TOWN OF SUTTON
Pillsbury Memorial Town Hall
93 Main Street Sutton Mills, NH
Sutton Mills, NH 03221
Board of Selectman
April 23, 2018 @ 4:00 p.m.

 

 

The meeting was called to order at 4:00 p.m. by William I. Curless, Chair.  Present at the meeting were:  William I. Curless, Chair; Dane Headley, Selectman; Robert Wright, Jr., Selectman; James Bibbo, Chair Bradford Board of Selectman; John Pfeifle and Michael James, Bradford Selectmen; Robert DeFelice, Budget Committee Chair; Karen Hambleton, Bradford Town Administrator; Lonnie Guin and Elly Phillips, Sutton Town Administrator.

 

APPOINTMENTS: 

At 4:30 p.m. the Bradford Board of Selectmen: James Bibbo, Chair; Michael James and John Pfeifle, Selectmen and Karen Hambleton, Bradford Town Administrator, presented to discuss cooperative municipal efforts.    Ms. Hambleton advised that the Boards had previously met on June 7, 2017 to discuss ways in which the towns could get together to save money and resources. 

 

Selectman Pfeifle spoke about the savings achieved by the town of Bradford through an agreement with the town of Henniker for ambulance services.  He advised that Bradford sold their ambulance and obtained a first response vehicle operated by emergency response volunteers.  Mr. Pfeifle shared his vision which would be to join forces with Sutton and Warner to become one town which was comprised of “tri-villages.” The tri-village would be managed/staffed by one Board of Selectman, one town administrator, one police department etc.  Selectman Pfeifle opined that by combining resources expenditures could be cut in half.   

 

Selectman Wright asked what has been done so far amongst the towns that has been working?  Selectman Wright was advised that a consolidated oil bid resulted in cost savings for the towns.  Selectman Wright observed that was going to a third party but did not involve personnel and favored a slow approach to this type of change. 

 

Phillips and Hambleton reported on various ideas that the town administrators explored to consolidate resources.  One idea was to broaden the level of service to residents by opening all three solid waste facilities (which are in all in proximity) to the townspeople in all three towns.  The each facilities would be open 2 different days a week. This would eliminate the third day for all three towns and provide 6 days of access to the facilities for the residents.  In addition, the administrators discussed acquiring a tractor for roadside mowing and sharing its use amongst the towns.

 

Selectman James supported looking at small areas of change to begin the process.  Selectman Bibbo agreed and felt that the roadside mower was a good idea and could be rotated between the towns.  Selectman Bibbo said that paving could also be coordinated between the towns to help mitigate move-in costs. 

 

There was consensus that combining outside services such as town counsel, assessing, auditing might help to reduce costs.  Selectman Pfeifle sought support for the concept of a tri-town.  Selectman Wright stated that a large portion of the tax rate was not related to municipal services and felt that residents of the towns would not want to lose control of services such as public safety.  Selectman Wright wasn’t sure there would be support for the one town concept, noting that getting  bigger doesn’t mean you become more efficient.  Selectman James favored finding out what does work between the towns and tackling small things first in order to achieve a successful result.  Selectman James speculated that combining resources would likely be complicated, and that there may be unintended consequences.  Selectman James encouraged going slowly and keeping a dialogue open. 

 

Selectman Headley felt that starting with sharing outside services such as assessing was a good idea and discussed how assessing services in neighboring communities were improved through this methodology.  Selectman Curless discussed combining part-time positions such as land use coordinator for the towns.  Adding that if the position became full-time, the towns’ would have to factor in associated benefits as well as cost distribution among the towns.  Selectman James emphasized the merits of looking at services as opposed to shared employees. 

 

Other areas that were discussed were computers, mowing the graveyards and shared library resources.  Selectman Pfiefle discussed the major costs factors for municipalities among which were police, highways, administrative costs, and facilities.  Selectman Bibbo discussed shared resources among fire and police departments.  Selectman Bibbo also reviewed economy of scale and how it impacts costs.

 

The administrators were tasked with coming up with a list of areas where shared resources seemed most viable.  The select boards will then rank the resource areas and determine areas of commonalities.   The administrators will report back to the select boards during the third week in May.     Selectman Wright favored getting input from the Department Heads and emphasized the importance of getting the concept out in the form of public hearings, covering it in the annual report and discussion at town meeting.   The Board considered the importance of level of service and local control over services, agreeing that cost is not always the primary factor. 

 

Robert DeFelice, Sutton Budget Committee Chair, felt that starting with the transfer stations was a great way to start to provide increased service to the communities and promote the concept.  He also felt that the libraries would be a good way to share resources among the communities.  

 

Selectman Curless observed that just getting together to discuss operations would be a great way for the towns to see how to streamline or improve services by seeing how the other towns’ operate.  Selectman Curless thanked the Bradford Selectmen for supporting the Town Clerk’s office with vehicle registration during Sutton’s transition in the clerk’s office.  The neighboring town of Wilmot is also assisting the clerk’s office.     

 

The public minutes from April 16, 2018 were approved as written.  The sealed non-public minutes (sessions 1, 2 & 3) were approved as written.

 

REVIEW OF MANIFESTS:

The Board reviewed and approved the following manifests:

PAYROLL MANIFEST:   $  11,536.48

VENDOR MANIFEST:     $139,844.52

 

BUILDING PERMIT:

The Board reviewed and approved the following building permits:

Michael and Kathie Sweeney, Map 07-023-243, Kearsarge Valley Road for window replace and roof replacement.

Jason Flack, Map 10-224-044, Hominy Pot Road, for a deck/porch area

Joseph Poirier, 02-380-492, Jolly Farm Road, for a garage

Marc Beauchemin, 06-467-264, Chalk Pond Road for a chicken coop

Richard Kelley, Map 10-037-404, Ridge Road, solar panels

 

INTENT TO CUT: 

The board issued an intent to cut for Country Club of NH, Thomas Friel, Map 07-430-450 and 07-455-213 for 300 out of 300 acres.

 

CURRENT USE:

The Board approved an application for current use for Lee and Judy Gagnon, Route 114 04-286-402/04-305-436, for 7.46 (contiguous) acres.

 

NEW BUSINESS:

The Board executed the CAI GIS Internet Annual Maintenance Agreement.

 

The board executed Pole Licenses for PSNH/Eversource.

 

At 5:42 p.m. Selectman Wright made a motion to enter into non-public session under RSA 91-A:3, II (b) The hiring of a public employee.  Selectman Headley seconded the motion.  The Board was polled:

Selectman Curless       Yes

Selectman Headley     Yes

Selectman Wright       Yes

Public session resumed at 5:55 p.m.  The minutes were not sealed.  The Board unanimously voted to hire Diane Lander as Land Use Coordinator at a starting pay rate of $17.00/hr. for a probationary period of 6-months.  Upon successful completion of the six-month probationary period, the pay rate will be increased to $18.00.

 

The Board noted concerns raised by Pete and Marne Thompson regarding roadside dumping and will follow up with the road agent.

The Board discussed new criteria for recycling paper at the Solid Waste Facility and will review the process with Diego Solimine at the next regularly scheduled Selectmen’s Meeting.

 

The Board issued yield taxes for the Prime Children’s Trust, Map 03-336-192 in the amount of $150.60 and Map 03-273-167 in the amount of $2,069.08

 

The Board reviewed an Intents and Reports of Cut Summary compiled by Anita Blakeman, Timber Monitor.

 

REVIEW OF CORRESPONDENCE:

The Board noted correspondence from Town of Bradford regarding cell coverage.

 

SELECTMEN’S COMMENTS:

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 5:55.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

 

Elly Phillips

Town Administrator