Town of Otisfield
Board of Selectmen Meeting Minutes
August 17, 2011
1. CALL TO ORDER: The regular meeting was called to order at 7:00 PM. Hal Ferguson, Chairman, Rick Micklon & Lenny Adler present.
2. FLAG SALUTE
*Audience and Board members saluted the flag.
3. SECRETARY’S REPORT:
A. Meeting minutes from August 3, 2011. *Motion to accept minutes. RM/LA – Unanimous.
4. SPECIAL EVENTS
A. Jeff Stern- TLEA 319 Grant update: ~Jeff rescheduled for next BOS mtg. on 9/07/11
5. COMMITTEE REPORTS:
A. Road Study Review Committee;
1) Town Garage Discussion: Site walk held prior to tonight’s meeting. All agree this was necessary and informative. Discussion: David Hyer: A 6/12 roof pitch was recommended. Would like to look into 4/12 pitch vs 6/12 pitch, based on total volume to heat. David wants to know if it would be trading off short term expenses in term of long term expenses as far as heating additional ceiling space with this pitch. RM explains the BOS were taking the opinion of RSRC and will support what they suggest. RM suggests they meet again to discuss it and report back to BOS with findings.
2) Road System Management Software (RSMS ): The committee recommends the town adopt this software. David Hyer: The RSMS software greatly simplifies the process of developing road plans. This software is a simple yet powerful municipality tool. The software was released 8/1/11, it is available for procurement. Free to the Town of Otisfield. RSRC will help w/ the initial road inventory. Database is up to date and ready for use by the town. Town will need to capture history of the roads and do a road surface survey. TT will work w/ Richard Bean to capture information. Road inventory and road survey must be completed first. All information must be complete and accurate before software will work properly. Recommended that roads be surveyed once in the fall
and once in the spring. Multiple people should work on the road criteria. LA will talk to Richard Bean about this prior to next meeting. David Hyer will check to see that database can be put on a network drive and then be accessible from multiple computers. *Frank Blauvelt has offered his assistance in getting a previous plan the FD used that broke the town up into 8 sections. He will try and get his hands on that and get it to the BOS asap.
6. DEPARTMENT HEADS:
A. EMA: Frank Blauvelt: Oxford County Commissioners accepted the resignation of former Emergency Management Agency Director Scott Parker last month. Allison Hill, who has been the acting director since Parker was placed on leave late in May, will be the agency's interim director until the commission figures out how to organize the office. Allison is a six-year employee of the county's Emergency Management Agency office.
B. Sexton: Dan Peaco: RM reported that P&K will be giving the town a credit on loam that has been hauled off to P&K. the credit will be at $8.00 sq. yard. Danny will allow the remaining loam to be stored on his property on Rayville Road.
7. QUESTIONS/ COMMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC:
A. Otisfield Free Community Lunch & Social held, Weds Aug 10th : Frank Blauvelt: This was a great success. Far more successful than anticipated. List of items the community hall could use: (2) Mop buckets / and mop A couple garbage cans and bags and more refrigeration is needed. RM: BOS would like to sell or donate the propane stove. BOS agree that another electric stove and a refrigerator will be added asap.
B. Elaine Doble-Verrill East Otisfield Baptist Church wants to say thank you for BOS support to get Community Lunch Project started and for Sharon Mathew’s great help w/ all the little details. This was a great community lunch. Over 80 people attended, 33 people volunteered to help and others were solicited for food. Intention was for this to be a free lunch, but they received $73.04 in donations. Liability insurance questions were raised. (RM explains in # 10; D below the insurance stipulations) Next Community Lunch & Social scheduled for September 14th from 11 AM to 1 PM.
8. ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT ITEMS:
A. Community Hall Roofing Labor: Opened bid @ 7:30 PM. (1) bid received *Mitchell Contracting, East Hartland, CT. – $18,600.00. This is for labor only. November 1st, is when BOS wanted new steel roofing project completed. All materials will be provided by Record Lumber. *Motion to table this bid until further notice. RM/LA – Unanimous. RM: Due to the higher than expected labor bid, he will call Record Lumber to confirm the labor price is being compared correctly to the materials list.
B. Fire Dept: At town meeting, the town approved FD making an Air Pack purchase. MH went w/ Fire Tech & Safety of New England, Inc. for $56,954.00 which was far less than anticipated. MIM needs to call TD Bank to discuss price difference. The loan was for more then what was needed. BOS suggest they modify amount or apply the difference back towards the loan to principal only.
C. Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) Collection Facility: AVCOG: Environmental Depot in Lewiston, raised $1,000.00 for the day. Currently Otisfield may dispose of up to 2 units of waste per person, per visit. One unit equals up to 5 gallons of liquid waste or up to 20 pounds of dry waste or a combination of both. A smoke detector can be substituted for 1 gallon or can be disposed of for $5 each. *BOS all agree that Town should keep contract as is until someone abuses it.
D. Pleasant Lake Dam: Casco Town Manager David Morton contacted Otisfield and said planks will be removed from Pleasant Lake Dam. They will be reinstalled at completion of project. This should take approx. 2 to 3 weeks.
E. Tobacco Policy and Workshop Smoking Policy: Oxford County’s District Tobacco Coordinator , Chris Davis, sent policy for Town to review. (submitted into public record). The Elementary School, Beach, Community Hall and this Town Office are all non-smoking facilities. MRSA is a state statue. RM asks if this is supposed to be in place? MIM: looks like it is in place. Town policy may not be needed, if this is a State Policy. *RM would like to table this until next meeting and discuss it further after more information is obtained. MIM will call MMA and report back at next BOS mtg.
F. Automated External Defibrillator (AED): For background; on 03/16/11, BOS discussed getting an AED for the Town Office and having all town employees trained on it. A price of $698.00 was found for an AED, battery, adult pad, a child pad and a 5 year battery pack. The manufacturer suggested having it in a locked cabinet or case which was not included in the above price. There was a motion in March to approve up to $1,000.00 to be taken from the contingency fund to purchase an AED once the grant money was received. Last week an AED was purchased for $974.91. BOS would like it placed in the town office hall-way asap.
9. ADJUSTMENTS TO AGENDA:
A. None.
10. UNFINISHED /SCHEDULED BUSINESS:
A. Town Garage Project: Dave Hart, Fish Street Designs did a site visit w/ Rick Micklon, Hal Ferguson, Richard Bean and RSRC members tonight at 5:30PM.
B. Town Office Renovations: (2) bids received last meeting.
*Mitchell Contracting, East Hartland, CT. – $189,885.60
*Bartow Construction Company, Otisfield, ME – $199,908.00 w/ a $20,000.00 additional contingency. Due to the higher than anticipated costs, David Hart, Fish Street Design reviewed both bids to compare and help BOS divide this project into phases. BOS asked if he would review the current application with the Fire Marshall, hoping for the FM’s support in dividing the work (and building restrictions) into two phases. *Tabled until a later time.
C. Town land surveyed: Del Maxfield, Maine Survey Consultants (MSC), Inc. in Harrison Maine surveyed the Town Garage lot located at Station Road and Oak Hill Road shown as parcel 57 on Map R9, encompassing 17.5 acres. Del recommends having an accurate boundary survey performed on a portion of this parcel in order to replace a couple of missing corner markers. He also suggests blazing and painting several boundaries not previously blazed, accurately locate the Station Road right of way and the pipeline right of way and prepare an updated survey map that identifies current abutters and incorporates both town parcels onto the same map. The town was given an estimate of
approximately $2,500.00. Other upcoming projects to include: Town Garage parcel, Sat. Pond parcel, Henigar Park and South Otisfield Cemetery parcel. *Tabled until next meeting.
D. Town Insurance: Community Hall: RM spoke with Michelle Pelletier from MMA. BOS wanted to be sure that fire and liability were included regardless of who uses Community Hall; 24-7, 365. Rick recapped their conversation: There are two basic types of "usage" of the Hall. One is when the Town actually sponsors / sanctions the event. Examples could be a town meeting, a board or committee meeting, a public hearing, a recreation department event, a fireman's dance, a sanctioned luncheon, etcetera. The other usage would be a non-sanctioned event that has no connection to the town itself, even if the applicant is a property owner or resident.~ Examples could be a wedding and/or
reception, birthday / graduation~parties, family reunions, private dances, church events, etc.
How the Town handles the events is where the (Town) needs to be clear.
1. Town sanctioned / sponsored events: The Board of Selectmen must vote to approve the event, so that it is determined to be sanctioned and entered into public record. A policy should be in effect outlining the stipulations for such a usage.~ In the event that a usage is on-going / repetitive, such as a monthly / quarterly luncheon, then the original vote to sanction the event is sufficient. Such an event should have an application submitted to the Board for approval, showing the people involved and reason for the event. If any funds are collected, such funds must be submitted to the Town and deposited into Town bank accounts.~ These funds may be re-issued back to groups or individuals who need to pay for consumables (food, paper goods, etc.) for the next event. Such events are covered by our existing
insurance policy with Maine Municipal.
2. Non-sanctioned events: Such events~MAY NOT be~covered by our existing insurance policy with Maine Municipal. To ensure the Town's protection against losses and/or liability,~the following must take place: A~policy should be in effect outlining the stipulations for such a usage. Each event should have an application submitted to the Board for approval, showing the people involved and reason for the event. If approved by the Board, a separate insurance policy is mandatory.~ (The Town can assist in obtaining such coverage.) This insurance includes the following: It must be General Liability (including Fire Damage Legal Liability), include a minimal $400,000 coverage (as this is an approximate cost to replace the Community Hall in the event of fire), and the Town must be named as a Certificate Holder AND an Additional Insured~on the policy. All of these conditions must be met and in place prior to Board approval. A facility use agreement has been given to the town for a template.
Discussion: A town policy is needed for this. *MIM says we have a policy. (if there is one, can we get it to TT to place on the web site w/ other town policies?)
11. SELECTMEN’S ITEMS TO BE DISCUSSED & VOTED ON:
A. Town Warrant: *Motion to sign Warrant # 3 to pay the town bills. LA/RM – Unanimous.
12. QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS FROM THE BOARD:
A. Town Meeting/Deputy Moderator: RM suggests that we have a Deputy Moderator on the Town Warrant at every town meeting. This will allow the moderator a chance to step away from the podium and give his opinion as a town citizen. Deputy Moderator is appointed by the moderator. The moderator will recuse himself and the deputy moderator takes over. Then the procedure is reversed. All BOS agree. TT will add this to the BOS calendar in June. Frank Blauvelt will write the verbiage and send to MIM ahead of time.
B. BOS Calendar: TT gave the BOS a run-down of what’s to be reviewed for the following month.
C. Pleasant Lake Beach: RM: Richard Bean, provided erosion control work at the driveway and parking areas as suggested by the Cumberland County Soil & Water District. It has been inspected. Town will receive $1,380.00 cut back to them in Grant money for Richards work. Richard had to put in $2,000 worth of work and labor. BOS all agree that it looks great and it’s a great improvement to the lake, because we are getting the grant money and the erosion to the lake has been controlled.
D. Abandoned home for sale: Oak Hill Road – a neighbor complained to LA about rubbish and odor emanating from this vacant home last month. LA phoned realtor and asked that they secure the house, fix window and possibly mow the lawn, but the realtor said no money from home owners to do so and the real estate agent does not want to spend any money.
E. Money for Town Projects: LA was informed last month that a gentleman by the name of Gibson owns a commercial paving company and he may be giving out money to towns for a town project. LA looked into this and the Town of Otisfield is in line for a grant of $10,000.00 as of next year. The money can be spent on community hall, youth or elderly.
F. Cell phone list: BOS requesting that MIM distribute it ASAP.
13. Upcoming Dates:
A. Board of Selectmen Meeting, September 7, 2011 @ 7:00 PM
14. ADJOURNMENT:
With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 9:10 PM. HF/RM – Unanimous.
Respectfully submitted,
Tanya Taft, Secretary
Approved by:
Hal Ferguson, Chairman __________________________________________
Rick Micklon __________________________________________
Lenny Adler __________________________________________
Approved on: September 7, 2011
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