Board of Selectmen Meeting
Town Office
Wednesday, 12/13/2017
6:00 p.m.
Joint Meeting with Captial Improvement Program Committee
MINUTES
Present: Selectmen Bob Hamilton, Jim Qualey, Roberta Oeser, Town Administrator Joe Byk, Finance Director Laurie May, Executive Secretary Michele Christian, Members of the CIP Committee: Chairman Jason Paolino, Vice Chair Craig Clark, Sharon Rasku, Cemetery Trustees: Chairman Burt Goodrich, Bill Harper, Doug Hoyt, Mike Cloutier
Call to Order / Pledge of Allegiance
The meeting was called to order at 6:00 pm.
Announcements: Joe announced that today was Ron’s last day. The Board of Selectmen decided to hire Laurie May. She has been training and was here for the BOS/BAC meeting last week. Laurie has worked for the last 16 years in Peterborough under the finance director. There were three strong finalists and she had the broadest NH municipal experience.
Roberta announced that the senior dinner is Thursday at 5:30. The live nativity scene is December 16th from 5-7 p.m. on the common.
Citizen’s Forum
Rick Sirvint asked why during the last few weeks which were very busy that we operated with a part-time finance director. Why are going back to a full-time finance director now. Bob stated that the finance director position has always been full time. Ron came in on a temporary basis to help us out. He was spending part time to over full time to get the budget work done.
Roni Hamilton asked if we still wanted people to sign in when they arrived at the meetings. The answer was yes and the sign in sheet was passed around.
Craig Clark asked if Roberta would be covering information from the Broadband Initiative Update. Craig will address this topic later in the meeting.
General Business
1. Approval of:
a) Accounts Payable, 12-7-17, 12/14/217
A motion was made by Roberta to approve accounts payable for 12/7/17 and 12/14/17. Seconded by Jim, Approved 3-0
A motion was made by Roberta to approve the supplemental accounts payable for 12/8/17 and 12/15/17, seconded by Bob. Approved 3-0
b) Payroll, 12/14/17
A motion to approve payroll for 12/14/17 was made by Bob, seconded by Jim, Approved 3-0.
c) Minutes, 11/29/17
A motion was made by Roberta, seconded by Bob to approve the minutes of the 11/29/17 meeting. Approved 3-0
2. New Business
a) Cemetery Trustees Request re: Expendable Trust
Burt Goodrich gave a presentation of a five year program to address capital repairs and improvements to Rindge cemeteries. There are eight capital expenses that are being recommended by the trustees:
1. Loam and seed areas in both cemeteries annually.
2. Monument resetting/repairs in both cemeteries
3. Rebuild stone wall at the Meeting House Cemetery on Payson Hill Road
4. Gate, 12’ picket fence style opening at Meeting Houser Cemetery
5. Stone wall rebuild at Meeting House Cemetery on School Street.
6. Tree and Brush removal at Meeting House Cemetery
7. Avenue asphalt sealing at Hillside Cemetery
8. Avenue extension at Hillside Cemetery, material for 200 foot section.
There was discussion about perpetual care. Burt stated that we can’t take money from perpetual care and put it in the cemetery budget. Jim asked what we are obligated to do with regards to graves that have perpetual care. The obligation of the trustees is to make sure that the money is being used for that grave. The perpetual care money can be used for the resetting of head stones. Roberta also said that she agrees to a certain extent that the stone walls should be rebuilt – pick up the stones on the ground but not an overhaul. Bob said that Burt did a great job with his presentation. Burt also stated that a 200 ft. avenue extension at Hillside Cemetery will set aside 150 grave sites. Bob said that the warrant will need to be rewritten and the DRA will have to approve it. Joe will work on redrafting of the warrant. Jim said that the fallen head stones should be repaired. Burt said that having an expendable trust fund would enable the trustees to apply for an LCHIP grant. With regard to the trees and larger vegetation, Mike Cloutier stated that he can’t get to some of the areas with the equipment. Burt said that it is about making the areas safe. Roberta stated that since this is town land that the BOS should make recommendations to the Cemetery Trustees along with the DPW Director. The Board agrees that they should move forward with a warrant for a cemetery expendable trust fund.
Capital Improvement Program Recommendation Presentation
Jason Paolino, chairman, presented the recommendations from the Capital Improvement Program to the Board of Selectmen. Jason stated that for the past couple of years there has been a lag in CIP savings. So things that should have been replaced were not. There is a “hump” from previous unfunded years. Ideally, what should be saved by the town is about $250,000 - $300,000 annually.
The items are being recommended by the CIP for 2018 are as follows:
1. Add to the Wellington Road Bridge Replacement Capital Reserve Account, previously established, for rehabilitation/replacement in 2020. $18,000
2. Fire Engine One replacement 5 year lease, $425,000. Total cost, $91,600 first year lease payment
3. Replace GMC 2 ton 4 wheel dump/plow & wing with Freightliner M2. $145,000 NET cost, funds coming from Unassigned Fund Balance.
4. Purchase of fire utility vehicle, ¾ ton crew cab pick-up. $35,000 funds coming from Fire Dept. Equipment Capital Reserve Fund.
5. Replace Kubota mower/sweeper with Kubota zero-turn mower. $15,700 total cost coming from Unassigned Fund Balance.
6. Replace CAT Loader with new CAT Loader. $206,000 NET cost coming from Unassigned Fund Balance.
7. Purchase emergency generator for Highway Department. Purchase only if 100% grant funding.
8. Establish a Library Expendable Trust, or other means to ensure this town-owned capital is properly funded for anticipated maintenance expenditures. Appropriate $33,000 from the Unassigned Fund Balance to this fund.
Jason stated that expenditures are the bulk of the work, however, the CIP has to make recommendations to the Board on funding as well. There is a lot of discussion over the past few years on the Electric Light Trust Fund and what might make sense in utilizing that fund. The recommendation from the CIP is to use the bulk of the sale of property in order to fund capital needs. If we don’t start saving we may find ourselves seeing steeper peaks in the years to come.
Bob stated that item #3 looks like 2 vehicles. Mike clarified that it is not a pickup it is a dump truck/plow. Roberta said that she doesn’t think the Wellington Bridge should come out of the unassigned fund balance. She doesn’t think that the $33,000 for the Library Expendable Trust should come from the Unassigned Fund Balance. She also said that the loader is used at the transfer station and the money from the transfer station could be used to offset the CAT loader. The special revenue fund that we have for the transfer station is for repair and replacement. We could use $30-$40,000 to offset the loader. Mike said the loader and backhoe are used at the transfer station. He doesn’t have any hourly tracking.
Jason said that if we spend every single penny from the deeded sales we should still put together a warrant article for $300,000. Jim stated that he will not agree on anything like that until we know that the tax rate will not increase. The calculations need to be looked at again. Jason said proper planning would alleviate tax fluctuations. Jim said that we don’t need to continue discussion now, we can look at the numbers and see what impact it will have on the tax rate. Jason said regardless of what’s decided in terms of what items you are looking to purchase and how you intend to fund those expenses if the money comes from taxation that is a savings warrant article over a tax and spend article. In the long term money needs to be saved for the big ticket purchases.
Rick Sirvint said that he is looking at this totally different than everyone else. We already have saved $1,250,000.00 in the Electric Trust Fund that belongs to the taxpayers and according to the RSA this money is supposed to be used for capital improvements. The money is there and it makes no sense to raise money that will affect the tax rate when the money is already there. It makes no sense to sit on $1,250,000.00 that has already generated for the town $9,234.00 to reduce taxes. Jim said that he is interested in what Rick has said. Craig Clark said that we are operating by management by crisis as opposed to management by objective. We have been managing by crisis and we need to come up with a plan which is what the CIP is proposing. We need to allocate resources regardless of how it comes. With regard to the Electric Trust Fund it can be discussed Monday at the BOS/Trustees meeting. If you take principal out you should replace it with something other than a capital purchase.
Roberta stated that she wrote the legislation for the Electric Trust Fund so she knows all about it. It has only been available for a year. Spending all the money now would be irresponsible to the people of Rindge. Rick Sirvint said that he respects that people have a differing of opinion but the original RSA says that it was for capital improvement.
Maryann Harper said that her question concerns the $739,000 for 2019. If we used up all the auction money and we don’t put any money aside in savings we could be looking at something very horrendous in 2019. Even if the Rand Road property sold and $300,000 to put aside there is still a large amount of money that needs to be put aside to make up the $739,000. Burt Goodrich said that he feels the CIP committee is the best group that we have had in years. He also said that we need to be very cautious about spending in the next two years and beginning a savings program will bring us to a place where we are not operating in crisis management. Burt asked about the town reserve fund. Roberta stated that our goal was to get it to 1 million dollars.
Rick Donovan stated that he agrees with a lot of the comments being made regarding savings. He said that he has been here 16 years and for every piece of apparatus that was needed we didn’t have the money to pay for it. The needs that we have are not going away.
Bob stated that there was only one bid on the library and there were a lot of extra expenses because of the historical upgrades. Bob had asked when the library went on the list of historical buildings if it would cost us more money in the long run. The answer was no, and now we are having to do repairs to maintain the building on the registry. The LCHIP grant is not a guaranteed grant. Bob said he would like to see a 2nd, 3rd and 4th estimate on the library repairs. Mike said that we only received one bid. He reached out to 2 other cement contractors for bids and they didn’t want anything to do with the historical part of the building. If we could get an LCHIP grant it could cover ½ of the costs. Mike said the first place to start is to get a recommendation from LCHIP on who should do the work. Joe stated that he asked SPNEA (Society for the Protection of New England Antiquities) who we should get to bid. The library is currently on the registry of historic places and that if we don’t keep the building up we will be removed from the list. Jim said that he would like to see a quote for repairs. Roberta said that while the building is on the registry of historic places that we agreed to keep the building in repair.
Jim asked Roberta about the state guidelines for current amount retained in the DRA’s tax rate. You stated that the current amount retained tax rate was $1,152,000 and you are saying now that we actually have more. Roberta said that Joe didn’t bother to put in the $500,000 from the land sales. Roberta stated that the recommendation was $1.3 million.
Bob said that if we have to keep the library building as historic replacement does that mean we have to go back to coal heat? The Electric Light Trust Fund, Rick Sirvint made recommendations to spend monies from this fund. Bob asked what he would recommend to be taken for capital purchases. Rick said that he would recommend to buy the whole fire truck with the fund. This would not burden the taxpayers and they we could begin saving for next year. Roberta asked Rick Donovan if he had looked into the USDA grant for generators. He is looking into this. Bob thanked Jason and the CIP for all their hard work.
Craig Clark reported on the Broadband Initiative Meeting. There were representatives from Chesterfield, Dublin, Peterborough and Jaffrey. There were 3 USDA representatives and a rep from the state of NH. There was a discussion about broadband situation in other towns. Rindge is doing fairly well compared to Dublin. DSL is in most areas of the town, but Rindge does not meet the criteria for broadband. An investigatory meeting will be held in January. Towns cannot bond together but the county might. Argent is the internet provider and Fairpoint is the DSL provider. This was an investigatory meeting and there will be a follow up sometime in January where this group will go further to find out what can be done in Cheshire County. There are some grants that are available. One of the biggest problems in the State of NH is that towns cannot bond to do this, but the county may. Jim stated that he had been to a Trustee meeting a number of years ago and there was a USDA representative there. He asked about grant money and was told that Rindge wasn’t rural or poor enough to qualify for those programs. Craig said that there is a possibility that we could qualify.