Chichester Board of Selectmen
Minutes of Meeting
December 22, 2009
Members present: Stephen MacCleery, Jeffrey Jordan, and Richard DeBold
Others Present: Nancy Tanner (Town Administrator), John Martell, Alan Mayville, Jim Plunkett, Michele Plunkett, Walter Sanborn, Gil Vien, Bette Bogdan, Patrick Clarke
Chairman MacCleery opened the meeting at 7:00PM.
Department Heads
Police: Chief Clarke expressed the need to put another cruiser inside for the winter. When the PD parks a cruiser outside everything has to be taken out of the cruiser and there is a lot of shuffling of equipment and vehicles. The safety building is full and the only way to fit another cruiser inside is to park the forestry truck outside for the winter. Chief Vien said the original design is not working due to the fact that there are too many Police Department supplies in/near the bays. Chief Clarke is working on clearing some additional space, however, certain steps need to be followed in order to destroy/get rid of some of the items and this will take time as he is short staffed at the moment.
Mr. MacCleery asked if it would help if the Selectmen went to the building and looked at the space. Both department heads declined. Mr. MacCleery would like to see Chief Clarke and Chief Vien work together on a solution.
Mr. DeBold said his suggestion would be for the Fire Chief to try to accommodate the Police Chief and for the Police Chief to clear up space as soon as possible for the Fire truck. His priority would be to have the cruiser parked inside as soon as possible.
Mr. MacCleery said he can see both sides, however, for right now we need to get the cruiser under cover and as soon as possible get the fire truck under cover as well. Mr. Jordan agrees.
Chief Vien said that if the Selectmen want him to park the forestry truck outside he will.
Highway: Mr. Plunkett is working on some personnel issues. He has finished taking trees down for this year and is working on a list for next year. Mr. Plunkett would like to finalize the letter regarding the beaver dam. There was much discussion regarding the liability of beaver dams. Mr. Plunkett spoke to Fish and Game who informed him that the homeowner is responsible for the dam and any damaged caused by the dam. Mr. Plunkett and Mr. DeBold will both look into the liability issue.
Mr. Plunkett would like to purchase an angled plow for the one ton. There was discussion as the advantages of this type of plow. Mr. Plunkett received pricing. The lowest price was from E.W. Sleeper for $1873.00. The price from Donovan was $2,062.64. He also received a price from Fairfield at $3,500. The Fairfield plow was made of different material. The Selectmen would like to see if Mr. Plunkett can get a third price for the same plow.
Mr. MacCleery made a motion seconded by Mr. DeBold to approve the expenditure of $1,873.00 for the snow plow blade unless Mr. Plunkett can obtain a lower price. Motion Carries.
Mr. Jordan commented on how uniformly the sander on the old fire truck is spreading.
Fire Department: The students are on break. The building is fine. The budget committee’s requests were discussed. Chief Vien has worked with Mr. Pike on getting the maintenance line items separated. One of the requests was for a letter from the Loudon Fire Department stating what our costs would be for the FY 2010. Chief Vien explained that he will call Loudon and see what they can provide, but he thought they were unsure of the actual costs at this time.
Building Inspector: Chief Vien has been filling in for Mr. Dever. He updated the Selectmen on any inspections.
Chief Clarke
Chief Clarke needs to discuss a personnel issue with the Selectmen.
Pursuant to RSA 91-A:3 II(a), a motion was made by Mr. MacCleery and seconded by Mr. Jordan to enter into non-public session to discuss a personnel issue. A roll call vote was taken: MacCleery – yea, Jordan yea, DeBold-yea. Motion passes.
Pursuant to RSA 91-A:3, a motion was made by Mr. MacCleery and seconded by Mr. Jordan
to exit the non-public session at 8:20 pm. A roll call vote was taken: MacCleery – Yea, Jordan – Yea, DeBold - Yea. Motion passes.
Other Business
Map 4 Lot 21-1
Mr. Sanborn brought it to the attention of the Board of Selectmen that the house next to the Fire Station was scheduled to be auctioned off. He wanted to know if the Board would consider buying the property. The Town originally bought the property with the Fire Station and sold the house portion. Mr. Sanborn feels the Town should consider buying it once again. He feels it may help with the space needs of the Town.
The Selectmen seemed willing to bring it to the voters at Town Meeting; however, they have no avenue to participate in the auction on January 4th. Mr. Jordan will discuss it with Bob Mann from the Conservation Commission.
Holiday Pay
Chief Clarke shared with the Selectmen that he talked with Lisa Stevens the former Town Administrator regarding the intent of the Holiday Policy. Ms. Stevens said that the change in the wording of the policy was due to a situation with a part-time employee and the intent was never to take Holidays away from full-time employees. When the Selectmen established those holidays it was modeled after the school policy.
This subject was not discussed again until later in the meeting. Then there was more discussion about how to be fair to all the employees. Nancy provided the Selectmen with research on other towns and two sample policies. In light of the two holidays that are upon us the following motion was made.
Mr. MacCleery made a motion seconded by Mr. DeBold that on page 10 of our personnel policy book the fifth paragraph starting with “Full-time, Regular Part-time and Part-time employees” be deleted and replaced with “Full-Time, Regular Part-Time and Part-Time employees working a minimum of twenty hours per week will be paid a normal day’s pay for each holiday. An employee required to work on a scheduled holiday shall receive his/her pay at a rate of one and one half times the normal rate and granted an additional day off. When an employee works other than a Monday – Friday schedule and is not scheduled to work on a designated calendar holiday, the employee shall be granted another scheduled workday off with pay (to be used within 3 months at the Department Head’s discretion)except for the Police
Department”. Motion passes.
Wells
The Selectmen received a letter from Elizabeth Thompson regarding the Calcium Chloride level in her water. Nancy will research the testing done on the wells in that area.
Food Pantry
Mr. DeBold gave credit to Donna and Fred Chagnon for their work with the Holiday Baskets and food pantry.
Software
The Selectmen received a request from the Building Inspector for software. The request was for $945 to come out of this years IT budget. The program also has applications that would be useful to the Planning Board. The Selectmen would like to address this as part of next year’s budget. They feel that the IT budget is for support verses software purchases.
Agricultural Commission
The Selectmen are exploring the possibility of having an agricultural commission in Chichester. Nancy was able to find out from Mr. Pike that we did have an information session on this subject on December 15th of 2008. The Selectmen would like to arrange another information session on a Tuesday night. Nancy will work with Mr. Pike to arrange.
Nonpublic meeting disclosure
Nancy contacted the LGC attorney regarding the consequences for public disclosure of nonpublic minutes and relayed that information to the Selectmen. There was much discussion about what the consequences should be. Mr. Jordan wanted more information before making a decision. Nancy will call the Town’s attorney.
Unanticipated Revenues
Mr. MacCleery made a motion seconded by Mr. Jordan pursuant to RSA 31:95-n, the Board of Selectmen shall accept and expend unanticipated funds in the amount of $100.00 received from Paul L and Gwen K Adams in support of the Welfare Office. It shall be the responsibility of the Town of Chichester to maintain an accurate record of all funds, detailing their expenditure, and that such records shall be made available upon request. Motion passes.
Public Transportation
The Selectmen received information regarding the Coordinated Transit and Human Services Transportation Plan. There will be a kick off meeting in January. The Selectmen will try to send a representative.
Accounts payable and payroll were approved in the amount of $19,444.95
A motion by Mr. MacCleery and seconded by Mr. DeBold to adjourn the meeting at 9:37 pm. Motion passes.
Respectfully submitted,
Not Yet Approved
Nancy Tanner
____________________________ ___________________________ __________________________
Stephen MacCleery, Sr., Chairman Jeffrey Jordan Richard DeBold
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