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Town Meetings 2024
Colebrook Voters Approve All But Requirement to Live-Stream Meetings
Karen Harrigan
Colebrook town meeting voters approved all articles on the warrant on Tuesday night, with the exception of a proposal to require the selectmen and planning boards to live-stream their meetings. The meeting opened on a light note with a couple of presentations, first the Citizen of the Year award, which went to former fire chief Brad Sheltry. He was nominated by his friend and fellow longtime volunteer Wayne Frizzell, who read a letter outlining Brad"s many contributions to the town. He coached and officiated youth sports when his kids were growing up, served on the fire department for 22 years until his health forced retirement, volunteered with the Jaycees back in their heyday, and is now an active volunteer and past president of the Kiwanis Club of Colebrook. He got a standing ovation and was obviously pleased as well as surprised, laughing, "Ya got me!" Town manager Tim Stevens then gave a brief presentation on the town"s plans for the anticipated influx of visitors to view the total eclipse of the sun on Monday afternoon, April 8. "Don"t shoot the messenger," he began. "We didn"t schedule it this way." Totality in Colebrook--when the moon completely obscures the sun--will last about three minutes, starting at 3:28 p.m., but the movement toward and away from the eclipse will be visible for at least an hour before and after totality. Mr. Stevens noted that while most of Coos County will experience totality, the center of its path lies just north of Pittsburg, so that town will have the longest view of the total eclipse at three minutes, 16 seconds. "The rest of the state will get about 95 percent totality, not nearly as spectacular as the 100 percent we"ll have," he said, and noted the last total eclipse seen here was in 1959, with the next anticipated in 2079. Area town and state officials are concerned that the only routes to the path of totality from population centers to the south and east are Interstate 93 and U.S. Route 2. Mr. Stevens said lodging is completely booked in Pittsburg, Colebrook, Lancaster, Littleton, Berlin, Gorham, Bethel and Jay Peak, the latter having 900 rooms available. Mr. Stevens said businesses should expect three waves of high traffic, starting with local residents, whom he urged to do all their stocking up early in the week prior to the eclipse so that businesses have time to restock. The second wave will be the weekend arrivals, and the third are people staying an hour or more away in whatever lodging they could find. They"re likely to drive in on the weekend to find viewing spots, he said, then come back on the day of the eclipse itself. He ran down the preparations the town is making, such as placing portable toilets and trash cans at public parking areas. Anyone planning to offer public parking should contact the town, which will provide trash cans and toilets to those who are letting people park free of charge. [Mr. Stevens later said he"s working on an eclipse page that will like the town and the North Country Chamber of Commerce"s page; the Chamber has a page of information on its site, chamberofthenorthcountry.com.] Monday, April 8 itself is going to be "the day of hell," Mr. Stevens said, noting that tens of thousands of people could show up. "No one knows how many," he said. "But it"s the middle of mud season, so here"s an opportunity to do some business. He suggested landowners along major roads cordon off their fields, to discourage people from driving onto them and getting stuck. Mr. Stevens also said the town has souvenir eclipse viewing glasses for sale, and the library and several businesses have them as well. He advised that they must be ISO certified glasses, otherwise looking directly at the eclipse will cause eye damage. Anyone interested in volunteering on eclipse day and with preparations may contact the town office. On to Business On an approved motion from moderator Nathan Lebel, the meeting passed over Articles 2-5 of the warrant, which were voted on by ballot during the day, then approved Article 7 to declare April 8, 2024 as Total Solar Eclipse Day in the town. Selectman Sue Collins ran through the $3,231,927 proposed budget for general government, which shows a 6.6-percent increase of $202,402. Much of the increase is due to higher health insurance premiums, and she noted that many of the budget items are offset by revenues. The proposal included a three-percent cost-of-living adjustment for employees, and funds for stone to repair roads, an ongoing project to upgrade street lights to LED, and continued work on the town hall. The article passed with little discussion, and on a motion from Mr. Lebel was restricted from reconsideration. Voters also approved placing a total of $267,500 in the highway equipment, police cruiser, bridge, re-evaluation, highway paving, water and sewer short-lived asset funds, and to raise $124,750 for ongoing landfill closure expenses, of which $50,000 would come from reserve funds. Articles 10 and 11 passed with no questions or discussion, raising funds for two new replacement vehicles: $152,000 for a plow truck and $71,000 for a police cruiser. In both cases, once the new vehicle is in service the old one will be sold, unless it"s more economical to trade it in, and the funds would be withdrawn from reserve with no tax impact. Selectman Greg Placy explained that the current highway plow truck is a 2015 TerraStar, which the town plans to replace with a 2024 Ford under a seven-year warranty. Regarding the cruiser, police chief Paul Rella said the current pickup is a 2014 with 110,000 miles on it. "We recently had to replace the transmission, and it"s starting to show some rust," he said. "It"s time to replace it as a first-responding vehicle." The new cruiser will be a 2024 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 crew cab with four-wheel drive. Voters raised $65,000 to repair last summer"s heavy rain damage to Aldrich Road, with $15,000 of that amount coming from reserve. "The protection we put on the brook to protect the road was destroyed," Mr. Placy said, referring to mesh screen and rock riprap that water flowed under and washed downstream. "The ultimate repair would be a better ditch on the opposite side of the road," he said. "The immediate repair is to fix the road where it washed out last summer." Since preparing the budget, town officials learned Colebrook had been approved for FEMA funds, so the scope of the project may change once that is factored in. During discussion of the water and sewer budgets, Dr. Bruce Katz asked about the status of the town wells. Ms. Collins said they"ve homed in on two sites, and each will have an eight-inch test well dug within the next six weeks. "Once that"s done, we"ll finally be able to get an idea of the costs," she said. "It all depends on how much funding we can get, because the users simply can"t afford a big loan like what we had for the northern wells." Mr. Placy said the town has also requested forgiveness on that loan, which is costing $60,000 in bond payments per year. Four articles concerning the Norther Borders Dispatch Center passed with little discussion: $437,725 for its operation, with $214,212 coming from member towns and $223,513 from Colebrook; $2,000 for maintenance of the communication tower trails, with $1,600 coming from core towns and $400 from Colebrook; and $23,000 for a savings account to be used for future equipment replacement, $18,400 from member towns and $4,600 from Colebrook. Article 19 authorized the town to close the center"s capital reserve fund, which is stewarded by Colebrook"s trust fund trustees and therefore difficult for the center to make use of. "It belongs in equal shares to the core towns--Colebrook, Columbia, Pittsburg, Stewartstown and Canaan--and right now the board has to wait until our town meeting," to obtain funds, Ms. Collins said. She explained that the funds will immediately be transferred to an account held by the dispatch center board. Article 23 proposed discontinuance of Paul Gleason Road, which led off Titus Hill Road toward the late Herve Boire"s property on the Mohawk River and provided him with access to the other side of the road without a bridge. The easement was taken by the town, and later discontinued by town meeting vote. "Now the landowner wants to sell the property, but the lawyer says he can"t until the road is discontinued in its entirety," Mr. Placy said. "It"s a housekeeping thing, so we don"t have a road that we don"t have anyway." His tricky explanation got a round of applause. There was some discussion of Article 24, which would require all selectmen"s meetings to be live-streamed, and Russell Hamilton noted that when this idea came up at last year"s town meeting, the selectmen agreed to look into it. Mr. Placy said they had, and found it would cost $3,000 for the equipment and installation, and $350 per month. Katherine Samson asked whether the board could meet if the Internet is down, since the article states it is "required" to "live-stream" the meetings. The article was amended to read that it would live-stream when possible, and further amended to include planning board meetings on a motion from Dottie Keazer. When researching her recent letter to the local paper about the zoning ordinances on the ballot, Mrs. Keazer said, "There are no minutes [on the town website], so I had nothing to refer back to." Mr. Placy said the board would have to consult with the vendor, because the quote was based on two selectboard meetings a month. The idea of a higher cost seemed to be a deal-breaker, and the amended article failed. Zoning Ordinances By ballot vote during the day, the town approved Articles 2-6 containing zoning ordinance changes revolving around public accommodations, guest structures, short-term rentals and cluster housing. Under the "other business" article at the end of the warrant, David Hodge asked if these issues could be voted on at town meeting so there"s an opportunity for discussion and questions. "People probably didn"t understand these articles," he said. Ms. Collins explained that by state law, any changes to zoning ordinances must be voted on by ballot. "We held a public hearing on this in early December," she said, "and at the budget hearing in February it was discussed as well."
All Warrant Articles Approved by Pittsburg Town Meeting Voters
By Jake Mardin
Pittsburg conducted its town business in a little over two hours at last Tuesday's annual meeting, passing all 13 articles on the warrant, and amending two of them. The town added $15,000 to the police cruiser capital reserve fund, $5,000 to the Happy Corner fund, $25,000 to the fire truck fund and $5,000 to the fire equipment fund. Article 6, which proposed adding $50,000 to the highway heavy equipment capital reserve fund, was reduced from $50,000 to $20,000 and passed as amended. Under Article 7, the town removed $5,150 and all accrued interest from the police equipment capital reserve fund from the sale of the F450 truck and closed the account. The sum was added to the police department budget for the purchase of body cameras. Article 8 modified the provisions of the elderly exemption for property taxes. Article 9 requested the purchase of a new backhoe, with up to $165,000 coming from the highway heavy equipment capital reserve fund. Article 10 was brought by petition, asking the town to consider not demolishing the old highway garage, and instead using it for future cold storage of emergency rescue equipment. Article 11, which raised $25,000 for the anticipated costs of tearing down the old garage, also passed. The general budget was under Article 12, and selectman Toby Owen made an amendment to add the $30,000 removed from Article 6 into the budget. The amended article with the new amount of $2,245,482 was passed. Under Article 13 for other business, the town discussed employee salaries, when the sand piles would be moved from the old highway garage to the new one, and carbon credits. Terry Swain was also recognized for his last meeting as moderator, and outgoing selectmen Ron Clark and Steve Ellis were also recognized.
Stewartstown Voters Reject Proposals for Town Website, Planning Board Salary
By Jake Mardin
Stewartstown voters rejected the creation of a town website and annual salaries for planning board members, but approved a proposal to reduce the size of the planning board from seven members to five during last Tuesday night's annual town meeting. The session lasted just under an hour, with the website and planning board salary articles generating the most discussion. The website proposal appeared in Article 3, and petitioner Harry Brown said it came about during a discussion by the planning board, which he chairs. The planning board has already created a website (www.townofstewartstown.com) that includes agendas, minutes and ordinances. The site was designed by SunnValley, LLC of Columbia, and is paid for using fees received by the planning board. The site currently contains some basic information about the town, such as town office hours and contact information. The warrant article includes a quoted cost of $7,500 to develop the site and cover domain fees for a year, and it would cost around $600 a year after that to maintain it. The site would include selectboard agendas and minutes, town notices, the town report, property mapping and tax assessment cards, and the ability to register vehicles and pay property taxes on-line. The article cited the Town of Stratford's website as an example of what a good town website would look like. "We are one of only two towns in Coos County that doesn't have a website," Mr. Brown said, with Clarksville being the other one. He said while he included SunnValley LLC's quote in the warrant article, it would be up to the selectboard to decide what vendor they want to do business with. Sallyann Whitehill asked who would keep the website up to date and deal with any issues that arise, such as a glitch during an on-line payment. Mr. Brown said the town would put information on the website and described the process as simple. "Rather than make the town clerk's job more difficult, it should make it easier," he said. Town clerk Rita Hibbard said on-line payment would be difficult to implement because the town office is not set up to accept debit or credit card payments. She said if someone is unable to come into the town office to renew their registration, they can call her and make arrangements to send a check, but for new registrations, owners have to come in with their title and driver's license. Charles Stevens said the site can be set up the way the town wants, and if they're not in a position to do online payments, they can still post information, such as minutes and agendas. Others felt that the process of setting up and maintaining the site would be more complicated that it seems. "I don't think it's going to be quite as simple as Harry says it is," Hazen Burns said. Kyle Daley said creating a general information site is "a pretty low bar," adding, "It's 2024--that's how business is done." When it came to a vote, the article was rejected by a sizable margin. Voters also turned down Article 4, which proposed a $3,700 for planning board members, and was placed on the warrant at the request of Mr. Brown as its chair. He said the board discussed the difficulty it has experienced with its numbers, and that a token salary may incentivize people to join. Mr. Brown explained that the $3,700 broke down into an annual salary of $1,500 for the chairman, $1,000 for the secretary and $500 for members. He said the board arrived at the numbers by using an hourly rate of $20, with the chairman working about six hours a month, the secretary working four hours and the members working two hours each. He added that the selectmen are also paid $3,700 a year, and said their weekly meetings last between one and two yours for about 104 hours a year, equaling an hourly payment of $35.58 an hour. Selectman Dwayne Covell noted that the board attends many meetings that they don't get paid for, including the annual town meeting. Rita Hibbard said she went back to when the planning board was first brought to the town in 1986 to this year, and could not find any instances of money coming out of the general account to pay the planning board. She said had been told that the planning board used to use some of their fees to pay members $100 or $200. Louise Owen referred to the town report and asked why the auditors were unable to complete the 2023 audit for the planning board. Mr. Brown said the board does all of its business electronically and that the documentation is "very thorough." He said the board gave the auditors "in-depth files," but they wanted it in a non-electronic format. Auditor Joan Coats said she and Jeannine Burns spent additional time trying to obtain all of the information, and said while electronic documentation was "fine," they wanted a paper trail. "Without the paper trail, we don't have all the figures," Mrs. Coats said. She said the information may have been in the electronic files, but the auditors needed the paper trail in the town office. Mr. Brown said the board has a "thick folder" with a lot of information, and the board prints out all of its monthly statements and the minutes where the board approves bills. "It's really pretty well documented," he said. "You may have to search around for it, I'll go along with that." He said that the auditors wanted the information in a certain format with particular items, which would have taken significant time to gather. "All of the information is in there, and if someone here is an accountant, it's right there and it sits in the town office." The planning board also requested placement of Article 5, which proposed reducing the number of its members from seven to five. Mr. Stevens said when the board was originally formed, it was as a seven-person board, and with only five members now and two vacancies, it is harder to meet the quorum for an official meeting. Mr. Daley noted that there are many open positions in town, and a lot of the current officials are at or near retirement age. The townspeople approved the motion, and approved the $1,015,977 budget article with relatively little discussion.
(March 13, 2024)
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