Littleton, New Hampshire

Approved Minutes Dec 12, 2011

TOWN OF LITTLETON
BOARD OF SELECTMEN’S MEETING
MONDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2011
5:00 PM
COMMUNITY CENTER HEALD ROOM

Present: Interim Town Manager Fred Moody, Chairman Ron Bolt, Vice Chairman Marghie Seymour, Selectman Mike Gilman, Executive Secretary Ceil Stubbings, Finance Director Karen Noyes

Others Present: Jerry Sorlucco, Michelle Schaefer (WLTN), Alex Smith (Channel 2), Chief Joe Mercieri (Littleton FD), Jan Mercieri, Chief Paul Smith (Littleton PD), Bryan Hadlock, Wastewater Treatment Plant, Ray Bowler (Littleton FD), Robert Blechl (The Caledonian).
Pledge of Allegiance

Board of Assessors:
Amy Hatfield – Littleton Tax Collector - Administrative Abatement Recommendations

NYNEX (Fairpoint), 50 Pleasant Street, Map/Lot 79-31, 2010-2. It is recommended the Board of Assessors reverse previously approved sewer abatement in the amount of $51.99. Seymour moved to approve the previously abated amount. Gilman seconded the motion. Motion passed 3-0.

Northern New England Telephone, Fairpoint Communications, Manns Hill Road, Map/Lot 60-16, 2010. It is recommended this tax abatement request in the amount of $6,553.68 be approved. The Town of Littleton filed a proof of claim as of 10/26/2009. The settlement paid all but the amount listed above. This abatement will clear the account. Seymour moved to approve the abatement request in the amount of $6,553.68. Gilman seconded the motion. Motion passed 3-0.

Northern New England Telephone, Fairpoint Communications, L/B Industrial Park Rd., Map/Lot 91-86-1, 2010.
It is recommended the board approve an administrative abatement in the amount of $21.07. Fairpoint filed Chapter 11. The Town of Littleton filed a proof of claim as of 10/26/2009. The settlement paid all but the amount listed above. This abatement will clear the account. Seymour moved to approve the administrative abatement in the amount of $21.07. Gilman seconded the motion. Motion passed 3-0.

Eric Flum, 70 Russell Court, Map/Lot 54-27, 2011. It is recommended the board approve an administrative abatement in the amount of $1,846.20. NH Housing Finance Authority was the owner as of April 28th, under RSA 204-C:49 NHHFA is tax Exempt. Mr. Flum will receive a tax bill for the full year of 2012. Seymour moved to approve the administrative abatement in the amount of $1,846.20. Gilman seconded the motion. Motion passed 3-0.

AHEAD, Inc., 4 Green Street Parking Lot, Map/Lot 78-241, 2011. It is recommended an administrative abatement be approved in the amount of $1,401.48. The abatement is for the 2011 property taxes for the year per the lease agreement of November, 2001. The amount will be refunded. Seymour moved to approve the administrative abatement in the amount of $1,401.48. Gilman seconded the motion. Motion passed 3-0.

Appointments: Maximum time per appointment is 15 minutes
Ray Bowler – Littleton Fire Department – Accept Fire Grant
Ray Bowler asked the board to approve the acceptance of the grant in the amount of $1,000 from the Home Fire Sprinkler Coalition. The grant funds would be used to offset the costs to build a live side by side demonstration with a sprinkler system on one side and non-sprinkler system on the other side. The project must be completed prior to May 31, 2011. Bowler said the grant agreement has requirements that the board could review. Once the grant funds are accepted the fire department could then go forward with implementing the plan to put on the demonstration. Seymour asked who the audience would be for the demonstration. Bowler said the audience would include the state legislature or the governor, local government officials, the fire marshal and the general public. The department is the only one of 50 fire departments nationwide that will receive this grant. Seymour asked where the demonstration would be built. Bowler said it will be built at the back of the fire department. It depends on the weather this winter. Seymour asked when he had to let them know when they had approval to accept the money. Seymour said she would like to wait to make a decision. She would also like to know the cost to the town. Bowler said he is hoping the stores are going to be generous. Seymour said there are probably a lot of people that are in favor of House Bill 109 and it would be wrong to use tax dollars. Bowler said that if towns start to lay off firefighters then having a sprinkler system is the best thing to have. Bowler said that sprinkler systems would increase resale prices and lower insurance rates. Seymour said it was adding to the costs of building. Jerry Sorlucco said he would have liked to have had this option when he built his home. He thinks it is very essential. Bolt said he was willing to wait until the next meeting to make a decision. Mercieri asked what type of information they were seeking in order to make a decision. Seymour said she wanted the town’s cost. Mercieri said this is a grant that provides us with the opportunity to put on a display to show what a sprinkler system can do. Seymour said the $1,000 would not cover the entire costs. Gilman suggested someone selling a sprinkler system might be willing to donate. He also would like more time to look into this. Bolt said they would address this at their next regular meeting.

Utility Partners/Wastewater Treatment Plant Contract
Regional Manager Dave Sircle, Phil Douglas and Dan Matthews.
Moody said that shortly after he arrived here in April there was a strong directive to see where the town could save money. Since then, the town has refinanced some bonded debt and taken other cost saving actions. The contract with the wastewater treatment plant needed to be looked at. The town will be cancelling the contract with United Water. In early November the town received four bids. Utility Partners came in with the lowest bid. They were $20,000 less than our current contract saving the town $100,000 over the next five years. The town will get eighty hours more per month with their staff for tech support and operational assistance. Moody asked for the board’s approval to sign the new contract. Phil Douglas said they are an eighteen year old company. They have 40 plants in eleven different states, 17 of which were located in New England. Littleton is the size of communities they specialize in. They are also 100% US owned. Douglas said that the current contract is a foreign owned company. Utility Partners are owned by four individual owners. They specialize in 500,000 up to 5 million gallons per day. They are keeping on 100% of the staff and providing additional training. Seymour moved to authorize the Town Manager to sign the new contract with Utility Partners. Gilman seconded the motion. Motion passed 3-0.

Approval of Previous Meeting Minutes:
September 26, 2011 Regular Meeting – Seymour moved to approve as amended. Gilman second. Motion passed 3-0.

October 24, 2011 Regular Meeting – Gilman moved to approve as amended. Seymour second. Motion passed 3-0.

November 2, 2011 Work Session/Meeting – Gilman moved to approve as amended. Seymour second. Motion passed 3-0.

Feedback:
Bolt said the town had received a letter from Ray Burton regarding the November 25th Town parade. The letter thanked the Chamber, Dennis Hartwell and the parade corp. The town also received an annual report put out by PSNH which talks about how NH rates with other states economically. Bolt said the town had received an offer of assistance from the Boys and Girls Club to assist the Parks and Recreation Department with taking over an after school program. Bolt presented the rest of the board with a draft letter in response to that offer for their review. The town received notification that Mr. Sourgiadakis has appealed to the superior court pointing out his four points why he disagrees with the court’s decision. The town has received two letters of resignation which will be talked about by the town manager. We received a survey from Sugar Hill about the Northern Pass Project. They are asking us what we as a board and the town have done regarding our position on the project. Gilman said they already addressed this at town meeting. Seymour said the warrant article that passed last year was asking the NCC to perform a full study. Seymour said it was written to say we opposed the project as presented. Gilman wondered how deep we are going to get into this and said he is opposed to the project. Bolt announced there was going to be a Victorian Christmas event on Friday evening. The event will take place from 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM. Dick Alberini was the inspiration for this. Bolt reminded the public that petitioned warrant articles are due on January 10th but urged people to get them in by the 9th.

Old Business:
2012 Proposed Budget
Karen Noyes provided the board with the updated proposed budget documents that she had prepared regarding some adjustments. Noyes explained the changes to the Town Clerk’s budget lines for advertising and supplies. The two items wash each other out. Conservation Commission Budget required a change from $750 to $1,500 due to an increase in the lease for the dam. The increase is reflected in both the proposed and the default budgets. The Finance Department reduced some of the costs ($3,000) to the Redington St. Bridge Project Funds and ($9,000) to the Trust Fund pending documentation from the bank. $1,700 was added to the budget for a mobile repeater in the fire department. The welfare budget was reduced from $130,000 down to $85,000. The sewer budget wastewater treatment plant saves $19,000 due to the new contract. The default budget was reduced by $30,858 and the proposed budget was reduced by $74,158. The difference between the proposed and default budgets now stands at $19,965.

2012 Warrant Articles
Noyes advised the 2012 warrant articles they are considering and the petitioned warrant articles that they are sure they will receive are estimates only. Bolt asked if there were any concerns about the changes to the proposed budget. Seymour had a question on the welfare budget and asked where the money for the reserve fund was coming from. Noyes said the $15,000 would come from the fund balance with no tax impact. Bolt said they already have a capital reserve fund for the town wide revaluation that will take place in 2015. They have added $20,000 for this purpose. The board then discussed the transfer station warrant articles and decided it would be more efficient to have a separate warrant article proposing the part time employee. Noyes has suggested for the third year in a row authorizing the BOS to buy and sell land or rent property. Bolt said that two years ago this article passed with flying colors and last year it failed with flying colors. Bolt said that the way Karen has written the article it would eliminate the ability to sell or rent the Eaton proprety and the opera house. Noyes said the RSA is very specific as to how to sell property. Seymour said this seems like a non-issue to her and she thinks they should just leave it alone. Jerry Sorlucco said that many of us would like to sell properties rather than cut services.

Initial Report to the LACP
Bolt said the LACP Committee will have their first meeting of the steering group on the 21st of December. Fred has been invited to attend. Bolt provided the board with the final response from the BOS and asked if they had any comments or changes. Seymour and Gilman had no changes or comments to the document

New Business:
Fund Balance Policy
Noyes provided the board with a copy of the updated policy and asked the board to approve the document. Both Seymour and Gilman wanted to take time to read the document before approving it. Noyes said the document has to have approval before the end of the year.

Town Manager’s Report:
Moody reported the town had received two resignations last week and a new hire in the police department. Moody has talked with the Chief of the fire department to look at alternatives for retaining fire coverage in a more flexible manner. Chief Joe Mercieri said they were looking at the impact of what less staffing would have and also how it would affect our current bargaining agreement. Bolt told Seymour and Gilman where he stands on this issue. Gilman said to wait and see what they come up with. Seymour said they should have the conversation and to see if there is some interest from the community. It seems to her that business as usual is not working very well and we need o come up with alternatives to doing things. Gilman said the chief and the town manager should look at the alternatives and then they could discuss this at their next meeting. Moody read a letter he received from the DOT regarding a crosswalk at the food coop location. The DOT said there were a number of issues preventing a crosswalk at this location. Jerry Sorlucco said he uses the intersection every day and it is an extremely dangerous intersection. Bolt said that Moody was working on the option of a three-way stop sign

Other Business:
Status Review of Action List – This item was passed over

Holiday Meeting Schedule
Bolt advised the board that they may need to have a meeting with the budget committee by next week. They may also need a meeting for encumbrances before the end of the year. They also need to have some preparations for the Primary Election Day. The Planning Board Capital Improvement Committee will be presenting their final report on December 20th. December 26th is our regular scheduled meeting but it is a holiday. Bolt asked if Seymour and Gilman wanted to have a meeting on an alternative date instead. Both Seymour and Gilman said they would prefer to not have an additional meeting. Bolt said the board’s next scheduled meeting is January 9th but asked if the board would be agreeable to meeting on the 11th instead. The Budget Hearing is on January 12th at the High School.

The Board entered into a nonpublic session per RSA-A:3, II (e) to review pending legal litigations at 7:00 PM. The board came out of the nonpublic session at 7:14 PM. The minutes of this meeting were sealed indefinitely.

The Board entered into another nonpublic session per RSA 91-A:3, II (c) to review BTLA Settlement Recommendations at 7:15 PM. The minutes of this meeting were sealed indefinitely. Gilman made the motion to adjourn at 7:38 PM. Seymour seconded the motion. Motion passed 3-0.

The Town of Littleton prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, marital or family status. The Town of Littleton is an equal opportunity employer.

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