Town of New Boston
Selectmen's Meeting
March 21, 2005
PRESENT: Gordon Carlstrom Selectman
David Woodbury Selectman
Christine Quirk Selectman
Burton Reynolds Town Administrator
A. CALL TO ORDER: A regular meeting of the Board of Selectmen was called to order by Christine Quirk at 7:00PM beginning with the Pledge of Allegiance.
B. PUBLIC COMMENT: No public comments were made at this time.
C. APPOINTMENTS:
1. 7:00 PM Melissa Harvey Farmers Market
Melissa Harvey was present to meet with the Selectmen to discuss changes she and the vendors would like to see at the town Farmers Market.
· The vendors have expressed disappointment with the visibility at their current location at the 4-H Fairgrounds. There is plenty of room to set up there but it seems that it is not attracting customers as it is too out of the way. There were 17 participating vendors at the start of the season but by the end of the season they were down to 4 or 5 because the New Boston Farmers Market was not profitable for them. The preferred new location is the town common by the gazebo. The Selectmen expressed concern over parking and safety at this location. Melissa has spoken to the Community Church and arranged for vendors to be allowed to park in the church parking
lot. 3 vendors currently sell off their trucks but the fish truck will be the only one set up to do so on the Town Common. Brandy Mitroff in the audience suggests taping off and designating parking at the town hall for the Farmers Market and if a game is going on at the same time the spectators and participants can be directed to the school for parking. A sign could be erected informing the public of the additional parking at the school. Gordon suggests a temporary fence could be erected during the Farmers Market for safety of patrons. Burton expressed concern over space for both the vendors and the public parking. Melissa stated that in Amherst they have a similar situation and they have solved the problem by directing vendors to park off-site and by limiting the number of vendors participating each year. A similar situation will be needed in New Boston at this location. The Selectmen would like to see a diagram from Melissa showing
exactly how the vendors will be set up on the town common for review and approval by the Selectmen.
Several other locations were discussed. The school has plenty of room but would have the same visibility problem. Across from the Transfer Station may be a possibility. Don Grosso was approached about having it on his field by the Post Office but it was not something he was interested in. The library property in the same area is not a possibility because of the cars needing to go through there.
· The other issue is the day and time that the Farmers Market takes place. In the past it has been held on Monday afternoons/early evening. The vendors believe this is another factor in their disappointing sales. They would like to change the day and time to either Tuesday afternoon or Saturday morning. The vendors will be holding a meeting on April 7 to decide on the new day. Gordon expressed concern about the Saturday morning time frame as there may be softball games or weddings/photos at the gazebo going on at the same time as the Farmers Market. The Selectmen request that Melissa double check with Mike Sindoni from Recreation and Woody Woodland
from the Community Church about these possible conflicts.
· Dave inquired as to how the Farmers Market handles finances as they are a non-profit corporation. Melissa explained that each vendor pays $10 rent which was paid to the 4-H facility and they have other money which was used for signs and insurance. Currently there is $800 in the general account but there are fees coming due for insurance this year. A grant was received which they used to pay for demonstrations and events at last year’s Farmers Market.
D. APPROVAL OF MINUTES:
1. Minutes of March 7, 2005 - The Selectmen reviewed the minutes. Corrections were noted. David moved that they be accepted as amended but Gordon suggested waiting for the next meeting to approve the corrected minutes due to the complicated nature of the items discussed. All were in favor.
E. OLD BUSINESS:
1. Planning: None
2. Taxing Trailers-A response has been received from the DRA but did not answer the question if they are going to do this to every campground in the state. George wants to tax all trailers. Gordon says 320 square foot park model trailers should be taxed but travel trailers are another issue and wants George to come in to meet with the Selectmen and explain exactly what he plans to do. Christine suggests that the town would do better if they required campers to register their trailers. She has checked with the campground association in the state and most campgrounds don’t have taxes. The Selectmen don’t think it is possible to enforce this in 2005, would have to be made effective in 2006.
3. Riley Lot-Burton wrote to Mr. Riley’s daughter and sent her all the information contained in New Boston’s files on the property including engineer reports and letters from DES and asked if she is interested in selling the property and paying the taxes owed to the town.
4.
F. NEW BUSINESS:
1. Chairman-Dave and Gordon are willing to be the new chairman. Christine recommends Gordon as he is next up for re-election. Dave agrees and Gordon is made the new chairman.
2. Planning Board Rep-Christine will serve the first 1/3 of the year.
3. Appointment Process-Burton tried to contact all the people on boards and committees that are up for re-election as Friday is the deadline. A kit is prepared for people who are appointed to positions about the laws/liability information. Burton read a statement about volunteer liability and talked about ways to keep incidents low.
5. Library Options-The library is holding a meeting tomorrow night at 7:00 PM and request a selectman to attend. They will discuss short term possibilities and use of the land, reconfiguring the library plan, the long term plan and fund raising. Another option would be to build a safety complex on the site and use the current Fire Department space for a new library. This was determined in the past to not be an option. Burton asks what would the public support? Dave says most other towns do 50% public funding. The public funding alternatives are a bond or CRF. The public may be confused at this point by the many library plans presented to them over the years. The Selectmen feel the library needs to come up with a plan and their portion of the
funding and then ask the public for their portion. The planned community room was removed from the library but the new addition at the Community church has provided ample meeting space for meetings. A recreation building may also be constructed in the future and can be used for meeting space.
6. Town Hall Roof Quotes-Burton presented the Selectmen with 2 viable quotes. The lowest is from WBR Construction with a quote of $126,000. They specialize in slate roofs. The other is from Ron Therrien at $128,445. He has also been doing other improvements on the building. The quotes are comparable and both quote similar materials. The chimney has been quoted at $11,000 from the roofline up. WBR looked at the cupola and didn’t see any structural problems. The cupola will be painted at the same time the roof is being worked on. The Selectmen approved awarding the job to WBR Construction.
7. 2005 Goals-Burton was not prepared to discuss this at this time but two goals the Selectmen came up with were the junkyard ordinances and a new police chief.
8. Police Chief Search-Burton presented the Selectmen with 2 proposals from companies that assist in things such as hiring police chiefs. The first is $2,000 from Local Government Centers (LGC), who has been used by New Boston in the past with good result, and the other is from Municipal Resources (MRI) for $6,500. The proposals are very similar. Some of the things that MRI does are duplications of things the town already does in the hiring process. Burton will check with MRI to see if they can pare down their proposal. Willard recommends that his former supervisor at the State Police, Dick Campbell, be contacted to see if he would be interested in being on the hiring panel.
G. OTHER:
1. There is concern over the town’s salt supply. Plaistow gets their salt early in the year at almost half the price and Christine wondered if New Boston could do the same. New Boston usually gets bids for salt at the beginning of the summer. Burton and John have discussed the possibility of a larger storage facility.
2. A plow was put on the truck at the Transfer Station and the Selectmen had talked about reimbursing Gerry for the gas but it has not happened yet. The front end is out of alignment now as well. This should be straightened out before spring.
3. Someone threw sheetrock in the hopper without paying but their license plate number was obtained. When the police department was presented with a request from a Selectman for the identity of the owner of the vehicle, at first the secretary refused to provide it but an officer intervened and instructed her to do so. The Selectmen will send a letter to the offender as they are enforcing the new three strikes and you’re out policy at the Transfer Station. The Selectmen are pleased with the new 3 strikes and you’re out letter to be mailed to the residents soon.
4. Fire Department issues-A conflict has arisen between the Fire Department and the Air Force Tracking Station. M5 and M6 are now out of service because they didn’t pass some inspections. New Boston will not be providing mutual aid to the Tracking Station for now. It is believed that Dan MacDonald is working on resolving this situation. The inside of the Fire Department is being painted tomorrow. The Selectmen would like to see more communication from the Fire Department and will bring this up at the next meeting between the Fire Department and the Selectmen.
5. The Recount for the Steep Slope Warrant Articles will be tomorrow at 8:00 AM at the town hall. The letter that went out had the wrong date but Irene called everyone today with the correct date.
6. At Burton’s request, Dave drafted a letter to Chief Begin which was signed by the Selectmen.
H. PUBLIC COMMENT: No comments at this time.
I. ADJOURNMENT: Dave made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 9:40 PM. Christine seconded the motion. All were in favor.
Prepared by Maralyn Segien
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