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Board of Selectmen Meeting

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All those in favor, motion carries five nothing.
At this point of the evening, it's time for public comment number one.
Please, if you have any conversation or any concerns that wish to address with the select board that is not currently on the agenda,
please come on up to the podium.
Please state your name for the record, and please keep your comments as brief as possible.
Send everybody for public comment.
See anybody rushing?
No, do not see anybody rushing.
We'll move the agenda along, and first up is we're going.
Mr. Mark McMurphy with the White Birch proposal. Mark, the floor is yours, sir. Good evening and welcome.
Thank you. I sent a proposal to the select board proposing that the lease
hall, the food pantry folks, out, and the welfare agent can move to the cornerstone
to lease it to White Birch for a dollar a year, so turn it into a youth.
center in the community.
A patient is ideal, right in the center of town, next to the Hanukkah Community School.
We would take over the going custodial, electric heat, water sewer, alarm monitor, ongoing
basic repairs.
And there really hasn't been much for the youth on a consistent basis in town.
And I think the reason is that these types of programs, just they need investment,
planning and staffing. And we've received a grant report with teen programming.
We've had focus groups with teen and youth, community school, and the high school,
about what they're looking for. We are starting some meetings with them on a random basis
in the evenings on Tuesdays, I believe. And that's a proposal, hoping that the town.
Select Board will allow us to do that.
So you've had to meet with them.
So we go to the basic counselors and other people in the school to help assemble a group of students.
Okay, so there's a student advisory board or students are part of them? Yeah, just so like, what are you guys looking for? What would you want?
There's other, there's another successful team program that's in Antrum called Avenue A.
So we've also talked with that in question. That seems to have been one of the other. Yeah, it's the same
athletic program for a certain degree where you get the right group of parents or whatever.
enthusiasm. How would that impact the athletic committee? They store in the basement
and in the attic right now? Yeah. So they store in the basement in the attic. So I've talked with them
and I've been through their basement. So it wouldn't affect them. I don't think it would help them
because they would have the room to move everything into the basement. Okay. And because they have so
many volunteer parents and things, they don't have a lot of control or
where everything goes, you know, and after a while it gets kind of messy.
So if they had this space, they could do a better job, I think, of having designated areas
for certain sports and equipment. I think it would really help.
I represent that committee and it's come up there. So they were asking when the food pantry
came out if they could bring stuff from the attic back downstairs because they lost space.
I used to run the athletic committee for six years, and so I'm familiar with it.
So for the sake of the folks watching it home or the
that are not familiar with the proposal that's in front of us. This is a net gain for the town in terms of expenses in that we're not incurring any expense.
Right. So I asked the town administrator to provide me with what the expenses are because I wanted to make sure we could absorb them.
So she sent me a list custodial expense, 1,400 electric, 2200, roughly heat, 9,000, 2,000 water sewer,
25 alarm monitor, 145,000, so it's a $7,100 set of costs.
Questions from the board?
I think it's a great idea.
I think it's a, we're fortunate to have an organization like White Birch that can provide
the kind of steady, consistent every time you're lucky to have one.
The only question would be, when we get into having to paint the building,
put a roof on the building, or what have you.
Where does that fall on to?
It's, well, it's not really clearly defined in my proposal.
Right.
So it's certainly open for discussion, but I would think it would be something similar to the arrangement with,
I mean, if we're leasing it, it still is a town building, but at the same time, it's really getting its use from our programming.
Right.
So there could be a mix, but also I think we would, at least, you know, I don't know,
all the grants that are out there, but I do know that team programming is starting to grow
in terms of its awareness of various funders.
And we do have people that work basically just on grants or trying to find grants.
And I'm not sure that the town has the resources to go find all these grants.
But hopefully, if something comes up and we find a grant,
you know, then we can approach you and say, look, this will cover 60% or 70% or whatever.
Chris, I have a...
I have a comment to make about the grants.
Absolutely.
There was a time I love to get a grant for the rehabbing the Grange, but because the services or town services there,
the town wouldn't have been eligible to apply for like a community development block grant
or something like that, but if it was leased by a nonprofit organization, it would, that could make
make some eligibility.
Could.
We do know that it needs to be painted.
22 quote is very low in comparison to what came back with the paint
quotes that we got recently.
So it's a, I would love to get a stewardship plan for every...
So what we've talked about...
Yeah, and that's where you...
The age of it...
Yeah, we're not suggesting that teens like...
Garden Center.
...guidance, but 3% of the work to make that.
work to make that thing ready for a...
to be a teen summer.
So that's a great opportunity.
Yeah.
Our research has shown that they definitely want to place a down there on,
but they also have said very strongly they want adult supervision.
Further questions, and just again confirming for the Henneker,
for the folks that are watching from home and stuff like that,
the proposed lease for the cornerstone building is no cost.
What's the cost on that?
I'm sorry.
welfare agent in the food pantry to go there?
There's no cost.
Make sure they heard that.
Any other questions?
Term of the lease in that, if the program
succeeds, obviously extend it, but if it doesn't,
it becomes a drain to maintain a building that doesn't get you.
How do we want to address that?
Or how do you feel we should address it?
I don't really have any concerns with a process
that's pretty standard lease terms.
You know?
and you can get out of the lease with 60 days notice or whatever of them.
I think there's pretty boilerplate.
I can give some little more information about,
we can do it temporary lease until town meeting,
and then at town meeting,
that would have to be a warrant article to do a long-term,
a long-term lease.
That's what happened with the Academy Hall.
Okay.
And I believe that was, is that a 30-year lease, I think,
I think.
County Hall, if I remember.
That lease is terminated in 2068, the 300th birthday.
Okay, thank you.
So I would,
well, whatever the board directs me to do,
but I would believe the next step would be for us to engage with legal
to draw up some kind of municipal
municipal use agreement to White Bartch.
That's something that they wanted to vote on.
All right.
How soon are you looking to start this?
Well, we've already started some of the programming, so it's already a year,
but I think Hates State is Public League.
It looks like we'll be ready with a cornerstone
by the end of July.
Then there's the certificate of occupancy to when the food pantry
gets all their stuff moved over, because there's a little bit of a
little bit of a domino effect that this moves from them.
The start of the school year...
Give Diane some direction on how to proceed with this.
I don't see a suggestion motion.
No, I didn't do a staff report for this.
It was preliminary with Mark coming in and presenting this to the board.
Are we able to act on this, or do we need to hold a public hearing before?
No, I would say the first step would be to start negotiating
the lease process.
With legal.
Motion by Martin and a second by Morse. All those in favor?
Motion carries five nothing.
Thank you, Mark.
Thank you, Mark.
Who motions that?
Martin, second by Moose.
Yes on that?
It's almost 630. We do have two public hearings.
Yep.
Let me just take care of one little
agenda item here if the board will allow me.
Mandy Cota is in the audience and
I believe we've already signed off on your application,
but we would love you to introduce yourself to the board and
tell us why you want to join the concert committee and all that good stuff.
I'm in Dakota.
I've been here for six years and I've thoroughly enjoyed the concert series.
And I think it's a very important part of our community,
people to get together and
mingle and network and, you know, do what they do and dance, dance somewhere.
And, yeah, that's a good excuse to have like you.
My dad, Andy's already jumped in.
I'll tell you the truth, as a volunteer, not as a member yet,
but as a volunteer, and she's already learning with the things that she needs,
she's going to be involved in, so it looks like a good addition to the committee.
Any questions from the board?
Any questions from the board?
No, it's going to have good volunteers.
That's huge.
I'm going to make a motion then.
Yeah, well, I think we already signed it, but just for the record,
I'll make a motion to approve Mandy for the concert committee.
Second.
All those in favor? We love you.
That wasn't a concert night?
I would say for the mistake.
There you go.
Well, that was the reason why I wanted to move it up so that you can get out.
Thank you.
All right.
Tucker Free Library while we're waiting for 630 to come along.
I actually got 630, but they're up on the next.
You can go after.
Yeah, you don't know how long things are going to take, so.
Yeah.
So who's going to be, hello, are you going to be doing the accessibility update?
Exactly.
All right.
Laura's all your.
Thank you.
My name is friend.
The library has a great update, which is that we are finally ready,
or at least ready-er, to move ahead with our
library accessibility to know.
We have been trying for many years to improve accessibility
within the library facility so that people who have trouble
managing stairs can move between floors.
We finally have what we think is a very good set of solutions
for this project.
We have been meeting over the past several months with a contractor
And what the board is, what we have decided on, is to install a what is called a Lilith, I believe, is that the one, right?
And so I don't know if people are familiar with this technology, but it is essentially, like, it's an elevator.
So we have already met with the contract designs.
Things are exciting.
All right, I have a picture of it.
Sorry for that.
They just received to me today.
So the original wish and it's in terms of pricing,
We're still actually working with the contractors,
so we're not ready to sort of publicize phone members,
but we do know that we'll be able to afford it within.
This is actually the back side, the parking lot,
in between the Grange and the large, sort of a small ante room,
and then you can access the lift.
The lift then just goes up from the main floor down to the juvenile room.
They will, children's room, they will then use the existing
garrieventa lift, which just takes you down.
No, no.
that the vertical platform, which is just like, it's already there and it has been there for years, but it only goes down another floor.
So basically this will make the entirety of the usable, not added, part of the library accessible,
and people will be able to more readily, and obviously the most important thing being in an emergency or, you know,
fire or something like that, and of course anyone can use this lift.
It's not just for people with mobility issues.
Is it accessible from the interior on every floor?
It is accessible from the interior on that top floor, and on the second, the bottom floor, no.
Like, you go into it, but you can't go out of it on the first floor.
When you say first floor, you're referring to the ground floor.
You go into it and you go up.
A J room.
You can't go in this door and straight back out it into the building.
Right.
Oh, that's true, yes.
There is still that other back door with the ramp.
It's just a conclusion.
Are we going to a lot?
No, no.
Yes.
the interior on the gray floor to the second floor from the interior.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Without having to go outside.
Try to say how the project would take once it was awarded?
I think we're thinking just two, three months, is that right?
We're hoping for by the end of the year.
The good thing is that the lift technology is American-made, and so it's not, we don't
anticipate having any way.
Steady a price on that.
Exactly.
And I think it doesn't have to come from overseas, long transport or possible.
or possible shipping delays.
And what is the name of the company?
Just curious?
A lift or the contractor?
The lift.
Limited utilization, limited accessibility.
It's a small elevator.
Do you know who is installing?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Who?
The company that is providing the elevator?
The contractor calls me, and I'm sorry,
I can't remember,
because maybe I probably have it in my records.
I'm sure you have it.
Yeah, I'm sorry, I didn't bring the midget.
But they were very professional historic district commission that they needed to go before, which they do not, and gave Bob the building inspectors.
This still will have to go through building permits with the building inspector.
There's no fee for it because it's a town building, but, so I'll get you that information.
No, this is all I just center that.
Okay.
Okay.
642, two public hearings for RSA 31-95-B, except unanticipated funds from the Cogwald Benevolent, Cus grant $12,000 to replace the heating system at Academy Hall at the town owner building at 51 Maple Street.
Diane, can you give us a brief overview of this?
Or is this going to be...
Yeah, the reason we're having this hearing is because it's unanticipated revenue.
So, and the town applied for the grant.
For the heating system, and either Mark or Susan can tell you about why they need a new heating system.
This is a pretty clear-cut thing that the Forest Blackman would appropriate funds to the Hone and Gras Historical Society
and allow them to administrate and manage the furnace replacement project.
So, let me tell you a little bit about why we went through the town to do this.
This particular grant, like many of the larger grants now, require a financial audit.
And to do a financial audit on a nonprofit, that our operating budget is less than $12,000 a year would cost us about 40% of our operating budget.
So I spoke to Diane and I said, I have this grant, it's done, it's packaged, can we run it through the town?
Because you do have an audit.
And so I gave it to Diane, and she processed that portion of it.
Three years ago,
when the Historical Society did a long-range plan, we did contract with a historic preservation agency for a building assessment.
Because we know if we wanted to stay in the building or not stay in the building, it is 1836 built.
And we got back a very nice document that prioritized some of the building issue.
The first five, it was a priority one, two, and three.
The first five things in priority one, one was the alarm system, and the town helped us with the ARPA grants to redo the 25-year alarm system.
The second thing with the lighting, we still had 123 fluorescent bulbs left over from the NEC days.
And it didn't give us much light.
So with a parcel funding from the town, we also replaced those 123 bulbs with LED lights.
And we can now see things.
The third thing with the building is that the furnace was 40 years old.
And how I found this out was by calling about four people, basically tracking down the manufacturer,
getting the serial number, and the gentleman out in Illinois said,
well, maybe it was built in 84, maybe it was 87, but between 84 and 87.
And they don't make parts for it anymore.
Nine years ago, you may not remember that there was a major blowback in the historical system.
in the historical society, which covered, literally covered a lot of the things in the museum.
And as a result, the museum heating system was shut down because it could not regulate the heat.
And it's the worst thing you can have is to have temperature going up and down, up and down.
So we need a consistent heat.
So it became a priority to kind of look to see what we're going to do with the heating.
Right now, during the winter, we have one room that is heated by this mega,
mega furnace that's 40 years old. And we can't move around the rest of the building.
Very few historical sites are open in the winter because of this heating issue.
But we feel that at least we have one room, we could do a lot of background and work and categorizing and digitalizing that type of thing.
When we decided to repaint the museum, it had been 25 years old, so we repainted the museum, we decided to pull everything out.
We put the new lights in and we set it.
okay, let's just redo the museum so we can put stuff back here, back in there now.
And we have started to create a brand new self-guided exhibits, but now we still have the heating problem.
So started looking for grants and preservation grants for old buildings are few and far between right now.
You can get a grant for just about anything, but people don't want to put money into old buildings.
So in the fact that Cogswell was on our original Academy Hall
board, I thought, well, let's think about the Cogswell grant.
I got an estimate of $12,000 to remove the 40-year-old furnace.
If anybody wants it, please let us know.
We're not sure we can take it out of the building on the basement yet without major work of putting
a whole lot, but it may just stay there as a part of our antiquities, I think.
We're going to, the plan is to take the furnace out to move from oil to gas and do
mini-suits throughout the building. So for that it was the $12,000. It was
unanticipated to get the grant. It was kind of a stab in the dark and I'm so
excited and delighted. You never know about grants. Now if I could find a $150,000 grant to
put a elevator in there. That's my next project because we are not handicapped
accessible. Okay, so this being a public hearing, how this works
this is the presentation season thank you so does the board have any questions before we
open it up for the public there you already put that out to bid yeah yes we wanted
to do that before I do what kind of a grant how much to I'll get what did you get
to do what rescue refrigeration or Leighanna he is out of a couple times
north of us oh okay yeah and are those many splits are those cold weather
rated to minus 20 right so well they actually they'll be regulated they'll be
used during all seasons we can turn them on for heat cold whatever and they're sometimes
split ducks only go down on like five degrees and then you have to get the cold weather package
to get it down on minus 20 so yeah when he came in and he assessed the building when he did his energy
rating he figured what he would have to do as far as gains and loss and to actually create a energy
equipment package that would um so he's doing too many splits and a furnace
gas furnace gas furnace that will actually produce about 80% of the buildings heat
and then we'll have yeah and then we'll have a mini split as like a little kicker on the
opposite side of the building one downstairs in the main museum area and then upstairs in our
antiquities room there'll be another smaller kicker up there and then we're going to have a
smaller little Renai wall unit in the research room.
I misunderstood that so you have propane gas.
Correct, we're gonna have gas.
Further questions from the board.
I will open it up for public hearing if there's any members of the audience I wish to
address it. Please come on up, stage your name for the record, please.
You got, they received a quote for 12,000 for the furnace, the mini splits, and then you
had just heard of Renai, is it also a Renai wall unit part of that?
Yes.
Is it a duct?
fully ducted gas furnace and or an I unit?
I believe so.
That's great. This is great price.
I was here just also to offer my services if it's needed.
It happens to be the business that I've had for 31 years doing this type of stuff, sheet metal.
So if I can be included, if there's any duckwork that's needed,
I'd be more than have to contribute.
Do you have any specific question you wanted them to ask the contractor?
Fairford.
If we can't.
The oil.
Are they going to remove the tank?
Well, the question, the problem is, if we have to remove the tank, we're going to have to cut it.
Because there's no easy way to do that, so.
He's going to, his crew stated that they could make a, they're making a valiant effort to try to get
out of a building in one piece.
Sure.
But when you try to cut something in pieces in an old building like that, it could be decommissioned, it could be contained, and it could be contained, and it could be
stored, I mean, but we may not be able to get the tank out of there.
Okay. Those things I could help you with off-the-record types.
And you know what? That's actually a great...
Just the wrong word.
Yeah.
No, that's...
I love that idea.
Very much.
Susan Keith, Keith.
Yeah.
Right.
Do you know if the...
...it get serviced routinely and whatnot has been functioning,
and there's no...
Last time it was inspected, there was no contaminants that were found.
But, and we purposely did.
didn't refill oil after the last season.
So, I mean, it's almost down to the bottom.
So we're...
One of the other things that we're also doing is because
the windows are very, very old and leaky.
They're historical.
Yeah, they're historical.
At zero degrees, they're really jittery, too.
We have signed a contract
with a company in Connecticut.
We are replacing inner windows.
Replacing...
Window inserts.
Window inserts inside.
And so we hope to get those the same time we get in the heat,
so the heat will certainly stay in the building.
Are those windows available for grants?
No, we're paying for them.
Because I believe we had an energy audit done on that building, correct?
Two years ago.
So maybe if there's any grant money out there,
you might be worth a glass of wine and a Google search.
Yeah.
But anyway.
Okay.
If anyone can find a grant, Susan can.
Now, how much were you paying a year for oil over there?
Um, our, our, we budget about $800 a year.
Now, we're only open, like, really one, really one or two days a week.
Right.
So, and only for four hours, so eight hours, about a week.
You heat that building for $800?
No, we heat one room.
Which is, which is one-third of the size of this room.
That's a good end.
That's a good idea.
That is right.
So with the insert.
talking about, it's going to say it's the appearance of the window, the original windows.
Yes.
The exterior.
Yes.
Will you still need the egress or regress through those windows?
They can be, the clips are spring-loaded.
Okay.
So kind of like how an insect screen goes in on the exterior window.
Okay.
It's basically the same thing.
So it's really a shield more than.
Pretty much, yeah.
But it's a double pane, but it's got like a spring-loaded clip on other side.
So in a case of an emergency, it's just tension.
You pull and pull out.
Okay.
much like an airplane door.
So is anybody else for public hearing?
We'll go back to the board.
What's the board's clinic?
I can move to accept the Congress of the Netherlands Trust Grant of $12,000
and appropriate the funds to the Henneker Historical Society,
or administrate, and manage the furnace replacement project.
There's a second?
Second.
We have a motion by Knudson and a second by Tucker.
Further discussion on the motion I have.
Ready to call the vote?
All is in favor.
Okay.
Motion carries 5-9.
Thank you.
Thank you for doing all that work
and finding that grant.
Next up is
acceptance of the proposed building department
fee schedule and the rescinding of
Chapter 025 building construction
fees prepared by Mr. Garcide,
Ms. Wynn, and...
This got brought up
several months ago
and I tasked Bob and Helga to work on this.
So basically we need to update our permit fee schedule.
It hasn't been updated in quite some time.
So number one, cover the cost of building inspector,
code enforcement, basically building inspector.
Cover that cost and to be in line.
other communities. So these are the fees. The proposed fees will go in from $50 to $100 for the admin fee
and the per square fee is staying the same from 25 cents is staying the same. Same for
detached structures, driveway.
We have a modification, driveway modification, is going from 75 to 35.
So it would be 75 for a new driveway, about 35 for a modification.
And then the subcontractor fees are going from 50 to 100.
The building, oh, they were last updated in 2020.
Since then the cost of construction has increased dramatically and it's increased by 15%
over the last two years for construction for single-family residential homes.
the building inspector recommended. We adopt this fee schedule. And also we ask that
you rescind chapter 25 building construction fees because you have it built into the ordinance,
but fee schedules don't need to be part of an ordinance, and you would refer to the building
fees, and then you review them annually or every couple of years. We should look at fees annually
and make sure that we're in line.
And then it's just a simple hearing like tonight, not three readings and things like that.
Any questions?
Kind of a loose guesstination, but based on the new rates, if we applied them to last year's permits pulled, how much more would?
You know, I didn't anticipate that question, and it doesn't look like anybody else did either, so I don't have that information.
unless it's here. Let me see.
No.
You've got some examples on page 60 attachment B.
Page. Lower left-hand corner.
Yeah. Okay.
You were building a 2,000 square foot new home.
The old fee would be 550.
The new fee would be 1,500.
A garage would be 187 old fee, 273 new.
I also have information that, so the building inspector kept his rates consistent for the budget for this year because we didn't update the fees last year.
And I anticipate that the building inspector's fees are going to go up, too.
Building inspector uses his own vehicle, his own gas.
So,
the building inspector also has costs that have gone up as well.
Now, for the new home fee, I mean, that's quite a jump.
That's pretty consistent in the market.
What about commercial? I struggled when I read this at first glance to understand what the impact on fees would be.
If somebody's building a million-dollar warehouse, what's the fee?
Well, it's going to depend on the square footage.
So let's say it's a 10,000 square foot.
It's going to be $100 plus 25 cents per square foot.
That's the old fee.
Current and propose. Oh, okay, yes, you're right.
See, ICC building valuation data. Ah, I see, the old fee.
Yeah. So, obviously I did not familiarize myself with this too much.
So, example.
old fee new fee new home that's a garage does an ADU a new home in a garage
but it doesn't do commercial well we'll calculate that and get that information you
don't have to make a decision tonight about adopting these fees we can just
continue yep for the next meeting and adopt them when you have the information
that you need so yeah if we could get like you know let's say a 10,000 square foot
warehouse, be interested to know what the fees are because that's the type of growth
we're trying to encourage in terms of commercial. You necessarily want to slap a punitive fee
on somebody that's trying to help our tax base.
Well, remember, they can also apply for the, uh, the, uh, the, um, well, if they're in the
right spot. Yeah, they're in the right for the, the, uh, economic development incentives.
No, could we, maybe some, maybe if, if Bob, can you,
go through maybe the last couple years worth of commercial projects and the fee that was paid
and what the proposed fee would be so that we can sink our teeth into something tangible.
Okay. Now, in moving forward, if we're going to adopt something like this, can we do it in a,
could we possibly do it in an incremental three-year phase other than? Well, you can adopt whatever
fees or not adopt whatever fees that are proposed. So if, um, we can, um, you can adopt whatever fees that are proposed. So if, um,
You want to. Well, I mean, if we adopt the fee, you would adopt the fees this time and then you'd have another public hearing the next time and another public hearing the next time.
Well, no, what I'm saying is can we just adopt, we adopt it now, but we do a third this year, a third, next year, and a third.
What do you mean a third?
Well, whatever. Say we go up on your new house, you're going up, uh, $1,000.
So you want to go up $333.33.
Wow, thereabouts, yeah.
So then that would be your new fee.
And then the next time you want to increase it, you would go through this whole process again.
Right.
You can't just set it at one, set your fee structure once and then just...
No.
Every time you update your fees, you need to have a public hearing.
Oh, okay.
So I'm going to get more information.
And I can ask Bob to come in and explain if you can.
I'm sorry, how it would go
couldn't be here tonight to do this.
And I'm obviously not doing a great job explaining it.
So, I'll think it would be good about if you can't.
Okay.
All right.
All right.
All right.
So, um, I think it would be a motion to continue the hearing to July 14th.
I'll make that motion.
There a second?
Okay.
Motion by Blombeck, second by
All those are there?
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
By doing that, we don't have to repost another notice or anything like that?
By doing that, we don't have to repost another notice in the newspaper or anything like that.
We got it.
That's very good idea.
Do we, I don't take it we have a targeted mailing list for like builders and stuff that we can make sure that they're aware of this is coming down the pipeline.
That's always been my heartburn.
We host all these things on our website very clearly.
Are you on Hennaker Chamber of Commerce?
You can maybe put that in your newsletter.
I know you've got a couple of contractors on here.
I'm also going to ask for the other towns.
Maybe Lee wants to put an article.
Hennaker proposes massive building permit fee increase.
That'll get them going.
I'm in the process of doing building permits in Hennaker,
I got about a 1,300 square foot house to do.
the new fee is going to go up to about less than 600.
That's pretty standard.
And what town is that?
Hillsboro.
Hillsboro.
What do you want me to say in the email just that it's on the board's agenda to look at increasing permit fees?
Yep.
Anything you can, I just, what I always got annoyed with with government is if I was in line of business
and I didn't know it was coming, usually a lot of those folks are working.
working until 8 or 9 o'clock at night, and they're not going to, no offense, they're not going to necessarily check a legal notice.
Yeah.
A little surprise is coming, so I want to make sure that everybody is going.
So I hear you're asking for us to do a public relations campaign.
I think that would be the right thing to do.
I mean, we're going to reach into some people's pockets.
All right.
Are you very good with that?
Good.
Yeah, yep, yep, yep.
The department to come up with a plan for that for that.
the continued hearing.
Very good.
Everybody good with that subject?
Yeah.
Next up is Board resolution.
Oh, did you close the hearing?
Yes, I did.
I closed it to public hearing and then we continued the
Yeah, that's right.
All right.
Next up is a resolution to support House Bill 1491.
This is, Ann, you want to give us an update on what this is all about?
Yeah, New Hampshire Municipal sent out a request
and then some other, the Municipal Managers Association
has also recommended that the Towns vote to support this.
HB1491 establishes a legal framework needed
for non-assessable health insurance risk pools
to continue operating in New Hampshire.
The current and future risk rules
and future risk pools would not be able to utilize the non-assessable model.
Diane, before you move on, for the sake of the people watching and the sake of the audience,
can you give a layman's term for what non-assessable health insurance risk pool is?
Correct.
So there are two health insurance risk pools in the state, health trust and school care.
They are public entities.
public entities, public entities allowed by the state law.
And counties, schools, towns, cities can join in this risk pool.
And we're basically self-insured, but we, the risk pools,
administrate the health benefits for all the towns that are in the pool.
A non-assessable model
model, the risk pool creates a reserve so that the rates don't go like up and down,
up and down, and they can stabilize them.
And the towns can know what to expect and what to budget.
And so health trust is non-assessable.
School care is accessible.
And school care did a surprise assessment to all the
the public bodies that are members in that one.
And there are towns that have to go on payment plans in order to pay that assessment.
So we want to make sure that non-assessable models continue to exist.
So these pools are...
So we want to support HB1491.
It preserves municipal choice between accessible and non-assessable.
So these pools are only available.
to government entities?
Correct.
Yes.
Local business cannot join that.
There are other pools I think that businesses can go into, but this is only for government.
They are nonprofit organizations, help trust and school care of both nonprofits, and they are regulated
by the Secretary of State.
So there are reasons that New Hampshire Municipal provided, and I have emailed all of this to you as well.
There are all the reasons are here of why we would want to support that.
And I don't send my own recommendation in.
It's up to the Board of Selectmen if you want to do a resolution to support this.
Send it off to the governor's public email.
Any other questions?
Who filed this?
Look that up.
You mean the sponsors?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
They were in here someplace.
Maybe I saw it in the...
I know what I did.
You looked it up.
I looked up the bill to see more about it, and it had the sponsors there.
There were nobody from our town.
Yeah.
But I can look that up.
It was technically bipartisan.
Technically, yes.
Doesn't this create a monopoly, though, for New Hampshire Municipal?
If it's a non-assessable and we're not allowing other companies.
No, this New Yorkshire Municipal isn't the, is not the pool.
Health trust and school care are the two pools.
Health trust is non-assessable, and school care is accessible.
And health trust, if it won't continue to exist, if they are accessible,
if they are accessible, because that's not how it works.
and then that would prevent choice, and then you would only have one pool.
You're on one side of the fence.
What I'm saying is by creating a law blocking other companies to become
non-accessible or creating non-accessible.
That is a monopoly.
We're trying to protect the one company that's doing it.
No, we're trying to protect our choice.
Between health trust and school fair.
It would force, if this bill were vetoed, it would
health trust to become an accessible company, but it is limiting the number of accessible
or non-assessable.
I think you're reading it incorrectly.
So is, if we do nothing, is the health trust model,
not necessarily us, Mike DeHeniker, if government does nothing,
does the health trust model exist?
Well, if HB1491 is vetoed and SB1491 is vetoed, and SBC
6-61 becomes law, current and future risk pools would not be able to utilize the non-accessible model.
So they would only be an accessible model.
So who is sponsoring SB 661?
Why would they want to?
I guess I'm trying to get...
Good question.
I'm trying to get to the back room of why this bill became
Carison and Gray primary sponsor.
The bill, can you expand that section?
right under it, Mark, I'll get you in a minute.
No, no, no, no.
Oh, up, up, up.
The bill titled relative to...
Right, so, yeah, let's make that a little bigger.
The bill title...
Well, there are folks...
...for pooled risk-manage referral, including
requirements for asset accuracy,
the number of assessment bill.
So is the 1491, is that, what,
enabling legislation?
And there's a risk that...
There are...
That somebody, that the governor may retail it?
I hope the governor doesn't veto it.
Well, that's the point of this thing is to...
Preserve both models.
Yeah, and to encourage the governor to not veto it.
And my question is, is there a move of foot
to try to convince the governor to veto it?
Do you want to give an update?
I'm on the legislative.
legislative policy committee at the Concord Chamber.
And I can get more information tomorrow morning.
We have a meeting at 8.30 and pass it on to Diane.
The conversations that we've been having for the last
a little bit more than a month is that the legislature in the House
and some Senate people, and I saw the name gray up there,
which I recognize, there are a lot of...
There's a free state.
movement to get people to move into the states that are free state mindset people.
And it seems like there's a lot of this type of legislation to starve the beast, so to speak,
or just get rid of a lot of stuff that choice.
And it just, I can't say that's what's going on here.
I recognize some of the names.
Um, and this is, this kind of stuff is what we've been talking about and I'm happy to
to ask questions tomorrow at my meeting and provide Diane.
I don't know when the urgency though because...
Is 661 at odds with 1491?
Yeah.
I think it's just that if 1491 is vetoed,
then 661 is the only thing left.
Be accessible.
I guess my question is, we have existing programming
that is, is,
is functioning, whether or not it's working, that's debatable, but it's functioning.
So that you now have two bills that are being introduced, 661 and 1491.
If neither one of them passes...
So they've both been passed.
By their respective houses in the Senate, but not necessarily merged.
No, they're both at the governor.
The legislative session is over.
So they've already been passed, and they're on the governor's desk.
for signing.
So the governor needs to, the governor needs to either sign 661 or 1491.
Or both and then the both still allow.
What this is, what this request is for the community to encourage the governor to sign the bill into law.
661 introduces assessable risk pools into the New Hampshire statutory scheme.
scheme. If 1491 is vetoed, so 1491 establishes a legal framework needed for
non-assessable health insurance risk pools to continue operating.
Another bill headed to the governor, SB661, introduces accessible risk pools
into the New Hampshire scheme. Statutory scheme. If 1491 is visa, is
vetoed and SB 661 becomes law, then the current and future risk pools will not
be able to utilize the non-assessable model that could increase cost to the town dramatically.
By surprise.
By surprise.
Because we subscribe to the service that is non-accessible.
Where we're spreading the risk.
Which means, yeah, and they're required to maintain a higher level of
of self-insurance, if you will, reserve in order to smooth that out.
So the governor can't sign both of them.
Oh, she can.
She can.
She can sign one and veto the other.
She can sign.
Well, you know, you don't have to vote.
Because that's where an initiative.
No, I get that part.
I understand that.
I just, I'm always leery of legislation without knowing the best
the back story.
And it's just a headache sometimes trying to get the true story.
And that's by design, of course.
Of course. And that's kind of like, I mean, that's why every organization has their lobbyists
because they get paid the fight in the trench.
Exactly.
Regrettably, but yeah.
So 1491 is subordinate to 661, but
preserves
the choice for non-assessable and an assessable.
Ultimately, what you want to do is support the choice.
Well, support both of them, really.
But apparently there's a, you do want to support 661?
I mean, I know she's not asking for that, but...
No, but I mean, you know, at least that allows the other one to exist and a lot and preserve choice.
But so maybe some towns and cities are equipped to handle that.
In a bigger group.
In a bigger group or whatever.
We run to 50, so...
You guys have done your homework.
on it and you're telling me to support it, I'll support it.
But I think it just puts us a greater financial risk
if we only have one option.
Right now, the way it's set up.
It's just a, you know, hey, Governor,
let this thing go through.
Sign it into law.
She's probably getting a lot of pressure from...
I have an email from Hopkins.
There's a...
I have an email from Hopkins.
There's a Huckington who's a lawyer for Anthem,
and they hide it.
highly recommended that their boards urge the governor to sign 1491.
Okay. All right, what's the board's pleasure?
Make a motion.
There's one written down.
I'd like to move that the Board of Selectmen support HB 1491
by urging the governor to sign it.
I'm not sure I understand the rest of that suggested motion provided that is also enacted.
You can strike that and just say to preserve municipal.
I'm, I'm, I heard the governor to sign it to preserve municipal choice
and avoid the unplanned financial risk from an accessible model probably might be forced in.
And you want to read the second one?
And move that this position to be shared with the governor,
tankers, legislative delegation, and NHMA.
We have a motion by Knews.
I have a motion by Knudson. There's second.
Second.
Second by Tucker.
Further discussion on.
Neil, you good?
Not about as good as I'm going to get with this one.
Yeah. 6-61 is the hiccup in this.
Well, we're not talking about it.
That's why it's sausage making.
Exactly.
All those in favor.
Motion carries five-nothing.
God, I hope the details don't come back and bite us in the act.
I don't know for us.
I mean, she can totally ignore us.
Plus, there's one municipality in 300,
and I don't know how many are going to send these letters,
but the next thing, whenever you're ready.
Ready, that was a citizen recognition process.
So, the background on this is
somebody came to me and wanted the board
to recognize public
recognize a certain citizen, but they wanted it to be a surprise to that person.
And I said, well, I'm sorry, there's bureaucracy to this because the board can't do
anything like that in secret.
And I said, don't, the town does not have a process for recognizing citizens.
We...
Other than don't like what we did for Rob Taylor.
Well, that's a town meeting.
But that was, we also don't have a process.
We also don't have a process for that.
We also don't have a process for that, to be honest with you.
There's no process for nominating and review of this.
So it's all ad hoc.
It's all ad hoc.
So I want to manage, help the board manage their time efficiently and not take up ad hoc things all the
time and have a process for this.
And then this person can bring it to you.
to the board of selectmen for, but I will also let them know that it can't be a surprise.
So all I'm asking is that board moved to accept the citizen recognition process as outlined
in the staff report and authorized town administrator to implement and administer the process.
It came up with a pretty generic basic approach borrowed from other communities.
And this would be a very generic basic approach,
this would be two different things, certificates or letters for standard recognition
and proclamation for significant achievements and I gave examples of both.
So this is not designed to be a policy.
Correct.
It's just a kind of a board sanction.
Process.
Process.
This is how we go.
Exactly.
So that when someone comes in and this, even with Ron Taylor's situation last year,
he said, gee, we don't only have a process,
but okay.
But we made it up on the spot.
But then what I see happens is
there, like with how we dedicate the annual report, right?
Like that took too long.
And so this, this, we don't want to say, oh, well, we gave one to this one.
Shouldn't we give one to this person?
So this allows a nomination process for people to nominate Keith
when he does all that nice work for the historical society building.
society building.
You have a piece of paper.
So the cash,
here being civic organizations.
They could, you know, you could,
and it's still like going to come before the board, you know.
But the recommendation coming from a civic organization.
One more couple, I don't worry about that, but there are people
that deserve the recognition that may not be long or be...
Oh, correct, yeah.
Right.
That's just an example I think.
example.
Yeah, it's just an example.
A resident whose contributions have lasted town-wide, recognition of a historic milestone,
major anniversary, a community-wide effort that we would want to have a proclamation for.
For example, we did Purple Heart Community kind of thing.
That was an example or recognition of somebody who's receiving some kind of state or
national distinction.
Basically, let's create a form and have somebody fill it out to initiate some sort of process.
Correct.
And there's basically two different levels, just a basic certificate or, like a more formal.
Proclamation.
Whereas.
Whereas and wherefore.
Yeah.
How many questions on this?
Does somebody want to move?
Make a motion?
Less bureaucratic than it could have been.
Thank you.
And...
And...
I'd like to move that the Board's collectment accept the citizen recognition process as outlined in the staff report and authorize the town administrator to implement and administer the process.
All right, we have a motion by Kudson.
Is there a second?
By Mark, further discussion on the motion.
Ready to call the vote?
All those in favor.
Motion carries five minutes.
Are we doing the continued reading a second for the Hennaker Community Concert Policy?
Yeah, I would like to just get that adopted.
I would like to waive the third reading and just go for it.
I was kind of asked about that today.
Are you going to approve it tonight?
I hope so.
Yeah.
It went through, like, all the edits, all the recommendations, all the typos.
Nobody had anything else to say about it from the concert committee,
and the board has already seen it.
We've already discussed it a couple times.
People have been here.
And they were...
They were...
anticipate its approval as evidence that the last
Council Committee meeting, which I attended last week.
Paul, that almost sounds like arm twisting it.
Well, you know, I've been learning from the best.
Okay, well, this is the second reading of the policy originally proposed on May 5th.
It being the second reading means that it is open for public input.
So if the Board has no further comment on this, I will open it officially for
public comment.
Is there any...
They're all over at the concert.
Got it.
All right.
Consider the public hearing open.
Is there anybody that wishes to speak?
Not seeing anybody come to the podium for the public hearing.
We will close it down.
And are there any additional questions from the select board?
If not, I will entertain a motion.
I move to waive the third reading and adopt select board policy.
Eleven, is that 11 or an I-I-I?
an I-I-I-I-DOT-14 Hennaker Concert Committee Policy Procedures and Ethics as presented.
It was like a second, Jeff.
All right, we have a motion by Knudson and a second by Morse.
Further discussion on the motion at hand.
All those in favor.
Motion carries.
All right, public minutes.
First up is Tuesday, May 19th.
I have all there all printed in front of you if you made them.
May 19th was not approved at the last meeting because the people that were
We're not at that meeting.
We only have three people.
At the meeting under consideration,
and at the next meeting, there were only three people,
and they were different.
Well, these two out of three were different.
For these minutes, the main,
make sure I'm doing this right, Diana.
The May 19th minutes are only going to be voted on by
Chris, Jeff, and Neil, correct?
Right.
Technically, you don't need to do that.
But.
That is your past practice.
So I'm just giving you this information.
That is standard practice.
Is that really technically not required?
There is no statutory requirement to accept minutes.
Good to know.
I can move the bureaucracy along that much about.
I'll entertain a motion to approve on Tuesday, May 19 minutes.
So second.
Morse, all carries three, zero, two abstentions?
Yes.
Who motioned?
Blombe.
And who seconded?
Morse.
Okay. We'll do the public minutes of June 2nd 1st.
Are there any changes to this? The people voting should be Jeff, Paul, and Neil, and Chris Arson.
That was the public hearing on the redem side.
So our motion to accept.
So moved.
Moved by Knutson, seconded by.
Yes.
Morse. All those in favor.
Three zeros. Two of seven.
extensions. Non-public minutes, June 2nd.
Same cast of characters needs to vote.
Motion by Martin to accept. Zero second.
Seconded by Knudson. All those in favor.
302 abstentions.
Finally, June 8th.
Everyone is here.
Everyone is here.
Work session.
Oh, that was a work session.
Motion to approve as presented.
Sloam.
So moved.
Knootson.
All those in favor.
None administrator report.
Who made the motion for the last year?
I did. And who seconded?
It blew right through that one. It was no second.
It was no second.
Oh, okay, Mike.
It doesn't matter why you need to know.
Well, it doesn't matter.
Because we did.
Because we did the move.
For the record, even though it's not
statutorily required, it is best practice of the board because it happens sometimes where a member may want to add something to the right here or take away or correct.
And in that case, what we do is we preserve the original minutes.
And then in these minutes, it says what was changed?
And then the public will know that was changed in the official public.
A good measure for transparency.
safe. So, but whether or not they were here or not here, they can still.
So I shouldn't give it up a comment, make a motion.
You just don't have to do that.
Correct. Yeah, I think they should do it.
It's good, but I was just
.
All right.
So, town administrator reports.
Okay.
I submitted the application for the Western Ave Riverbank Stabilization Grant.
grant. That is the hazard mitigation grant and the total estimated cost on that is $1,170,000.
If awarded, that that is a 75, 25, 75 federal government, 25 town.
So that would be $877,500 that the feds would award.
And the town share can be in kind as well.
So, you know, not necessarily dollars out by the work that the highway department did.
Drawing a brain cramp. What is H-S-S-E-M?
Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
Go.
You didn't allow?
So Mike.
Mike Vigmali is an engineer who designed, did the design for that,
and he did a large portion of the company.
portion of the grant application and he and I worked on this together and we got it in.
And what's happened right now is we met the state...
They are dispersers of funds for FEMA.
Speaking of which, having done grants with you before, keep track of time?
Yes, correct.
Yeah.
But we don't know that we're getting it.
So right now it's at the state level where they review everything and then they can come back to us and say,
we think you should add this and things like that.
to have an edit period before it gets sent off to the federal...
So often these efforts are lost.
Yeah.
You can keep track of it now in the long run.
Yep.
So then if we are awarded, we won't know until late fall early winter.
And we can utilize our budget and the Expendable Trust,
the Road Maintenance Expendable Trust Fund to fund
to fund the town share of this project.
project.
I attended the Joint Primax Risk Management, New Hampshire Managers Conference, June 3rd through the 5th.
The Town Hall Community Center and Town Hall and Community Center painting is scheduled for next week tentatively.
The road denticide hearing outcome heard the direction of the board.
I accompanied the pest control technician on June 11th for the monthly IPM check and application.
an application of the town hall and the service report is attached.
So you can take a look at that and if you have any questions,
want any more follow-up, let me know.
I had meeting with the fire chief and a vendor and we discussed
a plan for funding dry hydrants that were identified in the CWPP
and they need my assistance with some grant applications.
And wastewater, I've been assisting with the administration of the upgrade and the supplemental upgrades.
And Underwood submitted the draft preliminary design for the supplemental.
That is the project that was funding, was approved for that rebobbing loan in 2024 town meeting.
And as to be expected, the 1.5 million has grown to 2.05 million has grown to 2.05.
And we have.
a meeting on Thursday, this Thursday at 1030, if any board members want to attend to discuss and prioritize.
There are seven items on that list. One of them is sightlighting. It's like 80,000. I'm guessing that's less.
Like, they were already prioritized, but to look at this and determine the prioritization within our budget.
How are they coming on? I remember there was a bunch of...
I sent you that report.
report, but we'll have another meeting that's, you know, but I think it's July and August.
It was a six months away from the previous month's meeting.
And this is just for the supplemental, not a project update, which would be the following week.
The Riverfront Parking Ordinance Amendment, as requested by the board,
I sent out a request for a workshop meeting with the property owners.
I sent you guys a poll. Hopefully you can answer, but I threw out a tentative.
throughout a tentative date of July 14th, that 5 p.m. prior to your regular meeting.
But if you have other dates, you want to throw out there to me, I just, it's, there's a lot of people to get in one room.
And I thought picking a night that you already have it on your schedule might help.
Works for that.
Okay.
Yeah, I tried to reply, and I couldn't.
Oh, you know what I'm going to send me a code and...
Okay. I'm going to send it to your, look in your personal.
emails about common trees. Those are the trees that are out here on the side of the town
office and along here. We had a large branch come down. There was a windstorm Sunday night,
Monday morning. They said that the branch came down and I thought, oh, a little branch and I went
out and looked out and it was huge. So the Tracton Properties Department came and took care of that
today and I wanted all the trees and we're having a tree service company look at all the trees and
identify what we need to do for maintenance of those trees, preventative, to prevent more
limbs from coming down. We don't want to destroy the fence. Number one, we don't want bodily injury
to anybody that might be under a tree and to remove. There's some dead trees that needs to remove.
It's no fun having a tree come down on your house. Right. Which I've been through a couple of years ago.
So Matt is going to do that and keep me in the loop. And also in the soccer field. I walk my dog every morning and there's a big branch that came down on an old concrete road on the side of the soccer field. Pretty good sized branch.
Do you?
Yep.
FEMA issued the town's letter of final flood, housing determination, and new FEMA flood plain map. So it'll be effective November 13th, 26th. I'm the team of planning.
department with compliance requirements. So state is looking at our ordinance and so
far in our site plan regulations and our subdivision to make sure that we have all the proper
language in them and to move to the next step. And there will be a public relations campaign.
Get the word out about that. Contact. No, we have a non-public that I'm asking for
at the end of this meeting.
All right. Slugman's reports.
Neil.
Nothing. Jeff.
Zero.
Chris. Nothing.
Because other meetings, I attended a spring conference for the state planning, New Hampshire, Planning Board four sessions, attended the Central New Hampshire Regional Planning Technical Advisory Committee.
The Transportation Advisory Committee?
It's technical advisory. And Matt Ferronis, who has been in contact with us before actually has left and he's gone up to State of Maine to employment.
They're reviewing and prioritizing the 10-year plan projects, anticipating some funding may become available.
And then I had two Athletic Committee meetings course of the last month.
Delivered some welcoming opening remarks at the first summer concert.
It'll be 46th annual Pentecost summer concert series.
Good.
Look at that.
So, on that.
At this point of the evening, it's time for public comment number two.
If there's any members of the audience, come on up.
Just hanging up because you want to be here.
I like to be informed.
He just likes me on TV.
On the record.
This is normal broadcast day.
We're going to enter into non-public session. Am I citing this tax-peated?
Yeah, it's...
Thank you.
Good night.
Thank you.
Motion to enter non-public session under RSA 91-A-1-8-3-2-2-deat-debted property.
Second.
Motion made by Blondack.
Second by Morse.
Neil yes.
Jeff, yes, Chris, yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Camera.
Yeah.
Thank you all. Have a good night.
Thank you all. Have a good night.
A little red light on.
Oh, we got to turn it off over there.