Town of Eaton - November 2009

TOWN OF EATON, NEW HAMPSHIRE 03832

EVANS MEMORIAL BUILDING

BOARD OF SELECTMEN

November 3, 2009

The regular meeting of the Board of Selectmen took place on Tuesday, November 3, 2009 at the Evans Memorial Building. Present were Rick Young, and Aaron Blake. The meeting was called to order at 7:00 p.m.

Aaron Blake discussed a quote for manufacturing cemetery markers. More information will be sought from a commercial manufacturer who sells them for $2.99 each. There was a concern that the stainless steel cap may be too bright and shiny in the cemetery.

The minutes for the meeting of October 27^th were accepted as amended.

The Selectmen discussed the organizational meeting for the Hard Mitigation Plan set for November 10^th.

Correspondence from the Coalition Communities reviewed a Legislative two day session on the State’s financial situation. New Hampshire needs an improved or new revenue stream. The report revealed conflicting opinions on the issues.

Received from the Registry was a boundary line agreement between the Beans and the Weegars on Snowville Rd. It was noted that it made reference to a plan that has not yet been approved by the Planning Board.

The Local Government Center was advertizing their publication "The Basic Law of Budgeting - A Guide for Towns, Village Districts and School Districts".

The Department of Revenue Administration has sent the instructions for completing the Municipal Assessment Data Information sheets for determining the equalization ratio. They will be forwarded to Jason Call.

All the forms needed for the Department of Revenue Administration to set the tax rate have been submitted.

The E911 Liaison Appointment form will be updated.

Signature item was a letter to the Trustees suggesting a meeting to discuss increasing the cost for purchasing a burial plot in the Snowville Cemetery and momumenting the grave sites.

A zoning violation will be discussed further next week.

Suzanne Raiche and Jeanne Hartman were in attendance.

The meeting adjourned at 9 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

David V. Maudsley

TOWN OF EATON, NEW HAMPSHIRE 03832
EVANS MEMORIAL BUILDING
BOARD OF SELECTMEN
November 10, 2009
The regular meeting of the Board of Selectmen took place on Tuesday, November 10^th, 2009 at the Evans Memorial Building. Present were Rick Young, Don Philbrick and Aaron Blake. The meeting was called to order at 7:00 p.m.
The Board of Selectmen reviewed checks and signed the accounts payable manifest for $9,381.78 for 14 items. The payroll manifest was also signed.
The Trustees of the Trust Funds (Nancy Burns, Victoria Murphy and Janet Bridgham) met with the Selectmen to discuss the Snowville Cemetery. Rick Young said the Selectmen had had enough of going out and identifying individual burial plots. The Selectmen have met with David Douglass of Thorne Surveys with a view to monumenting the individual lots in the new section. About 50 lots are involved. Each corner will be marked with a stainless steel marker. It was agreed that when a plot was purchased these markers would be replaced by granite corner markers. It will be up to the Town to ensure that the lots are monumented with these markers within two weeks after the lots are sold. The Selectmen were also proposing to raise the purchase price to $600. It has been at $300 for many years. Nancy Burns made a motion, seconded by Victoria Murphy, to raise the cost of a cemetery plot to $600 effective immediately. The motion passed unanimously.
Rick Young said the Conservation Commission had met the previous evening. Ryan Bushnell who rents one of the blueberry fields has a problem with grass. One solution is to use sulphur to lower the pH. Cost is about $700/acre. Overall cost would be $10,000 -$14,000. It was suggested that a test spot will be done to determine if it works.
The Conservation Commission discussed timber cuts on Town lands and will be meeting with Dan Stepanauskas, the Town Forester, to discuss some of the issues that have arisen.
Rick Young said he had received an email from Heather McKendry It concerned the easement over Town property that PSNH requires in order to provide power to her house.
They usually require a deed but the Town does not have one. PSNH had been told previously that the Selectmen would provide whatever kind of a letter they needed to establish the Town’s ownership but they had not responded.
Rick Young reviewed the Hazard Mitigation Plan meeting held earlier in the day. Bonnie Lockwood had substituted for Jane Hubbard. Seven people had attended. The meeting had agreed on a rating system for each of the hazards discussed. Many of them did not apply to the Town. Additional meetings are scheduled for December 2^nd and 16^th.
The minutes for the meeting of November 3^rd were accepted as amended.
Carol Mayhofer signed checks.
Correspondence was received from the Department of Transportation saying that they had inspected the Potter Rd bridge and found the project acceptable.
The Annual Software Support Maintenance Guidelines from the Harris Corporation for the Munismart software used by the Tax Collector was received.
The New Hampshire Municipal Association Annual Meeting is on Thursday, November 19,
in Manchester.
Kenneth McKenzie had been in earlier in the day and volunteered to be on the Hazard Mitigation Plan Committee.
The Department of Environmental Services has issued a Complete Forestry Notification for Stacy Sprague for a timber cut on Bean Rd.
The November newsletter from the Carroll County Collaborative was received. There is a countywide community aspirations feedback forum on November 17^th at Runnels Hall in Chocorua.
Three reports for timber cuts on Town lands totaling $5,855.45 in proceeds for the Conservation Commission were received from Dan Stepanauskas.
A generic letter for agencies requesting the Selectmen put an article on the warrant for the Town Meeting was approved. The letter indicated that when there was no known or apparent benefit to the people in Eaton then the Selectmen will require any request for funds to be in the form of a petition with a minimum of 10 signatures of registered voters. It also stated that the deadline for petitions for next year’s Annual Meeting was Tuesday, February 2^nd, 2010.
The Department of Environmental Services has issued an approval for a subdivision on Snowville Rd for Matthew and Vicki Weegar and Jaclyn Eldridge.
Suzanne Raiche and Jeanne Hartman were in attendance.
The meeting adjourned at 9 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
David V. Maudsley
　
TOWN OF EATON, NEW HAMPSHIRE 03832
EVANS MEMORIAL BUILDING
BOARD OF SELECTMEN
November 10, 2009
The Board of Selectmen met on Tuesday, November 10, 2009 at the Evans Memorial Building to discuss the Hazard Mitigation Plan. Present were Rick Young, Larry Nash, Paul Hennigan, Jane Gray, Elwyn Thurston, and Fred Goss. Also present was Bonnie Lockwood of McGrew Management Services substituting for Jane Hubbard who has family with H1N1 virus. The meeting was called to order at 10:00 a.m.
Following introductions, Rick Young explained that in order to qualify for certain FEMA funds the Town had to have an approved Hazard Mitigation Plan in place.
Bonnie Lockwood explained the process of identifying hazards and assessing vulnerability. She expected there would be 3 more meetings before the plan was completed. Copies of an assessment analysis score card were distributed with assessments running from 0 (none to 5 (high).
The meeting was spent assessing the impact of natural hazards in Eaton and then the human hazards and ascribing a score to each of the categories. Of the natural hazards, avalanches, dams, drought, earthquakes, extreme heat. landslides and forest fires were rated non applicable, low or remote. ( 0 or 1). Flooding (washing out of roads), wind and severe winter weather were rated higher (1 to 2) but questions were raised that require a definition of some of terms used in the assessment sheets. Bonnie Lockwood will look into that for the next meeting.
The major natural hazards to the Town are washing out of Town roads, and ice storms resulting in trees and power lines being downed. It was noted that in regard to damage to property, townspeople usually took care of it themselves. For fires, forest fires and accidents, mutual aid had operated for many years quite effectively.
For the human hazards worksheet, terrorists, bombs, biological, urban fire, and radon were designated non applicable, or remote. There was a greater concern over armed violence, casualties on the roads and a haz mat spill due to a truck accident. It was also noted that telegraph poles were often at the receiving end of vehicle accidents disrupting power lines but utility repairs are much quicker than they used to be.
The next meeting will discuss critical facilities, vulnerability and capability assessment.
The meeting adjourned at 11:35 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
David V. Maudsley
　
TOWN OF EATON, NEW HAMPSHIRE 03832
EVANS MEMORIAL BUILDING
BOARD OF SELECTMEN
November 17, 2009
The regular meeting of the Board of Selectmen took place on Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 at the Evans Memorial Building. Present were Rick Young, Don Philbrick and Aaron Blake. The meeting was called to order at 7:00 p.m.
The minutes for the regular meeting of November 10^th were accepted as amended.
The minutes of the meeting on the Hazard Mitigation Plan were accepted as distributed.
Rick Young said he had received an email from Kevin Flynn saying the Eaton Village Preservation Society were holding their Annual Meeting on November 18^th at 6 p.m. Shortly afterwards, Kevin Flynn appeared and apologized for the short notice. He made arrangements to get into Town Hall. He was told the Planning Board was meeting at 7 p.m. He said the Eaton Village Preservation Society meeting would be over by then.
Rick Young said the Conservation Commission will be meeting with Bill Lord of the UNH Extension Service on November 24^th to look at the grass problem on the blueberry fields on Foss Mt.
Aaron Blake said he would like the speed limit signs on his road resurrected and reinstalled.
Elwyn Thurston will be contacted.
Heather McKendry said she needed a street number for her new house. 911 will be contacted. She also discussed the problem with getting an easement from PSNH to run power to her house over Town land. It had not been possible to locate a deed and PSNH were not willing to do anything without it. The Town was quite willing to send a letter claiming ownership and accepting liability but to no avail. There was a general consensus that PSNH is very frustrating to deal with.
The Department of Environmental Services had sent another letter in regard to the Dredge & Fill application for replenishing the beach sand. They wanted more information including the exact location of where the sand was going to go and how run off was going to be handled and threatened to deny the application if a single and complete response was not received within 60 days. The Selectmen were not impressed and will convey their sentiments to the Governor in unequivocal terms.
Information was received from the Department of Revenue Administration on the estimated tax rate.
The Professional Fire Fighters of New Hampshire had sent a riposte to the Local Government Center correspondence on their Supreme Court case.
Additional information was received on adequate education funding scenarios from the Coalition Communities.
A photo album for the Potter Rd Bridge construction was received from Jason Lodge of Hoyle, Tanner and Associates.
Suzanne Raiche and Jeanne Hartman were in attendance.
The meeting adjourned at 9 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
David V. Maudsley
　
TOWN OF EATON, NEW HAMPSHIRE 03832
EVANS MEMORIAL BUILDING
BOARD OF SELECTMEN
November 24, 2009
The regular meeting of the Board of Selectmen took place on Tuesday, November 24^th, 2009 at the Evans Memorial Building. Present were Rick Young, Don Philbrick and Aaron Blake. The meeting was called to order at 7:00 p.m.
The Board of Selectmen reviewed checks and signed the accounts payable manifest for $156,851.75 for 18 items. The payroll manifest was also signed.
The minutes for the meeting of November 17^th were accepted as amended.
Rick Young said he and Aaron Blake had inspected the pole barn extension and agreed there were several issues the contractor needed to address before the final check was paid. Later in the meeting they drew up a punch list of what needed to be done. The Selectmen noted the specifications called for the rafters to be on 12" centers and they were between 14" and 16". However, the Selectmen noted that was an improvement over the existing barn and they vote unanimously to accept it. There were several other issues that the Selectmen said needed to be addressed. Rick Young called Arthur Battles and set up a meeting for the following morning.
Rick Young said members of the Conservation Commission had met with Ryan Bushnell, who rents one of the blueberry properties from the Town, and Bill Lord and Tina Savage from the UNH Extension Service. They went to inspect the grass of Foss Mt which is choking out the blueberries. Before going organic, the grass was controlled by spraying with valpar. According to Bill Lord, the blue stem grass is difficult to remove and lowering the pH, as previously proposed by using sulphur, will not kill it. It was suggested that Ryan Bushnell apply for an agricultural sustainability grant (SARE) and experiment with an organic approach such as vinegar, mint oil etc. There would be no cost to the Town. Grants up to $15,000 are available. Rick Young said it was not looking as good for organic blueberries and noted that the contracts for leasing the blueberry fields will have to be rewritten.
Aaron Blake said the Planning Board had approved a three lot subdivision on the Snowville Rd for Matthew and Vicki Weegar. There had been about a dozen people in the audience who were mainly abutters. A concern had been raised about the increase in traffic but Edith Dashnau had pointed out that the increase would not likely be more than when their business (Sleigh Mill Antiques) was open. The Planning Board did not feel the increase in traffic would warrant changes to the access road. The Planning Board is also moving ahead with Public Hearings in December on the zoning amendment tabled from last year and the Floodplain Management Ordinance. They are also proposing a series of Public Hearings on specific sections of the Master Plan for the first few months of next year.
The Department of Revenue Administration has set the tax rate. It is $11.30 down $0.04 from last year. The Town has gone down from $4.35 to $3.72, the School has gone up from $6.11 to $6.62 and the County has gone up from $0.88 to $0.96.
Carol Mayhofer signed checks.
Drafts of letters to the Governor and to the Department of Environmental Services detailing the Town’s difficulty in getting a permit to put down sand at the Beach and the Selectmen’s frustration in dealing with Department officials were approved and will be signed next week.
The Coalition Communities, who are particularly concerned about "donor" towns contributions for funding an adequate education, now has 36 members.
Now that H1N1 flu virus has been called a national emergency, the DHHS has a new web site (nh.gov) for H1N1 information.
The Local Government Center has provided more information on their disputes with the Secretary of State and the Professional Fire Fighters of NH organization. The issues are before the courts.
Suzanne Raiche and Jeanne Hartman were in attendance.
The meeting adjourned at 9 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
David V. Maudsley