Planning Board
Work Session
August 1, 2006
Members Present: Bill Weiler (Vice-Chair), Al Bachelder, Ron Williams, Dave Thayer, Travis Dezotell, Ken McWilliams (Advisor) and Lacy Cluff (Alternate).
Mr. Weiler opened the meeting at 7:15 p.m.
Mr. McWilliams said that the Board had been reviewing the recommendations in the 1997 Master Plan to see what had been accomplished and if anything needed to be added or removed.
Chapter IV – Community Facilities & Services and Recreation
Fire Protection, FAST and Ambulance Services
Mr. McWilliams referred the Board to p. 65 of the 1997 Master Plan.
Mr. Weiler said that FAST should be removed.
Mr. McWilliams said that item #1 can be referenced as continue because they are currently doing it. He asked Hank Thomas, fire chief, if anything had been done on item #2 regarding an auxiliary fire station in South Newbury.
Mr. Thomas said that nothing had been done regarding this issue because the Town of Bradford provides mutual aid. He said that South Newbury was only two miles from the Bradford fire station. He did not feel that it was necessary to have one.
Dick Wright said that when MRI did a study, they recommending having one in South Newbury, but they did not realize how close Bradford was. He did not feel that it was necessary either.
Mr. Thomas said that other towns that have auxiliary stations just use them to store trucks and then have a central station.
Mr. Wright said that there would have to be a huge build out to necessitate an auxiliary station.
Mr. Bachelder said that the recommendation was to do a study and the fact that it was not done shows that there was not a need.
After discussing, the Board decided that it would not hurt to keep it in to look into in the next five years or so.
Mr. McWilliams said that #3 was part of a recommendation from MRI to have a limited number of full time paid fire fighters who are also rescue certified to be available during regular business hours.
Mr. Thomas said that there was more of need for an administrative person. They have talked about having an administrative person a few hours.
Mr. Williams said that that was a budget issue.
Mr. Wright said that item #3 should probably be kept in there to keep the option open because they may need it in the future.
The Board discussed the possibility of the Police & Fire having separate facilities in the future and a possible need then.
Mr. Williams recommended saying that there was a need for an administrative person and do a study on a need for a paid fire fighter.
Mr. Wright said that the need for an administrative person would be handled in the budget and did not need to be in the master plan.
Mr. McWilliams referred to item #4 on the availability of water supplies for discussion.
Mr. Weiler said that C was currently being done it just needed to say continue.
Mr. Thomas said that a study had been done regarding item B and a few locations would be feasible.
Mr. Williams requested a copy for the Planning Board.
The Board discussed the need for hydrants verses the trucks carrying water.
Mr. Wright said that it should say there was a need to continue studying potential water sources other than tankers. He was concerned about a major fire in Blodgetts in the winter. In that case, there would be major problem using tankers. He felt that they needed to keep a study as a recommendation to keep it as an option.
The Board agreed that keeping a study in was a good idea.
Mr. McWilliams referred to item #5 regarding the need to continue to provide financial support for operating expenditures.
Mr. Weiler said that that was in the C.I.P.
Mr. Thomas said that the ambulance service could not be self sufficient just based on their fees.
Mr. Wright said that the Town pays a fee every year based on the expected number of calls.
Mr. Weiler said that in that case, it should stay.
A discussion took place on the need for a study based of MRI’s recommendation.
Mr. Thomas said that he did not feel that MRI’s recommendation of a study should be in the Master Plan. MRI talked a lot about the need for radio’s. He said that that was not feasible because of the number of dead spots.
Mr. Weiler asked if a study had been done on the need for repeaters to be able to navigate through the dead spots.
Mr. Thomas said that a study had been done. He said that they were looking at options to come up with a system with repeaters that could cover dead spots. It has been an ongoing problem that they would like to resolve.
Mr. Bachelder said that the MRI study seemed like a bunch of comments from various interviews. Most of the issues were already taken care of.
Mr. Williams asked Mr. Thomas if there was anything under the national fire code that covered the issue of 19 people occupying a four bedroom single bath home. He said that this was a common problem with cottages being rented weekly in the summer in Blodgett’s Landing.
Mr. Thomas said that he would have to look into it, but felt that it would be the owner’s responsibility to monitor.
Mr. Bachelder commented that this was off the topic and wanted to discuss the radio issue further. He said that Mr. Thomas should continue to monitor the technology. He commented that there were antennas on Mt. Sunapee, but they were shielded so that there was no reception in this direction. He felt that this should be looked into more.
Mr. McWilliams brought up the idea of separating the fire and police into separate buildings.
Mr. Bachelder asked why the fire department needed more space.
Mr. Thomas said that there was a shortage of office space.
Mr. Bachelder said that the study indicated that the software that the fire department used was less than basic.
Mr. Thomas said that the department was working on updating the software and they had a grant. He said that MRI did not do their homework.
Dennis Pavlicek, Town Administrator, said that the Board may want to consider that the population is increasing rapidly and the Town was lucky to have a volunteer fire department. He said that there were a lot of buildings in this town even though the population was only1,900, although it is believed to be around 8,000 in the summer. He said that there were 23 new building permits for houses this year. He said that when looking at the fire department, you need to look at the number of structures in the town. He felt that the fire department did a great job.
Mr. Weiler asked if the Board was going to used Betsy Soper’s study when they review the buildings portion of the Master Plan.
Mr. Pavlicek said that they would.
Library Services
Mr. McWilliams referred the Board to page 94 of the 1997 Master Plan. He said that the library had submitted a list of items (see attached).
Mrs. Cluff asked if these were Master Plan items.
Mr. McWilliams said no, that most of them would be covered in the C.I.P. He said that the Board could reference the C.I.P. in this section.
The Board discussed the possibility of putting a community center next to the library at the Bald Sunapee property.
Mr. Dezotell asked what was holding up the town center project.
Mr. Wright said nothing was. There was a plan for sidewalks.
Mr. McWilliams said that they were looking for federal funds in 2010, so the Town was about 4 years off for side walks.
Mr. Bachelder said that it would be nice to come up with a conceptual idea of Police, Community Center and Library all together.
Mr. McWilliams said that a common sewer would solve a lot of problems and open up a lot more alternatives.
Chapter III - Land Use
Mr. McWilliams referred the Board to page 55. He commented that they had done part of #1.
The Board discussed making the business district smaller.
Mr. Wright felt that the topography was going to limit the number of businesses and that changing it was just going to antagonize the voters.
Mr. Weiler said that there would also be a lot more non-conforming businesses.
The sense of the board was that the business district should stay as it is.
Substantial Completion
Mr. Weiler brought up the issue that the Board needed to talk about what was considered substantial completion and active and substantial development when looking at major subdivisions. It was not sufficient to just have a bond. There have been some recent court cases on whether developers have done enough work. There is a need for the Board to be concise and look at each project individually.
Mr. McWilliams said that it came under RSA 674:39, 4 year exemption. The regulations say that when the subdivision is approved, the developer had 3 years to complete the project. However, the regulations do not say that so much needs to be done in the first year. He said that if new regulations are approved and a developer has not started their project, they should have to comply. The Board needed to decide on an individual basis how much work needed to be completed to be considered active and substantial development.
A motion was made to adjourn. It was seconded. Meeting adjourned at 9:15 p.m.
Respectfully Submitted,
Lacy L. Cluff
Planning Board Work Session August 1, 2006
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