Littleton, New Hampshire

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

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