PUBLIC HEARING – July 19, 2010
Mayor Grenier opened and called to order the duly advertised and scheduled public hearing to accept public comments on the below noted resolutions at approximately 8:20 p.m.
-Resolution 2010-30 Highway Safety Grant for Handheld Radar – Deputy Chief Valerino spoke in favor of both resolutions.
-Resolution 2010-31 Highway Safety Grant for DWI Checkpoints – no comments
Councilor Rozek asked Deputy Chief Valerino how many radar units the police department has at this time. Deputy Chief Valerino stated that each marked unit has a grant purchased radar unit. There is only one hand held unit which is used in the radar trailer units. There are a total of five car units and two trailers.
There being no one else wishing to speak for or against the above noted ordinances or resolutions, Mayor Grenier closed the public hearing portion of the meeting at approximately 8:22 p.m.
REGULAR CITY COUNCIL MEETING – JULY 19, 2010
Mayor Grenier called the regular City Council Meeting to order at approximately 8:22 p.m. in the Council Chambers of City Hall.~ The pledge of allegiance to the flag preceded roll call. Present: Councilors Remillard, McCue, Evans, Rozek, Cayer, Landry, and Mayor Grenier. Councilors Poulin and Danderson were absent. Also present: Pat MacQueen, Pamela Laflamme, Andre Caron, Deputy Chief Valerino, Lt. Buteau, Betty Domino and the press.
Minutes, Previous Meetings
Councilor Remillard moved with a second by Councilor McCue to accept the minutes of the 7/6/10 WS & Regular Meeting and 7/12/10 Work Session. So moved, the motion carried.
Disbursements:
Due to the City Hall server being down, no disbursement summary was available.
PUBLIC COMMENTS: No public comments
OLD BUSINESS
1. Council Committee Reports – No Reports. Councilor McCue told the other Councilors that the Accounts & Claims Committee reviewed the vouchers even though there was no disbursement
2. Resolution 2010-30 (tabled 7/6/10) Resolved by the City Council of the City of Berlin as follows:
Councilor McCue moved with a second by Councilor Landry to remove the resolution from the table at this time. So moved, the motion carried.
Councilor McCue moved with a second by Councilor Landry to have the resolution read a second time by title only. So moved, the motion carried.
Councilor McCue moved with a second by Councilor Remillard to read the resolution a third time by title only. So moved, the motion carried.
Councilor McCue moved with a second by Councilor Landry to pass the resolution. So moved, the motion carried and Mayor Grenier declared the resolution now passed.
3. Resolution 2010-31
Councilor Remillard moved with a second by Councilor Landry to remove the resolution from the table at this time. So moved, the motion carried.
Councilor Remillard moved with a second by Councilor Landry to have the resolution read a second time by title only.
Discussion – Councilor Evans is opposed to DWI checkpoints and he wanted to let the Council knows his position. The Bill of Rights allows travel without any impediments. DWI Checkpoints impede our right to travel constitutionally. Stopping someone for DWI is saying someone is under suspicion of committing a crime. He will vote no and hopes other Councilors will as well. Councilor McCue understands Councilor Evans position, but stated that the courts have determined this is legal.
So moved, the motion carried with Councilor Evans voting in opposition.
Councilor Remillard moved with a second by Councilor Landry to read the resolution a third time by title only. So moved, the motion carried. Councilor Evans voted in opposition.
Councilor Remillard moved with a second by Councilor Landry to pass the resolution. So moved, the motion carried with Councilor Evans voting in the negative. Mayor Grenier declared the resolution now passed.
A roll call vote was asked for and taken, all Councilors voted for the resolution with Councilor Evans voting in opposition.
NEW BUSINESS
4. Ordinance 2010-10 Amending Chapter 17 Zoning of the City Code (1st read)
Read by Short Title only as amended in the work session. Language added as follows: That Ordinance 2010-09 is hereby rescinded in its entirety and “Chapter 17 Zoning is readopted” and the following is hereby adopted in its place:
Councilor Remillard moved with a second by Councilor Landry to table the resolution and schedule a public hearing for Monday August 2, 2010. Councilor McCue voted no. So moved, the motion carried.
5. City Manager’s Report
IT System Failure
The City IT system has been down since early last week. Although it is not supposed to happen, two of six drives failed on the server. NCIA has replaced the two failed drives and have been working to get it all back up and running which is a very slow methodical process because the drives have to be rebuilt and the data has to be all downloaded back onto the system. In the interim, the Tax Collection and Finance office people have been doing most things by hand including payroll which takes a while for them to get used to when they haven't done it for long periods. The Department has stepped up and done a great job of dealing with a very difficult situation which continues into this week. The MuniSmart data has started reloading today, and we are hoping that the system will be back up in the next day or so, but it may be that we will have to
do another payroll by hand this week.
Sweden Street Retaining Wall Contract
A contract has been signed with A.R. Couture Construction to complete a new retaining wall near Tenth Street on Sweden Street. There were five bidders on this project, and the bids for this ranged from the A.R. Couture low of $84,810 to a high of $149,130. Construction will be starting on this retaining wall this week. The funds for this project are in the $5M bond issue.
PSNH Transformer Failure at WWTF
Last week was the week for system failures. A failure at around 9:30pm on Friday evening in the transformers serving the City WWTF apparently caused an outage in the whole City on Friday evening. It seems to have killed the alarm system at the WWTF. Attached are some pictures of the damaged transformers which show burn marks on the pole and where some of the leads burnt off the transformer terminals. When the outage occurred, and again this morning during the PSNH repairs, the plant operated on its diesel generator backup power. All those systems worked as they were supposed to. Currently, pretty much everything has all been repaired by public service and the alarm system is back up also.
Wingzilla/River Day Information
Attached is information from Dick Huot at the NFHP on the WINGZILLA/River Day festival at the Park. The event will be held on August 21st.
Councilor McCue moved with a second by Councilor Remillard to accept the City Manager’s Report and place it on file. So moved, the motion carried
6. Mayor’s Report –
Mayor Grenier had no prepared report this week but want to recognize the work of the finance department staff for going above & beyond the call of duty over the last week while the City’s server was down. He would like to use Council Contingency to give a $100.00 bonus for the major effort and work done by the four finance department employees involved in last week’s work. Councilor Landry stated he did not want to leave anyone out and that we should be certain it was just these four employees. Mayor Grenier stated that there is a lot of trust for our finances on these four employees and we should recognize them for their efforts. Councilor Rozek would like to commend them at an upcoming Council meeting so the Council can thank them personally.
Councilor Landry made a motion to give each of the four finance department employees $100 from the Council Contingency account. The motion was seconded by Councilor Rozek
Councilor Evans made a point of order; an item with a fiscal note should be on a formal agenda at a future meeting. Councilor McCue agrees with Councilor Evans. Mayor Grenier explained that the money for the council contingency had already been appropriated. Councilor Cayer pointed out it was the Council’s fund and that the Council had taken action to access the funds in past during the Mayor’s Report and moved the question.
Councilors McCue and Evans voted no. The motion passed. A roll call vote was asked for by Councilor Rozek. The vote was taken with Councilors McCue and Evans again voting no. The motion passed.
7. Public Comments – No public comments
8. COUNCIL COMMENTS
Councilor McCue noted that Time Warner had also experienced a large outage and hope that the trend with TWC and PSNH did not continue. He clarified he supported the finance department staff, but he just had a concern about the placement of the motion. He also noted Clean Power Development’s recent press release and that he was pleased to read the announcement.
Councilor Remillard commented that there was a good article about the ATV Park & Festival in the Sunday paper and that it was good to see positive press.
Councilor Landry noted that the ATV Festival was a success, and it was great to see one week late noted that at Valley Creek Eatery there were 14 ATVs. The traffic at the park is building.
Councilor Landry asked for an update on Bartlett School. Andre Caron answered and indicated things were moving a little slowly as the Binette family has been reorganizing their priorities in terms of development and that we will know shortly whether they will proceed.
Councilor Landry asked if Skip Sansoucy was still working on negotiating with Laidlaw. Mr. MacQueen said that he has toured the property and still working on putting information together.
Councilor Rozek asked if there was a plan of attack for shimming roadways this summer and if the Council can get a report of how this is progressing. Mr. MacQueen will have the Public Works Director prepare a report to go to Council Mailboxes
9. Adjournment:
There being no further business before the Mayor and Council at this time, Councilor Remillard moved with a second by Councilor McCue to recess the regular meeting to enter into Non-Public Meeting Per RSA 91-A:II (d) Land Matters. Roll call resulted in unanimous affirmative votes including Mayor Grenier who declared the Regular Meeting recessed at approximately 8:32 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Pamela Laflamme
City Planner
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