief discussion, it was agreed that it should be shortened to:
“To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum of $189,996 (One Hundred Eighty Nine Thousand Nine Hundred Ninety Six Dollars) for the reclamation of New Straw Road including culverts. $107,044 (One Hundred Seven Thousand Forty Four Dollars) will be withdrawn from the Major Road Improvements Capital Reserve Fund and $82,952 (Eighty Two Thousand Nine Hundred Fifty Two Dollars) will come from new taxation.”
The Board decided they will vote on this at the next meeting when they have the rewritten version.

Ben Jellison said the shorter, more succinct the warrant articles can be, the better. He said, as Moderator, he hears a lot of comments when they are very long as they are not only time-consuming to read, but can be very confusing.

Chairman Catalano briefly touched on the articles they had voted on previously. When he got to the article regarding the Fire Special Revenue Fund, Jeff Duncan suggested rescinding all the articles relating to the Fire Department except for this one as he noted that DRA said we cannot take money from Capital Reserve Funds and put it into Special Revenue Funds because it is not revenue. It was also Chief Duncan’s suggestion in view of the same, to just go with making the final payment of $65,000 for the fire engine from the Capital Reserve Fund as originally approved. Chairman Catalano said he was uncomfortable with the changes by DRA and would call them himself the next day. He went on to say he was concerned about the agreement they had made about using funds to offset the operating side and said his goal has always been to keep money within the Fire Department. He said he needed to have more discussion with Chief Duncan and they agreed to meet Thursday. There was brief discussion that warrant article appropriations in the previous year will not be on the current MS-7. Final versions of the warrant articles will be brought to the next meeting.

Capital Reserve articles were then brought up and it was noted these were just as they were last year, and only copied so they would not be left out, so therefore could be changed:

To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate $15,000 (Fifteen Thousand Dollars) to be placed in the Municipal Truck Capital Reserve Fund.

To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate $18,000 (Eighteen Thousand Dollars) to be placed in the Police Cruiser Capital Reserve Fund.

To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate $10,000 (Ten Thousand Dollars) to be placed in the Highway Equipment Capital Reserve Fund.

To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate $2,000 (Two Thousand Dollars) to be placed in the Computer Technology Capital Reserve Fund.

To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate $2,000 (Two Thousand Dollars) to be placed in the Library Improvement Capital Reserve Fund.

To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate $10,000 (Ten Thousand Dollars) to be placed in the Landfill Closure Capital Reserve Fund.

To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate $10,000 (Ten Thousand Dollars) to be placed in the Road Improvements Capital Reserve Fund.

To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate $30,000 (Thirty Thousand Dollars) to be placed in the New Land & Building Capital Reserve Fund

The first article, $15,000 for the Municipal Truck CRF was read and Selectman Moroney made a Motion to: Accept as written, Selectman Dowling seconded and it passed unanimously, so the article will show “Recommended by the Selectmen 3 to 0.”

Next was the Police Cruiser CRF for $18,000. There was discussion with Chairman Catalano saying that he had a problem with this as they just bought two new cruisers within the last six months. Discussion continued about saving money versus actually purchasing a vehicle and it was stated if the people wanted to vote for it they will, otherwise they won’t. Selectman Moroney made a Motion to: Accept as written, Selectman Dowling seconded and the Motion passed 2 to 1.

The next four, Highway Equipment, Computer Technology, Library Improvement and Landfill Closure CRF’s were all approved by a vote of 3 to 0.

When the Road Improvements CRF for $10,000, Selectman Moroney said she thought with all the work that needs to be done, the cost of doing the work, and with hoping to get one road done this year, this amount should be increased if they really want to be able to accomplish anything. Selectman Dowling made a Motion to: Amend the amount to $20,000, Selectman Moroney seconded and the amendment passed unanimously. Selectman Moroney then made a Motion to: Accept the article with the increased amount of $20,000. Selectman Dowling seconded and the Motion passed 3 to 0.

The final article, New Land & Building CRF for $30,000 was approved 3 to 0.

Ben Jellison reminded everyone of the Primary Election on Tuesday, January 10. The Polls will be open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. per State law.

Selectman Dowling said he had spoken with Barbara Reid at LGC, and confirmed that we can increase the Default Budget for NH Retirement. It was noted by the Secretary that any increases as a result of contracts may also be made, and that PSNH prices increased, but we do not have a particular contract with them, so that may not be added. The Default Budget will be completed and the Selectmen will sign it for the first Budget Hearing on Wednesday, January 4.

There was a brief discussion about the Food Pantry and the fact that it is located in the Town Hall. This brought up the issue of liability and the question will be posed to both our insurance company and town counsel.

Joan Karpf said she had just come from a Zoning Board meeting and they were concerned about getting new members. She wanted to know about putting an ad in the paper or otherwise posting that there will be several seats open for the Elections in March. Mrs. Karpf was advised the Town Clerk will be putting ads in the paper for all open seats and this will include the ZBA.

Butch Garneau brought up the subject of private practice shooting and the large amount of it that was done over the previous holiday weekend. He said it went on for hours at various times of the day and night and it disturbed a big group of people. Mr. Garneau said there is a noise ordinance for snowmobiles and machinery and wondered about this. It was stated the Police had been called but because there is no ordinance, they couldn’t do much about it. Chairman Catalano said he had spoken with the Chief and a noise ordinance might help but could be hard to defend, without the proper equipment (such as a device that measures decibels) if it went to court. The Chief suggested putting a time after which there cannot be any noise, such as a “noise abatement” ordinance. When Mr. Garneau said they probably couldn’t do anything about noise during the day, Selectman Dowling said they can react to daytime noise pursuant to RSA 642, which is about loud or unreasonable noise. Chairman Catalano said the Chief is aware of this RSA, but again we must be very careful regarding proof. He said the Chief is looking into this and trying to take positive action.

Jeff Duncan brought up the problem of the water coming from behind the Post Office again. He said there is now a strong, moldy smell in the Station and they are going to lose a rug and possibly the floor, which he is hoping not. The Secretary said she had called the owner of the P.O. property, Bob Stiles, as she had been asked to do and he gave verbal, as well as written permission, for the Town to go back there with equipment to trench or do whatever they needed to reroute the water. When this word was passed on to the Highway and Water Departments, they were concerned about town equipment being used and seen on private property, as things had been done in the past and were not well received. The Board said the guys should do what they can about the problem and any complaints should be directed to them.

Mr. Duncan then asked if they had a timeframe for the Employee Manual. Chairman Catalano thanked him and said he had updated it based on the Attorney’s suggestions. While he disagreed with some, he said most seemed reasonable and said they could quickly go over these now. He said the majority had to do with liability and did not seem to have any impact on the employees.

In order to facilitate discussion of the email with the changes (attached), Chairman Catalano made a Motion to: Waive Attorney-Client privilege. Selectman Dowling seconded and it passed unanimously.

Chairman Catalano then proceeded to go through each section that had recommended changes. When completed, Chairman Catalano made a Motion to: Make the changes as gone over and Selectman Dowling seconded. The Motion passed unanimously. The Board asked the Secretary to send this to Town Counsel when completed and also to give copies to the employees.

Mr. Duncan referred to drug testing that was mentioned and asked if there is money in the budget. It was stated this applies to very few employees and any information about it is very vague, so it wouldn’t seem it will be an issue.

As there was no further business, Selectman Dowling made a Motion to: Continue the meeting to next week, January 9. Selectman Moroney seconded and the Motion passed unanimously