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BOS Meeting

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with liberty and justice for all.
The first thing on the agenda is administering the out of office to certain enough.
We'll get into you.
Five seconds.
The agency services revisited.
We want to discuss that tonight and do you still want to think about it?
Maybe want to make.
Is it up to him?
It shows that it is.
I don't know if we have any other one we brought up.
Seems to work.
You know, but it doesn't solve the problem.
It doesn't solve the issue, the way I see it, is the current formula has our population as the denominator.
We are trying to grow, Hillsborough.
They are trying to restrict growth in Windsor, so that the ratio between the two towns is going to grow larger and larger and larger.
Which means that Hillsborough's, sheer, Hillsborough's payments will get smaller and smaller and smaller as time goes by.
I don't think that's good for long-term Hillsborough.
So I don't think, I think we have to come up with something different.
And I said that.
Two weeks ago, I said it four weeks ago, I feel even more strongly than I did then.
Well, the only other way you could do it is with assessment.
I don't know, I mean, you've only got so many formulas you can use.
You can either use population or assessment.
You have to use something.
But the population at Hillsborough is irrelevant to this.
We're selling insurance to them.
That's how we're doing.
We are saying we will give you our services, our police services, our fire services, for a charge.
Isn't that what insurance is?
We are selling a product.
We are selling our fire department, our police department.
and our ambulance services to them for a price so we have to determine how
best to charge them and I don't think the way that that formula if we're both
not interested in growing our population we thought that our populations would
be relatively stagnant that it wouldn't work fine but that's not the case we all know
Hills and Rose growing and we hope that it continues to grow as that happens that
that ratio is going to change and it's not going to be in our favor.
That's why I think, that's why I suggested four or six weeks ago that we sent it to a committee to talk about it.
And I still feel the two of the people on that committee were involved with making this contract.
I don't know.
Okay, well, we can talk.
I mean, maybe maybe it'll turn out that it's the same and maybe I'm wrong.
But I, at least we can talk about it and maybe come up, maybe come up with something different.
I have a few ideas, but I'm not willing to share them right now.
But again, that's...
Well, I need to see the numbers because I can't understand if you're going to charge them $100,000, $200,000 a year,
they're going to say no.
And then that's good because then our fire department doesn't have to go there.
Well, we're not going to be unreasonable.
I mean...
So I don't think $60,000 is unreasonable based on the population.
I don't either.
I don't either, but there's more than one way to get to $60,000 or $50,000 that doesn't
the population of Hillsboro.
But if your contract, if you do your diligence, which we didn't do,
and you did the contract every three years,
then you would know that the population probably is not going to change that much in three years.
I disagree.
I think we should, I think we should at least take the time to look at it.
It may turn out that nothing changes, but at least,
least we've taken a look.
What's it going to hurt us?
What is it going to hurt us to take, to have a group of five people look at different
alternatives for charging Windsor and a fair amount of money so that we ensure that in the future,
Hillsborough gets adequate compensation.
What does it cost us?
It doesn't cost us any, it costs us a little bit of time.
And it doesn't cost us anything for the three of us to talk about it and to
discuss it here. Why do we need the committee? We agreed for weeks ago to form a committee.
If you want to talk about it, we can, but I would suggest we will in lock a good amount of time to do it.
I don't think we can do it in five or ten minutes.
I don't need, but I don't know why we need to form a committee. But we did. But we did. But three meetings ago, we formed it. There were five people on a committee.
Laura were supposed to advertise and get people to see if they wanted it for the
for that. But Hyris came in and said she was working like the number.
She wanted to bring it forward to the board.
I looked at it and I thought this is safe.
She wanted to say whenever any of you say, I want to talk about that again.
Okay. I don't. So we never. So we never. I pause or what?
Okay. No, I'm fine. I don't have a problem with that. I just, I'm just saying that if you want to talk about it,
schedule a meeting and we'll talk about it.
I'll present everything I have.
I don't think we need a committee. I think that's our job.
We're the ones that are supposed to negotiate these things and decide what I want to do.
Well, okay, that's fine. Then we do that.
But again, we decided six weeks ago, we agreed we were going to have a committee.
So I thought that's where we're going with this.
First I heard that we weren't going with this was two weeks ago when we said that we had this other thing going.
Well, I think we needed to look at all options.
So it's probably going to be not next meeting because it looks like we're going to have
board and sewer commissioners.
The town is going to be presented with a ward from the EPA.
And during select, do you want that as a work session?
How do you want that?
I think it probably should be a regular selection.
Yeah.
But shouldn't we talk about coming up with it?
Right now we have not.
Nothing. If we have the daring selectmen come here, what are we going to say to them?
I don't know. You guys say. Well, that's the whole thing. What they're thinking? I want to know why they didn't sign that.
Well, we already know that. Laura said they don't think it's worth of money. So that's an easy way out. How did they come to that conclusion?
But they have the right to their opinion. I think we have to come up. I think we have to come up.
with how we are how we're going to react to the end up payment before we just say, okay,
again, that's my thing.
I think I think Jim has some history that he was here on Parks Board when this was all designed,
that maybe that would explain it better to them.
Okay.
But I'm not saying that you have to.
what just what he was saying tonight.
I know Iris worked here, but I don't know that you had anything.
I think it was...
No. I mean, you know, I met with their representative.
I didn't meet with the Select Board.
Their representative, when it was a 25,000
and maybe, you know, back then, you know,
it was sufficient, and we never discussed it again.
So now we're bringing it up again.
And it's the same thing with Windsor.
We're talking 11 years ago that it was, or whatever it was, 2011, that we discussed it.
And maybe it's awful for not discussing it again, but to come up with a solution, both of them.
Well, the numbers kept changed.
The numbers changed based on the budgets from Windsor.
Oh, in the wording of the contract.
I know Windsor, but for recreation.
They always, you know, always, for Deering, the recreation always stayed 25,000.
Well, that's because I met with Peter Beard's wife and another gentleman,
and we met three or four times, I think, and they wanted to register their own kids.
They wanted to do all.
And the gentleman that was there, he didn't show up half the time, but when he did,
he was adamant that they needed to register their own kids,
and then whatever, it was a whole big.
Back and forthingly, and I don't remember.
Oh, that was the first one.
And then, was it Llewellyn?
Louellon.
She and I decided, listen, $25,000 sounded like a reasonable amount.
And we go, okay, this is what we're going to present to the voice.
You were already 28 page?
No, I was the Swartman secretary.
They appointed me to the committee to negotiate with Deerone.
Llellan and I and another gentleman.
If this deal had been done in perpetuity, it would still be done.
I would just like to know why they think it's a waste of money.
I mean, you know, it's just go build your own fields.
You don't like, you know.
Well, if we're going to do this, then let's make sure we have all the numbers,
what it costs us from JT, to maintain those fields for spring, baseball, fall, soccer.
And the percentage of deering kids that are presented.
participating versus Hillborough so maybe we could negotiate a different number.
Yeah, and maybe we can't be based on, I mean, it's not going to affect this year if they didn't budget money.
Right, right, but so it doesn't have to be at the next meeting, right, it could be at a May or June.
Yeah, so. Okay. Yeah, so yeah, we need to find out an answer before July for it for it for a tri-A because that's what day. But during the budget
budget.
No, no. It's nothing to do with Dearing. Dearing would be for the next year, but we have to come up with a number in July to tell H.A. Are you going to get charged for the field because they've got to increase, if they increase their fees, they have to do it for the soccer season.
Right.
Right. I was just talking about the meeting with the Deering morning.
Right.
Do you say we need to meet with them first?
I don't think we need to meet with them first. I don't think we need to meet.
meeting with H.A. before we meet with Deering. No. But Dearing doesn't they didn't
they didn't budget that money. Well, I don't meeting with H. White. It's like two separate
things right. Right. Right. But if we talk to them and they change their mind saying, okay,
we're next year we're going to budget this amount for that for that purpose. Then we'll know
what to say to H.YA.
Yeah, because we maybe...
If we know that that money is coming in, we can maybe tell H.YA just off the top of my head that
we'll give you another reprieve until the January, you know, if that's the case.
You know, if we know that Dairy is going to pay, we're not going to have to have H.
H. Y.A.A.
raise their prices to affect the kids.
this one year. So it can be, you know, down the road a month or whatever.
Well, do a, like, do a Maine meeting? May 20th?
No, hold on. What are you here looking at the right?
27.
Do we know whether that $25,000 was in the budget they passed in March?
Do we know?
Do we know? I mean, they could have been in their budget.
No, I just didn't. Because we talked about it before.
talked about it last year and they just didn't want to even have any their budget they just
well I shouldn't say it's not their budget I assume it's not because they were cutting
and cutting and cutting and if they they didn't vote to pay it wasn't it wasn't in their budget
but maybe they that happens that you can have it in your budget but you can refuse pay
I agree yeah but I don't know why they would try to save money they would
okay can we get back to the winds of thing for a second
I was just thinking one of the reasons why you'd want to have the committee look at
it is because they could take the time to really delve into the issue and save us a lot of time
whereas if we do it we may not have the time to really think about it I you know that's
one of the reasons I form a committee so that we don't have the time I mean to to delve into it
we can have other people do it and present us their findings because they
don't have the authority to make the decision but they can make a recommendation based on
everything they hear that would in fact save us time as as to speaking to the police
department and the fire department oh yeah I mean it would help to get their input
see what they think or do you want to look at the committee in a hole and say we don't
want five people we want three I don't care I mean whatever you whatever we want
the three of us to do I can go talk to a fireman a fire chief and the police
anytime I mean I'm retired I can well so can I but that's that's not so I don't
know that's not that's not that's not bouncing ideas off of people and having a
meaningful discussion it's just two people talking I could call you tonight and
talk about it too even though it's in so long I could do that you know I but the
reason why you have more than two people is to bounce ideas off of to hopefully come up
with the best solution that's available my thing is I would rather be in on the
discussion because my my thing is you bring an idea to me I may not like that
idea well yeah well do you have that oh well then you can
volunteer to be the select and rep on the committee me no my problem is I don't
know what's wrong with the agreement we have now I mean to me it's worded perfectly
fine the only thing we don't like is the is the calculation exactly so if you've got
an opinion on a calculation and I have an opinion on the calculation then we can
decide who's who's calculation
opinion is the best if that's what you'd like we could take the time to do I
just I mean I have ideas I I I I frankly I think they're better than what we
have but I don't but that again it's not my decision to make it's our
decision to make what we want to do I'm just I mean the thing is the the the you're
saying that the population of Hillsboro is going to grow Laura says that we're
over six thousand people
people but we're not using that number because the state says we only had
59 or 56 and that's the number my thing was I wanted to use the same the same
information for both towns rather than relying on them providing us with
information I don't think that's correct if we're using one place to get the
numbers and they're using another I agree so that's that was the first thing so if
you do that even without doing any of the other
cost increases you've increased their percentage from two to four I agree
I agree with everything so so but but it has it doesn't solve the problem in my
mind it doesn't solve the problem that Hillsborough is growing in Windsor is
not and Hillsboro is the denominator in a ratio that means that the percentage is
going to grow so well so if you had another idea how that percentage would
the thing is if you if you use assessments then you can still
you'd have to go to an independent place to get the numbers I no I I wouldn't use
assessments okay then I don't know what you're gonna use well that's why I think we
need to set aside I like to hear your ideas that's my thing okay I would rather hear
your ideas than have you go to a committee and have thought have all of you talking well
yeah well I don't have a problem with that the only problem I have is that we can take
again I could put it out that we
could take the time to hash things out whereas at this meeting we normally
don't take the time you we usually get material that's kind of predigested and it's
given to us we discuss it but we don't get into the real like like EBC that we have
a lot of in-depth discussions on stuff that we could have here but we don't
because it's more appropriate to have them there that that I think is a whole
different thing I see people are trying to
to do this is just one contract well set aside a half an hour we're
we're just going to almost a half an hour on this on our right isn't we could have
doesn't make sense to have police chief and fire chief here for that
discussion would that be helpful no I thought for the committee would but we can just do
as the three of us we want to pick the time that's fine all right we just we just bring us
numbers to look at and I will I will bring you what I think and that's what I
have I have two or three alternatives okay I will I will that's what I would like that's
that's what I would like that I think this I I feel that this is I think the
selectman should be doing something other than just showing up like six of
a quad running to a piece of paper and running fine okay that's just me
sorry Laura hey you want to do more of the work I do I'm fine with that I just
think that that's what we're here for is no this is something that we're really
should be we can we can I don't have a problem with it all right so if we set
aside if you've got time if there's time on the next one you said we're pretty
well we're not going to try to need a steering now for the next week oh okay
commissioners are going to come in to talk
about the long-term plan to want to meet with them on and and um okay I don't think
we should have a next meeting the commissioners are here I I think we should
plan on taking as long as there could be a long one no he doesn't think Windsor
he doesn't think Windsor should be on the next one correct correct so well I just
met some meeting where there isn't a lot of stuff okay yeah if you think if you think
we could fit it I don't know now I will put it on the to-do list for the next don't
schedule anything else we'll just spend the whole night talking about
Windsor well well we'll be crunching numbers we'll get off of Windsor so yeah how
Deary vote on the police I just wrote it they approved it wow so that's gonna
happen okay but we have to vote on it as well at some point
we know we already did yeah agreed to have the chief we agreed to yeah the
three-year part that's what they voted on but I didn't think we I didn't think we
vote I thought we voted on me three or four months when I didn't yes
voted on until they voted at town meeting right yeah I didn't think we can
yeah no yeah I was just I'm just I'm wrong yeah yeah I wrote that down
yeah no I couldn't find out well I didn't have time to find out from anybody even I
know they approve that I don't I don't have time I'm not retired I know I didn't know
I didn't know either I was that I had I wrote it down you know but yeah we approved
that because the chief came in gave us a three-year deal yeah deal and we
we approved the three four months up until town meeting and then Deary agreed to it
yeah that's what we presented to him
because we can't go back and say here we want more money well no no I I I thought
I thought we were going to get a report as to how the three or four months worked out
financially for us you know you know no we never we never talked about that
now I could you brought up a couple times to want to be able to see how this
on that short-term agreement was going to work well it was four months right that's
that was the that was kind of
the trial period the increase right we've had a contract with them for a couple
years right but the one had to see for until April I believe okay and this is a
better contract that works out even better well it's more money but I mean how much
to the cost I mean it would be nice to have something from the chief to find out how much that
four months oh I'm sure he's got that out yeah it'd be nice to see that just just to know that we
we are can I is associated electric done um they just just the barrels now they did
they have some well they're all they oh they okay there's there's there was here today
there were a couple of guys there the other day
driving fences around somebody's been there today to put
barriers there's green snake barriers around it all the sediment sediment stuff yeah all right
i just wondered if that when if the barrels were going to be removed yeah and those are not toxic
oh okay what is that steel frame when the crane coming down i don't have to talk to the highway
department oh uh how are mike was thinking that now that the crane is exposed he may have a
use for it at the highway department if not have been selling
okay I thought we already had a buyer no we did but it they back out yeah they wanted
they wanted it we talked about stuff but I know we talk about stuff but I mean we talk
all they wanted to take it down and we said no you come take it down and they said no
the um the rest of the cleanup aren't we uh working on a grant for that we submitted a
brownfield grant in January so now it's just the waiting game we should know hopefully the summer
and that's three years two years three years and that's going to get rid of
all the foundations and clean everything we get all the learning they had to be done three
yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah probably would be done quicker do you have a start date on the
sidewalk uh we're our construction engineer has is waiting to hear from the construction company
and get that schedule the you know that's something we can go to
actually okay i'd like to be there um water and sewer office has that coming
well we got a bill got a bill so i'm coming well okay i've seen some vehicles there
yeah we get the the bill from brown so that's all that underneath that's who that was it was it was
I can remember the guys you want to do that first I don't care if you want to do that
what we're talking about we talked about associated electric site I was contacted by
from a representative from new con they're running wires for contest right now in the
Antrim area they're staying here in town the workers are staying here in town and this
project goes till the end of June and
they are wondering if they can park a couple of their bucket trucks overnight in our
associated 171 West Main Street and i told them i would run in by you um but if the board says
yes i would just enter into them with them making sure that it just spells out your vehicles aren't sure
we are not responsible for any damage they have any cause on us you know they just need somewhere to
to park the trucks overnight and so i figured it's a real sure yeah i don't see a problem
no problem and the other thing i have is i have some appointments to committees for the board
to make and um conservation commission has three members plus an alternate to um dead list l is hush h
Richard head Jim Riddle their full members and John Sagini is an alternate and those would all be for three-year terms and they will be
easy action I make a motion to appoint Doug Litchke Richard Head and Jim Riddle as
members of the Conservation Commission and John Sagittie as an alternate
second is that all people that are applied on their mind is that all people that are applied on
applied in that well i think these people are being reappointed yeah yeah they're already on it
we have no no no no no but those people that were you you you seek
you advertised for people did more people than that list no what we do is we ask committee members
first like usually at a committee meeting they have if they want to stay on yeah
okay and if if they say no then you go you post it right okay okay and if more than one person
applies how do you determine who gets it usually they get good if there's a new person who wants
to serve on a committee yeah they go to the committee meeting and make sure that what it's not all
about and then we rarely turn in one way we always have we usually take the recommendation of the
committee right okay so you have the committee vote on it I don't know
that they take formal votes but when they meet the they put they put the
appointments forward because I've never really I've never experienced this in the
EDU that's why so as on the EDC we have so many openings right here I know
that I'm bringing forward Keith and their chase and they vote
to that they wanted to and Keith said was that in the final and he said was that in the
I don't want to do with me because Pete was the representative
under the chamber the longer chamber he wants to be a member at large okay so
I made a motion for the Conservation Commission and I have a second all in favor
aye aye all right and Pete Cobbit and Rishay Colcomb to the EDC
I'll seconded all in favor aye aye
I wonder one question on this when I went on the website of maybe a few months
ago last and allowed it had dates on these things I noticed that we voted on
these people there were no dates so we don't vote based on the expiration date like
the three year terms so we don't know what so these terms are all up okay so
they're just appointed for another three years okay I get it okay
thank you they're on a website they're on a website but we didn't say them
here and I just oh I'm sorry yeah I just wanted all in favor of time okay
I'm gonna check at my house but I can't sign take work here I don't know what it is
I make a motion to accept the minutes of March 10th do I second second all in favor
all I don't if we start breaking down chairs for you
Why you sign this is that already to do or I think I know he's on
I make a motion to accept the minutes of March 23rd do I have a second second
all in favor I just a second case you can't yeah it's not weird about the second time
30 I make a motion to accept the net manifest motion to author
I'm a manifest the hoard of the treasurer oh manifest of April late so I have a second
second all in favor all right for our school for our YouTube we already have our
YouTube channel set up so that we can start in May running on YouTube
this doesn't happen that's what I want to understand can you set the time is it running
yeah it was earlier I make a motion to
approve the consent of gender for a second all in favor hi hi
you can take something for it today I'm going to go today
and Monday I want to see my ophthalmologists from back because it reflects my eye
and usually I want to see my primary good positions
I got like two or three different drops to the eye and I get three different locations
let me send them aside that's right
And you can make jokes.
Yeah.
Well, yeah.
Okay.
You have to ask, right?
We had a lot of requests made tonight, and we want to handle them tonight
and we want to talk about in our next meeting for us to do stuff.
I'm just asking.
Because I was writing them down because these things are just, well, that's not a bad idea.
That's a good idea.
Maybe not, but I just want to know how we want to handle that.
Because I'm trying to just let things slide.
What do you got?
Okay, tax code abbreviation.
Should we put, I think that's a really good idea to have the general populace be able to see it.
So they understand what's going on too.
So could we do that?
Put it on our website somewhere.
Yeah.
I need to find out where that, where I can get that.
Well, I'm sure it's Nick knows.
Yeah, must have all the codes.
I'm sure.
I don't know that session section.
Okay. So we can do that one, I guess.
Yeah.
How about the audits on our website?
Could we do that?
Yeah.
I think you worked that down.
One of the, you know, one of the things that I wanted to talk about tonight is, it kind of goes along with this that was brought up,
is when we had time meeting, we have talked about money that we anticipated getting.
that we didn't get, okay?
Either we didn't get the complete amount or for some reason we didn't get any of it.
I don't know.
But one of the things is tax dollars, like property tax dollars.
And I remember when I first came on the board here, we had talked about it a bit, but,
and I, quite frankly, I don't remember what happened,
but could we get a report that has the tax dollars that are in arrears?
I don't necessarily care who it is.
I just want a total amount because that's money that we anticipated getting that we haven't gotten.
And we have to make that up.
Somehow, correct?
Because we send out.
Right.
So we still collect them.
It's just there in the rear.
So we don't make it up on taxing others more.
Correct.
Eventually they either pay or we take.
their property, but could we have a pandemic, create a list of, could we have one that
breaks it down by year?
The total dollars and percentage of what's missing?
Like for instance, if we're supposed to collect easy, a hundred dollars, we only collect
95, so we're in a rare by 5%.
I mean, I don't know.
I don't know if her report shows the percentage.
Okay, but it shows how much we should have.
than we can figure out the percentage.
Okay.
So we could get, could we get that maybe like on a quarterly basis,
that way we would get it, that way we kind of know.
Because I don't have access to that.
I know, she does.
You have to make the request for her.
I'm trying to think of that something.
One of the things that I had more, I had a list on my, I'm not going to go through that
because we got, I created another list here that some of it cross around.
I was not a big fan of our reassessments either.
I think you guys know that because I brought it up.
A couple of meetings.
And put this gently, do we just accept what they did?
I mean, there's still a significant amount of chatter going on in town about it.
People have talked me about it.
People have said to me, well, my neighbor, this is multiple people.
multiple people. My neighbors were assessed this, and I've assessed that, and I don't understand why all they are is across the street from me or this or that.
And quite frankly, I don't have an answer because I've run into the same issues on my street when I looked at it.
So do we have any recourse or do we even just accept it as is?
So it goes to the Department of Revenue who does testing on.
the revales and they if they have questions they bring them up if not they do
test and we have a we have a book of everything that happens for the assessment
and professionals who live this brief that take a look at all of that and we're not
even at a hundred percent you know we are we just got our ratio to 94% of them
but I think that, and I've said this before, when you talk about percentages or, you know,
so they're going to you or they're going on Facebook, but are they coming here and speaking with Nick?
Are they coming here and replacing a meeting with norms?
If they have a meeting.
Well, I guide, I tell them. There's nothing that we can do about it.
Well, I don't, but is there something that has to be done about it, you know, because, or is it more,
I offered after Nick and Nick wasn't able to answer certain things, I offered to bring Norman, you said you were all set, because I think there obviously is, you know, and we had someone come in tonight and say, well, you know, there's all these problems, yet are there? You know, I'm not an assessing professional, and whether or not I think, you know, there's, there's, maybe,
code, there's codes, there's values for certain land, and then there's values for back land, and there's, you know, conditions, and there are exemptions, there's this and there's that on certain properties, until you look in depth at the properties and say, well, why is this, you know, there was one that was brought up, and you brought that one up tonight, that has an active building permit,
and whether or not you call something a cottage or a boathouse but one of the things that was definitely something that got picked up because of the building permit that was brought in was that the mapping company we've always had this property at an acre that was from forever but if you look at the measurements of the lot it equals 2.5 acres and that was caught with
this building so that change that change is made now and that was brought forward on to an email I
brought that up also yeah because it's still so so so something like that yes do those things happen in all
yes absolutely but if it's a matter of you what recourse you're talking about well I know I
say throwing away the whole rebound and starting over that's my question
I think you need to have solid proof that there's some that you need to spend that money again.
Oh, I agree.
I don't, I think that not understanding everything that goes into these valuations, and they have to be,
the market value is what gets used.
And I understand that when we market values, if you're in somebody who's had your home,
just because people are,
paying $800,000 for something and then it changes and you can compare, somebody lives across the street from you, but do you know everything that they are being taxed on or are you missing something in their home?
And how do you prove that that, that I would just be cautious to say that this valuation is no good.
Well, you're right. You can't, we can't, I've never said that. No.
But I do question a lot of it because of my experience.
But we, the three of us, have the ultimate responsibility to the town.
Agreed.
And the buck stopped here.
It doesn't stop anywhere else.
It's not the assessor.
It's not you.
It's us.
And if people are disgruntled about something,
then it's kind of should be our responsibility to fix the problem.
To fix the problem.
If there's a problem. I'm not sure there is, but it's ultimately our responsibility to fix it.
But it's ultimately their responsibility also to make sure that they're being taxed on what they have.
And if they don't come in and see the assessor or even come in and get their card so they can see it.
I mean, if you look at your card and you don't have, you know, a big addition on it, then you need to tell somebody.
You know, but so they need to take a little bit of responsibility too. They just can't go out and
say, well, you know, so-and-so's houses, my, you know, my houses, our houses on my street
are almost all the same, because they're all built for the mill.
They're all laid out exactly the same.
I don't know what somebody's done inside the house to make it any different than mine.
But they didn't go inside the houses.
They don't have to.
But how do they know?
They look at the shell of the house and say, because they did go in at one time, and unless you get a
building permit to say you changed it.
They don't, no.
But they're supposed to.
That's just like when we had inventories.
People would write down on their inventory.
Well, I've painted my house.
Okay, so I'd make a whole list of all these changes.
People said they made to their houses.
And they go out and look, they didn't paint the house.
They put on a whole new addition without a permit.
You know, I mean, you just catch what you can.
Yeah, you're going to catch that as an drive-by when they go by.
But you can only catch it so much.
But the land.
owner is responsible. And if you think that yours is, you can come in and look at your neighbors and compare it to yours. And if you have a question, you make an appointment with the assessor. I mean, I think that I would think that it would start is, you know, somebody says, I don't understand why the person across the street is less than me. Then that is something that they should bring.
bring it to the assessor and use it as a comparison to theirs and ask why is this going down and
again this is the first time I go through this and it's an experience it's I had thought it would be I thought it would have calmed down by now and it's like four months into it and there's still a lot of churn but where are you see the churn is that people are coming to you people have asked me I mean I I I see people I you know I think
pick a ball and someone was saying, I don't understand this. How can this person is, this property is valued at this. It's right across the street from mine. Mine went up. His didn't, but he didn't do anything. I didn't do anything. I talked to me. But they're still coming to me and talking to me because in essence, we are responsible for the town. And we, and ultimately we're responsible for the taxes, the property taxes.
It's not the assessor may have done it, but we hired him.
And so it ultimately it's our responsibility, I think.
What would you like?
I don't know. I'm just asking questions.
No, I know, but too, because you've got to start somewhere, you know.
If you, if you're questioning the rebound, what would you like to see happen on this level for the board?
And then I can make suggestions and say.
I have never.
experience this, I have no frame of reference as to what, if you want, I'll think about it.
I mean, I would suggest having, and it's hard to talk about the whole town because you were talking
about percentage in that, but maybe have Norm come in.
Norm, you'll meet, the board will meet Norm at that meeting next Wednesday.
We have a non-meeting with our attorney.
Yep.
Thursday. And, you know, you know, and he can maybe break some of those questions down
for you explain, but it's hard if you don't have.
Here's the other thing that's happened that people complain about.
They go and they say, well, I, I don't agree with a degree evaluation, and they go in,
and it turns out their taxes went up and didn't go down.
So they said to me, last time we do that.
You know,
And that, well, if they come in and they're pointing out things that are different.
Well, I know, and I don't know, again, I'm just, you know, but sometimes I think, well, they're losing confidence in the town.
You just find out on a bunch of them that were approved, you know, because they came in or they
found out there. I'm just, I'm just telling you what I hear and when people have talked about.
That's been, that's been the same thing for years.
That's their recourse.
That's the recourse.
I mean, your recourse is to file an abatement.
Right.
Yeah, but a lot of people don't like to, I mean, I get it.
Well, then if they don't want to sign, if they don't want to file an abatement, then they're stuck with the assessment they're not.
But if they feel that it's useless to do it, because they'll feel they're going to.
And you're right.
Some people will come in and they'll say, well, I got this.
And they go, oh, well, that's not on your card.
Okay.
You know, but I just want you, I mean, if you're not.
comfortable and they're coming to you and you're like you're in the middle.
Well, you think you don't, you agree with them that things are wrong.
How would you, what can, I mean, I can bring Norman and you can try.
Maybe I'll come in to see you. We'll see. I mean, let me think about it. I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm going to come in here regularly or does he only?
Um, he has been. But he doesn't come in.
I'll stop. Hopefully this will pass in a few weeks.
Yeah. Well, let me know. And when you, you're going to plan on coming in, I'll make sure that you're going to plan on coming in, I'll make sure that you're here on a Tuesday.
Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Okay. I just, yeah. It's difficult to, to, you know, have things thrown out in a public meeting that aren't verified, aren't necessarily, there's no way to say whether or not that's accurate.
So it's throwing it out to, to, to, to,
the public to say, oh. I agree with you, but I, I took the, well, I gave you some stuff.
Right. A few months ago. I took the time to compare spreadsheets. I ran a whole bunch of formulas
through that. And I found stuff that I just scratched my head at. So it's not, if I hadn't done it,
I'd say, oh, these people are just, but I found it too. I've looked at the data, too. So it's not like
other people have and I haven't. I have, and I've seen things that I question.
and just wonder about, and it's just, you know, it's more than one.
There's a lot of things that I'm quick, but I don't bring it up because, again,
first time we go through this.
I've never been through this.
Maybe I'll be here five years, and the next time we do it, maybe I won't.
I don't know, but I'll have more experience.
I think that's the one that needs to answer your question.
Having your question to answer it would give you either one validation,
if you think something's wrong or two give you an explanation as to why things
are different than what you think I looked at a couple that I was surprised that the whole
area had a reduction and and they showed me the whole reason why so and and
you just asking to get the explanation but and maybe and then you if once you talked with
can. If you want to go further, then just let me know who you like.
Okay.
Even if it's someone in the Department of Revenue.
Yeah.
Especially if you've done all that work, I think that's the person you need to ask is the person
that can explain it.
And then maybe there was an explanation.
It's usually, I mean, there's, there's a chunk of people that went down as well.
But I know was it there's one town on the coast that's doing, that's doing another reevaluation,
because some of people.
people complain about it.
Hampton.
But if you, if you.
Because I read it in the paper.
Right.
So if you come,
if you have a problem with yours and it's kind of repeating what I was said and bring it in
and.
But I don't have a problem.
Oh, not you.
No.
I don't have an issue with the dollar amounts on my area out.
I mean, I think it's fear.
What I find just heartening is the fact that it, it, it, it, it's, it's, it's, it's heartening is the fact
that it doesn't appear that the rules were applied fairly across the board because I can
look at other people in the area that I've lived that I live in and I've looked at other areas too
and it's like people through dots at a dot board to say, well, this is this, this is this.
It doesn't seem, there's no rhyme or reason to how these things were applied.
And it just makes sense, makes no sense to me.
And I have a very logical thing.
because that's my background. I work with data. I wrote code and you have to think
logically and you had to make sense that things were applied across all of Hillsborough
but it doesn't appear that that that happened and I just I question yeah I just so there's
so many different but anyway so I'll know someone's got to answer that I will I'll come in
Yeah.
I'll gather a bunch of stuff that I have and won't out through it.
Yeah.
Okay.
Okay.
Fair enough.
So concerning my opinions or comments during public comment area, do what, can I sit with Rich and do
this all at once instead of having a separate meeting with Norm?
I mean, I've got a whole slew of things.
I didn't go through all of them, but I've got a lot of slew of stuff that I've been evaluating
since Diane gave me the lists.
So can we do it all in one shot and say?
one shot and say be efficient with norms time well if you're if you have specific
questions on specific properties if it sounds like you have a general question as to
why is this the way it is but I have specifics too I'm different than hers I
yeah yeah once we're ready maybe we can come in that one but does let me know
so I can let him know that I will let you set it up I will let you know when I will let you
know when I will let you come in yeah let me know I will let you come in I will let
let you come in and maybe you can even sit in too if you want I don't know okay okay
yeah I mean if it's a day that I have that time to sit now I just want to understand
I've gotten involved with some of the things that Rishay has sent in because you know it's
and um it's not like those were legitimate concerns well the whole changing of
addresses seeing that
well she were changing addresses I didn't say I asked I asked I asked for
clarification I did not accuse okay well well so we'll talk about it
within a couple of weeks okay let me know I'll make sure that more
enough aside that time okay and then I get the board then we'll go from the
address yeah let's yeah okay okay
We're owned with John Penn's project.
Localization starts Monday.
Oh really?
Yeah.
So he gets served with the two-week notice just to let him know.
We were coming in.
We were mobilizing in two weeks.
He said, you know, you're not tearing down a barn.
You're tearing down a, this is a two-family.
Then he stated that he had left messages for Mary and I.
in the welfare department which he hasn't I I I it's amazing how many times I
read well nobody there calls us back and I go around and I hear that or if someone
shows me that because I don't follow the non-official Facebook pages I ask everyone
here did you get a message from someone's no no no I'm like who I don't know
who they're calling but John didn't call us and so in welfare it wouldn't matter
anyway it has nothing to do with this you know the police are we know
we will probably have to have police detail there because just in serving the
notice who brought police with us and he was trying to go out we do have to take
there's a dead treaty there that overhangs the sidewalks as well as the
neighbor's property that we're going to be taken down it's hollow and yeah so
within the couple weeks mobilizing my day and and and
we've got the trash haulers ready because we'll be bringing in those to put the
debris in so he's had two weeks the contractor is more than happy to pull out
apparently he's got a Torino down in the lower level and stuff like happy to pull
that stuff out so that if he wants to keep it but other than that things are going along
the building you know who's worked three years with them to start getting fixing
you we're getting stuff out and so yeah that's where we're at and then fight
the kids trying to keep we poop the money well and I don't think we'll ever yeah
that's all the problem yeah but you know it's unfortunate because um legal with
issues like that it's just oh yeah and we have liens on the property but you see the
condition of the property I don't know what it looks like inside if he sells so he stated he wanted to sell it
he tried he wanted um us to consider erasing the lien so that he could sell it and make some money in
new by the whole borough and i told our attorney we're not interested in that unless he brings forward
of purchase and sales and the people who built the duplex and that and
him the knights wanted to buy his property so we put the two of them in contact gave
John another couple weeks to have get a purchase and sales together and that didn't
happen so you said okay we're leaving forward we can't keep doing this and yeah yeah yeah and the other one
the other one the diesel place yeah that he does not want to go to court so he met with my far attorney
said you know he wants to coming to compliance about going court which is great
we've only tried to get that how many times but but that's great if we don't have to
continue to go through court so Mike met with him today he's already done some of the
work he did let Mike finally into the other property that he has so that Mike could
see that he's not leasing it out and that could have done that a long time ago and that would have
prevented that so
we'll see Mike has another meeting with him I believe in two weeks to see if he's made
a substantial amount of change okay no I just just guess yeah yeah I'm good I just said
I just said risk look like he'd just been an idea yeah I wonder that does it real quick
the committee that I was on for adhering with Ryan from Hillsville
dairy has been disbanded we recommend so how to step I don't want to set I don't want to set I don't want to
to but um so you recommended that they don't withdraw but before you were saying that
financially it means sense for them so they so if the recommendation is not to
withdraw can they still move forward they could if they want to okay so I mean
there were five there's seven board members five were there and we voted five
nothing because they got what they wanted they wanted there were two two warrant
articles that they wanted passed they were both passed so it
set we they told us ahead of time that if those were passed they would they would vote in favor of not withdrawing
what would that the uh changing of the select forward member the Daring representative would only be voted
by Daring and the Hillsborough and changing the formula to apply the state aid before the split
rather than after the split so does that that means taxes are going to go
up in house around yes by a fair amount no matter what happens school board meeting
says seven hundred and fifty thousand dollar difference is what we're going to have to
make up now but it's not five million right was it five million they were
talking about before well if if they had withdrawn they they contributed five million
to our budget so we were had to cut five million five million out of that Hillsborough
budget just to stay level
anyway that's for now that's done that's it i make a motion to adjourn
second all in favor hi hi