BOARD OF SELECTMEN MEETING
SUNAPEE TOWN HALL
MONDAY, JULY 25, 2005
Present: Emma Smith, Richard Leone, Frederick Gallup and Stephen White
Absent: William Roach
Also Present: Deb Champagne, Carolyn Dube and Road Agent Tony Bergeron.
Vice Chair, Emma Smith, opened the meeting at 7:00 PM.
1. APPOINTMENTS:
There were no scheduled appointments.
2. ITEMS FOR SIGNATURE: The following items were signed:
Minutes July 11, 2005; Review of Payroll and Payables Manifests; CZC; Sherry Noyes, Map 234, Lot 25, 134 New Province Rd.; Barbara McGuinness, Map 148, Lot 17, 16 Sunnyside Terrace, David & Michelle Campopiano, Map 238, Lot 6, 199 Timothy Rd.; Philip N. Kimber, Map 207, Lot 3, 35 Maurer Lane; Demolition Permits; Jane Nielsen, Map 225, Lot 13, 9 Young Hill Rd., Jane Nielsen, Map 225, Lot 13, 9 Young Hill Rd.
3. SELECTMEN ACTION:
A. Emma Smith presented copies of the minutes of the July 18, 2005 work session on
Marys Road and asked if she might receive a motion to accept the minutes. Motion was
made by Stephen to accept the minutes as written. The motion was seconded by
Richard Leone. Frederick Gallup abstained as he was not in attendance. The
motion carried. Copy of minutes are attached to office copy of these minutes.
B. Donna Nashawaty raised discussion on the proposed meeting with other Towns of
disparity regarding the county tax. She has drafted a letter with a map attached and
gave a copy to each board member. The map depicts the 17 communities the letter
will be sent to. She has developed a data base which shows all Town Managers,
Town Administrators, Senators, Representatives, Selectmen and Councilmen of
each community. She proposes to send a letter to each individual hoping for a better
response. She has spoken with the Town of Meredith and they have agreed to host the
meeting and will attempt to reserve The Chase House for this on Tuesday, August 23,
at 7:00 PM. The reason for this is that they are the most centrally located town in
the data base. Motion was made by Stephen White to approve the letter and ask
the Town Manager to go ahead and send them out. The motion was seconded by Frederick Gallup. The vote was unanimous and the motion carried. A copy of the
letter is attached to the office copy of these minutes.
Donna Nashawaty informed the Board that Alf Jacobsen will also be invited to speak.
She understands that he has a lot of knowledge about the counties in the state and the
evolution of County Government. She reminded the Board that this is not a formal
meeting but a round table discussion to get ideas and retrieve information from each
community.
C. Donna Nashawaty informed the Board that Harry Gale is planning to have a meeting
on August 11 and has invited she, William Roach and the Police Chief to be speakers and
to testify on what the outcome would be to sucede from Sullivan County. D. Nashawaty told Mr. Gale that she could not think of anything further to say than she already
has, but she does work for the Board and would attend if they wished her to. Fred Gallup
stated that he could see no advantage in asking the Town Manager or Chairman of the Board to rehash this matter again unless Mr. Gale has some new data for the Town.
Richard Leone agreed stating that he did not want to be disrespectful, but he believes that
the Manager is busy with other projects such as the revaluation. Stephen White also
agreed stating that he did not want to take away the employee’s time from the Town of Sunapee nor to ask them to use their personal time. Emma White also agreed. Stephen
White asked D. Nashawaty to relay to Mr. Gale that it was the consensus of the Board that she not attend the meeting. She will relay this information to Police Chief Cahill.
4. TOWN MANAGER REPORTS:
A. Town Shirts: Donna Nashawaty informed the Board that the order for Town shirts will be going in
soon.
B. Joint Assessor: Donna Nashawaty informed the Board that the tri-towns have agreed on hiring an Assessor. His name is Normand Bernaiche and he will be the very first tri-town assessor. He has a three year contract. Mr. Bernaiche has a twenty year career in the assessing industry and has been the city assessor for Lebanon since 1993. Mr. Bernaiche will begin his employment on September 1, 2005. The Board congratulated D. Nashawaty and the other members of the hiring committee for all of their efforts. Copy of press release attached to copy of office minutes. Discussion was held on personnel and the possible need for more. D. Nashawaty explained that new software will be
used which may make Karen’s work easier so that is not anticipated at this time however, it might be possible sometime down the road.
C. Revaluation Update: Donna Nashawaty informed the Board that she will have the preliminary grand list on her desk by this Thursday. She plans to take this home over the weekend to see if she can find any glaring mistakes. On Monday when she gives the go ahead, the assessors will produce the letters that go to the property owners the first week in August. For hearings, D. Nashawaty has borrowed 4 tables from the school and will set up cubicles in the meeting room so that 4 assessors could be meeting with property owners at the same time.
D. Safety Services Building Update: Donna Nashawaty informed the Board that the bid documents have been received and plans that are going to all the companies bidding on the project. A copy is in her office if anyone wishes to see them. She informed the Board that an ad was placed in the Kearsage Shopper advertising the project to local contractors as requested by the Board. Fred Gallup asked if there was a tentative start date for the project. D. Nashawaty reported that ground breaking would occur in August. Emma White stated that she has heard so many positive comments about the appearance of the property since the building was removed by Mr. Branch.
E. Miscellaneous:
- Donna Nashawaty reported that vandals did damage to the police training facility that was built with the assistance of the children from the Honor Society.
- Donna Nashawaty reported that she wished to address a matter that was put on hold on hold so that the Board may look at it if they liked from G. E. Pollies from Georges Mills on property directly across from the Post Office. The complaint was that people like to park in front of the fences on her property and when they do she can’t see if any vehicles are coming when she tries to leave her driveway. There used to be some delineorators. They have either been broken off or removed. She has spoken with the State and they told her they could only replace them at the Town’s request. She asked again about making it a “no parking” or “no stopping area” however, the delineorators worked and
the State will replace them upon our request. This is a probable solution because anything regarding no parking is an enforcement issue. The Board agreed to have the Town Manager write a letter to the State.
- The Board was informed that their budget reports for the end of July were in their mail pockets. The report shows that the Town is at 58% of expenditures within the budget. The budget looks well balanced. The only thing D. Nashawaty brought to the Board’s attention is under Police Department. They have not spent as much as it looks like. This will be addressed to the Budget Committee. Because of the State project with the guardrails, they only budgeted $4,000.00 and spent $13,000.00. This appears as $8,000.00 on both the revenue side and expenditure side. The Town received the money for this to offset it, but it was not addressed in the Police Dept. budget. The budget will be reviewed at the end of the year
to see where this additional $8,000.00 may be taken from.
- Donna Nashawaty reported that she had a complaint about Adelphia. The complaint came in to the Board of Selectmen. This is really a service issue. Sarah Bondee from Georges Mills complained that they were not getting a lot of the channels. They asked for an appointment with Adelphia but no one showed up. Upon a second complaint and still no show in ten days, they are asking the Board to address this issue as poor service. She will pass this complaint on to the Cable Committee as this is not a Board issue. The Board received a bid from ComCast. He could not speak about an agreement with Adelphia and could not address customer complaints. He hopes to have an answer in October about the
purchase.
- Donna Nashawaty presented the Board with the Institute for Community and Environment from Colby Sawyer College. This is a compilation of all the work they did. The Conservation Commission received one and the Town has one at Town Hall if the public would like to see it.
- Donna Nashawaty stated that she has a little issue with Haynes Park. There was a number of fund raisers to get benches and apparently they got a granite table bench for lower levels. This was done by a family member Nancy Haynes There are two more that were also donated for relatives of the Haynes. Plastic signs were created for two of the benches and these were pried out by someone. The family has replaced them but has asked if the Town could do something in granite or bronze. There is only one more bronze sign in that area that was donated. The Board of Selectmen had said that the signs could only be a certain size. This would not be possible with the bronze or granite. Because the Board made a motion on
the size of the sign, she asked if any of the members could recall why. Frederick Gallup stated he vaguely remembered this, but believes that that was how it was presented to the Board. D. Nashawaty stated that no money remains in the budget for this, but she would like to tell them that the Board would be lax on the size if they would purchase and mount it. The Board agreed with this.
- Richard Leone asked what is happening with the Woodbine. Emma Smith reported that this was on the agenda for the August Planning Board for discussion.
At 8:15 PM, Vice-Chair Emma Smith recommended that the business portion of the meeting be closed so that the Board could recess to address communications with legal counsel. Motion was made by Stephen White that the Board recess. The motion was seconded by Frederick Gallup. The vote was unanimous and the motion carried.
A woman in attendance stated that she was there because she thought the Board would be discussing private roads in town. Emma Smith informed her that Mr. Jaffe is coming to the Board’s next meeting, August 8, to further discuss this issue. The Board will discuss this evening in recess the information that was received from Town Counsel. Donna Nashawaty informed the woman that if something is done with these roads, the Town will conduct a public hearing and all of the residents of these roads would be invited. The woman stated that she lives on Marys Road and thinks that the Road Agent is doing a great job. She was also hoping for the installation of a catch basin.
After recess, it was agreed that a public hearing to discuss Emergency Lanes would be held August 29 at 7 PM at the Middle High School music room.
The meeting adjourned at 8:30 PM.
Submitted by, Darlene Morse Approved by the Board___________
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William Roach, Chairman Emma Smith, Vice-Chairman
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Richard Leone Frederick C. Gallup
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Stephen W. White
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