Select Board Meeting Minutes - December 26, 2006

Lincoln Board of Selectmen Meeting Minutes December 26, 2006 6:07pm Present: Chairman Deanna Huot, Selectman Patricia McTeague, Selectman Peter Moore, Town Manager Ted Sutton, Recording Secretary Susan Chenard Audience members: Wilfred Bishop, Lutz Wallem and Steve Zalla Approval of public meeting minutes of December 04, 2006: A motion was made by Selectman Mcteague, seconded by Selectman Moore, to approve the public meeting minutes of December 04, 2006. Routine Business - It was decided to re-arrange the agenda due to which presenters were present, and length of anticipated discussions. ? Arthur Salem Way dedication - Ted Sutton commended Coldwell Banker Linwood Real Estate (CBLWRE) on their advertising, with website, signage and more. Steve Zalla of CBLWRE mentioned he had spoken with Mike Scarano, and come up with ideas on who to invite to the dedication. He suggested a small reception here at the Town Hall, perhaps w/ coffee and donuts, then caravan over to the Business Park to do a ribbon cutting. He suggested we invite Salem family members, Donahue's, Ray Burton, the Littleton Courier, etc. Wilfred Bishop said he could get in touch with Salem family. It was also suggested that sandwiches, cheese, etc. would be preferable to donuts. The tentative date was set for the 3rd week of January, Tuesday, the 16th, about noon. Ted Sutton and Steve Zalla would coordinate this. Chair Huot mentioned that she saw on the www.LincolnBusinessPark.com website that water and sewer tap fees would be exempted for a limited time. There was discussion about that being used as an incentive and the cost to the town. It seemed the best way to use it would be that the incentive would only go to first lot sold. Ted Sutton also mentioned the letter that had been sent to Tom Tremblay of CBLWRE correcting his erroneous newsletter comments. Mr. Tremblay had been apologetic about the error. It was decided that such an explanation should go onto the town's website too, as there had been several calls about it. ? Pleasant Street update - The property has been surveyed and the Town was waiting on the final engineering design, which should be available by the end of this week. Then Mr. Sutton would have a better breakdown on what funding was needed for water, sewer etc. and to plan the use of correct funds for each. The board members could see their clipboard for a drawing so far, displaying the hammerhead at the end to allow for fire truck turn-around. That far end of the road (currently unpaved) is most likely on school land, but the town would approach whoever the actual owner was to arrange that construction. Mr. Sutton mentioned that, the town could do an open cut across Main Street, as Main Street will be repaved soon, and we can cut across before that, rather than pay some $20,000-$40,000 to go under the street. We should be at 90% of costs. Bidding will be in January for 3 weeks, so we should have actual figures in time for town meeting. ? Police Department Update. A new dispatcher, Eric Sothard, has started. He had come from the fire department. Lincoln still needs another police officer. Chief Smith has been filling in on shifts to keep them all manned. ? Fire department re-organization has been successful. An organizational chart has now been created. Differences have been ironed out which arose between the "old school" whose training had been received on the job, versus the newer members, who had trained at the academy. Together, they wrote down procedures (SOG's) regarding who stays at the station, who goes to the fire, and who goes where during a fire, for example. The department is almost done with that project. A list of schools that all fire dept members will attend had also been created. Mr. Sutton worked with both groups, individually and then together, to write an operations plan. The department had also gained two new firefighters. Chief Haynes worked hard with the Town Manager to make this all happen, with the help of the new training officer, Lt. Peterson. ? Scottish Clan presentation - Mr. Davidson had not arrived by 6:30pm, so it was decided to pass over that for the time being. ? National Brotherhood of Skiers - A letter had been sent welcoming this large group of some 600 skiers scheduled to be in the Loon area March 22-25, 2007. ? New postage machine - Mr. Sutton reported that we will be saving about $284 this coming year by getting a new machine that does the same as the old one, or slightly more. ? Time Warner Cable letter - There was a discussion of the different programs and its costs. Patricia McTeague asked if anyone was going to the meeting that Jeff Alino was holding on that subject. It is nice to see that it seems some prices are actually going down. The Selectmen cannot control programming, but reiterated that, contrary to some people's beliefs, they only have control over the two public access channels. ? Interest rates - Charlie Cook, overseer of the trust funds, had requested that we look into the new interest rates on the sewer and water funds, which are currently at 3.93%. However, Judy Tetley, Town Treasurer, will put some money into PDIP (Public Deposit Investment Pool), where it will earn 5%. It can still be retrieved easily and PDIP is made for municipalities. ? Reunion at Beacon - Edmond Gionet and Gloria Morin talked to Ed Clermont and were able to get a better price for the school reunion than the previous quote. This return visit had been prompted by current lack of space for the function at the Community Center. ? Primex presentation on risk management - The presenter had been asked to come at a later date, due to the anticipated length of tonight's meeting. We did talk about the Risk Management Committee at the Staff Meeting last week. The Chairman is Police Chief Ted Smith. The Town manager requested that the next Risk Management Committee meeting should be held on January 24th at 9am. Other Business was moved up, to allow for audience participation before budget and warrant article discussions. ? A Public works truck had rusted out. The town will use money from the Capital Reserve to purchase a new truck. It's the only major piece of equipment budgeted for in this department this year. Actually, most departments are pretty well caught up on major equipment. Public Participation was also moved forward on the agenda. ? There was a short discussion on the sewage newsletter brought in by Wilfred Bishop, in relation to Pleasant Street. The Pleasant Street sewer line will actually be replaced, not "pigged" (cleaned) as Mr. Bishop had thought. ? Mr. Bishop also asked about progress in forming an energy committee, which he calls the "Green Team". So far, no other volunteers had come forward to serve on that committee. He said he would get some templates from other towns in the meantime. Continuation of Agenda Items ? Budgets for approval discussion. After much discussion, the Selectmen came to agreement on the Personnel Administration, Recreation and Community Building budget recommendations. Some discussion points were that the retirement program and health insurance costs had increased in the personnel budget. The other two budgets led to a discussion on revenue and expense sharing with Woodstock. ? Warrants - There was a quick review of the tentative warrant articles and their figures by Chair Huot. A couple will need a bit more research, especially streets and water at Pleasant Street. At 9:07 pm, the meeting was adjourned and Mr. Sutton left. The Selectboard then reviewed payroll and accounts payable check registers for the week ending 12/24/06. Date: ______________ Approved by: Chair Deanna L. Huot, Selectman Peter E. Moore, Selectman R. Patricia McTeague