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Selectboard meeting agenda (minutes)

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August 25, 2026 
Page 1 
 
 
           BOARD OF SELECTMEN 
                      Tuesday, August 25, 2026 
Meeting Minutes 
 
 
CALL TO ORDER: The meeting was called to order at 6:00 pm by Chairman 
Andrew Sylvester. Present: Chairman Andrew Sylvester (AS), Board Members Paula 
Penney (PP), Jason Leavitt (JL), Richard Therrien (RT), Town Administrator Karen 
Montgomery (KM), Recording Secretary Britney Goodwin (BG) Absent: Vice-Chair 
Gary Madden (GM) 
 
There were approximately 12 members of the public in attendance. 
   
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: 6:01 pm 
 
AGENDA REVIEW:  
 
ACTION ITEMS: The Board approved and signed the payroll and manifest. 
Member Leavitt made a motion to approve the minutes of August 18, 2026, seconded by 
Member Therrien and passed with a unanimous vote. Also approved and signed was one 
letter of hire for the tax collector’s office, one yield tax levy, one intent to cut wood, a 
letter to Lakes Region Mutual Fire Aid naming Chief Wilder as director on their Board, 
an appointment for Kevin Harrison as a Planning Board alternate and one exit letter 
regarding the resignation of an on-call member of the fire department. 
 
APPOINTMENTS: At 6:08 pm the Board met with the Halfmoon Lake Association 
(HLA) members Nina Kelly and Ernest Glynn regarding the preliminary work to be done 
along with the grant that had been awarded. An initial grant that the association had 
applied for roughly two years ago from the Department of Environmental Service had 
been awarded to the HLA for a total of $75,000 to create and identify a watershed 
management plan. With the grant in mind, three priority projects had been found, and 
they understood that it would take a lot of time and work to remedy. To help with the 
costs, a second grant was applied for, and it was just awarded in January. For these 
projects, the HLA had an engineer of CDI out of Massachusetts. As of current, CDI has 
already come out with the conceptual designs for the three priority projects with potential 
costs, including North Barnstead Road. 
 
The Chair stated that it would be best to get the bridge and culvert work on North 
Barnstead Road done at the same time and budget a small amount each year until it can 
be done. If funds were not saved up, there could be a point in time where jersey barriers 
would have to go up and close off the entire road, which no one wants to happen as it is a 
main road. In regard to the bridge, Ernest asked if there would be a temporary fix for the 
bridge due to two sinkholes being there, roughly three-feet in diameter and around three-
and-a-half to four-feet deep. Chairman Sylvester stated the town has two engineers lined 

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up for projects and had been trying to figure out which ones would get which projects. 
Nina asked if the idea of merging the engineers for the project would be premature, and 
the Chair stated that it would be. 
 
Member Therrien asked if there was anything temporary that could be done, and the 
Chair responded that he didn’t know of anything to his knowledge, however, he did recall 
in 2019 that Josh (an engineer) thought everything needed to be completely redone, 
which meant taking the culverts out. Member Therrien thought that they had talked about 
using riprap this year as a temporary solution. Chairman Sylvester stated that the riprap 
won’t hold based on his experience with Hazel Clark Road since the velocity of the 
running water had caused blow outs of the riprap. Ernest commented that the CDI 
engineer suggested to put in check dams to help with the issue. 
 
Nina revealed the other two priority projects were in Alton and Locke Lake. Alton and 
Locke Lake are both willing to help provide manpower and equipment to help lower the 
costs, and Nina was asking Barnstead for the same consideration. Member Therrien told 
her that they could not do that until they determine exactly what needs to be done. She 
also stated the contractor offered to review everything with the Board via Zoom. Another 
important detail of the grant was that it had matching opportunity where a total of 
$50,000 would be needed to offset by the equipment and manpower donated by 
Barnstead and Locke Lake. Member Therrien commented that he was not against 
consolidating resources. The Chair stated he was skeptical of the design presented by the 
HLA engineer and Member Leavitt added that the design would be good for a year or two 
but not long term. Ernest stated that he shared the same concern. Member Leavitt said it 
wouldn’t hurt to hear what the engineer has to say. The Chair and Member Penney felt 
they should have their engineer look at and get some ideas. It was determined that the 
town would have their engineer look at it first and then have the HLA engineer come out. 
Ernest mentioned that their engineer is out of Vermont.  A suggestion was mentioned for 
a Zoom meeting or Teams meeting. Nina thanked the Board, and Member Penney 
thanked the Halfmoon Lake Association. 
 
NEW BUSINESS: A. The Board approved the additional payment from the Road 
Paving and Maintenance expendable fund for the paving that took place with R&D 
Paving. B. CIP meetings will be held at the town hall every Thursday at 2:00 pm starting 
August 27th and lasting through September. 
 
OLD BUSINESS: A. The rules of procedure are still being worked on, and Member 
Penney has already submitted her suggestions. The Board will review the suggestions at 
the Sept. 1, 2026 meeting. 
 
B. The new town website is up and running. Some information on the site is outdated, 
and the Chair suggested for the townspeople to bring any glitches or issues to their 
attention to have them fixed. Chairman Sylvester wanted to thank Danielle for all of the 
work she had done last year and this year to prepare everything for the change, especially 
with all of the back and forth that took place with CivicPlus. 
 

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C. See Informational Items A. for the Hartshorn Culvert. 
 
INFORMATIONAL ITEMS: A. The abutter said that they are okay with allowing 
a temporary roadway through their property when the project takes place in 2027. 
 
B. Member Leavitt was able to attend the meeting at Prospect in-person while Member 
Penney was able to attend via phone. The Clerk of the Works, who will be referred to as 
Gordon, has been with the project since the beginning and was hired by the school. As of 
the meeting, Fab’s report was discussed and everything is set to be on schedule, and 
Gordon should be reporting to the Board. Member Penney also stated that a lot of the 
information given was pretty general, and she hopes for more information going forward. 
 
C. The work on Narrows Road should be finished up on Monday (8/31). 
 
PUBLIC INPUT/ANNOUNCEMENT: Public input was opened at 6:26 pm and 
Frank McDonald informed the Board about the watershed committee interviewing their 
lead firm and made the choice to go with them for the project, but the town would have to 
sign. Going back to the topic of the watershed project, the plan is to get a scope of the 
work and get the budget approved as a lot of time was spent on the budget. The company 
they were looking to go with was familiar with New Hampshire lakes, and they would be 
able to get to the first shorelines. The timeframe is not known, but the company is excited 
about getting in there. 
 
The topic then shifted to the LLIA water line along the roadway that has been an issue 
due to the amount of times it has been hit. The line has been repaired, and everything had 
gone well after a small issue when Courtney Wade had to back out due to receiving a job 
offer from a different city. However, she had recommended Andrew Moss to take over 
the repairs. After the repairs were completed, Fab Cusson and Sarah Hodgdon both went 
down to take a look. Fab performed his inspection of the line, and Courtney Wade also 
came down to take a look. 
 
Frank stated that he was thinking about taking what was being learned from the 
Halfmoon Lake Association and applying it to the watershed committee. After, he wanted 
to congratulate Karen for when she retires, but he also was wondering if grant writing and 
additional funding would be part of the job description for a Town Administrator. Frank 
thanked the Board. Public input was closed at 6:34 pm. 
 
The recording secretary left at 6:34 pm. 
 
NON-PUBLIC:  A motion was made by Member Penney to go into Non-Public 
Session at 6:35 pm per RSA 91-A:3 II, (c), seconded by Member RT, and approved with 
the following votes: Chairman Sylvester, yes; Member Leavitt, yes; Member Penney, 
yes; and Member Therrien, yes.  The Board came out of non-public session at 7:07 pm.  
 

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ADJOURNMENT: On a motion to adjourn the meeting at 7:07 pm by Chairman 
Sylvester, seconded by Member Penney, the Board voted unanimously in favor of the 
motion.  
 
Respectfully submitted, 
 
 
Britney Goodwin 
 
 
         
Andrew Sylvester, Chairman  
 
 
    Gary Madden, Vice Chairman 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
              
 
 
 
Jason Leavitt  
 
       Paula Penney 
 
 
Richard Therrien