MINUTES OF HAVERHILL SELECTBOARD REGULAR
MEETING
Monday, March 30, 2009
Board Members Present: Roderick Ladd,
Peter Conrad, David Joslin, and
Bob Maccini. Peter
Heilemann was excused.
Town Manager: Glenn English
Administrative Assistant/Finance Officer: Jo Lacaillade,
excused
Members of the Public Present: Joel Godston, Susan Brown,
Jeff Williams, Wallace Trott, Robert Martin, Lori Peterson, Haverhill
police officers and family members, Gary Wood, Bernie Marvin from the
Bridge-Weekly and Ed Ballam from the Journal Opinion.
Call Meeting to Order:
Chairman Ladd called the
meeting to order at 6:03 p.m.
Approval of Agenda:
Dave Joslin made a motion to
approve the agenda as presented; seconded by Peter Conrad and carried
unanimously.
Approval
of Consent Agenda:
Peter
Conrad made a motion to approve the Consent Agenda as presented; seconded by Dave
Joslin and carried unanimously.
Scheduled Public Appearances:
Ø Certificates
of Commendation – Haverhill Police Dept.
Chairman
Ladd presented Certificates of Commendation to Cpl. Wallace Trott, Officer
Robert Martin and Office Manager Lori Peterson recognizing their great work on
the Gray murder case. He also paid
tribute to the entire Department and thanked them on behalf of the Board for
their great work and dedication.
Officer Martin noted that all the officers should be commended for their
fine work all the time. Chief Williams
thanked the Board for their support of the Department and announced that the
whole group was invited to the gym for pizza.
Ø Susan Brown
– proposed library committee
Susan
Brown referred to written copy of her request. She
stated that the Selectboard, for the past several years, had asked that
the libraries cooperate and present a
consolidated budget to the Town and now that the Town Trustees are gone she
assumes that people in Town want to have some minor oversight over this. She thought the libraries will need to
continue to advocate for themselves and that is why the Board could appoint a
committee, representing each of the libraries and some people who aren’t from
any libraries and they could do a consolidated budget and they could schedule
courses. She noted that copies of the
proposed Rules of Procedure for the trustees were given to the Selectboard because
if you have a committee it will need a mission and some tasks to do. She thought the main task would be the
budget. She said there are also people
talking about establishing “friends of the library”. Dave Joslin asked about wording that stated
a “ committee of the Selectboard” what did that mean? Ms. Brown clarified that the Selectboard
would appoint the committee. Ms. Brown
said if the Board appointed a committee they would not be trustees or come
under the RSA’s so they would do what the Board wanted. So she said it might be wise to have a group
to look out for the Town’s interest.
Bob Maccini stated that the individual libraries have their own boards. What is their feeling about this idea? She suggested that the Selectboard just do this and then ask the library boards
to suggest reps from each library and others.
She thought they would probably support the idea because of the
consolidated budget. Peter Conrad
stated that the libraries are individual and they are not connected with the
Town. Susan Brown said not quite. Woodsville Library is a municipal library
the members of the trustees are elected at the Precinct meeting and the
precinct owns the building. Rick Ladd
asked if the Precinct owned the building or the property? Gary Wood stated that they own
neither. The library cooperation that
was established by the Legislature own the land and building which were donated
to the library by Mr. Ira Whitcher. Ms.
Brown stated that the other three have private boards of trustees and Pike
Library used to be a branch of the Haverhill Corner Library. Peter Conrad said that the federal
government is getting involved in private corporations and he sees this as a
parallel type thing where they are lending money and starting to take over
corporations but they are only doing it because they have to. He said the libraries are very well run
and they are doing fine and he didn’t see the need for the Selectboard to get
involved. Ms. Brown said she wasn’t
advocating that at all but maybe the libraries would want to have a
representative on this committee to be their advocate. Mr. Maccini said he thought a committee of
this Board would serve no real function without the concurrence and
participation of the individual libraries.
Ms. Brown agreed. She said she
did not go around and ask them. Ms.
Brown thought maybe the libraries would want to set up their own group. Rick Ladd agreed. He thought it would be valuable to go to the
individual libraries and ask if they would like to have a committee which
represents them. Building support from
the bottom up. A committee put together
by the four private libraries. Not
involving the Town. Ms. Brown agreed
that could work. She also said without
Town trustees anymore there will be a group of people in Town that are going to
fight against supporting libraries and she would like the Town to say it
supports libraries. Especially now
when people have less money, library use is increasing nationally because of
internet capability. Bob Maccini said a
perception could be that the Selectboard could be seen as trying to acquire a
power or a role that we don’t have. It
really should be the individual libraries asking if it serves their needs to
have a committee to coordinate between the individual libraries and the Town
for what aid or assistance the Town might provide to the libraries. It’s them to us, not us to them. Ms. Brown asked if they came to the Board
with this approach would they be encouraged?
Mr. Ladd and Mr. Maccini said yes.
Mr. Ladd said there is support for the libraries on this Board and the
Budget Advisory Committee. Mr. Ladd
said the $49,000 the Town now annually gives to the libraries is evidence of strong
support. Ms. Brown said over the past
three years the budget presentation has been better and presented a coordinated
action. Mr. Ladd said he didn’t think
this Board objected to a coordinated effort coming from the libraries to this
Board and if the four private libraries wanted to put together a group called
“friends of the libraries” or anything else that would be received positively
by the Town. Mr. Conrad agreed. TM English said he has not heard any criticism
of our libraries other than that from one person in Town. He
thought that the people in this Town want separate village libraries, that’s
been the message loud and clear, and the taxpayers support that and they
support the appropriation of money to each of those individual libraries. It seems as though the patrons, including
himself, are satisfied with the service.
He said he didn’t sense anything negative except from one
individual. Bob Maccini said there
hasn’t been negativity created by a little more Town involvement and he wanted
to see that continue but he didn’t want the Board to do anything to leverage
some kind of control. He said that if
we are going to have a central committee it needs to come from the
libraries. TM English said the Town’s
relationship with the libraries isn’t that much different than the relationship
with the other non-profits that the Town gives money to that are not under Town
control. Ms. Brown said there is a
difference because of the long history of libraries in this Town. Bob Maccini said the State has recognized and
supported the libraries even though they are not Town operated. Mr. Ladd noted that State money is drying
up. The Town still sees the value of
these libraries. Rick Ladd suggested
that Ms. Brown work with the libraries to develop a group. Start from the grass routes. She agreed.
Joel Godston agreed that the libraries need to form the committee.
Public Hearing(s):
None
Town Manager’s Report:
TM English reported that he
has been struggling to make sense out of the Stimulus money. It’s all somewhat unclear on how this is
going to work. He is going to a meeting
on April 7th where the State Stimulus “czar” Bud Fitch is going to explain it all. A lot of requests fit easily into existing
funding sources but ours does not.
Rural Development offers a business enterprise grant which might fit our
need. He asked for authorization to
apply and stated that we may apply to other sources as well. Rick Ladd asked about a match
requirement. TM English said not really
required but if you provide matching money it improves your score. This is a competitive grant. Peter Conrad said he has dealt with Rural
Development on a housing basis and they always seem to have extra money left
over. Peter Conrad made a motion to
authorize the Town Manager to sign the grant application and apply on behalf of
the Town, seconded by Dave Joslin and all approved.
TM English presented a draft
“Request For Proposals” to establish a recycling center at the Center Haverhill
Armory property for the Board’s review and approval. Dave Joslin asked if we would sell permits
to people in other towns. TM English
said we could if the Board wished to.
The Board agreed. Rick Ladd
suggested changing “ and all other recyclable objects” to “and other recyclable
objects” in #3. Bob Maccini suggested
we offer a bulk item collection more than once a year, perhaps monthly. Peter Conrad said we are requiring removal
of bulk items within 7 days and a more frequent collection may not be cost
effective. TM English said the intent
is to prevent an accumulation of “stuff” on the site. All agreed that a minimum of quarterly bulk
pick-up could work.
The Board suggested that we
notify all known providers in the area of our RFP.
TM English asked the Board to
approve the renewal of the annual contract with the police prosecutor. Same language with an increase of 3%. Rick Ladd asked if the money was budgeted and
TM English said it was. Bob Maccini made
a motion to approve, seconded by Dave Joslin and all approved.
Pending (Old) Business:
Ø Agreement re: Life Safety Code/Fire Code 3rd Party Inspections
TM English reported that there has
been no information received from any of
the precincts on this issue. Rick Ladd
stated that the Haverhill Corner Precinct Commissioners left it off with their chief
and they have not dealt with it.
Ø
Review of Gym Usage Policy:
The Board reviewed the new
gym use policy with Recreation Director Glenn Hatch and suggested several
changes, such as, raising the clean up fee to a minimum of $50, re-wording #13 to make it more clear, that
uses must have an appropriate ratio of adult supervision of minors as deemed
appropriate by the approving authority, and proper lock-up of the building be
assured. Dave
Joslin made a motion to adopt the new procedures as amended, seconded by Peter
Conrad and all approved.
New Business:
Ø
Legislative
Update
Rick Ladd reported that there was a lengthy week last week and there are
a lot of socially oriented bills. Not a
whole lot dealing with municipalities other than one bill dealing with property
taxes - if your property was assessed at $150,000 plus the tax would be doubled
for more revenue for education. This
was defeated. Revenue Bills House 1 and
2 are still in committee. Stimulus
money for the roads has been discussed.
The water projects at the Corner and North Haverhill are in. The Corner’s is on the approved list since
they had the 50% match and some other submissions did not. North Haverhill’s project to increase the
pressure in the Business Park, Mr. Ladd will be meeting with the DES tomorrow
on that one and get it moved up.
Ø
NHDOT project
Rts. 25 & 10
The State is looking at upgrading Rt. 10 in Piermont and also about two
miles of Rt. 25 heading east will be improved.
They also want to change the intersection of Rts. 25 and 10 by taking
out the island and removing the sidewalk from the bridge so northbound trucks
can make the turn. Rick Ladd requested
a letter of explanation from the NHDOT to the Commissioners and the Selectboard
before proceeding. TM English asked if
there will be at least one sidewalk on the bridge. Rick Ladd said yes on the east side which
doesn’t connect off the Bridge. TM
English suggested we push for a bridge replacement, not a band aid. Rick Ladd agreed. Rick Ladd said 25c is low priority and
doesn’t qualify for stimulus funds even though it is awful. There was further discussion of the bad
condition of Rts. 25 and 10 which are not in the State 10 year plan. Rick Ladd said the Woodsville Road Money
bill will be dealt with tomorrow in the House committee of Municipal and Local
Government, and should be no problem.
TM English said that if District 2 is doing the road work mentioned
before it is probably just an overlay not reconstruction.
Commission/Committee
Reports: none
Correspondence: none
Comments of the Public: none
Comments of the Town Manager: None
Comments of Selectboard Members: None
Adjourn Meeting: Bob Maccini made a motion to adjourn, seconded
by Dave Joslin and all approved. The
meeting was adjourned by Chairman Ladd at
7:15 pm.
Minutes
transcribed by Glenn English