Work Session
June 7, 2010
Present were: Mayor Grenier, Councilors Landry, Remillard, Danderson, McCue, Evans, Rozek, Cayer and Poulin
Others present included: Pamela Laflamme, Tim Scott and Casey Gordon from the State Office of 911, Michael Perreault, Pete Morency, Jennifer Cloutier, Blandine Shallow, Patrick Macqueen, several residents from Seventh Street, media and public
911 Street Name Discussion
Mayor Grenier noted that this is an opportunity for the Council to interact with representatives of the State 911 system and comments from the public will not be accepted at this time. Members of the public will have an opportunity to speak during the Public Comments portion of the regular meeting.
Tim Scott of E-911 reported that a collection of non-standard and duplicate street names for the City was completed by the staff at 911. Their job was to note any possible confusing situation for emergency response. Seventh Street and Seventh Avenue is one of many non-standard items that were found and noted in a 28 page report. Mayor Grenier commented that there is a major construction business on 7th Avenue with an equipment garage, and office and though it is unoccupied most of the time, it would be a major disruption of business to change their address. It would also be disruptive to the residents of 7th Street and the Mayor’s position is to leave well enough alone.
Ms. Laflamme indicated that the State 911 came to her with several questions and names of streets that do not exist. The situation of 7th Avenue and 7th Street was first brought up in 1995 and though several streets were changed and there was concern, both were left alone. It was brought up again with the mapping staff and it was suggested that 7th Avenue be changed since there was only one address on the street; it seemed to make sense to change the street name. Ms. Laflamme noted that she signed a form suggesting Cliff Street as an alternative to Seventh Avenue and it was uploaded to the 911atabase. State statute does not allow a duplicate address to be added per RSA 231:133. Mr. Scott reasoned that if Ms. Laflamme did not have the authority to make the change, the Council
could send a letter so stating and that would remove the change from the database.
Mr. Scott established that E-911 is notifying the City that based on national standards; they have identified what does not fit in. In a perfect world, everything that is wrong would be changed; however the Council can choose to accept the liability on some proposed changes. Councilor Landry asked what the liability is and Ms. Laflamme explained that it depends on the situation. There are some addresses that are numbered north to south rather than south to north and that would have a different degree of liability than the 7th Avenue, 7th Street issue.
Councilor Evans pointed out that 7th Avenue is now Cliff Street. The Council can either change it back to 7th Avenue, leave it as Cliff Street or change one of the addresses to something else. Councilor Landry commented that he was under the impression that the street name has to be changed. Mr. Scott reasoned that it will be on record as having been discussed and if the Council feels comfortable leaving the street name the same then so be it. Councilor Landry asked if a legal opinion was necessary to ask if there is additional liability and both Mayor Grenier and Mr. MacQueen acknowledged that there is a degree of additional liability.
Councilor Evans moved to send a letter to E-911 saying that the Council understands there is a conflict with 7th Street and 7th Avenue; however no street name change is proposed. A second letter is to be sent stating that the City Planner is not authorized to change street names and Cliff Street in the 911 database should be changed back to 7th Avenue; Councilor Landry seconded.
In further discussion, Councilor Danderson asked what settlement was received in Swanzey and Mr. Scott noted that the amount was sealed. Councilor McCue expressed concern over the other items in the 28 page report and he would like the Council to spend more time on the issue. He asked for a copy of the report as well. Councilor Rozek commented that even if the City were to make all the changes, this is an ever changing document and there will always be more issues.
The motion passed with Councilor Cayer voting against.
Mayor Grenier asked how long it would take to make a change if the principles of the business decided to sell and Mr. Scott noted that changes can be made in a day. Mayor Grenier suggested that Seventh Avenue be changed if and when there is no longer a business on the street.
Police Antennae Issue
Chief Morency explained that he has already been to the Council to change phone lines to wireless using money that was budgeted for paving a parking lot. Though no additional costs were anticipated, moving the line has become an issue. There are three towers on Cates Hill, one owned by each AVH, Pike and Fairpoint. There is a fourth tower that the city owns and there are not enough funds at this time to transition all to the Dummer Yard tower; there are also licensing issues with this transition.
Chief Morency stated that the PD was asked by Fairpoint to do a study and as they continued to move forward, Fairpoint informed that they cannot deal with the issue of moving the lines until after their Chapter 11 is settled. Since communications are essential, it was decided that the PD cannot wait for Fairpoint and an alternative site on the AVH tower was found; however there would be some additional cost of about $30,000.
Chief Morency noted that the PD has approximately $29,000 left over this year in a capital account for severance. They are asking that the remaining funds be used towards the antennae. The equipment being used for this project would be transferable to a new tower when it is time to make the change. AVH is ready and willing to work with the PD and the change would benefit North Country communication.
Mr. MacQueen recommended that if the City Council wants to fund this communication change then it should be done as the chief recommends and proposed in the resolution to be introduced at the regular meeting.
Councilor Remillard confirmed that the cost to go directly to the fourth tower would be about $100,000; however it also takes time to get a license.
Councilor Remillard asked how much of the $30,000 would be lost, and Chief Morency noted that it would be about $3,000; only the labor would be non-transferrable.
Councilor Poulin asked if we are in the process of getting the licenses to make the final move to the 4th tower and Chief Morency confirmed that the licenses are being applied for. Mayor Grenier noted that this resolution will be added to the next meeting on the 14th.
Beacon Energy Grant
Ms. Laflamme reported that Berlin, Plymouth and Nashua are the recipient of a $10 million Beacon Energy Grant. The Department of Energy had originally applied for $20 million and they were awarded $10 million. The DOE has asked that each community be sub-granted $465,000 of funds and each community will have a field person assigned for 3 years, and money for marketing and outreach for a revolving loan fund program.
Ms. Laflamme noted that the City indicated a dislike of it being a loan rather than grant. Councilor Evans confirmed that the grant would be to make loans to do energy retrofitting for homes, businesses and public buildings. Ms. Laflamme would check to see if the Executive Council has voted on this. Mayor Grenier also asked who would be on the hook if something is not right when the grant is audited.
Rural Business Opportunity Grant
Ms. Laflamme informed the Council that the Master Plan focus was on the downtown and a Rural Business Opportunity Grant, which is set up to stimulate rural economies, is being applied for. States are allowed to submit 2 grants per grant cycle and the City has been invited to submit a grant. The downtown master plan would include working with a landscape architect on design; an economic action plan and market research on what is in the downtown and what would be needed to strengthen it to work with the branding project that makes Berlin the marketplace.
This project would follow up work that BIDPA is doing on improvements in the downtown. There has been some indication from PSNH that they would like to see Tondreau integrated into the plan and they would offer monetary support. The Main Street Program and two other grant sources have indicated an interest as well. The grant is due at the end of the month and we would find out by fall if we are funded. Ms. Laflamme affirmed that the total amount of the project would be about $100,000 for the focused look at the downtown and all would be grant funded.
Budget Review
Mayor Grenier commented that he and the Council expected a zero tax increase and were surprised to see a .31 increase. Has emphasized that there has to be a 0 tax increase and we cannot be drawing from unappropriated fund balance. He indicated that he will know what the surpluses are by Friday and Monday there will be a special meeting and work session to pass the budget. Mayor Grenier added that there is not one person he spoke with at Drive in the 50’s who said they were willing to pay more.
Councilor McCue expressed that he would have a hard time with reducing the fire department. This is the third budget that has met the no tax increase goal. He had some concern about having a public hearing on a work in process. He said that what is being put out to the public is not what it is going to be.
Councilor Danderson stated that we are in a difficult situation and trying to live like we are a prosperous community. There is less money coming from the State and Federal government and property values are dropping and we will have to make hard decisions. He predicted that Berlin will again have the highest tax rate in the state.
Councilor McCue rationalized that though tax rates may increase due to property values, the tax bill will stay the same.
Other
12th Street Bridge
Mr. MacQueen explained that he met with Ed Bergeron and NHDOT in Concord regarding bridge aid for the 12th Street Bridget. The City was not successful in getting stimulus money for the bridges; however we were able to get both bridges under the State Bridge Program that offers 80% reimbursement for bridge projects. The 12th Street Bridge is approved for State reimbursement in July of 2015; the Hillside Avenue bridge replacement would be paid in July of 2016.
Hillside would be a replacement of the entire bridge and could be put off; however the work do be done to the 12th Street bridge is a deck repair and if the project is put off it could cause further deterioration and end up with needing to do a full deck replacement which would cost much more. Funding has been put together to get the project done this summer using the remaining money left in the CIP bond.
Mr. MacQueen added that the Legislature could reduce funding to the Bridge Program or emergency funding could drain the fund. He recommended amending the resolution in the packet to proceed with the 12th Street project which would have $600,000 due us from the State in 2015.
Mr. MacQueen noted that the bridge would be closed for 6 to 8 weeks; if the bridge were to be kept open, it would add to the length of the project and add to the cost. Emergency services would have to be informed and dealt with. Councilor Poulin confirmed that the Hillside Bridge is the worse bridge and is red listed by the State and we are not under mandate to replace it. Councilor Remillard asked what we are putting off by doing the bridge and Mr. MacQueen indicated that $460,000 of extra bond money was going to be for street rehabilitation. Mike Perreault commented that if we hold off studies that have been done will no longer be valid and a complete deck replacement could double the cost.
Seventh Street
Councilor Evans acknowledged a petition from the residents of 7th Street.
Non-Public Session
Councilor Danderson moved to go into non-public session per RSA 91-A:3, II(d) Consideration of the acquisition, sale or lease of real or personal property which, if discussed in public, would likely benefit a party or parties whose interests are adverse to those of the general community; Councilor Landry seconded and the motion carried unanimously by roll call.
Ms. Laflamme reported that in November Carlisle Consultants surveyed land as part of Beth Israel cemetery and they found that a small triangular piece remains in the City’s ownership. B’nai Isreal Cemetery is owned by the city; however the abutting Beth Israel Cemetery is owned by the Isaacson Family Trust. There is an area that the mobile home park wants to protect from being developed and part of that area is a small triangular piece that is owned by the city preventing the park from having a contiguous piece. Through their attorney, the Park has expressed an interest in acquiring the small triangle of land from the city.
Councilor Evans made an argument for charging a minimum amount for the land. Councilor Evans moved to have staff prepare a resolution to transfer the small triangular piece of land shown as “Parcel C” to North Woods Mobile Home Park for $200 and any and all fees associated with the transfer; Councilor Danderson seconded and the motion failed.
Councilor Remillard moved to transfer the same parcel any and all costs associated with the transfer; Councilor McCue seconded and the motion carried with Councilor Evans voting against.
Councilor Evans moved to come out of non-public session; Councilor Cayer seconded and the motion carried unanimously by roll call.
The meeting adjourned to non-meeting.
Respectfully Submitted
Susan Tremblay
Administrative Assistant
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