Littleton, New Hampshire

Approved Minutes Jan 6, 2010

TOWN OF LITTLETON
BOARD OF SELECTMEN'S MEETING
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 6, 2010
6:00 PM
LITTLETON COMMUNITY HOUSE, HEALD ROOM
Present: Chairman Eddy Moore, Vice Chairman Ed Boynton, Selectman Ron Bolt, Town Manager Chuck Connell, Executive Secretary Ceil Stubbings
Others Present: Alison Bolt, Lou Babin, Littleton High School Honor Society, Police Chief Paul Smith, Bill Sencabaugh, Linda Massimilla, Sharon Craigie, Art McGrath, Jan Mercieri, Robert Blechl, Fire Chief Joe Mercieri
Chairman Moore called the meeting to order at 6:00 PM
Pledge of Allegiance
CDBG Hearing Regarding Littleton Regional Hospital: (Cancelled).
NH Department of Public Safety, Homeland Security and Emergency Management, Unanticipated State Matching Funds. Disaster FEMA-1695-DR-NH declared on April 27, 2007.
Chuck Connell advised that this hearing is for the reimbursement to the town for public safety services. The Board of Selectmen has to hold a public hearing to accept the funds. Ron Bolt asked who gets the money what do we do with it. Connell said the money goes into the general fund. Connell said it is pay back to the town and it is not designated to any one thing. Eddy Moore then closed the public input of the hearing. Bolt made the motion to accept the matching funds. Boynton seconded the motion. Connell made the point of clarification that they are unanticipated funds and not matching funds. Bolt amended the motion to accept the unanticipated funds in the amount of $6,787.53. Motion passed 3-0.
Appointments:
Littleton High School Honor Society Re: Proclamation for the week of February 1st to the 6th of 2010.
Members of the Littleton High School Honor Society were present and provided a brief description of what the membership activities involve. They are involved in various volunteer activities including work at the senior center, and freshmen orientation. They explained the purpose of the proclamation for the week of February 1st through the 6th is to get their group known to the town and to obtain more support. Members have to achieve 50 hours of community service. Ron Bolt said he had no problem making the motion to approve a proclamation. Chuck Connell then asked the board to act on the motion to declare the 1st of February through the 6th as National Honor Society Week. Bolt made the motion to approve the proclamation as stated by the Town Manager. Boynton seconded the motion. Motion passed 3-0.
NHDHHS Re: Cancer Cluster in Bethlehem (Rescheduled to the January 20, 2010 meeting).
Ron Bolt said that before they go on he noticed citizen concerns has been moved to the end of the meeting. Boynton and Moore said they talked about it at the last meeting. Moore said most of the area towns do their citizen concerns at the end of the meeting. Moore said it sounded normal. Bolt said it does not sound normal to him. Bolt said citizens expect to come in at the beginning of the meeting and not sit through a two-hour meeting. Bolt said he would prefer it the other way. Moore said they should talk about it under other business.


Town Manager's Report
Connell said the first thing he wanted to discuss wad the collective bargaining agreements with both of the unions. Connell provided handouts to those present to allow them the opportunity to ask questions. Sharon Craigie asked if they have reached an agreement with all the unions. Connell said there are only two unions and both agreements have been ratified by the selectmen. Sharon said she was just curious because she read in the paper the selectmen were very happy with the agreements. Sharon heard just recently that there is talk about getting rid of two firemen. Sharon asked the board if they want to face a federal lawsuit. Connell told Sharon there was a meeting with the budget committee and it was their recommendation the board cut another $400,000 from the budget. Connell said the selectmen have not acted on that. Sharon said the people voted for the additional firemen and she hopes the town would stick to what they voted on. Connell said the firemen were not being targeted and that a number of employees would be affected. Ron Bolt and Ed Boynton both said they were happy with the outcome of the agreements. Ron Bolt said they collectively set a list of priorities knowing they would not get everything. Sharon than asked how long is the contract. She was advised the contracts are for a three-year period. Sharon said her concern is that this town has been a cheerleader to get people to move to the town and then people come here and see we are battling to save our services. Sharon said that when people move here you want to protect their investment. Sharon then brought up the Opera House and told the board they have already put $1.5 million on it and now they want to spend another $25,000.00 on the roof. Sharon said that in her world you make the roof better and asked the board to explain why this was being done now when it should have been done with the restoration. Eddy Moore and Ed Boynton said it was news to them. Connell said the money is there for further repairs in case there is an ice problem. Sharon said that ice has always been an issue on that building since it was built. Connell said the roof is fine. However there are some people that say there is a problem. Ed Boynton said they also put quite a bit of money in for insulation and that the roof was never insulated. Connell said it is not $25,000. Ron Bolt said it is close to $20,000.
Connell said the next item on the agenda is to discuss the warrant. Connell then recommended the Board hold a special meeting on Friday at the Heald Room at 2:00 PM to go over the warrant. The board agreed unanimously to meet on Friday. Linda Massimilla asked Connell if he ever checked about the paint pealing on the Opera House as to who is responsible for it. Connell said he has not checked on it. Boynton said that happened when they used the pressure washer on the bricks. Boynton said bricks should not be painted. Linda asked why didn't it happen to all of the bricks. Linda then asked who did the pressure washing. Connell said they hired a company to do that. Linda asked if the company would be liable. Connell said they probably would not be held liable. Connell said the blame could go to him for the pressure washing. Connell said that when we pressure wash in the future they would not do the brick area. Connell said that bricks should not be painted and they should not have been pressure washed.
Old Business: Parking Meters
Connell then brought the board's attention to the next item on the agenda. Eddy Moore asked when do we have to put money in the meters and when is it in effect. Chief Paul Smith said that some citizens with keen observation skills noticed the meters did not have the times listed on the meters. Smith said that when these meters were ordered it was our oversight so they contacted the supplier. Smith said the supplier suggested they put the notification on one side of the meter facing the sidewalk side. Smith said the supplier said they would do it for free. Smith said the parking meters are in force Monday through Saturday from 9:00 am through 5:00 pm, with Sunday's and Holiday's excluded. Ron Bolt asked if the card system was operational. Smith said no that they were supposed to receive training but the company that provides the training is national so when they do their training they like to do all the towns in one region. Smith said he hoped the training would be provided before the end of this month. Bolt asked where could the cards be purchased. Smith said they would be available at the town offices and the police station.
Chairman Eddy Moore said he would like to discuss changing the meeting times from 6:00 PM to 4:00 PM on a permanent basis. Moore said they have toyed with this for years. Moore said he was open to any suggestions. Ron Bolt said he did not have a problem with the change of time. Ed Boynton made the motion to change the meetings to 4:00 pm. Ron Bolt seconded the motion and said that one of the advantages with 4:00 PM is that it is more convenient and cost affective. Moore said the meetings would continue the first and third Wednesday of the month with the change being effective at their next meeting January 20th.
Chairman Moore then moved onto the topic of Citizen Concerns and where they should show up on the agenda. . Linda Massimilla said she has been to meetings and they go for two to three hours. Linda said that when the commissioners were here Moore moved them up because they were people who had to travel. Ed Boynton said he disagrees with Linda and that he is behind moving this to the end of the session. Boynton said this is a business meeting and technically they do not have to allow any public input in our meeting. Boynton said he was sure that Linda was aware of the RSA. Boynton said they don't recommend you shut the public out but technically it is a selectmen's meeting to do town business. Boynton then said his past experience has shown him citizens concerns goes on for longer than a half an hour. Boynton said that numerous times the meetings were going until 9:00 or 9:30. Boynton said he was going to make the motion. Linda told Boynton that maybe he should table it until people can hear about this on Channel 2. Sharon Craigie asked how long is an appointment and added that they don't have a time limit on appointments. Sharon said that many appointments are not people who live in town but she is a paying citizen. Sharon said she agrees with Linda that this change would make it so they would not know when to be there. We elected you to look out for our interests and these other people who come are not citizens. Linda then told Moore that he had the economic advisor who comes in and talks for how long.
Bill Sencabaugh asked if you're a board that is trying to make things work for the town is it possible to have it at the beginning and again at the end. Moore said it is a selectmen's meeting not a publicity stunt. Bill replied by saying that some people have a lot of things on their plate. Boynton said they could always make an appointment; Citizens Concerns is not the only way to address their concerns. Bill asked why not do away with citizen concerns completely. Ron said he liked Bill's suggestion to have it at the beginning and the end. He thinks that putting it at the end it gives the perception that it is not important. Boynton disagreed. Moore said it would cut the time down. Ron Bolt told Moore he was talking about time management. Moore said that at the end it does not make too much difference if we put it up at the beginning it will be more regimented. Linda told Moore he was talking about citizen concerns and asked if he remembered a couple of years ago it was decided there wouldn't be citizen concerns and then the next meeting it was decided to reinstate citizen concerns. Linda told Moore he would be opening up a can of worms if you move it to the end. Sharon told Moore he needs to time the appointments because they take too long. Moore said another thing they can do is to have a sign up sheet. Linda told Moore that he was complaining about the time that you are spending. Sharon said there was a time limit to appointments and it was 10 minutes. Linda told Moore that you were on the right track at timing it but moving it to the end is not a good idea. Linda said that if it is at the beginning people know when it is. Moore said what he would like to do at this point and time is to let it incubate and let it be in the paper. Sharon asked if he would consider having the appointments and then citizen concerns. Moore said he was trying to encourage appointments rather then spontaneous complaints. When you have an appointment they come up front and we have a discussion. Moore said he is not trying to be unreasonable with anyone. Linda pointed out that at the last meeting there were no citizen concerns. Moore said they have spent a little bit of time on this and moved onto citizen concerns.
Citizen Concerns:
Linda Massimilla said there is a rumor on the street that the roof is leaking on the Opera House. Connell said it is not leaking and told Linda that he is not responsible for what she hears on the street. Connell said there is a provision if there is an ice problem and they have set aside $20,000 to fix the problem. Linda said her other question was how much is it costing us to operate the Opera House. Connell told her they don't know that amount and they don't have the figures to even give an educated guess. Linda asked when they would be able to determine the cost. Connell said they had no heating expense until the last month and up until now there have been very little expenses. The Chamber has been given permission to construct their space and every change in the building would have an affect. Connell said they have an estimate of $10,000. Ron Bolt said he was told they have provided $4,200 for electrical costs, $10,000 for heating $1,500 for sewer and $1,000 for water. Bolt said they were estimating $2,000 for phones, $2,250 for repairs and $2,500 for alarms. Linda said that is between $20,000 and $30,000. Linda then asked if there is any money in the budget and is anyone looking into the agreement with the bank. Connell said they are not negotiating a contract. Linda then asked if no money was being put in the budget for this year to move the offices. Connell said no. Connell said the project has been put out to bid and we have the responses from two contractors with the bids ranging from $450,000 to $600,000. Bill Sencabaugh asked what is the cost to maintain the building and said that we used to have an employee. Connell said we are not planning on an employee. Bill asked if those figures are going to be a contract or are we hiring a part time person. Connell said we are not hiring anyone. Connell said the Chamber and the Historical Society would be responsible for their own custodial space. Connell said the rest is the common spaces. This led into further discussion regarding the cost of maintenance and other expenses. Ed Boynton made the motion to adjourn. Ron Bolt seconded the motion. The motion passed 3-0. The meeting adjourned at 7:15 PM.

Respectfully submitted
Ceil Stubbings

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