Alexandria Board of Selectmen

November 9, 2006

WORK SESSION:

The personnel policy was reviewed once again and additional changes were made. It is hoped that
a vote will be able to be taken next week.

The wage schedule was reviewed and discussed. Cindy does not care for the merit pay currently awarded. She wants to go by the high and low rates as developed by the NH Municipal Association. Peg does not want to set a precedent whereby when you reach the high rate for your job, that is it except for cost of living increases. Cindy said you have to because if someone’s job is worth only a certain amount, other than cost of living adjustments, you can’t keep going up and up and up. Peg and Bob thought that you can lose good people that way. Cindy said she is looking at the increase in the cost of benefits. The question is whether to stay with the merit and cost of living compensation plan or go with the cost of living and range of pay structure. Peg suggested using the latter. Christie asked if the supervisor has the option of where their employees will be paid within their grade structure. The answer was yes; the department will be given a certain amount for salaries and will have to decide how to allocate it. Employees will still be given a performance review. John Emery is considered a temporary employee until and if his position is approved at town meeting. There needs to be a letter of understanding that once he is hired on a permanent basis, if that happens, that he will be entitled to retirement benefits at that time and health insurance after ninety days from town meeting.

The RFP for Appraisal service was reviewed; changes were suggested and Christie was told that after the changes are made, the requests can go out. Peg asked where the proposal gets posted. Christie said the RFP will be advertised in the Enterprise and Citizen with instructions to contact the office for the specifications. She will also send an RFP to each of the NHDRA approved appraisers.

Contingency Items: Christie said she has the well, the duct work, the paving, the moving and the painting change. Is there anything else that needs to be included. Cindy said there is $5,000 in the contract for a generator. The contractor said the wiring can be done as long as the town determines what size generator they would like to put in there. It was decided a 3,000 watt generator would be sufficient.

Christie will ask for a price on the wiring. Cindy said there may be a drainage issue in one area which may require a dry well.

Regular Session:

Pledge of Allegiance:

Led by Frank Hinkle

Members Present: Bob Bacon, Peg Reilly and Cindy Williams

The meeting came to order at 6:00 p.m. with all members present.

Distribution of Minutes:

November 2 minutes are still in process.

 

 

Approval of Minutes:

Peg made a motion to approve the minutes of 10/26; Cindy seconded the motion and it was passed
by a vote of 3-0. No one was opposed.

Department Heads & Committees:

Barbara Emery: It will take her about four days from the receipt of the warrant to get the tax bills out. She is shooting for a due date of December 19. Barbara said that a member of the Lavoie family contacted her about the outstanding taxes on the property. All those listed on the property have passed away and nobody seems to want to take responsibility for the taxes. Barbara is still waiting for resolution on the Apostolos issue. Approximately $10,000 in 2005 liens were paid in October. There is a program that will enable people to do their registration renewals completely on line. It is called Compass. Barbara will take a look at the requirements for setup and let the selectmen know what has to be done. Barbara mentioned that there are several unknown properties still on the books. Christie suggested having the company that did tax lien research for Barbara this year do the research necessary to determine the owners of these properties. Bob said he thought the parcel that is up near his house was given to the town as a bird sanctuary. Cindy asked if the person who does the research is bonded; Christie explained that she has a certificate of insurance on file. Cindy thanked Barbara for a smooth election. Barbara was asked to forward a copy of any NHDES correspondence that she gets to the selectmen’s office so they can keep on top of potential problems.

Jeff Cantara: Jeff asked the selectmen to reconsider the limit he has for purchases without a countersignature by the selectmen. A drum of oil can cost him upwards of $650. There are ten cars in the town right of way and on other people’s property on the Class VI portion of Knowles Hill Road that need to be removed. Peg asked if the selectmen were going to notify Mr. Hackett about the cars. Frank Hinkle, police chief, explained that in order to get the cars out of the right of way you do not have to notify anyone. It will, however, take money to get these vehicles out of the way. He estimates it will take an entire day. Bob asked about the cable across the road. Jeff explained they haven’t gotten that far yet. There are other materials along with the cable that are blocking the road. Christie was directed to check with counsel or LGC reference abandoned vehicles. Jeff and Frank both said they had researched the rsa’s that govern that issue. Bob said he would still like an opinion. Jeff said he has the equipment to get the cars out to the road; the expense would be the towing. Peg asked if the property owner can be liened for the charges incurred by the town. It was believed that could happen. Mr. Corbeil on Mount Cardigan Road would like to grant the town a water easement. The question is whether or not to give some assistance to Mr. Corbeil in order to fix a pipe out of the town right of way that was damaged in the last rain storm. Jeff would like to do this in exchange for the easement as it is the town’s water that is causing the problem. Check on liability issues. The paving out back is going to cost a little bit more than originally thought for. The reason is that there was no clear indication of the boundaries of the parking lot. Now that there is, it involves a little bit more material. There was a question on whether or not to stripe the parking lot out back and what to do about marking handicapped parking. Bob said that Bristol has the template for the handicapped parking and probably would let us borrow it as long as we supply the paint. Jeff also suggested that the town pick up a snowblower so the sidewalks at the new building can be cleared. There is a lot of shoveling involved and Jeff said that his first priority is getting the roads cleared, not making sure the sidewalks at town hall are done. The cost would be somewhere in the neighborhood of $700.

Announcements:

Selectmen’s Meetings: November 9, 16, 29 & 30

Budget Committee: November 8, 15 and 29

Selectmen’s Office Closed November 13 for Veteran’s Day

Budget Hearings for Newfound School District-5 p.m. on 11/14, 11/16, 11/27

Land Use, Building Permits, Purchase Orders, Other Items Requiring Signature.

Builder Permit approved for Jayme Rose Trust

Settlement Agreement with New England Power signed

Intent to Cut approved for Dennis Fitton on McMurphy Road

Letter to Russell Lowell denying Intent to Excavate until he has a permitted pit.

Purchase Order signed for Argo Uniforms for police department.

Old Business:

A reply from town counsel has been received regarding driveways. Due to the fact that the town voted to give the selectmen authority on roads outside a subdivision, the road agent will continue to approve driveways outside subdivisions; the planning board within. Jeff is more than welcome to assist the planning board if they request it. A letter will be drafted to the planning board informing them of the results of counsel’s letter. Skip asked if an approved driveway is in place, does the property owner have to get another permit if the driveway is going to access the road in a second area. The answer was yes. Cindy asked to be notified that driveway accesses have been approved.

New Business:

Cole Hill Road: There was a question last week with regard to the Brower subdivision. There are
three lots that have access to the “subdivision road” that is still owned by Mr. Brower. Two of the
lots are owned by the Stevens Trust. The third already has a house on it that is accessed by a driveway
off Cole Hill Road, not the subdivision road. There would be some question with approving a
driveway off the subdivision road.

Turnaround Agreement: Jeff and Christie made two changes. Snowplows was changed to town
equipment, year round. A sentence was added at the end that said “any material that is required to be
removed in the construction of the turnaround area will be first be offered to the property owner; if they
do not want it, it will be removed from site”. Another sentence was added that indicated if at any point in time the town and the owner decide the turnaround is not going to be used, the area will be returned to its former state at the request of the owner. Motion to approve made by Peg Reilly, seconded by Cindy Williams; motion voted in the affirmative 3-0. No one was opposed.
RFP for Appraisal Services: RFP for Appraisal is ready to be sent out.
Personnel Policy: The last changes will be made in preparation for a vote at next week’s selectmen’s
meeting.
Website: Christie asked to be able to contact the website manager to find out if he wishes to continue
maintaining the site for the town. It is way out of date and things that have been sent for posting are not being posted. Christie said she would be willing to learn how to take care of it as long as she can get the access information. The selectmen said that would be fine.

Generator: Already covered
Paving/Striping: Already covered

Advertising for Open House: Christie will advertise in both Citizen and Enterprise

Public Input:

Peg asked if the library had asked for permission to take up two parking spaces with their dumpsters on election day. Christie said they did not.

Bob said 550 came in to vote on Tuesday. Thirty new voters were signed up.

With regard to the parking lot, the main front door is the handicap entrance door. We need to check to see how many spaces are needed.

Put Open House advertising on Bristol Cable and Shop and Save.
Transfer Station: The last load of paper netted the town $64.40 above and beyond hauling costs.
The company now pays $40/ton and reduced the hauling charge by $10 per load.

Carol said she saw the building is being painted white and she is glad. Skip asked why it was painted
the other color in the first place. Cindy replied that the selectmen were not asked what color they
wanted the exterior.

Skip noted that the newsletter listed a public hearing on the proposed zoning ordinance that will be on
the ballot. The public hearing is December 20. Christie said they printed what Maggie submitted for
the newsletter. Skip asked where this comes up as a proposed article for the ballot because last year at
town meeting he felt it was voted on not to create a zoning ordinance, but the potential of a zoning
ordinance. He doesn’t want this rammed down anybody’s throat. Christie said this is a Tuesday ballot
question, not for vote at the Thursday meeting. Cindy read the article from the warrant: “Are you in favor of a zoning ordinance to be formulated and presented for vote at the 2007 annual town meeting?” Skip said that is not what was presented at town meeting. Cindy said she read from the warrant. Skip said the wording at town meeting was originally not that; it was for a study. Cindy said the wording she read was what people voted on at town meeting. Skip said they didn’t vote on that. Bob said they did. Christie said she could look at the town meeting minutes to see if there were any amendments offered to that article. Peg asked Christie to check on the date for the public hearing on the zoning ordinance because she feels that not many people will show up on the week before Christmas. Cindy said there is going to be more than one public hearing.

Cindy: On the 17th, the perambulation group will get together to finish a couple of small lines they did not do between Danbury and Alexandria. The microwave upstairs will be used at the new office building. Cindy asked about the financials; Christie said that the auditor had told her about two weeks and it has been one. Cindy asked if we are going to make an appointment so the financials for this year can be in the town report. Skip has a petition going around for doing away with the planning board. Cindy said she talked with him today and started a review of the RSA’s pertaining to the abolishing of a planning board. Once you abolish a planning board, there are no regulations. There is another option; you can make the planning board appointed rather than elected. Cindy said you can remove members of the planning board that are not coming to meetings, and she wondered if the selectmen wished to pursue removal. Those people are Roger Bedard, Daryl Ellis and Sandy Hamel. Skip stated he did not feel that those people are the problem. Skip said that in his conversations with people who have signed the petition, the feeling is that the planning board is autonomous, with the exception of Superior Court, they do not listen to people, they are rude, insulting and demeaning, and therefore the people do not want to go before the planning board. These people are elected to serve, not to dictate.

Bonnie O’Brien: Bonnie stated that she does not believe that anyone feels intimidated by the board. They do ask for things to be done the proper way; not the “good old boy” way.

Bob Bacon: Obviously, if Skip has 300 signatures on his petition, there is an issue that should be left up to the voters to decide.

Cindy: Cindy said that Skip is misrepresenting what he is saying to people. He’s telling people that the selectmen can appoint a new board. If the planning board is abolished, the town has no regulations in town until the next year where another warrant can be put on for a new board. Cindy is concerned because there are several large subdivisions that may be proposed soon and the only regulations that the selectmen could enforce are those that have to do with roads. Cindy said Maggie has cleaned up a lot of the issues within the regulations that had not been done. Maggie is not playing any favoritism, and Cindy feels it unfair for members to just stop coming without an explanation. The voters are the ones who put Maggie and the other members on the board. If you go to an appointed board, you take away the voters right to elect who they want.

Bob: Bob said he believes this is a town meeting issue, not a selectmen’s issue.

Cindy: It is the selectmen’s responsibility to get things done in the best interest of the town and this is a major issue. The selectmen should do something.

Bob: The board should stand up at town meeting, whether divided or anonymous, and voice their opinion on what should be done. To take up time in a selectmen’s meeting is not going to accomplish anything.

Jeff: Towns don’t realize where they stand and the issues that they could face. Zoning may not be the answer, but changes are necessary. There are people working together to try to make a difference.

Carol Panaggio: You need a planning board and a select board. There is too much work to be done by one board.

Cindy: Is there interest of the board to go forward with the removal process? It is difficult when members of the planning board do not show up and you have to rely on alternates that may not be fully informed of the matter at hand.

Bob: Bob would like to send the people at issue a letter informing them of the request for removal and asking them to meet with the selectmen to explain why they should not be removed.

Bonnie: The conservation commission needs to do that as well.

Bob: The group needs to send the selectmen a letter asking them to remove members for not attending meetings.

Skip: Skip said he has not misrepresented his petition. It says what it says. Skip said he feels there should be an appointed board with an appeal process rather than the present board. He still wants to see a planning board, but there needs to be a method for arbitrating bad decisions.

Cindy: That is what zoning would do; create a zoning board of appeal to listen to appeals of decisions made.

Bob: We are not going any further with this discussion.

Peg Reilly made a motion to adjourn at 7:50 p.m.; the motion was seconded by Cindy Williams and passed by a vote of 3-0.

Respectfully submitted,

Christie Phelps, Admin. Assistant