Town of Lyme
Board of Selectmen
Minutes for August 22, 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, Simon Carr, Dick Jones and Charles Ragan. The following attended parts of the meeting: Police Chief Pauline Field, Karen Keane and Road Agent Fred Stearns.
2. Fred came in to discuss highway issues:
a. The accident on Baker Hill Road, between Dick Justice and Fred on the grader was discussed. The insurance company has already been notified.
b. Fred will order the necessary gates and signs for Shoestrap Road/Maple Lane. Dick will follow up with Mr. Buchanan on walking the road. We still need the new 911 numbers for Maple Lane.
c. School and Library Plowing: Fred or Scott, as drivers of the small trucks will aim to plow the lots as early as possible, before any parking is likely to start. Shoveling is down to the school and library respectively.
d. Fred’s vacation requests for the first week in September and for Thursday, September 27 through Monday, October 1 were approved.
e. Fred had arranged for Miller Construction to undertake the necessary shoulder work on Goose Pond Road.
f. We have four bridges on the ‘Red List’. Of these, the Edgell covered bridge is awaiting the specialist State team, but the other three, two on Goose Pond Road and one on Pinnacle Road. The one on Pinnacle Road over Trout Brook appears to be the most in need of repairs and Fred will ask to have it looked at by Miller.
3. Karen Keane came in to check on the status of her easement. She has approval from her lien-holder, but is still waiting on the title search. This is underway, with no definite timeline. Dick proposed that the Board accept the Conservation Easement Deed gift to the town subject to the lien-holder release and the title search. Seconded by Charles and passed unanimously.
4. Tish Smith and others had written to Pauline regarding speeding on Route 10. Pauline will meet with Tish Smith and the others and will come back to the Selectboard if the concerns warrant more drastic steps than speed patrols.
5. The Local Government Center had invited nominations for their Municipal Volunteer award. Possible nominees were discussed.
6. The following administrative matters were discussed and actions taken:
a. The minutes for August 15 were approved with minor amendments.
b. No manifest was approved. Andrea has signed some welfare checks which will be included in next week’s manifest.
c. An Intent to Cut application for Ray and Tina Clark, map 416, lots 3 and 4 was signed.
d. A Land Use Change Tax assessment for Robert and Gretchen Wetzel, map 406 lot 22.200, value $42.00 was signed.
e. The documents to be discussed at the joint meeting with the Budget Committee were reviewed.
f. Transfer Station:
i. Dick and Simon had talked with the operators regarding the Transfer Station compactor and had operated the compactor under the current settings. Simon had talked with Leavitt & Boucher, who were concerned with the liability issues of operating with any safety devices bypassed. They will reset the operation such that it can be operated on a deadman’s switch with the door open or one-cycle operation with the door closed. The board agreed to arrange for Leavitt & Boucher to reset to this arrangement and emphasize to the operators the issues involved in bypassing the safety devices.
ii. The proposed rates for a superintendent were discussed. It was suggested that this should be $13/hr during the probationary period with and an increase of 50c/hr on Level 1 qualification and a further $1/hr on Level 3 qualification.
g. Following the death of Mrs. Greenwood, it was agreed we should award the Boston Post cane to the next eligible candidate, which is Don Carmichael.
7. At 8:50 AM Dick moved and Charles a motion to go into non-public session under the authority of RSA 91-A:3 II(b) – “the hiring of any person as a public employee”. The motion carried by unanimous roll-call vote. Administrative Assistant Carole Bont, Simon Carr, Dick Jones, Charles Ragan and Transfer Station Committee chair Steve Maddock attended the non-public session. The Board returned to public session at 9:40 AM.
8. Simon had not completed his review of the US Department of Commerce documentation regarding census information and asked to defer this until the following week.
9. The issue of lot mergers was expected to come up at the Thursday Planning Board meeting. There was a discussion on the Selectboard’s view on the future merging of lots. Whilst the Selectboard has to address the issue of unmerging past merged lots, it was not sensible for it to approach this in a manner which conflicted with the Zoning Ordinance. It was agreed that the Selectboard would only support the merging of non-conforming undeveloped lots; this follows the law as laid down by the State Supreme Court.
10. The meeting adjourned at 10:02 AM.
Simon Carr
Recorder
| 
