Meeting Minutes
Town of
Selectboard Meeting Minutes
Monday, January 5, 2009
*Unapproved*
** See subsequent minutes for any changes
Members Present: Diane Benware, Bob Oliver, Ken Young, Ron Fiske, Tom Barker
Others Present: Arlan & Donna Pidgeon, John & Mary Hughes, Sandra Trombley, Secretary
Call to Order: Meeting called to order at 6:35 by Chair, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.
Agenda Review: Agenda reviewed.
Approve Minutes of December 15 & December 29, 2008:
The minutes for December 15th meeting were reviewed. Motion by Tom to approve minutes. Seconded by Bob. All in favor. So approved.
The minutes for December 29th budget meeting were reviewed. Motion by Bob to approve minutes. Seconded by Ken. All in favor. So approved.
Review and Sign Orders for Payment:
Bills making their rounds. Most of 2008 bills are in, but there are still a few to come in.
Reports from Town Officials & Committees:
Tax Collector: Diane reported that Beth Ripley sent letters to all delinquent tax property owners and has heard from eight of them who said they would be coming in with money for their delinquent taxes. Beth will be talking with Joan O’Neil’s attorney.
Auditors: Diane reported that the Auditors are planning to come in on Thursday of this week to close out the books for 2008. Dot would be able to provide the Board with a comparative spreadsheet with each year’s comparison by next Monday.
Tom requested that before the Town Report goes to press that a copy be sent to the Board for review.
Road Foreman: Arlan reported that there are a couple of things that need to be done on
Tom wanted to talk about the grader. Tom indicated the grader blade was very bad. The lift cylinder broke off and has been welded up. Tom & Arlan think it should be replaced. Municipalities take equipment to the State auction. The State auction is in early June.
We know where there is a 1994 John Deere. Hours are not high on it. It looks good. Tom and Arlan would need to run it.
Arlan would like the Town to own grader.
Discussion on how many miles of dirt road and hours involved to grade roads. All agreed that Scott has done a good job grading the roads this year. We don’t have enough roads to justify a new grader.
Ken asked if we could get total hours for grading in 2008. There are about 15 miles of dirt roads.
Cutting edges are about $240 a set and we probably use about 7 sets a year.
At $110 hour it will cost about $20,000 year to hire someone, in 2 ½ years we can pay for the grader.
Action: Diane will try to come up with the number of hours for grading.
Action: Arlan will check with Reg at Wind Mill about selling the grader and check with
New Business:
Road mileage certificate will make it rounds for the Board signatures. Kylee will send in.
Old Business:
Donna has signed FEMA Grant paperwork as Grant Administrator and it is ready to mail to Bill Brierley. Diane will contact Tom Roberts to verify where to mail.
Budget thoughts:
The
Starting February 1, 2009 Richard Humiston will be raising his price for trash taken at the recycling center. White kitchen bags (13 gallon) unchanged at $2. 30 gallon bags will go from $3.50 to $4 a bag. Larger or heavier bags will be extra. It doesn’t necessarily impact our budget.
Action: Diane will put notice in the paper. Diane will contact Richard about recycling costs.
The $2,000 check for Better Back Roads Grant for road inventory has come.
Action: Diane will give to Kylee to put into the General Fund.
The Department of Taxes every year sends us information about the equalized rate and based on the sales of two years ago our common level of appraisal is now 101%. Last year we were 115%.
There have been two fires in the Town of
Action: Bob will contact Gary Smith on the Salisbury Fire Department to see what they have decided.
Public Comment: None
Executive Session:
Motion by Ron to go Into Executive Session at 7:35 p.m. for conversation with Zoning Administrator. Seconded by Tom. Passed unanimously.
Motion by Tom to come out of Executive Session at 8:37 p.m. Seconded by Ron. Passed unanimously.
Motion by Tom to authorize Andrew to seek legal counsel re: Dunmore Acres. Seconded by Ron. Passed unanimously.
Motion by Ron to authorize up to 2 hours of legal counsel’s time for the above listed matter.
Seconded by Tom. Passed unanimously.
Motion by Tom to adjourn at 8:50 p.m. Seconded by Ron. Passed unanimously. Adjourned at 8:50 p.m.
Next meeting Monday, January 12, 2009 for budget purposes.
Respectfully submitted,
Sandra L. Trombley
Selectboard Secretary