Town of Otisfield
Board of Selectmen Meeting Minutes
February 4, 2015
1. CALL TO ORDER: The regular meeting was called to order at 7:01 PM. Hal Ferguson – Chairman, Rick Micklon & Lenny Adler present.
2. FLAG SALUTE: Audience and Board members saluted the flag.
3. ACTION ON MINUTES:
A. Meeting minutes from January 7, 2015. *Motion to accept minutes. LA/RM – Unanimous.
B. Meeting minutes from special meeting on January 21, 2015. *Motion to accept minutes. LA/HF -Unanimous.
4. SPECIAL EVENTS
A. Pat Casey- President of Heniger Park Association: There were (31) items that the Association wanted changed in the lease, sent to the Town Attorney, (14) items were accepted, (14) were not and the other (3) were modified. Pat Casey: Feedback from banks so far is they will not give a loan to someone whose term exceeds the term of the lease. RM: Our feedback is that it’s a loanable product and the Selectmen are agreeable to work with the banks to provide letters or language that allows them to lend money based upon the leasing terms. Pat: Is it an automatic renewal unless we opt out? HF: We considered that to be the same. Lease is up after 10 years, unless you tell us you want to renew. If you do and there’s no tax or lease payments issues or environmental issues then its good for another 10 years. Pat: I am
encouraging BOS to look through the view of a new lease coming in. RM: If our attorney does not agree with changes, then BOS do not agree with it. HF: Everyone has an option to renew. Town gave an example of where there was a fixed valuation on the property and then every year there is an escalator in the mill rate. Benchmark is needed over time. BOS reviewed differences with Pat and asked for any verbiage to come through email so it can be sent to Town attorney as quickly as it comes in. The Town uses the assessor to determine market value. HPA Secretary: In respect to the deadline, is anything driving the April 30th deadline. HF: Yes, it is to safeguard the time period through September 30th to ensure the environmental issues have time to get finalized. Pat: Insurance: Concerned. If a fire happens and owner chooses to rebuild, because the Town is listed on the policy, half the insurance payment goes to town. What happens if the Town won’t sign it over? If
the owner doesn’t rebuild? RM: The Town isn’t after insurance money, it’s after tax money. If there is a mess to clean up due to a fire, then yes the Town may rightfully expect clean up from that payment. HF: The goal is to have this in the mail by the end of next week. I appreciate you coming in and we spent a lot of time and money looking into this. There has been at least 50% compromising, but when the legal dept. speaks we listen. LA: It’s time to move on. I’ve heard nothing tonight that changes my mind one bit and I’m not compromising on the current lease that you have in front of you. Either sign it or not.
5. COMMITTEE REPORTS:
A. Robinson Dam Committee: Meeting on Wednesday, February 25th @ 6:00 PM. TT will attend as Secretary. HF asking TT to put recent graph on website.
B. Road Study Review Committee Update: Quentin Henderson: Meeting every two weeks, and has a recommendation for the June Town Meeting. Road management software to prioritize the roads and establish estimated costs for rehab or reconstruction. Dollar amounts are from the State data base and are probably high. Richard agreed to contracting out work on Powhatan and concentrate on other projects. If BOS approve RSRC to move forward, we need an engineer to assist in spec work. $2,000 to cover the start up cost at approximately $80/hour and to speak to bidders and article for town warrant. Road Commissioner dedicated materials to Powhatan Road. He will have $125 K to put into rebuilding a portion of Powhatan Road. We will receive bids if the towns’ people approve it. BOS think that it should come out of road money to
make it cleaner. If Richard says no and this Board felt it was worth doing, they would take it out of contingency. LA agrees that if Richard will not be there then an engineer would be needed. Richard does not feel that an engineer is a good use of the funds. Clerk of the Works is different than an engineer/inspector. BOS will discuss with Richard Bean. BOS requesting a copy of the estimate from RSRC. BOS will support putting in an article for town meeting. LA will discuss with Richard Bean, Sr. RM: Ross Cutlitz P.E., County Engineer for Oxford County Soil Water Conservation District would be happy to help the Town if needed, but he would recommend you go through the County. Quen is going to call Ross directly.
C. Scholarship Committee:
1) Libby Hooker’s term expired 6/14. She is not living in town and will not be renewed. TT will update web site.
2) Barbara Maguire has submitted a request to be on this committee.*Motion to appoint Barbara Maguire on this committee for a 3 year term ending 06/2018. HF/RM - Unanimous. RM: Asking if there are any other applications. Sandy will look into that and report back to board. TT will update web site.
6. DEPARTMENT HEADS:
A. IT Support; David Hyer: New mailing labels were created for OVFFA. Information from Trio was needed, but not readily available. Map and Lot numbers have been extracted to get in to new data base and it has all been documented for future reference.
7. QUESTIONS/COMMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC.
A. Dan Peaco: Richard Bean has done a great job over the last couple weeks keeping the roads open and cleaned up. All agree.
8. ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT ITEMS
A. Annie Pastore will be working in the office starting tomorrow while MIM is out of the office.
9. ADJUSTMENTS TO AGENDA
A.
10. UNFINISHED BUSINESS
A.
11. SELECTMEN’S ITEMS TO BE DISCUSSED & VOTED ON
A. Town Warrant: *Motion to sign Warrant # 14 to pay the town bills. LA/HF - Unanimous.
12. QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS FROM THE BOARD
A. Heniger Park: RM: Suggests we look over the environmental submittals.
B. Dave Morton: RM: High Bidder from Sebago technics: Look over and be prepared for discussion.
C. MRSA language: RM: John Maloney AVCOG will look at all suggested MRSA language and he will run it by MMA. As soon as he reports more, he will get back to BOS.
D. Spurrs Corner: Fire Station ran out of oil and we are on automatically delivery so we need to look into this and figure out why. Sandy will call in the morning to discuss.
E. Transfer Station: Need to advertise for an attendant; this will be advertised in the newspapers.
F. Cutting of lot 4 in Heniger Park was discussed with Q-Team and they will take a look and get a quote to the Town.
13. EXECUTIVE SESSION:
A. Motion to enter into executive session pursuant to MSRS. Motion to close executive session by___ 2nd___, All Y-N. Discussion: *There was no executive session held at this mtg.
14. ADJOURNMENT. *Motion to adjourn at 9:15 PM. HF/RM-Unanimous.
Respectfully submitted,
Tanya Taft, Secretary
Approved by:
Hal Ferguson, Chairman
Rick Micklon
Lenny Adler
Approved on February 18, 2015
| 
