Town of Otisfield
Board of Selectmen Meeting Minutes
November 4, 2015
1. CALL TO ORDER: The regular meeting was called to order at 7:00 PM. Chairman; Hal Ferguson, Lenny Adler & Rick Micklon present.
2. FLAG SALUTE: Audience and Board members saluted the flag.
3. ACTION ON MINUTES:
A. Meeting minutes from October 7, 2015. *Motion to accept minutes. RM/HF – Unanimous.
B. Meeting minutes from October 21, 2015. *Motion to accept minutes. LA/HF – Unanimous.
C. Special meeting minutes from October 27, 2015. *Motion to accept minutes. LA/RM – Unanimous.
D. Special meeting minutes from October 28, 2015. *Motion to accept minutes. LA/RM – Unanimous.
4. SPECIAL EVENTS:
A. Junkyard Renewal Hearing- Three (3) renewals: Lenny Adler, Bolsters Mills Road; Peter Arnsten, Ivory Hill Rd; Richard Bean, Sr., Bean Road. Chairman HF opened the public hearing at 7:01 P.M. LA recused himself for the review of his own application. He then took a seat in the audience. There were no public comments. Chairman HF closed the public hearing at 7:03 P.M. Discussion: CEO: looked at applications and he has no concerns. All three sites are in compliance with town requirements and he has no issues nor have there been any complaints.
*Motion to accept and sign Peter Arnsten’s junkyard permit. HF/RM – Unanimous.
*Motion to accept and sign Lenny Adler’s junkyard permit. HF/RM – Unanimous.
*Motion to accept Richard Bean Sr.’s junkyard permit HF/RM – Unanimous.
B. Bid on FD ‘86 Tank Truck. (4) Bids opened at 7:18 PM
Steve Day of Otisfield $3,100.11, Chris Pond of Naples $2,327.00, Adrien Morin of Otisfield, $1,200.00
and Todd R. Sawyer of Waterford $2,800.00. *Motion to accept Steve Day’s bid of $3,100.11. RM: What will money go towards? LA: Typically in the past, we have put money towards paying off the new loan of recent fire truck. All agree.
5. COMMITTEE REPORTS:
A. Finance Committee: Chair, Joanie Jacobs has resigned. Quen Henderson was elected as Chair, Dan Peaco as Vice Chair, Sandy Ouellette is Secretary and Tanya Taft is moved up as a voting member leaving (1) alternate position. A thank you letter will be sent to Joanie for her years of service.
B. Comprehensive Plan: HF asked for this to be removed from website. TT will update.
C. Ordinance Policy Review Committee: RM: We wanted to put all of our policies in one consistent format, do we have someone working on this? Annie: I am currently working on it.
D. Committee vs Board: HF: Some committee members are under the impression that they need to be sworn in if they are on a committee. All agree that Board members and elected people get sworn in, but committee members do not need to be.
6. DEPARTMENT HEADS:
A. Richard St. John- Gore Road Grange Hall: For background: HF explains that the town received a written complaint about this property. Town sent a letter to Derek Cash who is in attendance. Jim Brett also in attendance, is interested in purchasing the property. CEO listed options for the BOS. 1) give them time to work something out, 2) declare that it is extremely dangerous and go to superior court 3) take the moderate route, advertise for public hearing and then make a decision or 4) negotiate with owner and if he doesn’t have the resources to stabilize or tear it down, the town will do so and redeem expenses when it does sell. BOS have looked at property from the road only and it does look like an accident waiting to happen. Jim Brett: My plan, if purchased is to tear it down in the Spring and get
it cleaned up. HF: Our concern is if it came down all at once, the blocks could end up in the road on Bonnie Hill side and pose a problem. LA: last Sunday my son and I looked at it. He said it’s not bowing out and it doesn’t look pretty, but he didn’t think it was in imminent danger of collapse. LA: thinks that if Jim wants to buy it, and tear it down, he’s comfortable with it. RM: I’m not convinced it’s not capable of collapsing. The slightest change can make it collapse. Not saying it’s going to happen, just not convinced it won’t happen and doesn’t feel anyone in the room or anyone who has assessed it’s condition from the road is qualified to say it won’t collapse and isn’t a public threat. For the record, RM stated it was a liability that needs to be addressed as soon as possible. CEO: will meet with Derek on the property to measure a base line of the cracks and will work with the owner on behalf of the BOS. Derek and Jim both intend to keep the town
involved in upcoming transactions. HF: When in the Spring will the building be torn down? Jim Brett: In May.
7. QUESTIONS/COMMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC:
A. None.
8. ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT ITEMS:
A. E911: Annie: CEO will be helping with this process.
B. Transfer Station safety mirror was purchased and mounted this weekend.
C. Shannon Moxcey – A local GA Administrator was contacted and she will charge $1,600 a year, to be paid quarterly. She is also the Salvation Army representative for this town. RM: MIM was very good at this and she took a lot of pride in it, but this will free up a lot of Anne’s time and he is in full support of having it outsourced. *Motion that we hire Shannon Moxcey as our GA administrator. RM/LA – Unanimous.
Discussion: Hopefully she would be considered contracted services. Annie will look into this with Shannon and West Paris to be sure no benefits are required. All agree, this is the way to go, even if she is considered a part time employee. Annie will contact her.
D. Tax Acquired Property Policy and Waiver document submitted into public record. HF: this needs to be on the web site. Annie: This is a State Law. All agree this may need to go before the town and be a warrant article at next meeting. LA suggests call MMA to make sure this needs to be voted on. HF: We could do a special town meeting if needed as we have several other items that would also be timely.
E. Supplemental Tax Assessment and Abatement letters. *Motion to sign the supplemental tax assessment. LA/RM – Unanimous. *Motion that we sign the abatements for Jason & Joanne Edwards, Richard &Barbara Maquire, Deborah Wicker, Patricia Winsor & Richard and Donna Bean. RM/HF – Unanimous.
F. Meeting with Amy Chipman, RBC, and Bruce Nadeau, Auditor. November 19th @ 9:00 am in the town office
G. Election: Anne: Wanted to make sure BOS knew that Lisa did a really great job w/ the election and has been putting in extra hours. Stated that both Lisa and Sandy have been awesome to work with and she is very impressed with their skill sets and the town is lucky to have them.
9. ADJUSTMENTS TO AGENDA
A. None.
10. UNFINISHED BUSINESS
A. Cobb Hill Road - HF: still working on obtaining the appropriate easement prior to starting work.
11. SELECTMEN’S ITEMS TO BE DISCUSSED & VOTED ON
A. Town Warrant: *Motion to sign Warrant # 8 to pay the town bills. LA/RM - Unanimous.
12. QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS FROM THE BOARD
A. Transfer Station: Applicant has been approved and she is going to work w/ Eric for a day. She needs to go to the mandatory meeting w/ the rest of the staff the 1st Monday in January.
B. Off Road Construction: HF: Contract has been signed and faxed.
C. Winterize the Community Hall: Anne has made contact with Harley to get this done.
D. Community Hall: Emergency Shelter: All agree that an extra oil tank down there is a good idea. BOS would like to get a proposal to build a room around the oil tank large enough for two tanks.
E. Trooper Jason Wing is coming to Otisfield to discuss the drug use & addictions in the area. A Public Informational Meeting at the Community Hall will be held on November 10th. TT to post on web site.
13. EXECUTIVE SESSION:
A. *Motion to enter into executive session pursuant to 36 MRSA §841(2) @ 8:12 PM. HF/LA – Unanimous. . *Motion to close executive session @ 8:25 PM. LA/HF – Unanimous.
14. ADJOURNMENT. *Motion to adjourn at 8:25 PM. HF/LA -Unanimous.
Respectfully submitted,
Tanya Taft, Secretary
Approved by:
Hal Ferguson, Chairman
Rick Micklon
Lenny Adler
Approved on November 18, 2015
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