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Select Board Meeting

Meeting date: 
Tuesday, January 12, 2021

Content on this page does not constitute an official agenda or set of meeting minutes. Official documentation is kept on hand at the Town Office and sometimes made available for download as an attachment to this page.

CALL TO ORDER

Meeting called to order by Chairman Edwards at 6:02 PM

 

ROLL CALL

Chairman: Russell Edwards – Present

Selectman: Joe Marko – Absent

Selectman: Ian Underwood – Present

Staff in attendance: Brianna Aubertin

 

REVIEW OF MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING

Review of minutes from 12/22/2020 meeting.  Accepted with minor changes due to typographical errors, no change to content.

 

AGENDA ITEMS

Vouchers and other standard business that comes before the Board for signature. Correspondence from various agencies.  The correspondence includes

  • Building code questions: Chairman Edwards forwarded this to Selectman Joe regarding verification that town has different code details.
  • Poster compliance re: town needing to order 2021 posters, Chairman Edwards gave this to BOS admin. to complete.
  • Annual Facility report for waste Chairman Edwards will f/u with Casella to fill in blanks and submit for March 31
  • Solar Ordinance: Avitar sent a list of municipalities that use solar exemption and copy of information for listing of RSA 72:61-64 which provides tax exemption. There will need to be a separate warrant article that would need to be added; Chairman Edwards will get clarification from NH Municipal regarding specifics needed in warrant article.  As well looking into the difference between an ordinance and warrant.

 

REPORT OF THE CHAIRMAN

I worked on items for the budget and warrants. I worked with DRA and have put the warrants and the budget changes in the Portal. I am now working with our support person, Jamie Dow, to clean up the wording and correct any errors.

I contacted Sugar River Bank and Bar Harbor Bank to request information on cost of loan for the paving of Loverin Hill Rd. I have used the numbers provided by Sugar River Bank to fill in the fields needed in the DRA portal. I also have a quote from Bar Harbor Bank.

I gave the town clerk the information to do a warning of a hearing for the loan. It will be at the same time as the budget hearing on the 26th.

I spoke with Carl at the transfer station and he had a couple of requests; winter gloves, and a replacement 3-step step stool for the cardboard bin. He was also asking if the glass bin could be emptied and then placed where the plastic bin is now.

I responded to a request for information on the number of building permits issued last year from the Census Bureau. This was done online.

I met with Aaron McKeon on the website. He has it almost ready to roll out.

 

APPOINTMENTS

None

 

OLD BUSINESS

WARRANT ARTICLES:

  • Chairman Edwards is missing the solar ordinance warrant, and still working on it.
  • Loverin Hill: Working on paving for road costing $325,000 to complete the job.  The first year’s payment of       $15,597 will need to be included in the warrant article.  The first payment will be due August 2021 which will take care of the interest and part of the principal for the loan.  There is a 2.875% interest rate for this loan that will be needed to complete the job.
  • Samuel Morse house payment to be paid off in 2026.
  • Standard Repair of maintenance for cemeteries.
  • Adding money to the bridges capital reserve fund.
  • Adding money to the capital reserve for revaluations.
  • Truck Payment from 2019.
  • Monitoring wells at transfer station to increase to $7,000 because the cost of laboratory work increased.
  • Paving on Pine Hill Road for last stage of the job to finish topcoat.
  • Truck Purchase of $185,150 for purchase of new 2021 truck with $63,000 to come from trade-in value of old truck. $60,730 from highway capital reserve fund, $22,000 from town vehicles capital reserve fund and balance of $39,418 to come from unassigned fund balance.  Chairman Edwards is trying to combine as many reserve funds together to keep the cost as little as possible.
  • Add to capital reserve fund for town vehicles so when future purchases are needed money will be in fund.  Chairman Edwards stated there is about $50,000 in the fund currently.

BUDGET ITEMS:

  • May need to change financial admin. and break it down into specific categories rather than being a catch all for software needs.  There was $3,500 budgeted last year, and Chairman Edwards suggested we raise that amount due to the website being created.

 

NEW BUSINESS

Radar from Police cruiser: The cop car was sold; Chairman Edwards was asked if we wanted to sell the radar that was inside the car when sold.  There was discussion to see if we wanted to donate, sell, etc.  Chairman Edwards is going to get a price of the radar system if the town were to sell it.

Hourly workers raise: BOS admin. will provide breakdown of each employee with hours worked each week to help the board come to an agreement on appropriate raise without having a large increase in the budget.

 

OTHER

Chairman Edwards received interest rates from two banks for the repaving of Loverin Hill: Sugar River Bank (10 year note) 2.875%.  Bar Harbor Bank offered two separate loan options (7 year note) 2.99%, (10 year note) 3.2%.  Chairman Edwards is going to check with NH Municipal fund to see if there is any money that is offered through this program.  Borrowing $325,000 after 10 year payback will total an amount paid of $374,000.

Selectman Members reviewed 2020 income breakdown.

Selectman Underwood will look into the possibility for go fund me page for public health, ex: meals on wheels.

           

PUBLIC FORUM

The Chairman confirmed the next town meeting that will be a workshop meeting focusing on budget discussion to be held on 1/19/21 at 6PM.  He then called the meeting adjourned.

Meeting adjourned at 7:29 PM