Chichester Board of Selectmen
SELECTMEN’S MINUTES
April 24, 2007
MEMBERS PRESENT: Chairman Colbert, Selectman DeBold, Selectman MacCleery and Administrator Lisa Stevens.
Chairman Colbert opened the meeting at 7:00pm.
SUBJECT: Department Heads
PRESENT: Patrick Clarke; Police Chief, Dave Paveglio; Building Inspector; David Kenneally, Road Agent; John Martell, Emergency Management Director; Gil Vien, Fire Chief; Stephen Stock, Forest Fire Warden
EMD – All ten counties were declared for disaster relief. Preliminary estimates have been submitted to FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) for reimbursement. FEMA has not been in town yet to assess the damage. Only two individuals had contacted Mr. Martell for assistance. All emergency services worked very well together during the storm.
HYW - The highway department worked together very well. There is still one road not open; Swiggey Brook Road. The highway department has put sand piles down to block the ditch because children were throwing the orange warning cones into the ditch. The department is working on filling in the ditches washed out by the storm. The shoulders can be patched and filled on Center Road. The wetlands cannot be filled in. Mr. Kenneally and Mr. Martell have declared all the road damage and have sent preliminary paperwork to FEMA. The cost estimate is $59,000 - $90,000. Swiggey Brook, Hilliard and Cross Roads were the hardest hit.
The roads will be posted until Friday.
Selectman MacCleery passed along a complaint from a Hilliard Road resident. The resident would like to see the highway department grade the road more often in the summer. Mr. Martell, a Hilliard Road resident, stated the road has never been better since David Kenneally has been the Road Agent.
PD – Chief Clarke has finished the 911 map and forwarded it to Concord. E911 will be starting the GPS mapping, creating digital maps of the town, representatives will be in town within the next two weeks. Notices to residents will be posted in the lobby of the town hall. The Selectmen signed the OHRV, DWI and Speed Grants for the police department.
Disposition of the old explorer coming out of commission was discussed. The timeframe for inclusion in the State auction has passed however there is the possibility of selling the
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vehicle at auction in Pittsfield. The alternative is to sell the car through sealed bid with a reserve limit. The book value is listed as $7,500. The Board will discuss this further and let Pat know of their decision.
Pat requested the use of Drug Forfeiture money, $1,450.00, to finish paying the Town’s portion of the jointly owned Speed Trailer. All three Selectmen were in favor of this request.
Chief Clarke reported Corporeal Corbett has dislocated his shoulder while he was off duty. At this time, the Chief does not know if Mr. Corbett will be out of work.
The new explorer has been outfitted and the majority of the Car 54 programming is complete. The Chief has not decided yet on painting the car. He may use the vehicle as the Chief’s car until inclement weather.
Selectman MacCleery passed along a concern from Mr. Karl Merrill regarding patrolling on Healy Pasture Road, which is a private road. Mr. Merrill was not sure the police were still patrolling the road. Also, off road vehicles have been traveling down the roadway. Mr. Martell stated he had just patrolled that road when he was on duty Sunday. Chief Clarke requested the Selectmen refer all complaints directly to him at the police station.
Mr. Martell asked about the status of the gate repair at Carpenter Park. Vehicles are parking next to the snack shack and the memorial. This is okay when unloading supplies and equipment but then the vehicles should be moved to the parking lot. Selectman DeBold has purchased the replacement posts. The work needs to be coordinated with the highway department. The job was tentatively scheduled for a week from Friday. Also, a pine tree that has come down in the storm will have to be taken care of.
Mr. Martell stated the chain on the gate is wrapped around the post and locked. Someone responsible for the key, (Youth Association/Recreation Department) needs to unlock it and put the chain across. Selectman DeBold will call the association president and discuss this problem with him.
FD – Chief Vien reported everything is going good. The department was manned by eighteen volunteers during the course of the storm. There was station coverage from 6am-10pm that day and the department handled twenty-two calls.
Volunteer Craig Matson has resigned from the department. He has taken a full-time position with the Town of Lebanon. There is a new applicant interested in joining the department. The Chief will be meeting with her later this evening.
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At this time, Chief Vien is holding onto the signed acknowledgements slips pertaining to the new computer policy. Some software on the fire department computer is privacy protected. The Selectmen are fully aware of privacy rights and would not violate them by asking for passwords or information not entitled to them. The Board will discuss amending the policy to address this exception.
Disposal of old computers at the fire department was discussed. Any remaining hard drives will be destroyed prior to disposal. The Selectmen agreed to allow the fire department to dispose of the computers at BCEP or donate them to another department that can make use of them.
Ms. Davison, Library Trustee, mentioned the library is in need of disposing of old computers as well. Deputy Fire Chief, John Uitts volunteered to pick up the computers and take care of disposing of them for the library.
Mr. Uitts informed the Board of his inquiry with the State Fire Marshall’s office in regards to the Town’s acceptance of RSA 154:1. The Fire Marshall’s office never found in their records that Chichester was ever considered to be a private department. Chichester Fire Rescue has always been considered a town department. It appears the Town erred by not formally adopting, during the 1990’s, RSA 154:1, which outlines the organization and duties of the Fire Department and it’s appointment of Fire Chief.
The Board of Selectmen would like to sit down with members of the Fire Department and determine how the Fire Chief is to be appointed, and bring the adoption of RSA 154:1 to the voters next March.
A discussion of burning the Shaw Field took place. Forest Fire Warden, Steve Stock informed the Board that the Chairman, as the property owner must sign a burning permit. Also, Steve recommended notifying the abutters prior to burning the field. Currently, the state is red flagged, meaning fire danger is high. Weather conditions must be just right; the field is starting to green up. The warden would prefer the burning be done on nothing less than a Class II day.
FFW- Warden Stock informed the Board that he and Mr. Matt Cole traveled to Vermont to pick up the skid unit for the ATV mule. This combined with the department having its own pump, resulted in a savings of $1,500 for the town.
Mr. Stock intends to call the body shop that has possession of the military truck and inquire as to the delay with the painting. Mr. Stock has checked with the Administrator regarding the remaining monies approved for the outfitting of this vehicle and will be purchasing new tires and lights.
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There was discussion as to whether or not the lights from the dodge truck could be used as the dodge truck should be taken out of commission once the military truck is up and running. The Board could not recall the details of the discussion with the fire warden and the fire chief at the time the money for the military vehicle was requested and approved. Lisa will research Selectmen’s minutes.
The dodge is handy to have around. Warden Stock would be more than happy to have the vehicle staged at his house. Both vehicles belong to the fire department and are used for forestry. The vehicles were purchased through the forestry budget and impact fees.
The Selectman inquired if there was space enough at the station to keep all the vehicles.
BI – Mr. Paveglio brought up a concern for a property around the corner on Main Street that has a barn falling down. This is a rental property. Is it a safety issue? Should the town send a letter out? The Board asked Mr. Paveglio to determine where in the building codes a hazardous building would be addressed and on what level the town would be involved. The Selectmen should handle all such properties in town the same, not just this one.
Mr. Austin has been issued three building permits.
Mr. Paveglio received a compliant from a contractor who found the town offices closed at 3pm on Friday. The contractor suggested all town officials list their phone numbers on the office door.
Library – Ms. Carolee Davison informed the Board the library has hired Mike Sargent to complete the landscaping at the library. The highway department has been notified and will have the granite blocks for the retaining wall brought back to the library for the work to begin.
The Board inquired with the Road Agent the number of hours on the excavator. Mr. Kenneally did not have that exact figure but mentioned that he knew it was under 5000 hours. The Board asked Mr. Kenneally to contact Chappell Tractor and have that information faxed to the office.
SUBJECT: Town Office Restructuring-Quotes
PRESENT: Chris Weir
Mr. Weir submitted his estimate for the restructuring costs. A price is still needed from Kidder for cutting the window. Mr. Weir will get back to the Board next week.
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GENERAL BUSINESS/BOARD DISCUSSION:
Selectman MacCleery has spoken to Mr. Millette. Mr. Millette is not interested in serving on the Board of Adjustment; he is interested in joining the Road Advisory Committee.
Mr. Ian Blackman has indicated to Selectman MacCleery his interest in submitting a bid for the grange roof repair.
Selectman DeBold shared a cost comparison he has complied for the grounds keeping bid. The Board decided to have Selectman DeBold check references for two businesses that submitted bids and report back next week. The Board will make a decision at next weeks meeting.
Selectman DeBold has reviewed at length the final report submitted by the Town Organization Committee and shared his recommendations for follow-up by the committee with the other selectmen. Chairman Colbert and Selectman MacCleery will review these recommendations and the committee’s report and bring their thoughts back for discussion next week.
There are still vacancies on the Conservation Commission, Board of Adjustment and Budget Committee. The Board will make phone calls and continue to seek candidates.
There is a possibility the Selectmen’s Office has over paid for EMT classes. The Board directed Lisa to follow up with the instructor, Mr. Prickett.
A discussion took place regarding the structure of the Selectmen’s minutes. Lisa asked the Board for a direction in what type of format they expected the minutes to be in, such as taped and transcribed verbatim, conversations quoted, or subject, discussion and decisions only.
Selectman DeBold would like to correct the minutes of April 10, 2007, in which the Administrator inaccurately quoted Selectman DeBold. Motion Selectman DeBold, second Selectman MacCleery to correct the record of April 10, 2007, by removing the quotation remarks from the first three sentences of the third paragraph on page 6 and striking the last sentence of the third paragraph on page 6. Also to insert the following wording to the fourth paragraph of page 6 after the words …. engineer and Road Agent. ; Selectman DeBold stated he was in favor of granting the exemption. It made no difference what the Town Attorney said on the specific questions to be asked since if the Board cannot post the road then there is no need to grant an
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exemption, and if the Attorney says we can post the road, then he was in favor of granting the exemption. All three were in favor. Motion carries.
The Board reviewed correspondence form the Historical Society reporting damage to the community building as a result of last week’s Nor’easter. Lisa will forward to the road agent and notify the society president to solicit quotes for the repairs.
Lisa asked the Board to think about what goals they would like to concentrate on this year and bring their thoughts forward for next week. The Board has discussed having the Planning Board look into removing Impact Fees.
Lisa asked for clarification on the issue of procedures to be followed when seeking advice from the Town Attorney. No memo will go out at this time. The Board did ask to have the Selectmen’s minutes researched for prior discussion surrounding conflicts of interest with the Town Attorney, who would be authorized to contact council, when and why to contact council.
The Board reviewed correspondence from Attorney Britain in regards to the Fournier mediation. The Board is not in favor of further extensions. Lisa was directed to draft a letter to Attorney Britain.
Mail and e-mail was reviewed.
Accounts payable and payroll were signed.
The Board approved the minutes of April 17, 2007, with one correction to page three, eighth paragraph, change the word homeowner to co-owner.
Being no further business, the Chairman adjourned the meeting at 10:08PM.
APPROVED AS WRITTEN
5/1/2007
Respectfully submitted,
Lisa Stevens
Administrator
______________________ _________________________ _____________________
David Colbert, Chairman Richard DeBold Stephen MacCleery
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