Meeting transcript
Board of Selectmen - Special Meeting Part 1
October 12, 2021 · Watch on YouTube · All meetings
Sorry. Okay.
So we have just started our meeting and the public you've just missed the Pledge of Allegiance. We're gonna move on to public speak, which is the most important. And we're gonna start with Kathy Plassey. Kathy and Mike Plassey, are you guys interested in Yes, helping
ma'am, thank you very much. I would like to direct my comment and I don't see her here to Amanda. I wanted to thank Amanda for the excellent job she did on organizing the ordinances and the RAM Board of Education question on our website. They were easy to view and she and print out for the town meetings. She did a really good job on those.
All right, is that it? Does Mike have anything he wants to add? You want to speak? No. No, we said. Okay, perfect. He's coming.
All right, Diane Choquette. No, I'm good. Thanks. Thank you. We have one phone number that I'm not aware. If that's Mr. O'Brien, I apologize. Two actually. We'll go with the one that ends in 6722 Maybe have to go through.
Okay. Anything for public speak? No. Okay. Yes. Hello? Yes.
Yes. Hi. I couldn't get my camera to work here so I just called in. Sure. Your name. Chris Saunders. Okay, Chris, your floor is yours.
Yes. Back in the September 1. Well, first I live at 14 Dogwood Drive. And back first part of September, we had my basement had like 20 inches of water in it. It was because I guess the the footing well, I know why. The footing drains heading out to the street got blocked. When the house was built, I guess it there was a connection provided for the drains you could tie into the drains that led into the catch basin. And that got blocked near this connection. So I, you know, I had a power snake, and I I fixed that. And I called Mark Williams. He came out, and he ran a a camera through the pipes just to check what it was. And in this situation where the pipe runs out to the street, there was no catch basin. So when, I guess, everything was being built, the street or whatever, they just ran a pipe down to the catch basin which is at a lower level.
And when he ran the camera down, this pipe is like a four inch flex pipe that just is not straight it's all over the place. And so what I'm worried about is that this issue is going to happen again. And so I called the town and I asked you know is there anything that we could do because it's on I guess town properties right near the main pipe for the catch basins going down and a couple people you know I'm sorry there's nothing we can do for you and I'm just kind of questioning that if there's something that possibly the town can do to help me out with this. Now Mark made a couple suggestions Instead of digging up like 120 feet, and actually digging up somebody at my neighbor's driveway. If possible, maybe a catch basin could be put in right in front of the house. But anyways, you know, I don't know all the details or or whatever, but it it was just, you know, you call in, you know, over the phone. Sorry. There's nothing we can do for you. And I don't know. I just think it would be nice if sometimes the town would wanna try to help the residents of the town. And That's what I'm calling. If there's possibly a way to just take a look at this
and maybe there's something that we could do together, I don't know, But that's it.
Okay. We'll actually talk about that at some other meeting, but we will sit there and see if we can get you an answer. It may not be the answer you're looking for, but we'll try to get you some information. Okay.
Jerry Wright is on the line. Jerry, would you like to add? I think he understands that it's a special meeting, we can't add to the agenda. I'm not adding to the agenda. Public. I understand, but I don't, the resident was
not the judge. We're not talking about it at this meeting. I said it was Because we can't add to the agenda. That's understood. Yeah, we're gonna move on. Jerry Wright.
Hi, Jeff. Hi, how are you? Hi, board members. Jeff Murray. Hey, Gary. I have a question for you. How is the creamery sign coming along? That
People coming off rails for trails and they want to know when that sign is going to be ready. It was going to be ready for November 11, but there was a thing about the color sample of the material. And I made the executive decision to wait another two weeks. So it'll be the middle of November around Thanksgiving that it will be there. Okay. Because I just want to make sure at this point we've waited long enough. I want to make sure the color and everything was correct. So they were going try to get it for Veterans Day, but I just decided let's just make sure it's right and the colors are correct. Right. And right around Thanksgiving, it will be there. Yep.
Okay, to update you real quickly, flagpoles that were hoping to be here the next week or so, they back ordered because they can't get to shafts. They said it might be another couple of weeks or three weeks before they come in. And they're still hoping to have them in by Veterans Day. He said, well, bring them over as soon as they come in, we'll bring them over and put them in. So we're just waiting on that. The grant came in at $3,000 We needed 5,500 and the brick money is going to kick in the rest of the 2,500. And we're going to put on three solar lights on top. They've got 32 LEDs in them, And it's gonna make a nice light coming down to light up the monuments in that area. Right now we have $7,200 in brick money that's in the account and the town and $13,000 at the American Legion. The battlefield cross is being made. He got jammed up. He had three people out of four got sick,
and they're just starting to come back into work. So he's two or three weeks behind. And that's going to be somewhere around $8,000 We're working on a really nice piece of grant, the black grant granite to put that monument on. And I'm not sure what that's going to be yet. As far as price goes, we're hoping to have that today but he didn't send it to me. The POWMIA monument is being made in New Hampshire. He's waiting for a granite base And as soon as the granite base is here, it's $3,200 It's a monument. It's got the POW emblem on both sides. So it's going to be set, you'll see the holes, the holes are all done for right now down at the park, The walkways all cut out and they'll be putting that in tomorrow. They're going to put the bases in. So when the monuments are ready,
all we got to do is set them on gloom and set them on, we'll be done. Jerry, how close are we between? So the walkway money, is that covering the walkway at this point? Or is that covering some of these other items as well? It's covering some of the other items as well.
It depends on where we pull the funds out of, but we're going to be really close to the nickel. So I'm speaking in Norwalk Saturday night to about 100 Vietnam veterans. And I did spoke at West Point on Saturday, I passed out a lot of brochures. So I'm hoping that they'll be kicking in some money out there as well. And, but once the walkways in and Ron has paid for the work that he's done for the materials, then we can put the monuments in when we get the money. Do we have a total from him yet? No, because he just started today. Oh, the irrigation you mean? Yeah, well, irrigation has nothing to do with me. That's through the town. Yeah. So the best Eric and Jay will probably brief you on that. So what was Ron working on today?
Putting irrigation in, and then he dug the second walk, third walkway. Okay. And he dug the monuments basis. Gotcha. So we'll have the concrete basis all that. I got the size of the monuments. Okay. So all he's got to do is make the concrete basis to fit the monuments.
So when you get a total on all of this, can you get us something so that we know where you're at fundraising wise and where we're at? So we have an idea of costs here? Oh yeah. Okay. Yep. It's all, everything that I'm doing is being, is being funded through donations.
Okay. So it doesn't cost a town a nickel. There
was some, some town stuff. So I'm just making sure that we have enough put aside for you. That's all.
Right. Whatever you do with irrigation and power, that's up to you. Okay. Okay. And that's about all I got. I mean, it's just a, it's a work in progress. You know, Jerry. We've sold eight more brick the last, last day or so. I know I've got five more coming in and, so it just keeps on and on. We just keep adding that up and putting it in there.
Jerry, thank you very much. And I know the last phone number on there is Dennis O'Brien. Dennis, thank you for joining us. We're going to move on from public speak. There is no additions and deletions to the agenda since this is special meeting. We're going to move on to item four, Board and Commission presentations. Eric, are there any? There are not.
All right. Eric, since you're the host, can you mute as many of the residents as possible? Okay. We're going to move on to item five, appointments 5A, William Bell, custodian. Eric?
Yep. So, per your verbal approval, I have hired, Mr. Bell to be the town's custodian as part time position, not to exceed ten hours a week, but technically you as a board should ratify that.
Okay. I'll sit there and I'll do this. I motion to approve the hiring of William Bell custodian as part time position not to exceed ten hours per week. Seconded. Okay, further discussion? All those in favor, aye. Aye. All those opposed? No. Five, nothing. Okay. So we're gonna move on to item six, resignations. Eric, are there any resignations that we need to be made aware of? There
are not that we need to be aware of here. All
right. We'll go on to item seven, the town administrator. Eric.
Okay. You've all had the town administrator's report. I'm going to just give you just a couple of things that have changed since the time I gave you the report. First thing, we do have a verbal report from the DOT on the Bunker Hill Bridge Slash Culvert. We do not have it in writing. They're all on vacation this week. They are referring it to their load calculations division at dot. I don't have a firm date is when you will have a load calculation for that bridge. The DOT instructor or inspector basically said, from his perspective, it's in equivalent or better condition now than it was prior, than it was the last time they inspected it, which was prior to all the flooding
and the sinkhole occurrence. So, I mean, from his perspective, he said he didn't have any problem with us opening it up, But that is the board's decision. And we will, we should have a formal report. You know, in hopefully another week, I don't know how long it's going to take to get the load calculations done. The second thing related to that bridge is CJM which is close Jensen and Miller thinks that they should be ready to schedule a design meeting with the town sometime in the middle of November. At that point, they will be through all the preliminary stuff for the bridge design, and they will have settled on a design type. And that's basically their chance to brief the town and get input back from the town before they put that to DOT. And it goes once DOT agrees with their conclusions and that all the preliminaries are correct, it will get handled off to a structural engineering firm for the actual bridge design.
But this is the hardest part is getting all the preliminary stuff done, which hopefully will be done in the next couple of weeks. That is what I have, unless you have questions for me.
In your report, it stated that the light is still the light at 03:16 and well, really at Long Hill Road still has issues. That has been corrected. That has been corrected.
Sorry, I did not update that portion of my report. They have finally made the transition to the camera based detection system and the detection sequence and timing and the timing for the crosswalks are to spec. DoT has said that they expect within the next week or so, the crosswalk itself will be repainted. She couldn't tell me exactly when that's going to happen, but that should be done fairly quickly.
Okay. Did we get some qualified candidates for the building department position? And where is this? What's the status right now of the assistant town clerk's position?
So we had quite a few applications for both positions. We have currently interviewed four people for the building department position. We have another four that we are scheduled to interview for tomorrow. And then we're possibly going to try to fit in one more to interview for a total of nine. There were more than 20 total applications for that position, but we whittled it down and interviewed either eight or nine depending. Okay.
On the town hall project section of your report, have we done anything or we moved forward anywhere related to the oil tanks and the electrical?
We have not. I've asked for quotes for that from two vendors. Neither one of us has given me final numbers on that, which is a slight irritation, but that's life. Okay.
Alright, anyone else have any questions for Eric related to his report or any other issues?
Just a question on the BCS site work excavation and site work. Correct. Is that an hourly basis or is that based on the initial design that we handed over to the to that group? So where are you seeing that? Andover proposed community center signed contract with BCS group for excavation and site work.
Oh, excavation slash site work. They're not really doing the only real excavation that's going to be occurring would be test pits for the septic system, which will be done by Public Works. So that is just the cost for the survey and the site work design for the community center.
Okay. I saw excavation site work and that implies to me that we're digging a lot of holes besides that. That was an error on my part. No problem. Do we do we do our guys dig the holes for the power down at the monument? They did. Okay,
great. And they're so they're starting. They're starting right now with doing the irrigation?
So the work right now is being done on the irrigation system, as well as most of the electrical work has been done at this point. Has basically public works did all the digging and helped Rick with the conduit. The conduit is in. Randy, the building official inspected it today. Oh, so we can start backfilling. That was my next question. Great. Yeah. As far as I know, they're ready. I didn't ask that, Randy, that specifically, but I think they're ready for backfill.
Okay. So just so I understand it, so the trench was there for three or four days and that was just because we didn't have an inspection completed?
Well, you've got to dig it completely and then you've got to do all the electrical work and then you've got to put the plumbing
and get the plumbing going and then you have to backfill and it's got to get inspected before you do that. Understood. But that conduit, it was in there for three or four days. So it's just it was just waiting for the inspector.
It was, I think Rick finished. Well, Rick was still putting conduit in Monday when I stopped by. So,
I was finished before then. Yeah. Okay. Any other questions? We'll move on to item eight on the agenda, old business. We're going to discuss and act upon the following, A, the complaint log. So did everyone have a chance to read the complaint log? I'm going to recommend that that complaint log is sent to us separately. I don't really believe that that should be in our full package. Garry, can you mute the people or transfer this to Paula? Okay, so the complaint log, does anybody have any issues with any of the items that were addressed there? Anyone want to talk about any of them?
No. No. Is there a reason that we don't want this in the packet, though?
Well, I I agree with Jeff. I don't think we need to put I I I don't know how it it goes with FOIA, but you've got residents names in there. You have employee names in there. I don't know that people are gonna want their information out there.
But all of that information is FOIA is is foible. So. Sure, it can be foible, but how about we make it,
know, we take the time to sit there and write out the issues as opposed to giving the full dissertation of what was sent to us.
Don't know. I guess I'm for the transparency, but sounds like I'm getting overruled on itself. That's
fine. I look at it differently. I want to understand that there's issues in a given department or there's a resident issue. I want
to see the details, but I'm not necessarily sure that I want that out in public that I'm to sit there and put position. I agree with you, except that I think the public needs to know that we that we actually are getting these things and that, you know, we're aware of them.
And so, you know, some things we can address and some things we can't. Mean, they can all attend our meetings and have their voice in public speak as opposed to sitting there and dealing with their emails behind a computer. That's just how I think. I'm only one person on this. What's everybody else think? Scott, Jeff?
I I am in favor of what Jeff Maguire is saying. I am as well.
Yeah, because I'm I'm just thinking from a resident perspective, if if they're if they're concerned about calling in because then they're they're, gonna be publicly
their information put out there, they may not wanna call in. We're not we're not putting their personal. I mean, we should be editing any letter that comes in for their, you know their personal information. But if a resident calls in and makes a complaint. You know, I think it's important a that they know that we got the complaint and we were aware of it and be if there's a way for us to follow-up or not. You know, I think with these with this complaint log, we should also be putting a note as to, you know, we're putting notes as to what happened, who got referred to, and why it was or wasn't addressed. And I think that's important for residents to see that I mean otherwise they don't know how hard Eric's working behind the scenes, they don't know how much Scott went looked at a tree and Jeff went looked at something and you know. I mean you went looked at something or I went look to something they don't They don't know that, you know, unless we tell them so.
I don't know.
The only the only thing I would have, the only issue I'd have is if there's complaints against employees or anything like that. And if we have to take disciplinary action, that's a different and kind of kind of draws a fine line there.
It's something against an employee of the town, I fully would support that if we want to pull out employee grievances, things like that 100% okay with that. But anything else, if it's roadwork or tree or tree or a lighting issue, whatever I think that needs to be in here. It's directly an employee, that's a different conversation because That's
an employee matter. A town employee wants to make a complaint that their printer is bad and they need to do a printer or anything like that, I think that's something that could be in there, but. Right, right, right. Or even a resident against a particular employee. Think because those are personnel matters, those shouldn't be part of this, but. Yeah, I think that should just be personal matters.
Would you be okay with that, Jeff, if we just filtered out Mr. McGuire, since this was your
I have no problem with the complaint log. I just think the complaint log needs to be, modified. Okay. I mean, there's probably three complaints in here that I would never have put in the way they're put in. And I understand what Eric is doing. Eric is just laying it out there. This is what it is. There's no filter. As far as I'm concerned, there should be a filter. So it's just my opinion. And Adrian, what you're asking for as far as employees, that's fine. I 100% agree with that. Those are the ones that I sit there and I look at. I go, Those are things that should be in executive session and should be brought up with the five of us and we should discuss and if we have a problem we should move forward but putting them out
kind of gives me pause. That's all I'm saying. Well, we so can we all agree though to start with let's remove anything employee related from this complaint log for for for public consumption and then beyond that let's see what happens. Let's go another month or two and see what it looks like. Can we do that?
That's fine. I would sit there and it's almost impossible not to sit there and have a complaint log and not identify the department. So you're going to have to identify the department. You may not be identifying individual employees and how it goes. I don't think you Personally would like to get the complaint log before it goes in the package. That's just my personal
request. Again, I think anything that's directed at a specific department slash employees should be removed if it's about. Interaction with public works or it's about something else not getting done, mean you know, with the exception of public works, mean I think.
Why? If a resident complains that the tax collector's office is not open and they just want to make a complaint about that, that's something Again, we but I'm a tax collector. And I think that's where your filtering comes in, right? So there's a happy medium. Hey, if there's going to be interaction and communication between us members, I am not Jeff and Paula, are you two okay? I'm going to be very angry. I don't know if you see my face, I'm angry. I'm like, let's go. So Eric, try some administrative filtering,
give us as much as you can. I mean, I'm not uncomfortable with putting out the information that we're putting out. I would like to see it in advance, Eric. I might be able to sit there and make recommendations before it gets into this package. All right, so let's try that. We should review it. Why
don't you just have me send it to you offline and not put it in the packet?
No, Adrian is not wrong about us being transparent. He's not. I'm not sitting there. I agree we should have the complaint. The residents should know what people are complaining about and that we're trying to do something about it. I have no problem. It's very blunt. I have a problem with that, so I would like to review it. If you want to give it to everybody to review in advance, no problem. I'm good with that, but before it gets into this package, I would like to have a chance to look at it. Yeah, fine. Okay,
do we have any other issues on complaint? Okay all right we're going to move on so we're going go on to B, storm damage at Veterans Memorial Field.
That's kind of in the works. We're getting ready to replace the pump. Jay is still trying to get quotes from a fence guy just to straighten out the fence. We're going to use three of the large boulders we removed from the Veterans Monument as the boulders across to keep people from being able to drive on the field in the area that's part of the floodway.
So that's what's going on with that right now. If you need more boulders, I'll give you some.
Send the truck up. Eric, was that website I sent you of any help? Not sure what you're talking about. The surge suppression?
You sent me a inquiry about the the well pump in the surge suppression? Oh, I thought you were still working on that. I didn't know. I I responded to you. I I sent you an email.
Right, but I thought you were just emailing me to tell me you were still working on it. Well, I would
solicit a quote if you'd want me to. That's why I just said I gave you the name of the manufacturer that makes I reached out to somebody, one of my colleagues in Florida that deals with a lot of lighting protection And that company deals, they're an engineering company and they deal with surge suppression and they could find something there for our application. I had an initial conversation with them and they said nothing's going to survive a direct hit. Sure. It would just survive spikes and stray voltages that could come through the line from an indirect hit. So if we get hit directly again, nothing's going to save us. No grounding mechanism, anything. If it hits the pump, it hits the pump.
Right. I mean, do have, the system was installed initially with a surge suppression system, but these The electrician had recommended was that instead of two ground rods, you go go with the fully bonded in ground grid essentially.
Could tell you having still adding to my lightning strike. I'm at like 70 ks now because my whole house generator also pooped out. The only two things that that the insurance company says are effective, the grounding grid doesn't matter, but they said there's two things. There's a fusible link that you can put in line that will blow out first, and then there's a breaker that you can put in the panel. It's called an EMP breaker, and that will also help. But beyond that, there isn't much. Think the EMP breaker was a couple $100 and the fusible link is like 40 or $50.
Yeah, another way to do it is you can put a contactor on the well pump feed from the breaker to the pressure switch. Actually, the pressure switch comes on, you turn the contactor on, which turns the pump on, so you electrically isolate the pump. Yep. That's another way to do it. The problem with those EMP breakers is they're really prone to nuisance tripping. So you may go down and your sprinkler may not work for a day or two because it might have a nuisance trip. Okay. That's one issue that you do have. What I did like about the suppression company is they actually have health monitoring on it. So it has indicator lights that tells you if it's still good or bad. If you get a strike, it'll light up red if been destroyed. I'd be in favor of something like that. Is it possible for you to spec that for for our application? Yeah. I'm just gonna have to get together with Eric and figure out what we're gonna spec for a pump and the loads we're gonna have on that line. And, I can get something I can get a quote sent to us. Okay. Do we do we need a new pump down there? Yeah. There was information in this package about the pump.
I apologize. I missed that. I missed it too.
I'll look into that and then I'll reach out tomorrow and see if I can get something for the end of the week.
I mean, you do have that information that you can provide, Jeff, right? Yeah. Sent it to everybody, I think, right? I believe so. Remember. If
not tomorrow, Scott, I'll call you if I can't find it. Okay. This will be tomorrow.
Alright. While we're while we're together here, you know, we should probably finalize this. Jeff, you're going to find out about what you know about putting a breaker in there or something? Well,
we can do a breaker. Like I said, they're subject to like some nuisance, those breakers are subject to nuisance tripping. It's tough on an irrigation system because we could lose three or four days or even a week and nobody's going realize it's not running. That's the problem. Let me look into the surge suppression and see what we see what we come up for a price. If it proves to be too expensive, we can go with the breaker like Adrian suggested as a backup.
Because McRamboise has a new arrestor for that. A new style or a new kind that he was telling me about.
Well, company I got is, it's an engineering company and that's what their specialty is, designing these suppression modules for all kinds of applications. So if I give them my application, the load rating, you know, being outdoors, you know, and just I can get a quote.
Scott, can you get more info on the arrestor that LaFamboise is talking about? Sure.
Yeah, we sent it to me. Send it to me. I'm review it. Yeah, if you can kick it to me too, that'd be helpful. Thank And at a minimum before this pump gets put in, please put the breaker in if it's only gonna cost us $200 I don't really care about nuisance tripping for that field. And I know, Scott, that nuisance ends up on your plate, so maybe try not to have it. But it would be better that if something happened again, that at least that brake breaker went and knocked the whole pump again. Exactly, yeah.
That's my recommendation. So let's move on to request for qualifications for the affordable housing plan. Eric?
That's pretty well taken care of. The planning and zoning commission chose the Warner as the least costly vendor. So we're just getting ready to the attorneys looked at the proposal. So we're just going to sign the contract on that and let him get to work. Okay. And 8D,
the request for proposal, the electrical on the town hall, there's no update on that? No, because, you know, we've increased the scope of that project enough that it's gonna take a while to get everything together.
Okay. We're gonna move on to nine new business following the Bunker Hill Road bridge closure. I mean, I listened to what Eric had in his report and I realized that the state is going to be a couple weeks out. I would ask, what is the lowest load rating, smallest load rating that we can put on that bridge and at least get it opened up in a single lane?
Well, you could put it pedestrians only if you wanted, I guess, but That's
obviously not what I'm talking about. Guess you could probably do a six ton load limit on that. We'd have to buy the signage for it, but that would be possible. That's as far as I know, that's the lowest practical load limit you apply.
Didn't the state already say that nothing has changed since the last inspection? That's that was written there, right, Eric? Loading hasn't changed either. Well,
they did not load rate it the last time. Yeah, but he said that he said that nothing has changed that that the reconstruction is better than original. So, I would suspect that the load rating would be as same as the original.
Well, Scott, the only issue that I have is that if we're going to be prudent, let's just sit there and wait for the state to give us a load rating, which is going to wait until the middle of November.
May have I read the report and it said that it's as good as it was when it was made. Wasn't it?
No, it was as good as its last review which gives it a rating of a three and we realized there's been Right. Then during that review, said that there was no decrease in the load rating. I am okay. I want to open it. I just don't know if we walk first before we run. Let people drive over with their vehicles, keep all heavy trucks off of it. I mean, Adrian is the one who's got the most related to this bridge. Understands that. You and Scott, what do you guys want to do?
I just told you what I would say that it's the same as it was before, Cup. The problem is that we do a six ton load limit.
There's not, unless somebody's down there all day long, people are going drive over the bridge no matter what if it's over. But
it's about our liability. We put the sign up. We told them what we wanted and they chose to do something different. If there's something that happens, I'd ask my down attorney.
If you guys want to try to open it, to cars at this point, I have no problem with that. Then let's wait before we, to get an answer for anything else.
Dennis. One way only, correct? One way, stop signs on both sides? Yeah. One lane stop signs, both sides. That would be the, what we would propose. With a six ton load limit.
Okay. Dennis O'Brien, I believe you're still on. Now you can unmute if you can figure it out. What does a sign do and give us liability or minimize our liability? Okay. Paula, what is the phone application? Star what to unmute. I think it's star six.
Because my town attorney has a flip phone, I'm sure. I know. Well, maybe Eric can unmute him. You can do that manually. Right, Eric?
All it says is my only option is to ask to unmute, and I've asked him to unmute. Okay. But I don't have an option to unmute. I can mute him, but not unmute him. I agree
with the single lane and red cars. I'm just trying to think of term, but I'm not coming up with it. But personal vehicles, minimize load limit, stop signs in a single lane. I'm all for that to get it open now, and then we wait until the state gives us a more detailed report before we open it up. What about emergency vehicles?
I have no problem with emergency vehicles. Anybody else? Anybody having a and Scott, I do realize you want it opened up the whole way.
I just think it's Not that I want it. I'm trying to do it for the residents. I understand.
I think we just get it open now. Then if they said they come back, we could just take the signs down and we're back to the old limits. Yeah. I don't think it's a big I mean, most of the traffic on there is probably passenger car anyway, we're not gonna impact the ton. Passenger cars. Thank you, Mr. Greene.
Yeah. It may take a bit because, I mean, it's not it's not like we have six ton load limit signs sitting around the shop. Don't think so. We'll have to order the signs. Can we just have something that says no truck?
No, you could probably say no double axle trucks or something like that. Yeah, no truck traffic, you know.
Yeah, I'm sure there's signs we have in stock. So, but if if no trucks, you know, for you, I can see what we've got or what we can get.
Just, you know, double axle, no three axle trucks, something like that.
Eric, work on the signs and then let's try to get that opened as quickly as possible. Do we want to vote on that just so we're all on the record? Okay. I make the motion that we open Bunker Hill Bridge with weight restrictions and only for passenger vehicles. And and
I'll second that. Single lane. I'd like to amend that for one lane only with stop signs on both sides. Seconded the amendment. Okay. Okay. Further discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed?
Nobody. We're going move on now to the 9B, the RAM Multi Use Turf Field Project. Votes coming up in November. Anybody wanna sit there and do anything related to this? Okay. Do you propose anything? Anybody? I see a bunch of yellow signs around town.
That we don't support it or we do support it?
You make a motion to do anything you want. Is that what you're getting at? When you ask me? Yes. Murray.
I I don't know Murray. What what are what are the yellow signs?
There was a bunch of I saw a bunch today in support. Oh, boy. There's one on, Townsend in 316, and there's a bunch around the lake near Maguire's house. Oh.
Yeah. Right on Maguire's house, but nearby. And 187 as well. I saw it earlier. Do we need to do anything with this Eric? Not unless you want to do something with it.
Alright, moving on. Okay. The nine c finance department, town audit update, admin software update.
So the town has closed out the last fiscal year notified the auditor of that effect and asked the auditor to get cracking on the audit. Know that's the only real update I have on that. And Edwin admin software is a work in progress for using it. There are still some things that need to be worked out in reports, very definitely. Anything specific?
Yeah, there's a couple of things that in the changeover got called out kind of incorrectly, I think that we need to change. It's just verbiage in the descriptions. I think that's part of it. And there's a couple of things that seem like they're either not reporting correctly or somebody has miscategorized. But I don't need to go over those necessarily with you. Not that I wouldn't if you really wanted to. Well,
it appears that we were given the reports in the package. Just from my cursory glance, most of the revenues are not properly reported. How much work is really getting into Edmonds?
Is the thing that needs the most work right now is the revenue side of the reporting. There's no question.
Well, it would also be great if when we get reports, we could get them in appropriate cycle. I mean, listen, this is the first set of reports I requested Eric to at least get us something in this package because we've seen very little from admins. We've seen very little from the treasurer's department and office related to information. We've got to start doing a better job. I mean, we paid money for this software. We should be getting reports that at least give us some basic information because I look at this and I go, Hey, if you're not putting in your deposits, you're not reconciling your bank account.
Well, there's the next question. Where are we up to on balancing the checkbook? It's balanced through the last fiscal year. So we haven't balanced the checkbook since July? Correct. Actually June. I
mean it's not easy but you know that's what we spent money on, the software, so we better get better information. I asked Eric in our last and you guys can add to it. I really just want to see on a monthly basis, if you don't give me these reports, I just need to sit there and see a check register. Please provide a check register to us so that we can all see what checks were cut out of the system, actually to the people that they were written to, and so we can just evaluate and understand if there's something that we missed or we want to ask Eric about, that would be extremely helpful.
Eric, is this a time issue or is there some other I I understand we had some personnel things that happened that may have encumbered some of their time. Mean, is this is this something that we need to address or is this something that they're going to catch up in time here?
Oh, I think they'll catch up in time, But you changed both personnel at the same time, you know, you changed software and it's gonna take a while to get that all worked out.
Okay. Well, mean, I'm asking if we need to, do we need to authorize overtime or something? Is there something missing in the equation that we can do to help them? I guess is what I'm asking. I mean, on a limited basis,
I've authorized some OT for Marina when she has gotten behind. Obviously, the finance director is a salaried position. So when she needs to work extra, she needs to work extra. Okay.
Just as a side thing, if you're going give us reports, I think the report should go from the fiscal year. Maybe these reports work differently, but the date range on this is September 1 through October 6. I guess maybe that works. I don't know.
What is Jeff Maguire, do you know what the holdup is with this Edmonds? Why we're not getting these reports yet? What is not being entered or what's not happening that we I
understand that. I think they're definitely using it Scott. I mean I know the side that's being done is the checks are being cut out of it. I mean Adrian knows that, Eric knows that, so half the equation is in there. It's the other half that's not in there and if the other half's not in there, that means reconciliations aren't being done. It's a new visual for the report. I would just like to understand it. I would like to request that Sherri is at our next meeting and she's put first on the agenda so we can at least talk to her in the meeting. It's a Monday. I don't know if she works late, but please ask her to attend just so we can hear directly from her how it's going. It would also be
really helpful if on the expended year to date, if we can get a line in there that tells us the percent expended so we don't have to sit there and manually do it over and That over would really be good. Yes,
that is one of the things. There was an extra category on this report that gave that, but it's not working. So Edmunds has to do a bunch of things on the back end to actually make this. And it's not a it's a report issue more than an actual calculations issue. But the report is quite frankly still pretty screwed up in Edmonds. And that's an Edmonds problem,
you know, that they need to address. Have we had, or as Sherry or you, or as a group, have you guys sat there and had a sit down with Edmonds about this stuff? And is this, is this affecting the school side as well?
Yes, it's affecting the school side as well because it's the same program on both halves. Yes, Sherry's in regular contract with Eric as they work through quite a number of issues with the implementation of this.
I mean, it's just sort of for lack of a better word, pissing me off that we're paying for software that's not functional at this point, you know, and not a small amount at that rate. You know, Mr. McGuire's QuickBooks ideas looking way, way, way better at any moment now, but we're looking like we have egg on our face right now, you know? I don't. You don't. Don't. You know, we stopped at this more expensive software because it was supposed to be
workable, it is not looking that way right now. It it will it will get listen. This is my problem with the whole thing. It will get working. It will work like Phoenix. It will be a usable, auditable thing, but doesn't mean that it's easy and it doesn't mean that you can find another employee to step in and do it and operate it. That was the whole issue. That was the whole issue. That was everything about it. So anyway, Eric, please just have Sherry with us for the next meeting so that we can get an understanding of where she's at and what we need to do to help her in that department get
this moved along faster so that we get appropriate reports on a monthly basis and we feel comfortable as to what's being reported to us.
Yes. For the record, I thought Sherri was going to be on this meeting. I don't understand why she's not, frankly, because we had this conversation this week.
Okay. But make sure for her benefit that she's first on the agenda. Like, I don't want to sit there and have her wait until we get to item nine. I want her right in the beginning, let's talk about it. Let's all get a feel for what we're doing, ask her questions and we'll be good.
Yeah, I'd like to know what the online deposit is versus the office and then total.
Is online our credit card? Is that it? From the tax collector?
On the deposits line, yeah, collections. Is that everything that's coming in electronically?
Yeah, probably mostly the tax collector I would think. It's mostly ACH,
have to believe. Mortgage companies are sending the tax deposits. Yeah, because I mean if you take this report and tie it together with the tax collector's report, it ain't right. So I mean it's not really hard to figure out. Okay, so let's move on. So we're going to 9D, the Veterans Monument Park upgrades. Jared gave us a pretty thorough explanation of that. Scott, is there anything that you want to add to the Veterans Park? Any issues? Anything from your
Really I want to say that you know the reason why you guys see it all being done now is because we were tired of waiting for that person to do the irrigation. It was getting too late in the season and so I just said you know I talked to Matt Kordner and Ron Bisson and they said that we could get it going so that's why I started just to do it and it's coming together really well. It's probably going to be filled in by I would say the end of the week. Okay. Alright. Anybody else?
So I do have one thing, you know, when I look back at my notes, the town board of selectmen has approved the battlefield cross. But you really haven't ever had a discussion about adding the flagpoles number one, you haven't had a discussion about adding the POW monument for another. And I want to make sure you kind of understand what it is that Jerry's working on and that you're actually on board with it before we execute that. Because I don't think you've ever really weighed in on that and you probably should as a board.
Well, was kind of what I was asking as far as this whole cost conversation is that, you know, are all is all of this stuff covered by donations.
It appears that all of it except the irrigation and the electrical and the power, right? Which we'd already agreed to and budgeted for so. Well, I guess what guess what Eric is really comfortable with all of the monuments that are going to be there. Do we want to approve that?
I mean, far as the flagpoles go, I'm going, we need new flagpoles. I mean, yeah, I mean, I think I think Jerry's doing a great job and I, you know, I I appreciate what you're saying, Eric, that, you know, we need do we need some type of oversight?
Here's here's the thing. We're get we're gonna have a lot of it's gonna be very busy down there and I'm kind of siding with Eric on this one that I would really like to see something on paper to see if we're like a master plan in the right in the right direction here There's a lot of stuff going on, there's a lot of additional things that he wants to do and I would like to see it myself on paper and make sure that it's all gonna fit there and it's gonna look right. So Scott, can I ask you because you're down there dealing with Jerry all the time if you can sit there and get that accomplished for our next meeting? It's it's you're gonna you can't just have somebody draw it on a piece of paper. You gotta you know have the whole area probably you know I hate I know Adrian doesn't want to hear this but it probably should be surveyed and then put have somebody
put not so that not so that we can place it anywhere just so we can place the sizes on that parcel. Not to actually locate it in some spot just to see that all these things are gonna fit on that parcel and how they're gonna look because maybe they're not maybe you know what Jerry is thinking about doing is maybe it won't work you know and maybe we'll be wasting space that we could have done it in a different manner you know That's all I'm thinking. Are we gonna spend $10 on a survey? No, I didn't say that Eric, Adrian, I just said that we need to look at this a little closer. That's all I'm saying. There's a lot of things that Jerry's thinking about doing
that if you don't put it on, I mean you could draw it out on the ground but I don't know if that's you know,
if it's the right way to do So how do you want to address it? Because you know I know Adrian, we're looking to you for some.
I just told you what's going to cost you for a survey.
All right, I'll sit there and I will get with Sherri before the next meeting and we'll try to work with, you know, we'll talk You're going to do what Mr. McGuire?
I'm going to get together with Jerry and try to get, Eric, I'm assuming somewhere along the line you have a layout of that and Jerry's already got it and we'll just try to get a ballpark of what Jerry is trying to accomplish in space spaces that he's looking to fill and.
If you're going to go that route at the we can take this the state survey that Eric dug up and have that printed out on the master plotter in the building department, at least have a sizable document that they can functionally look at and start laying out on there. That would be helpful. Well, we are we already have that map.
But have you printed it out on a plotter so it's big enough to start laying stuff down on? Eric, did we do that?
I mean, we had big prints of it. Right, we did. We could certainly make more big prints of it. We did.
Well, and let's have let's have take the time to figure out a scale or the scale of get a reference scale and then start laying out even if you just start laying them out in blocks, you know.
And Jeff Maguire I feel the same way you do. Jerry's doing a very good job down there. He's the best volunteer we have in the town but we need to approve all these things I think also we need to be able to see what he wants to do where he's gonna do it. Yep. And just don't think anyone disagrees with that I just I'm talking about. Go back on the reins a little bit and see what's going on That's all I'm saying. I love what he's doing down there. He's a great good person.
Okay. All right let's move on to personnel. Eric, just I know you covered in your report, but briefly the building and land use department administrative position and the assistant town clerk position.
Sure. We've been advertising for, I don't know, three and a half weeks at this point for both positions. We have had a fairly good applicant pool for both positions. We're going to interview either eight or nine for the building and land use administrative position. Carol and I were supposed to talk today about how to proceed with interviewing for the assistant town clerk position.
So you were supposed to, but didn't? We did not.
Okay. Any other questions related to that issue? No? Okay. Somebody getting a text? All right. We're going to move on to public works fall winter schedule for tree roadwork. Eric.
Jay was going to be on in brief, but he had another commitment this evening. So, you know, we're pretty well wrapped up with the work. Unless somebody has onesies and twosies we need to deal with the major part of the tree work is done. You know that went fairly well. Overall, there were a couple complaints, but, you know, really only two and considering the size of the project we undertook. I think that's actually wonderful. You know, in terms of winter schedule right now, public works has one of the trucks torn apart, redoing the front brakes, because the old international desperately needed front brakes. We did get the truck back. Had originally planned on welding in house the repairs to the international. Made a decision not to do that because we just frankly don't have enough crew availability right now to do everything we had to do. So we did outsource that and paint that. And so that's complete that truck pretty well put back together. Now they're working on
the brakes. Rich is out doing, you know, re mowing right now. So he's back on mowing. You know, they've spent quite a bit of time dealing with the park or the Veterans Monument Park. So that's come along pretty well. It's obviously a lot less expensive for us to use public works to do that than to outsource that. What do we have left for?
Whether it's basin work or culverts that are either started or slated for this year that we haven't finished. And then secondarily, are we starting to put together? Is that one of the projects we're going to work on this winter? We should have a tree list for next year, so we know ahead of time and we can start working on that and then obviously I think my biggest concern is that this year we got sidetracked with. All these other little projects and we need to figure out how to manage them better so that we're not, you know, like for instance, whether it's is there is it better for us to look at having temp workers come in and do, you know, you know, traffic control for the tree company instead of our guys, you know, I mean, that's what we did this year. Okay. That was a 100% temp employees. It was yes. We don't have the personnel to do that right now. No, I guess I'm just concerned. It seemed like we didn't, we got bogged down between the bridge and the park and in storm repair and, you know, whether it's picking up behind the tree guys, we got bogged down I don't feel like we got as much roadwork done as we really wanted to. We started talking about drainage work and that type of stuff. No, we definitely did not get anywhere near the drainage work
done. You know, the problem comes in is that there's a million little things that everybody wants accomplished. And the question is, can you put all of them off and keep public works on just drainage projects. It is a problem we spent a lot of time dealing with storm drainage or storm cleanup this year between the storms we had this summer and the repairs to the bridge. Know, I'm frustrated that we didn't get anywhere near as much drainage work done. But then again, we pulled them off drainage to deal with the Monument Park.
So we start earlier next year on drainage. Maybe, because I felt like we started late this year. Personally, the problem is what aren't you doing?
If you start early? Number one, you're starting in the wettest season. So it's more difficult to do drainage because the water table is higher. And two, there's a lot of other tasks they're doing early in the year. It's not like you're just, yeah, it's problematic.
It is. Really think we need to brainstorm with Jay addressing some of that though, because, you know, I just felt like we, we got bogged down. I don't know if there's an easy solution, but we got to talk about it. So,
yeah, it's something Jay and I have talked about a bunch of times because, you know, I'm not happy with that. You know, on the other hand, you know, there's an awful lot of little things that we still haven't gotten to yet that we know we should have gotten to a long time ago.
Eric, are we having guys, one of the reasons why I really wanted to go to these time clocks, are we having guys punch on and off with job codes on and off jobs remotely?
No, don't think we can do job codes with prime pay. Don't think so. Why not?
Let's find out if we can right, so if they can we can get a job classification like, for instance, we could have created one for the bridge and track all the time we spent on the bridge. That's a good idea Adrian
you know. So we can start figuring out instead of sitting us sitting around going gee where did all the time go. You know where it went. You know. And that way we can start addressing where our shortcomings where do we possibly need to look at subbing stuff out or or or bringing in maybe somebody has more of a special skill in that area, you know that's that's my suggestion so.
Eric what roadwork did you. Are you planning to do for the rest of the year, if any?
Well, he's got about another month and then they're going to close the asphalt plant. So that's all he's got. Well, I don't think we're really planning on doing any roadwork
per se. I mean, we pretty much killed the roadwork budget. So there's not really any funds there unless we start taking away with the money we normally spend early spring before the July 1 start of the new budget. So we've spent that whole, you know, nugget. I had a conversation today with Jay, because I know you've expressed a desire to have the area Lakeside Drive paved. We're going to start looking at what are all up costs to do Lakeside Drive, because that's going to be fairly expensive. I honestly question whether we can do that next year, because that's going to involve some drainage work. And frankly, I don't think we'll get it to it next year. So if we do that project, we would be subbing everything out, you know, drainage sub base, you know, the paving the whole, you know, whole shebang.
I mean, but this is something that we, you know, so we can start instead of trying to spend doing a five year master plan, even if we just go out two or three years and start doing a master plan of what we want to look at and have those numbers in play. And if you do it in a spreadsheet with a set, if you do it, if we're going to do that doing a master spreadsheet with excel where you can sit there and say. This is based on this much per you know this much per ton of asphalt, so you can update that spreadsheet every year by just updating the asphalt costs and you automatically update all of your expenses, you know, instead of having to go through and manually adjust everything you know. If we start building a database like that, and then we can adjust it as we go, and we know we can start approximating number of hours, you know how many people we need on it and start building out that master schedule. Like that's really what I want to see Jay doing is start we need a you know.
Dry erase boards like right behind me where you can start figuring out a schedule and plugging it in, you know, and we should have that master schedule going so that guys start walking in in February and they see March we're doing this, April we're doing this, and we can also start seeing if we're getting behind and and figure out hey we're getting behind on this what do we need to shift what's a priority you know so.
Jeff is it possible I can talk for a minute here? Absolutely. I forgot to talk about something, irrigation, I forgot to update that completely because there was a there's a man that is donating all the topsoil for the whole Park and Matt Korner's doing all the hydroseeding so you know it was the dirt for that was a pretty substantial sum and he's gonna donate it all. I was just wondering if we could write up if Eric could write up a letter of appreciation and we could all sign it or something or do something. I think that's a great idea.
And if you really want to be nice to him, figure out what it costs you and put it in the letter so he could deduct it. That would that would be even better.
K. Screen topsoil is, you know, 16 to $20 a yard right now, so 17 yards to your truck. Right. Can we can we add to the list
a letter to Matt and Ron? I mean, they're Yeah. They're doing a lot of work down there too. All those guys. Yep. I I don't think we should let this slide this time. We should take care of these guys.
Okay. I think we're all for that, Scott. Thank you. Do we have any other issues related to that topic?
Okay. Yeah. Again, I'm sorry for dragging that out. I just I want us to start getting prepared ahead of time, so wait until last minute on this stuff. That's all, you know.
Nine gs, the community senior center building committee update. Any of you guys have anything for that? There's nothing On I can I Thursday,
right? Is that right, Meeting on Thursday, correct. It's gonna be a focus on needs versus wants for the architect. Then you guys have done one visit already?
I was not part of it. I don't know if Scott went
with the group. A visit to the got the community center. Kathy's going to give us a line by line whatever she she went to the to visit those different community centers senior centers in different towns she took pictures of it all she's going to be telling us on Thursday night. Okay So. Okay so. Did did the actual did you did Eric give the actual job to the guy yet? Did is Eric around? Yes. Yes. This contract's been signed. Yes. You gave it It's in the packet. Good. Okay.
So we'll move on from there. Let's move on. So we're moving to the Connectivity Grant progress. Since Eric is not here, that progress is complete. We're going to move on from there. We'll come back to the DEP grants. In our packet were two. We had talked about these two grants. One is the Coventry grant to assist with their link up to one of the trails. And then there's the other one, is a resolution to support a town administrator. So why don't we just move forward with this? Well, does anyone have any issues with the grant application that Coventry is doing for the Nathan Hale Loop? I think we talked about last meeting we're all in favor of it. Yeah, we have
no input in it whatsoever correct and it's not doing anything with property. No
Jeff that's not true they're gonna be putting up a parking area on that 18 acres on Bear Swamp Road right? I do believe that that was the case. Okay, now you're refreshing my memory a little bit. Yeah Jeff you had some reservations I thought. Yeah, didn't, I'm not, I'm not really in the town. I thought you had some reservations.
And the use of the town crew to do that, I'm not, don't, what's everybody think about that?
I actually think we revisit it once the trail is complete.
Well, it's not even that. Coventry wants to sit there and provide, you know, wants to go after a STIP grant for that, or indeed a recreation trails grant.
I think time's running out, right? We need to give them some sort of insight and answer soon. I I remember they're trying to get this very quickly.
No. I mean, this this goes back to what we were just talking about, though. It's just it's always a project. There's another project to throw at public works that we don't have time for.
Eric, we're talking about the Coventry grant. Please explain to us the costs associated with this grant for the town of Andover.
The Coventry grant shouldn't have any other than we probably should agree to do the actual physical work other than the tree clearing, which will pawn off on distinctive. Yeah, what's that going to cost?
We'll grant fund all the material. So it's a question of time. And that's going to chew up at least ten days of public works time to do it. So two weeks. Yep.
Then why can't we get this outsourced with the grant funding?
Well, because all these grants are 8,020. So the we set it up to pay for them pay for the materials and us pay for labor. We could, I guess, try to outsource the whole thing and pay and ask for more money, I guess, if you want to do that.
Well, I'm assuming what's the total that Coventry is asking for? I don't know, honestly. So why do we have to put up 20%?
We're not putting up any money whatsoever. The only thing we're going to agree to is if that we wanted to get a parking area out of it, that we would use our public works to do the labor for the parking area. If you don't want a parking area, then we just don't include it, and we don't pay anything and it doesn't take us any time. This is your spot. I
mean, if you don't want a parking area, then let's just scratch that from the grant and let's roll on.
I mean, what's your take on it, Eric? My point was that this is, again, it's, we just keep adding things to public horse list.
I agree. It's problematic. You know, but I mean, it's all a question of what your priorities are.
I mean, given that we have the new connectivity stuff going on and we're working on our own parking area there, do we need another one right now?
I mean, it depends. Do you want there to be access from the town of Andover to Nathan Hale State Forest? It's really that simple.
Isn't there already plenty of access to Nathan Hale Forest from Coventry? Sure.
So they have to drive over the line to go in there. Most people park in Nathan Hale Homestead. To be honest.
I hate to say it, but I would ax it then. Okay, not a problem, done. Yeah,
only issue I have is like, who's gonna maintain this once we make it? Are people gonna be hanging out, leaving litter and stuff? Are we going have to go and clean it regularly? We're going to have to plow it. You have to plow it? Absolutely. The problem is right now we have trails that we can't even maintain. I've been mowing last couple of years, the section around Chamberlain Pond. I haven't even got there this year to even do it. It's just, we don't have enough people right now to even maintain what we have. That's the problem. Yeah,
I think we need to focus on our other priorities right now and it's a it's a want not a need so.
So you'll approve the project, but you don't want a parking area. Yeah. Good.
But there's there's the so the town has no stake in this town of Andover? That's not Napoli.
What do you mean about no stake? I mean, we're gonna have some signage put up in the town, but that's it. And what else? And you're not proposing anything in Andover other than some share the road signs. Okay, the only thing Andover was going to add to it would be a parking area for trail access.
And the only thing I would suggest is there is there any way we could go back to Coventry and say, hey, we can put the parking area in but we just don't have the labor to do it. If you guys want to provide the labor.
Why would they care about a parking area in Andover?
Part of their trail system, it'd be part of their grant, correct? Yes,
but they're not going to spend the labor to build a parking lot in Andover. Okay. You guys sure wouldn't consider doing any of the labor to help them build the road through Coventry, would you? Probably not.
How much we're gonna use it? No. Alright, let's just move on. Here we are with that, Jeff.
Yeah, I'm fine. Are you going to make completely are we going to make a motion to support the grant even without the parking area? We
don't need to it's their grant. Eric can you mute please?
We don't need to make a motion. Is there a grant, Jeff?
You already agreed that you were going to support it. The grants get a lot stronger when they're inter town. And if you look at it, a lot of the stuff that occurs, the on road portion of the trail is in Andover. So if that's going to occur, you probably should support it.
But we already did that. We already said we would, right? You just said that, Eric.
No, we already said we would support Last meeting we did not. I don't believe we passed a resolution supporting it. Did we? Refresh my memory because I cannot remember. Eric.
Not that I know of unless you did it while I was using their facilities.
Am I crazy or did you just not say that we already said we were in You
just said that. We did. Last meeting we said we had a conversation that we would support it. I am sitting there saying we did not pass a resolution to support it. Okay, I'm going to make a motion that we make a resolution of support for the grant application to DEEP recreational trails program by the town of Coventry for the Coventry Nathan Hale. I'll second.
I'll amend your motion to say that we authorize the town administrator to write a letter thereof, and explain that we'll support with signage, etc, etc.
So there's a resolution that I sent you. If you agree with the verbiage of that resolution, Carol Lee will just add your signatures to it and we'll send it off and it will be done. If that's acceptable to you. Which is what I read. Correct? Correct. Without the parking area. They had nothing to do with the parking area. Yeah, he sent an email with proposed.
Motions. It's a very generic support resolution. I mean, we're not saying that we're committing to do anything. It's not our grant. It's not within the grant. If they write it in the grant, we don't build a parking area. It will help Coventry. I believe. There you go.
So we got to mean I know Adrian you are trying to amend but the way Eric wrote it is eight I one resolution of support for grant application to DEP recreational trails program by the town of Coventry for the Coventry Nathan Hale. Paul the second. All in favor?
In favor. I'm trying to read his actual resolution. Because you have two there. You have one and two.
Correct. The other one's for a different The other one is for three sixteen.
Okay. Fine. Okay. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? No. Alright. So now we have the second grant that Eric is working on. And Eric, do you want to explain that one?
Sure. So at your last meeting, you decided that the town should apply to DEP for a grant to fund the trail design for a multi use trail along Route 316, essentially tying in the rail trail with School Road. So that's what I'm in the midst of. Yeah, it's due November 1 which is before your next meeting. Yeah. And because it requires a match by the town of Andover. I am not authorized to submit that without resolution of the board.
I'll make a resolution to support and authorize town administrator apply for a grant with the deep recreational trails program for multi use trail connection between the Center Street rail access point and School Road along Route 316 and this grant would be funded to fund the trail design at an eighty twenty town supply point percent. I second that.
All right, further discussion All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? No. All right, let's move on to 9J, a town wide Christmas caroling 2021. Paula King.
Okay. Last year, we put together something for the residents. We went around town, and it wasn't really a town wide event, but it just happened to be that the board members were doing it. So Adrian and I would like to propose bringing this back, but have it as a town wide event, include the community this time, and kind of expand on the idea. So we were thinking we're going to learn from last year. Yeah. And we'll have designated stops and a route that we'll share on our town website, our Facebook page, and flyers. And we also wanna get some other organizations involved and maybe have a fire truck in the front, fire truck in the back. We can have a trailer for our board if you so choose to join us again, and then put it out to the community and invite maybe the scouts, the PTA or pool, or whoever else wants to join them on the fun. Adrian, you wanna explain more? Yeah, basically what we're thinking is if we did it as a as a way to
Raise money for some of the nonprofits in town so we could have a a fee to put a trailer in like say I don't know $100 or something. For $100 you could put up a trailer decorated.
You had to come and sing along. Allow the residents to vote on Facebook who had the best trailer, something like that, and we'll do like first, second, third prize to their respective community organization.
We we wanna get a committee together so we can have some input from, you know, community member. Adrian and I would be on the committee, and we would like to ask somebody from the firehouse to be on the committee and and somebody else who would be it would make sense to have on there. But it's December will be around the corner, so we wanted to start having the conversation tonight and and hopefully get the word out and get the committee formed and meet a couple of times before December and pick a date. And then this way we can get things rolling.
I mean, we're definitely gonna need help with logistics like I need to probably talk to you, Jeff, about is there a way for us to. Broadcast on a radio frequency or something so that we can instead of having one float that had music on it, we can either have all the float synced or we could broadcast on a radio, a small shortwave radio receiver, just a short distance so that as we're going by people can pick up the signal and have the have the music there.
We could. It's just I don't know. Technically, we'd have to look into it. I think last year we just tried to cover too much ground. I think we maybe just kind of did a parade type thing and just kept it like maybe towards the lake area. Yep. No, that we're definitely kind of thinking Yeah, because I, the problem is I'm just worried about getting a bunch of people in trailers and stuff riding around town because last year it was a little, we had some sketchy moments as far as Right, and I think that's because we're trying to rush to all these different locations. Yeah, I think we kind of do like
we would do, you know, Paul and I talked about maybe we do something at the field. We do something at the school. And then do a lake run like that type of thing, you know.
Yeah, because we have to. We have to consider parking for the vehicles that are that are participating. Yep, and then parking for the people that are coming to listen. We were thinking start at the town hall, the school, because there's plenty of parking there like we did last year. Go to go to, you know, the Veterans Fields because there's good parking there. And, and then And then do a lake loop. Yeah, and then call call it a night. And if we share the the spots or the designated spots early, then. You know, we were going out and people know, well, I'm gonna I'm gonna be there and we'll share designated times. Don't we're not going to do the lake loop like we did last year where we're stopping.
As frequently and we could maybe we could close like a cross street like maybe island or something we close that so people could park there and gather on the end of it type of thing, you know.
Yeah, I I would think two stops on a lake. We're not going to do like we did last year where we're stopping however often because it's that's just gonna it's, it's gonna be dangerous and
it's gonna prolong the night like it was last year. Yeah, mean, I think we talked, have you talked to Carol Lee about this at all? Nope, nope. I think we should probably, this project go to rec commission. Okay.
I would probably go to rec commission first, make it a rec commission event. I think it's a
great idea. And I think Well, our only concern is that we wanna, we know we wanna ramp this up. By the time we get this rolling and start having meetings, we could be in the first week of November.
Yeah. I just wish I would have known. They just, the recognition just had their meeting tonight at 06:00. Yeah. So they could have discussed it. I just wish I would have known a little bit. Why don't you just Carol at the gazebo?
And that way nobody gets run over and you're not driving down the road with drunk people in the back of trailers.
Well, first of all, I I don't think we were looking for drunk people. No. They make bear up. They make horrible calories.
And I will guarantee you there was not one drunk person on that trailer.
And the whole idea I I see what you're saying, Eric, about keeping it in one in one spot. I think the idea about bringing it around town was it's like a parade. Right? So it's you're driving you're driving around. You're decorating these vehicles, and it's a parade, but we're also singing to the So. Alright,
so so. Well, you know what? What's this? Let's try to get the recognition to hold a special meeting if we can. And you know, if we need to if the recommission feels accordingly, we could do something like they do a trunk or treat where they they judge them, we could still do trailers like floats. And we could maybe park them in the school parking lot and have everybody go around and judge them, you know We could do something. I still think we want to do something like that, you know, akin to that.
Right. Right. And you can do deck decorate a decorate a vehicle with the caroling, you know, caroling. Sure. Sure. Okay.
We'll figure something out we'll talk to I'll talk to caroling and see if she can if she can jump up some support and but. Just want to make sure you guys weren't against it and before we started running with this.
Right, and we we wanted it to be a community involved event. So not just, you know, last year was great and it was something that we brought to the town, but we're thinking this would be like a nice community event and then benefit the people watching, the people who are the organization that's getting money and getting people, you know, a lot more people involved if they choose to decorate You a
can do that, but last year was a lot of fun and for the people that were at their houses that right, was an enjoyable experience. Mean that doesn't happen in over.
Yeah, I think that's why we were thinking to recreate that, know, it's sort of like how you know well Mantic has the you know has the the boombox parade and they have third Thursday and some of that something that involves the community and goes around to them, you know.
So I mean I have no you guys can get it organized. Less stops, a better route. Yeah, a much shorter program. Maybe what you do is you don't offer it up that everybody can be in the parade. I understand that, Paula. Why don't you just sit there and ask people who want to participate to create a stop in their neighborhood? They get all their neighbors out and they come and carol at a certain time when we try to get the trailer over to But anyway, there's plenty of things that you guys can do, so let's get the Rec Commission involved in it to begin with and then I'm sure that everybody on this board will gladly participate. Okay, great. Thank you. I still have my elf costume.
Well, I'll sit there and say everyone on this board will participate. Our town administrator, you know, you honestly, if anybody should be the Grinch. We need a Scrooge. Yeah, Scrooge. You're the Grinch. Anyway, let's move. Animal nine ks, the animal control officer with NECOG. Eric?
So I'm going to recommend that we try for a while to use NECOG to provide animal control services to the town. The cost is basically $3.15 per capita per year. We would do it on a quarterly basis. In other words, try it a quarter at a time, make sure we're happy with the service they're providing us and they're okay with providing us the service. That's kind of my recommendation.
Where where would the pound be for Andover dogs? Killingly. Yeah, that's forty five minutes from you got it from someone's
some some young lady that's pup is missing and she has to drive forty five minutes to get her dog back.
I would gather that most Andover residents would know well before Nikog gets somebody on-site that their dog is missing. I would hope they would know so.
I'd like to make a motion then. I'd like the motion to authorize the town administrator to enter in a contract with NECOG to provide animal control services for the town of Andover at a cost of $3.5 per capita. I'll second that.
All right, further discussion? All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? All right. 9L, the 2022 meeting schedule. That is in our packet. Where is it? Does anyone have a problem with the dates? I know Valentine's day is one of those. It's one of my favorite holidays. I really don't want to be on a Monday meeting, but I will. You have a favorite holiday?
It's one of my favorite holy holidays. It's a holy holiday now. It's a holy day. K. Marvelous holiday. Yes. It's marvelous. Fabulous. So does anyone have a problem with the schedule as it's currently outlined?
Valentine's Day is horrible. Can't do that one. I know. Every every day should be Valentine's Day, gentlemen. You're right.
Paula, I you are my favorite select person without a doubt. Anybody with, I'm trying to find it, must have went too far, there it is. So Monday the tenth, Tuesday 02/14, 03:14, 04:11. Where is it in the packet? I'm looking for it. On page 22. It's we got past it because we went to the treasurer reports. So it's 22. Page 22.
So what day can we move Valentine's Day to, Jeff?
No. No need. No need to move that. It's a Monday. I'll I'll take my lovely bride out on a Saturday. It'll be fine. My my only comment is we're gonna probably have the same, challenge on Wednesday, October 12, because that's that's gonna be another board that's gonna be a board of ed meeting. So let's move that to
10:11. I'm I'm still looking for the darn calendar. I can't find it. Oh my goodness. Your pages are different than mine apparently. Eric, share your screen. Not a whole calendar, Adrian.
No. Do not share the screen. Find it in your package. Let's go. I got finance department reports before that? Yes. Way before that. Page 22. It should your PDF. There it is, you got it. It's a table. Okay. So Eric, also all of the holiday terminology, remove from the list. So even Valentine's Day, don't really want to know that it's a holy day, so that would be helpful for the rest of the board. So please get rid of it. Anybody
have any problems with any of the dates? Like, do they know about if it's anybody's birthday? Well, as Paul already pointed out, 10/1012. So let's move it to 10/11. K.
And when do you wanna do 03:14? I'm sorry. 02/14.
No. We're not moving that. Just leave it. Unless anybody else is really wanna move wanna move that. So I wouldn't mind moving it, actually. Okay. So let's move that one to Fifteen. Fifteen's fine.
You're a big softy, Adriana. Don't tell anybody. Oh my gosh. Okay, so we are, 110, 2153144115961371188, 912, 1011, 1114, and 12.12. Okay? You good? Alright, so Eric, I don't know if you had a motion in there for this.
I don't think I do not, but you can just make a motion for that. All right. Make a motion to accept the calendar
with the adjustments to the February date, 02/15, and the October date to 10/11 Further discussion Seconded. I'm going seconded. Sorry, I was going to move on. Further discussion on those dates? All all those in favor, aye. All those opposed? Not there. Okay. So we're going to move on to Item 10, approval of the meeting minutes for Monday, 09/13/2021, our regular meeting minutes. Anybody got any changes, any issues with the minutes? Somebody make a motion? I make a motion to accept the minute meetings for the Monday, 09/13/2021 regular meeting. I second. Seconded.
All those in favor, aye. All those opposed? Were you opposed, Adrian, or are you in favor? I was in favor. I'm sorry, had delayed. We're a little late, yes. Finance department reports, we talked about those already. Does anybody have any issues related to the finance department reports?
No, I just want the extra column. Okay, Eric, please
revise the agenda in the future to actually the reports that are included because this is older information. You don't usually include all those reports. Just include the put on the agenda the reports that you're going to put into the package. Budget appropriation transfers over expenditure requests. Eric, do we have any? I don't think so. I didn't see any either. Item 13, tax collectors report. That was further down. Okay, so we had two sets of data in this one, So it appears so far the town has collected $3,569,788 the taxes for the period of this fiscal year. In August, collected $606,000 and in September, we collected $179,000 Any other questions on the tax collectors report? Reports? We have four refunds to vote on. Refund of excess payments from four different
taxpayers. Somebody wanna make a motion to approve those, or, Eric, do we even need to approve those?
I don't think you had that in your motions. I did not. I should have made a motion for that.
Okay. I am anti refunds. I will not make that motion.
I make a motion that we extend the refunds as noted in the tax assessors or tax collectors report. Second.
Discussion. The total is for $983.32 To four individuals. Four taxpayers. So anyway, all those in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? No. Move on. All right. Assessors report. There is a report in here from the assessor. Okay. Any questions on this? I do have one question, Eric. And if you could find out, I would like to know, how can a one vehicle have been totaled twice? There's a vehicle in here for a taxpayer that says totaled on the report 12/19 and totaled on the report 2020. It's the same VIN number. I just questioned that. Just a silly little thing. Like to know. Wait. Where are you? What am I missing?
Taxpayer, Nadine Gray. Yeah. It's in there twice. I just wanted to know how it could be totaled twice and totaled for two different amounts. That's two different years. Two different years. I think what they did is they made a mistake because one doesn't look like it has an amount. It doesn't have whatever that adjustment, the original. Anyway, it doesn't make sense. I just like the one. Anyway, anybody else? Okay, we'll move on to the departmental reports. There are reports in here from the fire department. I did not see the burning official. I saw the Andover Public Library. I saw the resident state trooper. I saw the senior transportation. I saw the library. Anybody have any questions related to any of them? Oh, the registrar of voters also had their
anybody else? Nothing? Okay. We're going move on to item 16, correspondence. Eric, I didn't see any. I did not either.
Okay. We're going to move on now to public speak. Let's move through our list. Diane Choquette, would you like to participate? No, I'm good. Thanks. Thank you very much. Dorothy Yeomans.
I just appreciate you working hard on the bridge. It means a lot to a lot of people on this side of the Hop River.
All right. And then we have one phone number. 2345 ends in. Would you like to participate? 2345 is me.
No. No? Okay. Then I have 5475. Oh. My bad.
That's okay. I've got plenty to say if you want to hear it. We'll wait.
All right, well let's move on. So I think, and Eric, why is it not on the agenda of the executive session?
Because you're working off of the wrong the old agenda. Yes. Yes. Which has been
which was updated on Friday and reposted. So I'm not sure exactly
was it nine E, I think right. Because we have to address. I am sorry I was I was pull I have the website up. I'm using the website. Some of them are. It is on there, Jeff, and some of them there aren't. Okay, well, let's make a motion. By the way, Eric, can you pass on to Roberta and the assessor that we appreciate that they are actually doing an activity log that we like we had asked for? Thank you. Yep. Very much appreciate that.
They are. Alright. So what am I missing? My agenda update. Let me find it.
In the future, when putting these together, can we also put documents at the end in the order that there are in the rather than throwing them in the middle? Which documents specifically are out of order?
Well, so for instance, it goes into the I'm working off the I'm working off the the agenda and we go into the revenue reports when we go into finance, but then we have to go all the way through the revenue reports to get down to the bottom. You know, so instead of splitting the agenda up, list the whole agenda and then list the reports after them in the order appropriately. Okay. I'm not actually sure what you're
Okay. So it goes finance 11 and then budget 12. And in between I got 10 pages, 12 pages. It's just an order issue.
Yeah so keep so that when you look at the agenda if someone else looks at the agenda, I look at the agenda, I see nine ends at L and then. And then it jumps right, I have to go through all these other things, instead of putting the document put the whole agenda and then put the documents in the order that they fall on the agenda. All right. We can deal with that after.
That's how we've done it in the past. This is a new layout. It is. That's why it's frustrating me.
Okay. So who wants to make a motion to go to executive session? I'll make a motion we go to executive session. What do you got here? What do got? Haven't made the motion yet. You're quick. I said so moved.
I love you. All right, executive session under Connecticut General Statute one-2006A to discuss item 9E. Is that the right reference nine e?
Yeah. Personnel building land use admin and assistant town clerk. Wow.
It's eight. I don't know which agenda we're using. So we're going to go with 9E because I think that's the first agenda, nine. I think it's supposed to be 8E.
It should have been 8E. That was an error on our part. Okay. I used the same one off the website.
So I guess the website didn't get updated. Two on the website. So I used the wrong one as well. But now I went, I got the newer one and so it's. The
problem occurred is that Scott asked at the last minute on Thursday. It's Scott's fault. To adjust the agenda. And the only person I had there capable of updating the website is Roberta and that's not what she does for a living. It's no big deal. It really no big deal.
It always happens. If I'm going with whatever the final one should be, my motion should be to discuss item 8E. Correct. Scott, you seconded it, right? Yes, sir. All those in favor? Aye. Okay, let's go. Thank you very much everybody for joining us. We appreciate it.