Town of Lyme
Board of Selectmen
Minutes for August 15, 2007
1. The regular meeting of the Board of Selectmen convened at 8:00 AM in the Fire Station training room. The following attended the entire meeting: Administrative Assistant Carole Bont, Bookkeeper/Secretary Dina Cutting, Simon Carr, Dick Jones and Charles Ragan. The following attended parts of the meeting: Police Chief Pauline Field and Karen Keane.
2. The following administrative matters were discussed and actions taken:
a. The minutes for August 8 were approved with minor amendments.
b. The non-public minutes for August 8 were approved with minor amendments.
c. The manifest was approved and signed.
d. An Intent to Cut application for Lisa Cohen, map 410, lot 33.1 was signed.
e. Two Yield Tax assessments arising from the April storm were individually reviewed and appropriate abatement procedures were discussed. The board voted to assess and abate, in full, the Yield Tax on:
Brian Laraway, map 401 lot 59 value $249.23
Hardman and Joan Astley, map 408 lot 38 value $242.39
f. Budget committee handouts for August 29. Dick had revised the bridge summary, showing the required work and Dina will prepare the six month summary. Specific issues would be the police cruiser, rescue truck and the April storm.
g. It was agreed that the fire station cleaning should be assigned to the fire station maintenance budget.
h. Fee changes:
i. The increase of planning board notice fee from $3 to $4, due to the increase in mail rates, was unanimously approved.
ii. The revised Cemetery Commission charges were unanimously approved. It was noted that these rates remained low compared to the rest of the State. The new rates are:
4’ by 12’ lot $200.00
4’ by 4’ $100.00
In Memorial Garden $50.00
i. Dina’s vacation request for August 20th through 24th and Carole’s vacation request for September 10th and 11th were approved.
j. It was agreed to arrange to meet the library trustees on September 12 at 9:00 AM. The main issues to be discussed were the air handling problems and the long-term town office re-location.
3. Karen Keane came in to check on the status of her easement. The Conservation Commission recommended acceptance at their meeting of June 4. The Planning Board continued their meeting of August without approving the lot line adjustment, as there was concern over the correct sequence for approval and signing of the necessary documents. Karen confirmed that her attorney considered that it was not the sequence of signature that was relevant but the sequence of registering. The easement should be finalized by Wednesday August 22 and she and David will come in at 8:00 AM to sign it.
4. The compactor had now been repaired. Leavitt had reported significant concerns and dangerous operation. It now operates with a deadman’s switch, meaning that an operator has to explicitly actuate the ram, rather letting it run through a cycle. Additionally, there must be no access to the high voltage electrical box and the dog-kennel door must be closed before the ram will operate. Dina will re-work Leavitt’s emails regarding these issues into a memo to issue to staff. There was a discussion on staff complying with safety issues and Dick and Simon will meet with staff on Sunday to emphasize the necessity of this.
5. Burke Cunningham had requested to “bear bait” in the town forest. An informal poll of the Conservation Commission was unanimously against. The board voted unanimously to deny his request. If he wished to appeal the decision he must first appeal it to the Conservation Commission before the Selectboard would reconsider.
6. A complaint had been received regarding parking on Market Street for walkers to the Big Rock nature reserve. The report was noted, however this is a police issue and should be reported to the police at the time.
7. There was a discussion on the ROW from Hardscrabble Lane to the Connecticut Valley Watershed Council property. This is shown on the tax map of 1979 and some subsequent maps. However, as the initial town staff work investigating the ROW has shown that significant work would have to be undertaken to confirm the current status. This involves undertaking a full title search at significant expense. The current Selectboard legal budget probably does not have enough money for us to start this work. It was agreed to reconsider the issue later in the year.
8. Police Issues:
a. Pauline reported that John Patton wanted approval to put the police log on the Lyme listserv. As this is a public document, neither the Police nor Selectboard have any authority regarding publishing on a public list. It was agreed that we should arrange for a link on the town website and would publish the police blotter there. Pauline and Elise will liaise on setting this up. Pauline will also notify the local papers that they may abstract the information from this web page.
b. Pauline is still negotiating with Piermont to dispose of the old police vehicle. If she cannot reach agreement with them by the end of September, we should look for other buyers.
9. We need to confirm with Michael Hinsley that we can now dispose of the old rescue truck. If so, we should ask for sealed bids on a where is/as is basis for submission by September 26.
10. Contracts:
a. Dina had prepared a summary of fuel contracts. The board approved that we remain with Bradford Oil as the lowest bidder.
b. The board unanimously voted to approve and sign the contract with Dennis Thorell for municipal forestry services.
c. Dina confirmed that the Local Government Center is working on the workers’ compensation insurance contract, which should be ready for signature before our current Primus contract expires in December.
11. We have received a request from US Department of Commerce regarding census information. Simon will view the documentation and report next week.
12. Carole’s draft response to Vicki Bacon-Husband was reviewed and, with minor amendments, was signed.
13. Dina reported that Chase Beach will close on Saturday, August 18.
14. The meeting adjourned at 9:55 AM.
Simon Carr
Recorder
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