VILLAGE DISTRICT OF EIDELWEISS
Commissioners Meeting
February 6, 2020
Public: Nick Borelli, Donna Mackinnon
Commissioners in attendance Jay Buckley, Adam Leiser, Kathy Koziell
Filmed by Tim Hughes of Madison TV
Adam calls the meeting to order at 9:10am.
Jay motion: approve agenda. Adam second. Vote yes 2-0
Adam asks Kelly if he has reviewed the Porridge Shore video. Kelly says he never saw it. Adam asks Donna to send it.
Adam reports that he was contacted by the Gagnon’s and they pruned one tree and removed another as requested by the BOC.
Adam motion: the BOC draft a thank you letter. Kathy second. Vote yes 3-0 Adam to write it. Kelly to look. Adam hasn’t been there. Kathy and Jay haven’t either.
Trucks are on the road and operating as they should. No issues. Burgdorf conversation. Kelly spoke with someone Joe Schmidl at DES and he asked the designation of the stream. Stream is tier 2 which means DES must give approval and it’s not just a remove and replace. 72 inch culvert needed so Kelly can’t do it without an engineered design. Nick suggests doing a quick repair without state overview. Adam suggests changing the article by 5k to cover engineering. Adam asks further if we can get a worst case and a best case. Kelly says he can’t do that. Adam says if we don’t have any numbers, we’re going to get a resident who says we’re asking for money without having any idea how much money the actual project will cost. Kelly says we could repair but not replace which will by us sometime. The DES representative said he will probably support this. PBN needed either way. Kelly wants to speak with him again and ask for permission to repair. Adam asks what the Burgdorf article needs to look like. Kelly says the article needs to be 25k with the hope it goes down. He’ll get better numbers in the coming weeks.
Kelly says he spoke with someone in Ossippee that is a town employee and they have two sanders for sale. This would be a bid item. One would fit the big truck. Operating budget could be amended on the floor to cover purchase. Adam states we have to know date the bid must be in and the bid will be awarded. Kelly will get us that info next week.
Email for DPW works.
Jay asks Kelly about the budget. Jay says he gave him a budget a while ago. Adam asks Jay why he didn’t report that during the meeting. Kelly says he hadn’t seen the latest one.
Adam reports he has to leave at 12:15 because of the snow day.
Kelly looks at budget. Discussion about highway equipment repair line item ensues. Kelly says last year was a “freak year” in terms of highway equipment repair. Adam asks Kelly if we should remove 10k from line item on equipment but increase CRF for highway equipment by 10k.
Kathy reports expenses that year after year occur should be in the operating budget.
Adam says the trust is broken and needs to be fixed. Nick says it’ll take a long time.
Adam reports frustration that the public has animosity for a BOC that saved the district $750,000 between the grant and the lower interest rate on Reinach.
CRF funding discussion.
Jay reports that two petitioned warrant articles submitted to Madison were late. The VDOE missed the deadline by one day. Adam expressed frustration that the BOC missed the date. He states we promised the public we would get it right and we didn’t.
No candidates will be on the ballot as a result of this error. Jay believes the NHMA didn’t give us proper posters and such and the wording was bad on the RSA.
Adam motion: Jay draft a letter to the NHMA for BOC review discussing the RSA. Jay second. Vote yes 3-0.
Question arises about 17k for asphalt. Adam states that mobilization is a big expense. Kelly says there are additional places to see paved. Nick suggests paving Eidelweiss Drive.
Jay leaves the meeting:
Discussion on gravel occurs. Kathy and Adam state that we shouldn’t be so close on budgets. Adam highlights that a meeting in October said Kelly wanted another 3k for gravel last year to better complete a warrant. Adam says the idea of “coasting” is a bad one. Kelly doesn’t recommend going down on salt. Keep gravel down and salt up. Kelly suggests deleting line item for painting. Further budget discussion ensues. Kelly wants to focus on culvert repair. Kelly wants 20k for part-time.
Adam motion: sign letter written by Kathy and sent to the BOC in response to the Dept of Labor on 2/5. Kathy second. Vote yes 2-0 Nick talks about the prior BOC putting a well where it shouldn’t have been installed.
Adam motion: approve minutes of 1/30. Kathy second. Vote yes 2-0
Adam motion: Approve minutes of 1/15. Kathy second. Vote yes 2-0
Adam motion: Approve minutes of 1/9. Kathy second. Vote yes 2-0
Adam motion: Approve minutes of 2/1 with Adam’s changes/corrections and have Adam take the exact changes and merge them word for word into the draft minutes in the appropriate spots as best as possible.
Adam motion: Have Jay write a letter to the power company to start working towards a tree removal plan. Second Kathy. Vote yes 2-0.
Adam motion: invite Chris Albert, Ian Hayes, Chris Boldt and Kelly Robitaille to the annual meeting via email request from admin. Second Kathy. Vote yes 2-0
Adam reports that every seven years the VDOE needs 108x2 + 240 for trucks. That’s $456,000 or $65,142 per year excluding the grader and backhoe.
Nick says we need options. Adam reports that he worked diligently with the office to get an article for a truck bond.
Nick doesn’t support the Grandval class VI discussion. Adam reports that he contacted Mr. Gallant and that no support existed for his article.
Adam thanks Nick for coming in. Nick says common sense is needed. Nick praises Jeff and Kelly.
Nick says people don’t want to participate because they are busy. Adam says people don’t want to work because the environment is too toxic. Kathy reports we have been able to get some new people involved.
Adam reports he spoke with Luis Adorno.
Adam motion: Motion to have Adam meet with Luis Adorno for asset management. Second Kathy. Vote yes 2-0. Adam says date tbd.
Jay Returns to meeting:
Discussion ensues about water line extension fund amending at annual meeting to add “asset management” so we can apply for grant. Currently the fund doesn’t have enough money but with two water hookups in 2020 it will have enough money.
Peter Chapel sent the insurance information to Nancy’s representatives. All is well.
Bond comparison spreadsheet discussed.
Adam reports that both Ian and Chris A. supported increasing the water budget rather than having a CRF. Adam suggests adding 10k to water repairs. Kathy is on board with it. Jay objects. Adam is on board with it.
Adam reports that Ian and Chris both supported combining water CRFs. Kathy supports the combination. Jay supports that they not be combined. Kathy thought he was in favor of it. Adam supports the combination.
Kathy and Adam say Jay wrote the articles. Jay says he just took what Adam gave him. Kathy doesn’t understand why Jay didn’t object when they met. Kathy thought Jay was in favor of the articles. Kathy wanted to know if Jay objected. Conversation ensued about $80k quote for Eidelweiss Drive. Discussion about what happened on the Wed night meeting that Adam didn’t attend regarding warrants.
Jay mentions DPW structural issues. Adam wonders why wasn’t that discussed on Saturday. Discussion ensues about a bow in the building and track damage. Kathy thought the $4250 on engineering was actually possible to fix the floor or not in the DPW.
Adam states that the tight tank project and engineering should all be in the warrant. Jay is asked why he didn’t tell the public the $4250 didn’t include engineering the tight tank when Adam told the public it was. As discussion ensues Adam says the engineering has to come from the operating budget because we need a design to get a bid and we need to get a good number to get public support.
Adam motion: Approve a $1500 expense from the operating budget to engineer the tight thank project. Second Kathy. Vote yes 3-0.
Jay leaves the meeting:
Petitioned warrant article – Adam doesn’t think we can do the petitioned article because we need seven days notice for the public hearing and then at least 25 days prior to the annual meeting. Kathy says if the VDOE missed Madison then the petitioned article definitely missed the VDOE deadline.
Adam wonders if we should sent a letter to petitioner.
Adam motion: the BOC send a letter to petitioner explaining that the petitioned article can’t be presented. Second Kathy. Vote yes 2-0. Adam to write the letter. Deadline and public hearing were both missed.
Adam reiterates that this is irrelevant because he’d already coordinated with NHMA, DRA and Chris Boldt.
Adam reports a conversation he had with an insurance agent from CT. The handbook was discussed along with the two employee issue. Adam and Kathy agree that we could be opening this up to a lawsuit if we change it now. Donna reports that admin has added it to August admin action list.
Adam to review handbook on his own.
Kathy has been trying to post minutes but can’t for an undetermined reason.
Adam reports that he asked admin to have a column with true expenses with CRF’s included. Donna hasn’t started that but will.
Discussion about Luis Adorno email.
Adam states that the tree warrant article should be removed.
Adam motion: Sign the letter to Terri Warren. Kathy second. Vote yes 2-0.
St. Moritz discussed. Adam asks admin to see if she can find the minutes for BOC review.
Andrew Harteveldt asked the BOC not to support a bond for the truck.
John Cancelarich email is discussed.
Donna tried to get insurance information based on a change in fire rating. She couldn’t get a number.
Adam motion to go Non-public employee review per RSA 91-A:3,II(a) Seconded Kathy. Vote yes 2-0 11:45am
Adam motion to go Non-public reputation RSA 91-A:3, II(c) Second Kathy Vote yes 2-0
Adam motion to end non-public at 12:05pm
Jay has been tasked with organizing the process for Kelly’s review.
Kathy to figure out what to do with remaining minutes.
Adam motion: approve the manifest. For $7115.88. Second Kathy. Vote yes 2-0
Adam motion: sign the letter to 22 Middle Shore Drive. Second Kathy. Vote yes 2-0.
Kathy and Adam agree to make warrant for paving Eidlelweiss for $69k rather than highway repair.
Adam motion to adjourn. Second Kathy. Vote yes 2-0.