Town of Otisfield
Board of Selectmen Meeting Minutes
February 18, 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 February 4, 2015. *Motion to accept minutes. LA/RM – Unanimous.
4. SPECIAL EVENTS
A.
5. COMMITTEE REPORTS:
A. Robinson Dam Committee: Meeting on Wednesday, February 25th @ 6:00 PM. TT will attend as Secretary. TT put recent graph on website.
B. Road Study Review Committee: Public hearing to be held on April 23rd at 7:00 PM.
C. Finance Committee: HF contacted Chair, Joanie Jacobs and she will try to get this year started next week.
6. DEPARTMENT HEADS:
A. Fire Chief, Kyle Jordan: We had a fire in Bolsters Mills area this weekend. Mutual aid companies had a great response and made the best of a bad situation. We rely on mutual aid quite heavily and we had a great turnout. Thank you to all of our firefighters and mutual aid companies. We had some equipment that broke, but it never failed on us. We had a handle that broke off the tanker, but has since been fixed. Cold weather induced problems. Frost Hill repeater was well used and communication was not a problem. We co-own the repeater and will split the cost of maintenance. This will need a line item for the Finance Committee this year. RM: Please keep us posted if you need any help with Oxford County EMS communications.
B. EMS, Beth Damon: Email from the Maine CDC public health department. They are releasing AED’s and they may have one for the Community Hall. Would like to help write a grant for an AED for it. The grant process partners with the local EMS to make sure there are a lot of CPR classes in the area. It starts with the application. The Town’s FID # is needed. Annie Pastore has taken a grant class and has offered to start the process. Maine EMS offers discounts to the municipalities but it still costs about $700 for the unit. Other items are needed to support it and keep it maintained. RM: If grant doesn’t go through, I still suggest we work towards getting as many as we need for the Town.
7. QUESTIONS/COMMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC.
A. None.
8. ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT ITEMS
A. Fires in Town: Annie: Is there a procedure in helping those that have been in a fire. HF: Yes, something needs to go on the website. LA: I believe the Bolsters Mills store is going to put a jar out. HF: Send something to TT and it will get on the website. Kyle Jordan: Recently posted on the Otisfield facebook page to send a check to the family in c/o Town of Otisfield. A Go-Fund-Me page was set up as well and shared on their page. Annie will draft something up and send it to RM.
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 # 15 to pay the town bills. LA/HF - Unanimous.
B. Spurrs Corner Fire Station ran out of oil and we are on automatic delivery. CN Brown was contacted. Every station has run out of oil over the last few years. Richard Bean, Jr. says it should be checked every 14 days from November to March. HF recommendation to check all tanks every two weeks. We do not need liquid propane checked every 14 days, but at least every 30 days. Annie will call them tomorrow to discuss and get confirmation.
C. Heniger Park leases: HF: Communication is costing the town money. The mil rate was discussed. That needs to be reworked. The mil rate should never go down, but if there is a year when it goes down, they will not be penalized. Any year where there is a reassessment it will be reviewed. They will pay the average of the 5 years. That verbiage has not been completed as of yet. Town attorney will put something in writing and get it back to BOS. The Town will work with them if they need financing assistance from a lender. Mil rate verbiage is needed. They want to put up tents and RV’s. All agree this is not an issue. A clean copy of verbiage will be sent to BOS. This should be finalized and out the door by next week. An up front premium on lot 4 may be considered.
D. Fire Dept. ATV: Kyle called HF about a week ago and the Firefighters Association is buying the ATV at $17,000. The skid unit is approx. $7,850.00; a trailer of 3500 lb min. is about $5,000.00. HF: would like to see an article on how much we need and the article would read to use existing funds left over from tanker. The association has raised just under $20,000.00. In the meantime the FD has ordered the ATV. Grant money needed to be spent by certain date. We are also able to take advantage of a 2014 model. Which was a significant decrease in price. No sales tax will be paid. Mainly Action Sports gave a significant discount to the Town. The Treasurer of the Association can write a check to the town of Otisfield and we can reissue check that same day. Kyle will get info to HF to write article.
E. Schedule meeting available BOS – Craig & Ethel Turner tax issues. Not happy with assessment from O’Donnell’s and they would like to meet with BOS. *Tentatively scheduled for March 11th at 3:00 Annie will contact O’Donnell’s to see if they are available.
12. QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS FROM THE BOARD
A. Rick Micklon will begin the BOS chat this month. February 25th @ 6:00 PM
B. Heniger Park: RM: Spoken to Susan Castin, MMA insurance rep and asked her if she felt she should be included on communications with Heniger Park Association. She had 2 concerns on the town’s behalf. 1) Loss payee, provided on a check for payment from whoever check due to a fire and 2) If someone falls on the property, not in the structure, she thinks the Town should be concerned about a possible law suit. These two issues are worth talking about. Attorney thought it was covered liability side. Loss payee isn’t applicable because the Town doesn’t own the structures. All agree that it should be run by her. RM will forward info along tomorrow.
C. LPC meeting: LA: There’s a law dealing with private ambulance companies buying fuel without paying tax. It appears any entity that buys fuel exclusively it would appear that Richard may be able to purchase it without paying fuel tax. He gets an off road exclusion now, but this would be for on road. It needs to be exclusively used for municipal roads. LA will pursue this.
D. LA: Oil burner guy was contacted and told that they are full at the Town Garage.
E. Transfer Station: Don Mixer and Don Matthews would be willing to step up and help when needed. They need to be on Town Insurance in case something happened. RM wanted to see them State trained if possible. Training will be looked into. All agree even if it’s not mandatory, it would be good for their own protection.
G. Emergency Phone list: Annie will update this list and provide to BOS.
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 8:25 PM. HF/RM-Unanimous.
Respectfully submitted,
Tanya Taft, Secretary
Approved by:
Hal Ferguson, Chairman
Rick Micklon
Lenny Adler
Approved on March 4, 2015
| 
