Select Board Meeting Minutes - January 8, 2007

Lincoln Board of Selectmen Meeting Minutes January 8, 2007 6:32 pm Present: Chairman Deanna Huot, Selectman Peter Moore, Town Manager Ted Sutton, Recording Secretary Susan Chenard Audience Members: Lois Meredith and Derek Davidson (of NH Highland Games), Gary Stenhouse (of Primex), Jeff Alino and Lutz Wallem Approval of public meeting minutes of December 26, 2006: A motion was made by Selectman Moore, seconded by Chairman Huot, to approve the public meeting minutes of December 26, 2006. Other Business - It was decided to re-arrange the agenda to allow the presenters a safe ride home. ? NH Highland Games - Derek Davidson, Managing Director of NH Highland Games, presented a framed photo commemorating the 31st New Hampshire Highland Games, held September 22-24, 2006 here at Loon Mountain. Similar ones were presented to various corporate sponsors throughout the town that the Games consider home. Mr. Davidson, who took over for Mr. Munro as director, said that he plans to keep the Games here in Lincoln. Also, Mr. Davidson mentioned that since he lives in Bethlehem, he could come down anytime to do presentations. ? Primex - Gary Stenhouse of Primex, the town's insurer, explained how the insurance program actually works and what the Town of Lincoln could do to possibly improve results. Lincoln has been a member of the pool of municipalities insured through Primex since 1986, but Primex discovered recently that many town managers and elected officials in the group didn't know or understand exactly what it does. Primex is not actually an insurance company, but rather represents a group of municipal members. The administrators concentrate on service, support (education), etc. They will identify risks and help us find coverage for them, as they understand our business. In return, we avoid activities that create risk and report claims promptly. In the last 21 years, $670,000 in contributions have been made by Lincoln, while Primex paid out $142,000 in worker's compensation claims and returned $386,000 in credits or payments back to us. He distributed a handout outlining Lincoln's past performance record, which is well above average. Lincoln has performed so well that we will see credits on our next bill. Town Manager Sutton pointed out that he coordinates with the risk management committee to preserve this record. David Witham is our Primex representative and would be glad to sit in on a future safety meeting. The pool underwrites in stages, and uses the contributions in the following manner. About eighty cents of each dollar goes to claims, ten to administration and ten for re-insurance for larger claims. Mr. Stenhouse also discussed the Prime Program, a set of 10 best risk management practices. Routine Business ? Warrant articles - A handout of the "warrant articles in progress" was discussed, and it was decided to create a separate handout for town meeting, to explain why some articles are written the way they are, hopefully eliminating some of the questions the public may have. It would provide a synopsis on each article. Other Business ? NCCA question re: land - Town Manager Sutton brought up some other business as it related to a potential additional article on the town warrant. He handed out a map detailing a piece of land he had been approached about by the North Country Center for the Arts (NCCA) shortly before the board meeting. Lot 16-312 is a large liability to the Town of Lincoln, due to the old White Water Treatment Plant located on it. The property is valued at a little over $200,000. The VP of the NCCA asked if the town would be interested in giving this property to the NCCA for the purpose of building a theater support building. The actual theater/auditorium (with small backstage) will be in the new hotel to be built by InnSeasons, but it would have almost no space for storage, scene construction, etc. The new owner would remove the White Water Treatment Plant in exchange, which would cost roughly $150,000-170,000. Mr. Sutton's question was if a warrant article should be created to ask the townspeople if they would allow the selectmen to make this exchange, even though the board already could buy and sell land per last year's article. Selectman Moore said that the land seems not of a lot of use to the town, but rather a liability. Chairman Huot agreed, but definitely wanted to make sure they had public support. There was discussion regarding the real value to see how much money (financial consideration) would be exchanged as well, to make up difference between the removal cost and land value. NCCA would be paying for surveying and all legal costs etc. as well, according to Mr. Sutton. Lutz Wallem, from the audience, suggested that the Town of Lincoln lease the land to NCCA for $1, with NCCA paying to remove the tank etc. Then, if the theater goes out of business or leaves the area for some reason, the town would still retain ownership. This seemed an interesting idea, and led to some further discussion. The Board of Selectmen authorized Mr. Sutton to investigate and pursue the matter further. Mr. Sutton then also mentioned that he had been working on plans to develop a Waterfront Park along the river. We need to look at the big picture and do some long range planning for this area of town-owned property adjacent to the old mill. The focus should remain on what is best for our town. ? Time Warner Meeting - A member of the audience mentioned that there will soon be a meeting between Time Warner and various condo communities. It seems that condo associations seem to be paying double what hotels pay for bulk accounts. The town's contract renews in 2011. Routine Business ? Budget update - The budget committee had pretty much completed its review, except administration/personnel and executive budgets, totals, and capital reserve accounts. These would be discussed Tuesday, January 9th. Capital reserve accounts were handed out, discussed and approved by the Board of Selectmen. ? Arthur Salem Way - Mr. Sutton had met with Steve Zalla from LinWood Real Estate earlier that day. They are planning to continue with the business park dedication on Feb 1st at noon. State, Federal, Grafton County and other officials will be invited. They will all come to town hall first for a lunch-time presentation on the history of the area and people involved, etc. Then everyone would go to the business park and do a ribbon cutting ceremony with lots of pictures, rather than just one group photo. The Arthur Salem Way dedication will be held later because the Salem family is living in Florida. The plan would be to do the dedication of Arthur Salem Way on the same weekend as the Lincoln reunion, on the 1st or 2nd of June. ? Pleasant Street update - This project is going out to bid on the 19th of January. A pre-construction meeting w/ interested contractors will be held on Feb 1st at 1pm. Then bids would be opened on Feb 15 at 3pm. Surveying was still being finished, in particular at the end of the road, to see whose property the hammer-head will impact. ? Traffic Plan update - It was decided to hold a public meeting on this subject mid-February. The state Department of Traffic (DOT) preliminarily accepted the plan and traffic study. The plan will be presented at a public meeting. Mr. Sutton would need to check availability of the state DOT people and Centex. There was a short discussion on scheduling. It may be possible that the traffic plan would be approved and Main Street would be repaved and re-striped, following the new traffic plan, by late this fall. ? Transfer station fees - The town is looking to institute new fees and discussed how to do so, and which meetings would be needed. It was suggested that the Board of Selectmen meet with Woodstock's board. Paul Beaudin had gotten some information to Selectman Moore and Woodstock Selectman Fadden, regarding the disposal of cathode ray tubes, i.e. old TV's and computer monitors. A new law goes into effect July 1st preventing these from being disposed in the C&D (construction and debris) container. Our solid waste facility would plan to start compliance as of April 1st. This would involve the lease of a container at $125/month, and trucking fees at $262.50/trip, with maybe two trips the 1st year, and probably less trips in future years. Then, the receiving company also charges to offset the disposal of TV's and monitors, based on the size of the unit. This cost would be passed on to the consumer. The storage and transportation cost is budgeted into solid waste already. Selectman Moore noted that the facility doesn't want to go too high on user fees, so people still bring the items in, rather than disposing of them elsewhere. Mr. Sutton and Selectman Moore held a brief discussion regarding what gets paid through taxes versus user fees. Other Business A motion was made by Selectman Moore, seconded by Chairman Huot, to approve a Veteran's Exemption for Norman Belanger. The motion passed unanimously. Selectman Moore asked Mr. Sutton about the Library fire extinguishers. It appears they didn't pass NFPA standards, though might pass ULA standards. Therefore, new extinguishers would need to be purchased. The Fire Extinguisher Company had sent a much larger bill than usual, and Mr. Sutton had discovered that every 6 years a more thorough check is done, which prompted the replacements of some of our older extinguishers. Mr. Sutton has negotiated for a three-year contract with fixed costs now. A motion was made by Selectman Moore, seconded by Chairman Huot, to approve refunds/abatements totaling $61,934.91 for overages collected on the June 2006 tax bill. The motion passed unanimously. A motion was made by Selectman Moore, seconded by Chairman Huot, to approve the abatements as recommended by Phil Bodwell of Commerford, Nieder, Perkins, LLC to Beverly Chase, Roger and Mary Ann Huntoon, Roger Huntoon, Mary Ann Huntoon, Loon Mountain Recreation Corporation and Brenda Clark. The motion passed unanimously. A motion was made by Selectman Moore, seconded by Chairman Huot, to approve the supplemental assessments for Harold & Zelda Kaplan and David & Lynda Roberts, as recommended by assessor Phil Bodwell of Commerford, Nieder, Perkins, LLC. The motion passed unanimously. Public Participation - Besides the comments mentioned above, there was none at this time. At 8:55 pm, Mr. Sutton left and the meeting was adjourned. The Selectboard then reviewed payroll and accounts payable check registers for the week ending January 7, 2007. Date: ______________ Approved by: Chairman Deanna L. Huot, Selectman Peter E. Moore, Selectman R. Patricia McTeague