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Town of Littleton

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2010 Meeting Minutes and Agendas

Board of Selectmen

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Approved Minutes May 5, 2010

TOWN OF LITTLETON
BOARD OF SELECTMEN’S MEETING
WEDNESDAY, MAY 5, 2010
4:00 PM
LITTLETON OPERA HOUSE

Present: Town Manager Chuck Connell, Chairman Ron Bolt, Vice Chairman Ed Boynton, Selectman Marghie Seymour, Executive Secretary Ceil Stubbings

Others Present: Bob O’Conner (Channel 2), Eddy Moore, Fire Chief Joe Mercieri, Police Chief Paul Smith,
Chad Stearns (Chamber of Commerce), Robert Blechl (The Caledonian) Art McGrath (The Courier), Jim Daly, Mary Daly, Scottie Farquharson, Mel Brooks, Jan Mercieri

Pledge of Allegiance

Chairman Bolt called the meeting to order at 4:00 PM and moved to the first item on the agenda.

Approval of Previous Meeting Minutes:
Bolt started with the March 31, 2010 Special Meeting Minutes. Ed Boynton made the motion to approve the minutes as presented. Marghie Seymour seconded the motion. Motion passed 3-0. Bolt then moved onto the minutes of the April 7, 2010 Regular BOS Meeting. Boynton and Seymour had no changes. Bolt said that he had a few changes and referred to page four where the sentence starts with Main Street. The sentence said the contractors would be here for three to four weeks in the fall. Bolt said to just drop off “in the fall.” Bolt then went to page five where there is a typo that he thinks it is important to change because it involves litigation. The correction is where it states Tony versus the Town of Littleton; this should be corrected to Toney. Bolt then identified another error on page seven where we made a motion to appoint members to the Conservation Commission. Bolt believes that Bill Nichols is an alternate, Dorothy Corey, Priscilla Didio and Hank Peterson are full members, Carol Fredien is a new full member and Barbara Perlowski is an alternate. Bolt said the motion should be changed. Seymour moved to approve the minutes as amended. Boynton seconded the motion. Motion passed 3-0. Bolt then moved to the minutes of the April 13, 2010 Special Meeting and asked if there were any corrections necessary. No changes were noted. Boynton made the motion to approve the minutes as presented. Seymour seconded the motion. Motion passed 3-0. Bolt then moved onto the minutes of the April 21, 2010 regular Meeting and said that he had one change on the second page on the paragraph regarding the Parks & Recreation Department. It says that they have ordered the new plow truck. Bolt said he thinks it is a pickup truck. Seymour said it should be changed to they ordered the new truck. Seymour made the motion to approve the minutes as amended. Boynton seconded the motion. Motion passed 3-0. Bolt then moved onto the minutes of the April 23, 3010 Special Meeting. Bolt asked Connell for the correct spelling of the woman’s name from DOT. Connell stated her name as Nancy Mayville. Bolt said on the third paragraph it says the town has a bridge permit. That should be changed to a wetlands permit. Boynton made the motion to approve the minutes as amended. Ron Bolt seconded the motion. Motion passed 3-0.

Feedback from Last Meeting:
Bolt said the first action item was to consider adopting an email policy similar to the school board. The board previously adopted an email procedure but he would make the necessary changes and submit them to the full board. Bolt said they were asked to consider a freeze on the budget. Bolt said that right now that might be premature. Everything with the exception of the legal line item is within the expected expenditures. The third action was to reconsider police support for the Memorial Day Parade. They had a meeting on that and had voted to return $1,400 to support the Memorial Day Parade. Bolt cautioned this is not cart-blanche for all parades and advised other not to count on that happening again. The fourth was to step back from the differences we have experienced over the last weeks and to look at the future. That was a suggestion by Jim Alden. Nothing has happened on that. The next was to be concerned about further vandalism at the parks and recreation facilities. Town Manager Connell advised there was further vandalism at the pool. He asked residents to be vigilant and to call the police if they see anything suspect. Bolt said the sixth item was to consider Channel 2 filming special events such as the Cancer Cluster Study. The seventh was to facilitate a regional Right-to-Know seminar by the LGC. Seymour said that she is still working on it. Bolt said there was some consideration on where we should use our energy audit. The one note of fact is that is when Joe Wiggett was looking at the town buildings the parks and recreation facilities were not eligible. Bolt stated that Joe is continuing to work with our energy advisor.

Marghie Seymour pointed out that Bolt had missed Bruce Hadlock asking about the Eames settlement. Bolt said that one of the things Bruce was bothered about is that he sent a letter to the Town Manager and was upset for not getting a formal response. Connell said he talked to Bruce Hadlock extensively two days before the letter was sent. Connell said there was no new information and he felt a formal response was not necessary. Seymour said that Bruce feels that he specifically asked for a response but his particular concern is he feels that the town did not do the proper thing as far as putting in claims and then making a payment after being refused by the insurance companies. Seymour said that if he is right, we should probably see about making a claim. Connell said town council talked to the insurance contractor and the insurance companies to no avail. Seymour asked Connell to provide her with the details to review to see what happened because otherwise we could end up spending more money on another lawsuit. Bolt said he did respond to Bruce two weeks ago and had advised him the town has submitted several claims. Bolt said there was a time factor involved and a legal decision that had gone on for several months. Bolt said that one of the businesses involved was teetering on financial straights and that was part of the decision to move on and then try to claim it on our own.
Bolt stated the selectmen had met a number of times since their last meeting. The board met on April 23rd to discuss the Highland Avenue culvert. They had another meeting on the 27th of April to discuss and voted unanimously to petition for a Special Town Meeting, Emergency Planning and the policy of recording minutes. The Board agreed that with the advent of a new recording device we now have the capability to store audio of the meetings indefinitely. Bolt said the minutes would be more concise and if there were any concerns raised, we would have the audio to fall back on. Secondly, the board agreed during that five-day period that Marghie Seymour would be “editor in chief” to look out for flat out mistakes but will not make content changes.
Bolt said the Board of Assessors met on April 29th and the selectmen also attended a joint meeting with the Budget Committee and the School Board Finance Committee.

Appointments: Maximum time per appointment is 15 minutes
Fire Chief Joe Mercieri – Tanker Truck Grant Application
Chief Mercieri asked for the Board’s permission to apply for a grant to purchase a new tanker truck. Mercieri provided the board with a copy of the section of the grant to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Mercieri explained the application could be submitted from Monday, April 26, 2010 and no later than 5:00 PM on Friday, May 28, 2010. Mercieri explained the grant itself is 95% federal share and a 5% town share. The approximate cost of the tanker truck is $300,000 so the town would have to come up with $15,000. Bolt asked what is the next benchmark after April 28th deadline. Mercieri said the grant would be under review for several months. After a brief discussion on the tanker’s specifications, Chairman Bolt asked for a motion. Ed Boynton made the motion to grant permission for the Fire Chief to apply for the FEMA Tanker Truck Grant. Marghie Seymour seconded the motion. The motion passed 3-0.

Mercieri said he had two more items to bring before the board. The next one is the Fire Protection Initiative by the North Country area Council . They will analyze our current fire protection strategies and also identify a rural water supply. They also take the information they acquire and put it into a digital map. This mapping system can be implemented into our Hazard Mitigation Plan. Mercieri said they would provide the service free of charge. If it is determined they would need to install a dry hydrant on any of the sites, the council would provide all of the engineering for a fee of $200.00 per sight. Mercieri asked the board for their permission to utilize this service to develop a new water resource plan including the GPS Mapping features. Once we complete the study we can decide if we want to meet with them again for their technical assistance in designing and engineering dry hydrants. Marghie Seymour asked if there was a cost to doing this other than the $200.00 associated with the technical assistance for the dry hydrants. Mercieri said there would be no cost for the initial service. Seymour asked if we currently know where the water supplies are. Mercieri said they do but they have never had an analysis done or had a mapping system in place. Bolt asked for a motion to approve the Fire Protection Initiative by the North Country Area Council to develop a new water resource plan including the GPS Mapping. Marghie Seymour so moved. Ed Boynton seconded the motion. Motion passed 3-0.

Mercieri said the last item was a request to accept a donation from Hanover Insurance Savers Incorporated in the amount of $250.00 to be used for public fire advertising. Salmon Press is also matching the donation. Mercieri requested the board’s permission to accept the $500.00 to advertise in local newspapers. Mercieri said the advertising was seasonal and they try to put one advertisement per month in the paper. Ed Boynton made the motion to accept the $500.00 donation. Marghie Seymour seconded the motion. The motion passed 3-0.

Police Chief Paul Smith – Highway Safety Grant Application
Chief Smith advised the board they were in possession of a copy of the grant application he is asking permission to apply for. The funds are 100% reimburseable and would be used to set up a DUI patrol for three weekends during the summer. Smith said the grant amount is for $1,845.00. These funds are for DUI saturation patrols for three specific weekends during the summer. Marghie Seymour moved to give chief the authority to move ahead with the grant application with the Highway Safety Agency. Ed Boynton seconded the motion. Motion passed 3-0.

Citizen’s Concerns:
Eddy Moore told Bolt that it was his understanding the board was working on a new email policy and then asked Bolt if he had any emails from the last couple of weeks that should have been provided to Moore. Bolt asked Moore why he would do that. Moore told Bolt that he was told that Bolt had sent a request to Ray Burton by email. Moore said that should be a public record. Bolt said the topic was on the agenda. Moore said that now it is the beginning of May he has been receiving many calls about the MAPS Online and asked if there was an update. Connell said they had no contractual arrangement with MAPS Online. Connell said the town is working with Cartographics to get it back into operation as quickly as possible. Moore said it was mentioned a couple of weeks ago that it would be back online in May and as he said earlier he is receiving quite a few calls from people who need it up and running. Connell told Moore he can’t respond to people who do not contact him directly.

Moore said there were a couple of warrant articles passed this year that are different than a typical warrant article. Article 22 and Article 25 have to do with fund raising. One was for $30,000 to match funds raised for the community house. The other article mentions $20,000 that has to do with raising funds for the beautification of Main Street. Moore said his question concerns whether there been a policy written on how these funds would be spent. Bolt said he would refer to the town manager and asked if this has happened in the past. Connell said no and there is no written policy. Connell said that, for instance, the town matches dollar for dollar based on the submission of documentation. It does not matter if donation or fund-raising raised the funds. Connell said that both were petitioned articles and the voters approved them. Connell told Moore to please encourage the people who are asking to contact him. Marghie Seymour asked for some clarification about whether the concern is because this a matching fund or if it is the concern about how it is raised. Moore said the concern is how it is raised. Moore said he just thinks there should be a policy. Ed Boynton said he has had people ask him the same question since the Lions Club donated funds to the community center. Boynton said a donation should not be included in our $30,000 match. Seymour said she would like to see some sort of accounting. Connell stated they would only pay with some sort of documentation. Ed Boynton asked Connell if the Lion’s Club donation would be included in the town’s match. Connell said yes. Boynton said one of the comments made to him was that if they had three businesses donate then they don’t have to work for the money. Seymour said that some organizations would not allow grants to qualify. Connell told the board that in some cases, one could not use federal money to match federal money. Bolt said the donations were fair game. Seymour asked what the town has in place now. Connell said we only pay with documentation such as a copy of the check. Bolt said that it sounds like a policy is in order. Janice Mercieri noted that the town can have a policy as to how the town handles these things, but that won’t change how they write the warrant article. Ed Boynton said another comment made to him was that it sounds like a setup they don’t have to work to earn it.
Bolt told Moore he wanted to go back to the issue of the email and asked Moore if the had a copy of the email in question. Moore said he did. Bolt asked Moore how he obtained it. Boynton told Bolt that he gave the email to Moore. Boynton said Moore requested the emails and he gave them to him. Bolt asked Boynton how Moore could have requested it if he didn’t know it existed. Boynton told Bolt that Moore had asked for copies of any emails that came through the office. They are public records, so he forwarded them to Moore. Bolt said they were going to have a discussion about this. Boynton said there was nothing illegal about it. Moore requested them and he forwarded them to him. Boynton said he already told Chuck Connell about it. Bolt told Boynton that he had not told him. Boynton said he did not feel he had to tell Bolt because they are public records. Moore said he made his request back in March. Bolt asked Moore how he could request an email that he did not know existed. Bolt said the email in question is on the agenda tonight and it was sent out on an emergency basis. Bolt advised they would abandon this discussion until they could obtain a legal opinion.

Spotlight on Departments:
Welfare Update
Ceil Stubbings of the Welfare Department provided an update on welfare expenditures to date. The Welfare Office has had 110 applicants this year. 45 applications were approved and paid. 44 applications were denied and 21 applications were withdrawn. The expenditures were broken down as follows: Five were for emergency food vouchers, eighteen were for rent payments, seven were for electric, twelve were to assist homeless persons and three were for home heating. Stubbings said the department is 50% below budget from where they were at this time last year. She has checked with some surrounding towns that are also experiencing a drop in requests.
Stubbings said that does not mean the welfare crisis is over. This same trend was seen in 2008 and requests peaked from July through the end of December in 2008 and stayed at a high level of demand through all of 2009.
As of today the welfare office has expended $15,213.57 where last year at this time they had expended $31,680.40.

Town Manager’s Report:
Main Street Reconstruction
Town Manager Chuck Connell advised that Northeast Earth Mechanics mobilized their equipment and has started work in front of the Golden Bamboo on the sidewalks. Connell said there is no formal punch list as of yet and there will be some inconviences that will be short term. Connell said it is overly optimistic that the contractor would be done by June 15th. Connell stated he received word late this afternoon from Sally Gunn that they are on schedule for the Redington Street Bridge. Connell said Sally had affirmed that we can anticipate being on track for August 5th. Connell said construction could begin this fall or held over until next spring. The project will be completed by the end of next year.

Progress towards Grants
Connell said one of the challenges from the budget committee was to look for alternative sources of funding. Connell reported the Joint Loss Management Committee received a safety grant from Primex for $2,900. The Police Department raised a total of $11,600 in grants and the Fire Department raised $10,250. The Safe Routes to Schools raised a $4,500 grant with town participation.

Old Business: None

New Business:
Use of the Opera House
Bolt stated the board had their first meeting there two weeks ago and they asked for feedback. Bolt said there were concerns about the situation. There was one person who was concerned about taking up parking spots in front of businesses. Bolt said the comfort of the building was another concern. When they first came in it was cool and when the heat turned on it became too hot. Bolt said the windows should not be open under any circumstances. Bolt said the audio was also a challenge. He also wanted to mention that Janet Parker donated the chairs after buying them from the Methodist Church. Bolt said there were concerns regarding cleaning, the lighting and security. Marghie Seymour said the Opera House Management Commission and the Town Building Renovation Committee are working on some of the concerns raised. Bolt said he thinks it is more appropriate to discontinue the regular use of this facility for smaller scale meetings because it is just not economically practical. Bolt said for small-scale meetings it would exceed our budget. Seymour and Boynton both agreed.

Tri-Town Bus Funding
Bolt said the selectmen received a copy of a letter that was sent to the NH House of Representatives Finance Committee because they had heard the governor had recommended suspending a $24,000 transportation grant. Bolt said it could have meant the complete abolishment of the trolley service. Bolt said that having seen the letter, he suggested and the other selectmen agreed that he would send a letter to Councilor Burton and Senator Gallus. Bolt said they received responses in 24 hours and both were gloomy. However, today the Town received word that the committee voted to adopt an amendment that would prevent any reduction in the transit funding.

Ed Boynton said now that Main Street is back into construction he would like to ask for a motion to bag the meters on Main Street. Paul Smith said by doing so they would not only lose the money going into the meters but the fines too. Marghie Seymour said it is her understanding that they are not going to be spending a lot of time in front of any particular business. Connell said the only thing it does is take away revenue from the town. Boynton said it would encourage people to come and park for free to shop in town. Jan Mercieri said that she thinks the first course of business is to take our town’s fiscal situation into account. If we are taking money out of our revenues, what is that going to accomplish? Bolt and Seymour both said they were not in favor of bagging the meters.

Take Away Actions:
Bolt said one is to get Marghie Seymour up to speed on the settlement of the Eames block. The second is to look into a policy on the disbursal of matching funds on warrant articles. Finally, the Board has to again finalize an email policy. Ed Boynton made the motion to adjourn. Marghie Seymour seconded the motion. Motion passed 3-0. The Meeting adjourned at 5:48 PM.

Respectfully Submitted
Ceil Stubbings











Littleton has functioned as a Board of Selectmen/Town Manager form of government since 1976.

The Littleton Board of Selectmen meets the first and third Wednesdays of the month at 4:00 PM at the Littleton Community House - Heald Room.

If you would like to be put on the agenda for an upcoming Selectmen's meeting, please contact Ceil Stubbings. Please be prepared with all information needed for the Selectmen to make a decision no later than the Friday before the Selectmen's meeting

Members

Ronald J. Bolt, Chairman
Edward C. Boynton, Vice Chairman
Marghie M. Seymour, Selectman

Selectmen's Email: selectmen@townoflittleton.org

Executive Secretary for the Board of Selectmen:

Ceil Stubbings
cstubbings@townoflittleton.org
125 Main Street
Suite 200
Littleton, NH 03561
603.444.3996 x15
603.444.1703 (fax)

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