Alexandria Board of Selectmen
February 28, 2008
Approved March 27, 2008
Members Present: Don Gangemi and Tom McGowan (Cindy Williams is absent)
Pledge of Allegiance was led by Carleen Stickney.
Distribution of Minutes:
February 21, 2008
Approval of Minutes:
Waiting until Cindy returns
Department Heads:
Christie
Phelps: Christie received a call from NH Police Standards & Training
today stating that the PT test for the chief will be on March 13 and
the law
package will begin on April 7. This will afford the chief the
opportunity to become
certified within the two year window. Don asked if any paperwork
has to be
signed. Christie said that Frank should be receiving notification
and no mention
was made of any extension. Christie said she will be out of the
office March 17-
24; returning on the 25th. Cat will take care of the
office and Christie’s cell phone
will be on in case someone needs to get in touch with her. Voting
will take place
from 11-7 on March 11 and the town meeting is on March 13 beginning
at 7 p.m.
The highway budget is running $41,496 above the same period last year. The
additional costs are in overtime, maintenance of vehicles, diesel fuel, winter
sand and salt. Money may need to be requested at the town meeting. The budget
committee had cut $40,000 from the highway budget’s request, so we are running
behind. Next week there will be a work session at 5:00 p.m. to review the
warrant articles and figure out who wishes to speak in favor or against any
particular one. Tom McGowan asked about the oil in the police cruiser.
Christie said it has been changed.
Merry Ruggirello:
Maggie is not available tonight and asked Merry to speak in
her absence. At the last planning board meeting, a public hearing was held on
the proposed changes to the gravel pit regulations. A public hearing on the
Capital Improvements Plan was held. Christie suggested that the department
heads to individually be notified of these meetings so they can attend. Merry
asked if the planning board could be given a copy of any driveway permits that
are issued. Christie said they could and reminded Merry that the planning board
is still the issuing authority on roads within a subdivision. Merry asked
Christie if anything has been heard from Mr. Kahler regarding his boundary
dispute. Christie talked with Cartographic Associates, the town’s mapping firm,
and they stated that it is a civil matter between the abutting landowners. They
can either
agree on a boundary line adjustment or go to court.
George Whittaker: Don Gangemi asked for an update on George’s condition. He is coming along well. Christie and Jeff met with Paul Hatch of OEM this wee in George’s absence to go over some information that is missing from the Hazard Mitigation Grant Application. The deadline for the applications is March 10.
Don Gangemi asked about the petitioned warrant article regarding the budget committee. Christie explained that the Town of Alexandria voted in a Municipal Budget Committee in 2004. At that point, it became the budget committee’s budget that is voted on at town meeting. Don said he felt the budget committee did a good job this year, looked at things closely and put a lot of time into the project. As a citizen, being stuck with the 10% limitation rubs him the wrong way. Don asked if the 10% rule applies if the town has an Advisory Budget Committee. Christie said it does not. What happens with an advisory board is that the selectmen have them review their recommendations, but it is the selectmen’s budget that goes to town meeting. Don said that if the town goes to an advisory board, he would still like to see their recommendations listed on the handouts at town meeting. He asked if the selectmen need to take a vote to have that happen. Christie said if that is the pleasure of the board, she will make sure it happens either way. Don stated he wants to have that happen and he will speak to this article at town meeting. He wants to make sure that the people continue to have as much information as possible in order to vote on the proposals. Bill Hall, a member of the budget committee, feels that by going back to an advisory committee you are limiting the number of people making decisions to three (the selectmen). Bill said that the reason the budget committee did not recommend a lot of things this year is because they were not given the proper information. Three different road projects were proposed, but there were not three different bids given for each project. The truck proposal did not have three different bids. Bill said he doesn’t think the state bid does not give the town the truck it needs. Don said that the truck article is not limited to a state bid; the selectmen can still say there need to be three bids. Bill said it would be good to have those numbers for the budget hearing. Christie said that the money appropriated is based on a recommended amount. The purchasing policy for the town says that before anything of this spending level is purchased, there will be a set of specifications done; there will be a bidding process. What happens with some of the road projects, you can get an idea of what it is going to cost, but no one is going to hold a bid from January until you are ready for the project to be done in July or August. The cost of anything that has to do with oil fluctuate greatly and companies cannot predict what it will do between now and then. Bill said it is not only the bid, it is the quality. Tom McGowan said that $175,000 sounds like a lot of money to him. Bill pointed out that no one has asked whether or not the town needs a 10-wheeler or whether a six-wheeler is better. Bonnie O’Brien said that is why we have a road agent; to make the decision as to what equipment is necessary. Bill said the road crew should be out with the new grader on Cass Mill Road scraping the ice. He said that the town spent $200,000 on the grader and nobody likes it. The ice is a safety issue. Bill said the whole problem, as he envisions it, is that no handle on nothing—everybody just goes their own way. Don told Bill that he should let the town know if he feels there is a road that should be done. Bill said he has done that and hasn’t been listened to. Ann Hall said there is a crater in Fowler River Road. Christie stated that the NHDOT garage in Bristol has been called several times to take care of it. That portion of road is state-maintained. Christie explained that concerns that are brought to her attention are passed along. They do not stop at her desk. Larry Stickney said the road agent has available to him a highway committee. The road agent should give consideration to items brought up by that committee. Don said that anybody in town should feel comfortable enough to call any department head. If they don’t get action, they should go through Christie. If they aren’t comfortable talking with Christie, they can come to the selectmen who will decide if it is an unreasonable request that someone is making. Don pointed out that the budget committee did ask the tough questions this year. How much is this going to cost? Why do we need it? They ran more of a corporation kind of review than has been done in the past. The days of “I just want to do that project” are over. We don’t have money for them. He feels that the budget committee based their recommendations on a zero-based budget and built from there. They did a great job. Bill Hall said that the only reason the petitioned article went in there was because somebody didn’t like the cuts. From what he understands, Jeff Cantara put the article in because he didn’t like the cuts and doesn’t think they know what they are talking about. If you go back to the other way, you will soon find out how much money can be spent. Teri Willette said that last year an article was on to get rid of the planning board because somebody did not get their own way. Don Gangemi hopes that the intent of the article is to say that we shouldn’t be limited by the 10% rule. If it is because somebody just doesn’t like the budget committee; that is a different issue. Tom said that the same group of people has been coming in for several weeks making comments about the new truck. He asked what an alternative truck would cost. The budget committee says no, it’s too much, but what is enough? If there are people on the budget committee that know trucks, they should have an alternative. Tom said he cannot contest the number because he does not know about those trucks. He stated that Dennis Ford came in and said that it what they cost. Nobody has come in with anything off the internet or from Grappone Ford that says that is too much for a truck. Bill said he has taken the time on other projects, such as the municipal building, to get blueprints that showed an alternative for less money, but he wasn’t given any consideration to speak at the town meeting. Why should he waste his time? Bill went and got prices on other graders, but nobody listened to him. Don said he will listen to Bill; he feels Tom will; he can’t answer for Cindy and she is not here this evening. Tom McGowan stated that his frustration is that so many are saying “that’s a lot of money”, but nobody that understands the truck is coming up with an alternative. Teri said to call Liberty International and get a price from them. Christie read a statement from Liberty International that says if towns received a preliminary quote for budget purposes, they need to get in contact with them when they are ready to buy in order to receive a price with municipal discounts applied. Don said the other question is if the stuff we are asking for in the price is the right stuff for our town. Bill said that when the grader was purchased, it had a 14’ mow board. The crew didn’t like it and swapped out to a 12’ one. Bill doesn’t know how much that cost the town, but it showed him that they didn’t know what they needed in the first place. Now they complain that it is too heavy for the roads. Don said that he guarantees people came come and talk with the selectmen about these things. Tom said because you think something is going to cost too much, you don’t just so no, you use it as an opportunity to sort things out. It doesn’t solve anything to throw the whole project out. Christie said that what could have happened is that if the budget committee felt that $175,000 was too much for a truck, they could have recommended an alternative amount and that would still have been an amount that could have been used in the calculation of the 10%. The budget committee does not have to absolutely recommend or not recommend an amount in the article. They can recommend an alternative amount. The budget committee did not recommend the entire operating budget; they offered another number. The same can be done with the other warrant articles. It’s not an all or nothing. Don believes the reason it did not happen is if it were done that way, the town departments will never get to the level of coming through the door with the proper information and justification. The budget committee asked, and made it very clear, that they wanted information and very few budgets came in with the kind of documentation he would have expected. Bill said it was actually documentation the committee was looking for. Don said you have to draw a line in the sand or this will go on forever. He feels the budget committee drew the line and it’s what needed to be done. Christie stated that what has to be done is to educate the department heads that it is not going to be carte blanche; they need to do their homework. Ann said it’s like the planning board getting half of the information they need. She said that Bill’s notebook in a previous year on budgets was full; this year all he has is a manila folder. Tom said putting up goose eggs is not teaching the department heads anything. Bill said when the selectmen brought their budgets to the committee, they didn’t talk about it that night, and they talked about the warrant articles. He doesn’t remember why it wasn’t done that night, but he thought Cindy was waiting for the public hearing. Christie reminded Bill that she met with the budget committee regarding the selectmen’s budgets. She understands it is not quite the same, but she did meet with them and felt the meeting was productive. Don said the information that the budget committee asked for was the right information, they weren’t asking for too much and it was the kind of information that anyone administering a budget should be prepared to submit for consideration. Bill said the budget committee felt that Cass Mill Road should be done rather than the three road projects. It needs ditching and other work to keep it in shape. Don said that people can put in a warrant article for something like that to happen. Bill feels there’s only one road out of the three (Belser Road) that should be done. Merry Ruggirello would like to see the budget committee remain as is for a while longer because not everybody has been working together as they need to do. Give them a chance to work with everyone. The different officials in the town are elected by the people, and they need to work for all the people. The elderly need to be taken into consideration when choosing projects and what they are going to cost those on fixed incomes. Christie stated she felt that departments within the town are working together more, but there is still a long way to go. Don asked if the selectmen could have voted to put the override wording into more articles. Christie said it could happen, but that defeats the purpose of the committee. As a selectman, Tom said he is not dying to have the power of recommending budgets to the town. Bonnie Poire said that the selectmen recommend, the budget committee recommends, but it is the legislative body that says yes or not and they should have that opportunity. They can do that with the advisory committee. Merry said the capital improvement plan is supposed to help schedule expenditures. Christie explained that she and Jeff are working on scheduling out highway projects. They will be doing this through the summer months in anticipation of the next budgeting period.
Items Requiring Signature:
A letter of
authorization was signed for the accountant to release financial reports
the Paul Brown, CPA, for review.
The selectmen signed a timber warrant for Markiewicz
Abatements were signed for Gailaid, Sauvageau and Tsetseris
A PAR form from the police chief was tabled until all selectmen are present
Elderly exemptions were approved for Renoe and Ring
Old Business:
Cole Hill
Road-spring projects
Ethics Policy-to be reviewed next week
Financial Policy-to be worked on
Sandy Policy-to be worked on
Emergency Mgt. Plan-March 28
Generator-to be reviewed next week
New Business:
Holding cell update-tabled until all selectmen are present
Public Input:
Bill Hall
asked if the assessors are still looking at property. Christie said they
are working on inventory changes, building permits and abatements.
Bill said the time has come to stop spending bad money after bad
money.
There will be
a work session next week in order to go over the building project,
warrant articles and ethics policy. It will begin at 5:00 p.m.
Bonnie asked what happens to the money that was left over in the conservation
budget. Christie said it goes into the unreserved fund balance. It can be kept
only if it is encumbered by a contract signed before the end of the year or if
it
was appropriated through a multi-year or non-lapsing warrant article. It can be
voted out of unreserved fund balance for a project in another year. Bonnie
asked about the Land Use Change Tax article, if it passes. Christie said that
would be an ongoing item. Bonnie said the town needs to research a grant writer
because there is a lot of money out there.
Adjournment: Meeting was adjourned at 7:23 p.m. by a vote of 2-0.
Respectfully submitted,
Christie Phelps
Town Administrator