Minutes of the March 24th Board of Selectmen’s meeting
The Board of Selectmen met to at 5:30pm in the town hall.
Pledge of Allegiance
Roll Call: Harry Wright, Chairman; Jack Meaney, Selectman; Barry Wheeler, Selectman.
Minutes of the March 16th were reviewed. Minutes accepted with the following corrections:
Add – Mark Goldberg apologized to the Board for poor behavior at the Town Meeting. He noted that were he an employee, disciplinary action would have been taken, but as a volunteer the procedure was unclear. He offered to make a financial contribution to a local charity. No charity was defined by the Board of Selectmen and no decision was made.
Correct – Mark Goldberg discussed the Rescue Squad’s progress. The minutes incorrectly identify the shifts needing coverage. The weekends and nights are currently fully covered. The per diem workers would cover the weekday daytime hours.
Note: comments in quotes are paraphrased
Harry Wright began the meeting on the preschool with a historic timeline of BACC Governance development.
Cheryl Behr asked to document a few facts with the BACC Governance Board Chairman before proceeding with the lease discussion.
Questions for the Governance Board: Discussions at the March 24th meeting are in Bold. The remaining paragraphs were presented to the audience of the March 24th meeting and the questions were posed to the BACC Governance Board Chairman, Bruce Edwards. All questions were asked of Mr. Edwards to document the current status of discussions with Carol Adams and the grant preparations.
Edwards was not able to answer many of the questions as the BACC Board had not voted on the items at this time. They will be holding a meeting in Mid April (12th?) and will have these answers then; when answered this information will be reported to the Board of Selectmen and placed in the BACC file for future reference.
The entire issue of authority over the Community Center has centered around the lack of formal documentation by the selectmen or the BACC Governance Board. The following questions were presented because there is no formal record of BACC minutes answering these questions. (March minutes not available on the website on March 24th).
In the spirit of transparency, these questions (and the answers) will be attached to the Selectmen’s minutes and the BACC files for future reference. The BACC Governance Board online minutes do not reflect any of this information.
Following are the questions asked
1. Does Carol Adams speak for the Governance Board? – She has been asked to address certain issues. No vote
2. Has the Governance Board voted to ask Carol Adams to apply for a grant with the NH Charitable Foundation? Not yet
a. What is the amount of the grant – about $14,000
b. What is the purpose of the grant – i.e. any job descriptions? To get the governance board up and running and increase volunteerism
c. What is the length of time covered by the grant? Uncertain answer
3. If #2 is yes, has a contractual agreement been made with Ms. Adams to complete the work? no
a. Is this agreement in writing no
b. How many hours at what rate – i.e. contract vs. wages Conditions of each Not available at this time
c. How and when paid? Not Available at this time
d. Grant writing fee paid additionally from grant proceeds? Not Available at this time
4. Has the Governance Board voted to accept the conditions of the grant? Not Available at this time
5. Have the Friends of the BACC voted to act as fiscal agents for the grant and to accept the condition for reporting and oversight? Not Available at this time
a. Will this oversight include supervision of any contractor or employee paid under the grant funds? Not Available at this time
b. Where will the record keeping be kept? Not Available at this time
Ms. McKevitt, a private citizen attending the BACC meetings, stated ‘the atmosphere in the room was not negative’ (paraphrase) with regards to the topic of applying for the grant. The grant is due to be submitted on April 1, 2011. It was unclear whether the BACC Governance Board would meet before the grant was submitted.
Harry Wright moved on to the topic of the Preschool leases. He explained that due to timing the town now had two valid leases. One lease had not been terminated timely, and by default continued, while another valid lease was signed for the upcoming 2011-2012 school year. The Select Board was faced with alternatives.
#1. To honor one of the two leases.
#2. Working through both with a compromise.
The Board felt that a litigation situation existed with either party. Contact with town counsel indicated the wording of the lease as it existed did not include several pertinent items. State statutes requiring exemptions in place to exclude the tenants from property tax obligations and the terms of the lease (termination issues) needed to be added to avoid future date related issues. Questions regarding tax implication and calculations were discussed. The town will have assessors provide information to prorate taxes for each unit. Question was raised regarding the outdoor play area and Karen Hambleton of the Preschool indicated the play area was available to all children and should not be part of the tax obligation.
The motion was made by Harry Wright to honor the KAP lease through July 1, 2012, to create a notice of termination now to terminate the KAP lease on that date and to amend the Children’s Center for Creative Learning lease to delay in the start date of their lease to July 1 2012. Motion was made, vote was unanimous.
Questions were raised of the authority of the Board of Selectmen to enter into this future negotiation following the March 9th vote of the Town Meeting. Harry Wright stated the lease was signed prior to Town Meeting and the Board would see out its responsibility to correct the situation. Future leases can be negotiated by the Governance Board – but the Board of Selectmen must still approve them.
The issue of lease breaking or modification with the Children’s Center will be handled as a separate issue of ligation. All future leases will now include an automatic termination date.
Motion was made to move to non public session per RSA 91 A-3II c. Time out 7:00pm
Board returned from non public session at 7:50pm. No personnel decision made.