SUNAPEE BOARD OF SELECTMEN
MEETING
7:00 PM Town Office Meeting Room
Monday, May 17, 2010
Present: Fred Gallup Chairman, William Roach Vice Chairman, Charlotte Brown, Emma Smith, Stephen White, Donna Nashawaty, Town Manager
Also Present: Katie Richardson Intertown Record, Scott Blewitt, Bill Scharff, Peter Urbach, Representative Suzanne Gottling, Gene Hall, Tony Bergeron, Spec Bowers, Diane Wyman, Barbara Brill, David Brown,
Chairman Gallup opened the meeting at 7:00PM
Lynne Peirce Trust Playground Public Hearing
Donna Nashawaty updated the Board on the fundraising and progress of the project. The price of the playground is $105,287. Motion to accept the gift from the Lynne Peirce Trust Fund for the playground and place an ad in the Kearsarge Shopper to publicly thank all who donated by Selectman White, seconded by Selectman Roach. All in Favor.
Warming Hut at Skating Rink
Scott Blewitt explained the warming hut that John Gosselin’s woodshop class constructed to be put at the skating rink, only during the winter months. Scott Blewitt said safeguards such as timers would be on the lights and heater. The materials for the warming hut were donated by Durgin & Crowell and LaValleys Building Supply and the heater is from the Old Town Hall building.
Tony Bergeron, Road Agent-Central Street Intersection
•Tony Bergeron passed out a drawing of the proposed Central Street intersection to the Board. Selectman Smith asked if the Planning Board had seen the drawing, if not, could Tony Bergeron come and present the plan at the next Planning Board meeting, Tony agreed that he would. Motion to instruct Tony Bergeron to proceed with the work on the Central Street intersection by Selectman Brown, seconded by Selectman White. All in Favor.
•Tony Bergeron apologized for not checking in with the Board regarding allowing Craig Heino, town maintenance man to use one side of the Old Town Hall Building to store his equipment. Motion to allow Craig Heino, town maintenance man to store his tools at the
(Old Thrift Shop area) Old Town Hall by Selectman White, seconded by Selectman Roach.
•The GIS project for the town drainage system was started today.
Joint Assessing Board Candidates
Donna Nashawaty informed the Board that one of the applicants, had withdrawn her application for the Joint Assessing Board because of time constraints, the remaining applicant is William Scharff, who has a previous term on this Board. Motion to nominate William Scharff to the Joint Assessing Board for a 2 year term expiring March 2012 by Selectman White, seconded by Selectman Roach. All in Favor.
Diane Wyman–Sunapee Gardeners
Diane Wyman came to the Board to get approval to plant hydrangeas along the walkway to the Gazebo. Motion that allows the Sunapee Gardeners to plant 2 patches of hydrangeas along the walkway by Selectman White, seconded by Selectman Smith. All in Favor
Barbara Brill-Community Alliance
Barbara Brill wanted to focus on the transportation program since it has raised some concern by the Board. Barbara Brill talked about the transportation program and funding of $45,000 that she has asked from the County, which is a $10,000 increase over last year. The breakdown is $40,000 for operating costs and $5,000 for a volunteer driver program and right now the program covers 70% of population in County and with the addition of the volunteer driver program cover 100% of the County, but would offer service when it’s not practical for a bus route in towns, weekends and evening. The average cost of a ride is $17.11 Barbara Brill said that in the $45,000 that they have asked the County for that represent $1.50 per ride that the program provides and when passengers ride the bus it’s because they don’t
have other options and they don’t ride everyday, only when they absolutely have too. Barbara Brill went on to say that the fact that the ridership might not be as high as they would like to see, doesn’t mean the rides that the program provides are any less critical. Barbara Brill gave a recap of her visit last fall when the Board expressed concerns over the lack of ridership, was the service needed in town, and what could be done to better evaluate that process. She committed to the Board that if the Board would give the program $500 for the year as a token show of support that they would do outreach, try to better educate the community and she would come back at the end of the year and tell if the ridership had increased, decreased or stayed the same and based on their findings decide if the Board wanted to fund it any longer and they would decide if the route was feasible to continue. Barbara Brill also apologized that the information the Board had requested last fall
regarding the ridership was never provided to them. Barbara Brill would ask that the Board supports the request to the County for the service, there may not be a high level of need in Sunapee, but there certainly is a need in Sullivan County. After much discussion, Selectman Roach questioned Barbara Brill that if adding Sunapee to the route increased their ability to get federal funding? Barbara Brill said it decreases the costs to run the route, but does not affect their ability to get federal funding. Barbara Brill will come back in the fall with the operating numbers and costs on the bus route.
Public Comments
David Brown came to the Board with an issue that has been bothering him and some other folks in town regarding the anonymous flyer that was mailed prior to the last town elections. David Brown wrote to and received a letter back from the Attorney General’s office stating that the matter had been investigated and a “cease and desist” warning letter had been sent to the offender for a violation of :
NH RSA 664:14 Political Advertising 664:14 Signature, Identification, and Lack of Authorization. –
~~~ I. All political advertising shall be signed at the beginning or the end with the names and addresses of the candidate, his fiscal agent, or the name and address of the chairman or the treasurer of a political committee, or the name and address of a natural person, according to whether a candidate, political committee, or natural person is responsible for it. Said signature shall clearly designate the name of the candidate, party or political committee by or on whose behalf the same is published or broadcast.
David Brown feels this is a very serious matter and requests that the Board of Selectmen look into this matter. Chairman Gallup’s concern was what jurisdiction the Board of Selectmen has on this matter since the Attorney General has already reviewed and acted on the matter, Peter Urbach agreed with Chairman Gallup and has no problem sharing with the Board his paperwork on the correspondence with the Attorney general’s office. After much discussion, the Board decided to table this discussion until the June 14th Board of Selectmen meeting so the Board can get copies and review the correspondence between the Attorney General, David Brown and Peter Urbach and decide as a Board how to proceed.
Selectmen’s Action
•Motion to approve and sign the 2010 First Half Tax Bill Warrant by SelectmanWhite, seconded by Selectman Smith. All in Favor.
•Motion to accept the recommendation of Trustee of the Trust Fund committee to appoint John Mapley for a 1 year term by Selectman White, seconded by Selectman Roach. All in Favor.
Chairman Report
Chairman Gallup did not have anything to report on, but asked if Representative Gottling had any thoughts on Barbara Brill’s transportation presentation to the Board. Representative Gottling wanted to comment on rural transportation: one of the reason it was cut last year was the presentation, in Representative Gottling’s opinion was not effective, a lot of the figures that the Finance Committee tried to get were not forthcoming. Representative Gottling found that the bus schedule are now available at the library, but are only the Claremont and Newport schedules. Selectman Brown said the Sunapee stop is on the Newport schedule but the location is abbreviated SRSB (Sugar River Savings Bank) and very confusing to read. Selectman Roach thinks the transportation system is a perfect example of mismanagement.
Town Manager Report
- Rosemary Gates withdrew application for Joint Board, re: Time constraints. Notes that very supportive of what Sunapee, New London and Newbury did and thinks it ought to happen all over the state.
- FYI: Phil Porter, alternate on the Planning Board resigned for health reasons,
- Profile Award: Received the award on behalf of the towns of Sunapee, New London and Newbury. See pictures attached. The nomination from Maggie Stiers and the acceptance speech that we made is also attached. There is only one actual award and we return it at the end of the year so we will physically have it passed around all three towns. Newbury has it for tonight’s BOS meeting. I will have it for the next Sunapee BOS and New London will have it after that. Anyone wishing to have it displayed at a specific function need to request it and we will arrange it.
- Meeting with the Governor. I was one of three NH Town Managers, (Bedford, Auburn and Sunapee) that got an appointment with Gov Lynch to discuss the elimination of various revenues from Towns and Cities and its impact. We each took a few minutes to describe our plight and although he was sympathetic, none of us thought we would sway him, and we didn’t. We only wanted to put faces to the local municipalities. I did get to plug the county issue here in Sullivan County and he remembered our presentation. He also made a statement that he didn’t support the whole 2011 Donor Town tax issue and he was working towards that solution but he didn’t elaborate. We did get to tell him that the Senate Hearing on HB1393, (regulation of public insurance pools by
the Secretary of State office) was atrocious and we hoped if the bill came to his desk that he veto’s it.
- Town Assistance Lien: We received a check for repayment of assistance lien by the sale of Raymond Teague’s house on Edgemont Road. The check was received today and I need a release of lien form signed by the BOS.
- Tax Deeds: Received 2 from the Tax Collector. Edward & Marilyn Angley on Nutting Road and Daniel & Donna Vinal at 43 Wilderness Park. Copies of Tax Card attached…..the Wilderness Park one is occupied and I will have to start eviction proceedings of some sort….I will advise.
- Riverway Lease: You all should have received your copy and I neglected to put on the agenda for tonight. I have spoken to the president of the Riverway and you asked for a representative to talk to you. Should I schedule it all for June 1 meeting. Chairman Gallup suggested putting this on the agenda for the Board to discuss among themselves to determine which direction the Board would like to go.
- Town Office/Finance Office, I would like to utilize Craig Heino to take out the center doors (left over from when Holly and Dave shared that space and eliminate one of the two doors into the hallway. This is current area occupied by the finance and payroll person and the conference area. The room is awful tight for two people and when the treasurer comes in it gets even tighter, air flow is restricted a little and I think that a greater space would make the work area more efficient and comfortable for the employee’s in that area. Motion to allow the Town Manager to use Craig Heino, Maintenance Man to take out the center doors and eliminate one of two doors into the hallway in the Finance office by Selectman White, seconded by Selectman Roach. All in Favor.
- Will be scheduling a town wide meeting to tell the citizens about the statistical update that is happening this year. Since the Summer Town Meeting is scheduled for August 3rd, the date will be August 10th. .
- Donna Nashawaty gave a brief update regarding the set back issues and the restrictive covenants on the Montambeault Property located on Sargent Road. Donna Nashawaty and Roger Landry will meet with the Montambeaults at their property to do a site visit to better understand the lay of the land and the options the Town is willing to consider to resolve this matter.
Miscellanous
Chairman Gallup reminded the Board about the Town Manager’s evaluation, which the Board decided to conduct on Monday, May 24th at 4:30PM. Selectman Smith asked that the evaluation forms be put in her mailbox by Friday, May 22nd.
Meeting adjourned at 10:09PM
Submitted by,
Barbara Vaughn
Administrative Assistant Approved:_____________
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Frederick Gallup, Chairman Charlotte Brown
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William Roach, Vice-Chairman Stephen White
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Emma M. Smith
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