Town of Otisfield
Board of Selectmen Meeting Minutes
January 4, 2017
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 December 21, 2016. *Motion to accept minutes. LA/RM – Unanimous.
4. SPECIAL EVENTS:
A. None.
5. BOARD & COMMITTEE REPORTS:
A. Finance Committee: Quen: Meeting on January 19th to discuss 5 year plan. BOS plan to attend.
6. DEPARTMENT HEADS:
A. Fire Department: Kyle Jordan: In 2015 there were 83 calls for EMS & FD, in 2016 there were 115 calls. Almost a 20% increase in call volume. The State is starting to collect this data from municipalities, even when a FD can’t respond due to no members available.
B. Sexton, Dan Peaco: Did we get the easement from the owners at Saturday Pond. AP: I have not received anything as of yet, but will contact them again. *Tabled until an upcoming meeting.
7. QUESTIONS/COMMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC:
A. None.
8. ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT ITEMS:
A. Thursday, January 12th - Fund raiser dinner for Rodney Smith will be held 4:30-6:30 PM. At the Advent Christian Church, Route 26, Oxford. All plan to attend.
9. ADJUSTMENTS TO AGENDA
A. None.
10. UNFINISHED BUSINESS
A. Pleasant Lake Dam
11. SELECTMEN’S ITEMS TO BE DISCUSSED & VOTED ON
A. Town Warrant: *Motion to sign Warrant # 12 to pay the town bills. LA/RM - Unanimous.
B. Update Fee Schedule: Tabled until an upcoming meeting. RM: Would like to look at other Towns for suggestions. All agree.
C. Fire Department. HF: Kyle was nominated as Fire Chief. *Motion that we substantiate what the FD approves for the calendar year. HF/LA – Unanimous.
D. Registrar of Voters: Sharon Mathews term expires on odd years. *Motion to approve Sharron Matthews with a term to expire 1/21/2019. LA/RM – Unanimous.
E. 2017 goals; RM: Building improvements; prepare budget for Town Office renovations. We might not have the exact numbers, but we have what we spent on the last renovation to use as a guide. We were going to address this last year, but didn’t due to budget constraints. We should now put aside a line item for the finance committee and BOS to review. This will go out to bid to prepare for the next town meeting warrant. We owe it to our staff to ensure they are comfortable and safe. This is a good and just investment. All agree. RM: Would like AP & TT to keep this on our radar as unfinished business.
1. Electronic Sign: Prepare budget for Town Office electronic roadside sign. The sign is old and out dated. It’s a safety hazard for anyone who has to change the letters. The staff constantly fights the cold temperatures, the snow, the ice, the high winds and the missing or damaged letters. OPRC is currently looking at Sign Ordinance so now is the time to move on this issue. BOS has discussed this issue over the last 3 years. The towns of Poland, Mechanic Falls, Palmyra and others have changed over to this type of sign and like us, they are a rural community. All agree they are not in favor of the Oxford Rec sign, but would be in favor of something that fits in with the community aesthetics. LA: Oxford FD is actually quite acceptable. AP will contact other towns to see what they spent and what they like about it.
*Tabled until an upcoming mtg.
2. Cell Tower: Prepare proposal and budget for town safety/cell tower. RM: Rather than hope and wait for another cell tower to come back in town, I would like to look into a possible tower that allows our repeater to be at the top rather than the bottom. If we had the possibility of our own tower, I’d like to plan for the possible location. I would like to have a professional company come in and work for us and tell us where the best place to have a tower would be. My proposal is to have someone come in and tell us where the best coverage would be for a repeater location and/or a cell tower. LA: Suggests we have AP contact Verizon or US Cellular, and ask if they are interested in coming back now that we have updated our Ordinances. Let them foot the bill and provide the FD a spot on their tower. All agree. HF:
Suggests we have CEO contact them as he was involved in the last process. RM: It might be cleaner having office staff reach out. RM: I am just happy to have a starting point, so I’m fine either way. HF: An independent might be the first to reach out to. All agree. *Motion to ask CEO, Richard St. John, to contact cell tower and cell phones companies and see if anyone is interested in coming to Otisfield location. LA/RM – Unanimous. Discussion: RM would like to propose an ADHOC committee to work with the BOS on this endeavor. This committee could consist of the PB Chair, the OPRC Chair, the Conservation Committee Chair, a member of the BOS and a member of the public. Rick recommended David Hyer, if he would accept the position, because of his overall technical and electronic knowledge. All agree the committee could be valuable. LA: Suggests we have an end date on the committee: RM: Suggests annually and reappoint if necessary. All agree.
12. QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS FROM THE BOARD
A. Community Hall: LA: We have fixed it up very nicely. I suggest we open it up to non-residents at a slightly higher rate to generate some income. All agree.
B. Road Crew Jackets: HF: Jackets have been ordered.
C. AED – Community Hall: HF: There are two places to mount the AED. Suggesting it be located on the right hand side of the washing sink. A sign pointing to its location will be more visibly seen. All agree.
D. Internet at FD was down, but has since been fixed.
E. Great Falls security – Replacing some parts and doing a service call to replace batteries in all alarms.
F. Pleasant Lake Dam: HF: Usually stops in a couple times a week and ran into Ross last Wednesday. Pipes will be installed sometime this week. Change orders through T-Buck need to be discussed. Additional charges have been incurred. We need to get a hold of contract modifications.
G. Web Update: RM: I think it’s an easy upgrade, but it needs to be looked in to, so we can give the Finance Committee some numbers to work with. AP will contact Virtual Town Hall.
H. Town Auditor: HF, requesting AP contact him to set up a meeting.
I. Sign Ordinance: OPRC is reviewing this and it would need to go before BOS before going out on warrant for town meeting. All agree they will wait to review what is proposed.
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 8:15 PM. HF/LA -Unanimous.
Respectfully submitted,
Tanya Taft, Secretary
Approved by:
Hal Ferguson, Chairman
Rick Micklon
Lenny Adler
Approved on January 18, 2017
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