Draft: June 22, 2005
Approved: June 29, 2005
TOWN OF LYME
BOARD OF SELECTMEN
June 22, 2005
MINUTES
Attending: Selectmen Dick Jones, Pete Bleyler and Judy Brotman; Administrative Assistant Carole Bont, Police Chief Pauline Field , Julie McCutcheon (Lyme Nursery School), Mike Hinsley (Fire Chief), Bill LaBombard (highway department).
The meeting opened at 8:00 am.
Administrative Matters.
1. The Minutes of June 15, 2005 were approved as corrected. The Non-Public Session Minutes of June 15, 2005 were approved as corrected.
2. The Manifest was approved.
3. The Selectmen approved the request for parking on the Common for LCC summer supper on July 27th.
4. The Selectmen approved the sale of a cemetery lot to Russell Balch.
5. The Selectmen approved the request of Milliman for current use, Tax Map 403/lot 31.
Action Items:
6. The Selectmen met with Julie McCutcheon from the Lyme Nursery School. She is requesting the Town abate the Land Use Change Tax on the purchase of the .3 acres from the Nichol’s Christmas tree farm and merged into their lot. The Selectmen will wait to see the Tax Assessor’s recommendation before making a final decision.
7. The Selectmen discussed several highway department issues –
a. The roads have taken a beating this spring with the prolonged storm weather, and several are now in disrepair. The Selectmen will draft a letter updating everyone on what the Board and Highway Department are doing to catch up with emergency repairs and regular maintenance. The letter will be published on the Lyme List Serve, the Church Newsletter and Town’s web site.
b. Fred is still out - and will be out until his doctor Okays him to return to work. The Selectmen would like to check with Fred’s doctor (with Fred’s permission) to get a prognosis.
c. The Selectmen would like to begin advertising for a heavy equipment operator.
d. The Selectmen also will consider hiring a private company to do some road work this summer. Allen Rowell (Norwich) could be hired as a contractor to do grader work. Carole was asked to get costs/availability and report back to the Selectboard.
e. Bill updated the Selectmen on the need of an additional grader operator. All three of the current highway workers are qualified to run the grader; however Mark doesn’t want to run the grader because of his back. Scott is capable of running a grader, if given the authority to do so. The Selectmen authorized all three full-time highway personnel to operate the grader.
f. Bill advised the Selectmen that we will still need an additional snow plow operator this winter.
g. The Highway crew is advised to tell people that they cannot do work for individuals.
h. Also, during this “crunch” time, any comments or questions should be directed to the Selectmen’s Office.
i. The Selectmen approved the replacement of the grader seat. Billl LaBombard will order it.
8. The Selectmen also would like to get a temporary, part-time employee for the highway department for the summer.
9. Keys - - The transfer station operator (Al) should have a key to the access hall in the highway garage, for use of the bathroom and workroom /with access to the phone. The keys to the locks on the transfer station gates should also be located at both the highway garage and in the Selectmen’s office (in a key box in the vault).
10. The Selectmen discussed the issue of disposal of the old generator behind the old highway garage, which was purchased from a surplus place, but not from “the white farm”. Disposal of the two old generators should go to someone who originally contributed to the purchase of the generators. They will be given away “as is, where is, with no implied warranty as to their safety.” The Fire Chief recommends that the former Chief (Don Elder) be given the two generators, which have no residual value, with special thanks for his more than 40 years of service to the Fire Department.
11. It has been recommended to have a fence around old garage while it is being dismantled. Judy will check with CCI to see if they have some extra orange construction site fencing that we could use for the summer, otherwise the Town will look into buying some fencing.
12. Michael Hinsley met with the Selectmen and asked the Selectmen to go into Non-Public Session. The Selectmen voted by unanimous roll call vote to go into non-public session under RSA 91-A:3, II (a) Personnel issues.
13. The Selectmen returned to public session at 9:02 am, having voted by unanimous roll call vote to exempt the non-public session minutes from public inspection.
14. The Selectmen discussed a Town Investment Policy. We will discuss this in more detail at a later date.
15. The Selectmen voted to waive the fee for the Cemetery/Highway subdivision.
16. The Selectmen authorized free trash bags for town departments.
17. The transfer station will be getting new signs from NH the Beautiful. Pauline is talking to our prosecutor to get signs for gates when closed – giving notice of the possible violations and fines.
18. Dina updated the Selectmen on the upcoming Fourth of July (July 2nd) celebration, which will be handled in the same manner as last year, with closing the boat landing and parking area during the day while the fireworks are being set up. The Committee will place a Legal Notice in the Valley News of the closure of the boat landing and parking area. The Selectmen are authorized to take this action as the access road is a Town of Lyme Class VI highway.
19. Dina also advised the Selectmen that the mandatory training and qualification of lifeguards required the beach to be closed for 30 minutes yesterday (June 21).
20. The Selectmen met with Vickie Davis to discuss the Arthur Stout matter. We concur in the P&Z Administrator taking action as she was advised by Town Counsel.
21. The Selectmen revisited the Jim Argentati matter – and voted to reimburse Jim the cost of $300 for his repairs, on the advice of our insurance company, given that in this instance the “gate” was an unusual circumstance. Judy and Pete voted for reimbursement and Dick against in a 2/1 vote to reimburse.
22. Pete gave a Transfer Station update – the committee collected another $2,600 last Sunday at the Transfer Station. Bags and cards are now “hot items” at Nichols and Lyme Country Store. The use of the bags begins this Sunday, June 26th.
The meeting adjourned at 9:20 am.
Respectfully submitted,
Judith Lee Shelnutt Brotman
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