SB Meeting Notes November 9, 2022
Meeting Summary
Wednesday night’s Selectboard meeting was long and at times challenging. The board is working through the critical issues facing our town, and doing so with the budget season looming. The meeting wasn’t all smooth sailing, but it was clear that there is a continued difference between board members who have a renewed passion to work with everyone in town to find good solutions to our problems and those struggling to engage with the public.
We are very pleased to see that Marcia Calloway, the new SB Chair, has wasted no time in improving how the current Board conducts meetings. We also welcome Marcia's efforts to introduce basic project management tools.
Some important issues to note:
The SB approved contracting with a firm to cover plowing of the critical roads that we are not staffed to cover. It’s a fixed bid contract, so if it ends up being a light year we’ll have overpaid for the security but if it’s a heavy snow year we’ll end up saving some money.
There’s still a lot that we need to dig into about the Moore Lane bridge. Folks in town have found that the bridge was originally done as an experiment by the State, and mostly paid for by the State. This suggested that the State should be more involved and perhaps shoulder the cost of a long term solution. The “bridge diaper” is getting installed and while we hope it will contain the effuse, no one knows for sure if it will work.
Chief Chochran is working on recruiting staff for the Police Department, with an eye towards understanding the kind of police that are most appropriate for Norwich. The Norwich Women’s Club is hosting a meet and greet with the new Chief on November 29th from 5-7pm at the Police Station Community Room.
We had a chance to hear from the new Town Health officers, who will be getting their contact information posted on the town website.
The SB appointed Rob Gere to serve on the town wide reappraisal review panel. They did not receive any applications from a member of the public. The reappraisal proposals are due November 21st and the panel must make a recommendation to the Selectboard in time for them to approve the contract and submit our plan to the State by December 9th.
Aaron Lamperti was appointed to be liaison to the School Board.
The Gingerbread festival will be allowed to serve alcohol in Tracy Hall (expect higher bids).
There were lots of complex issues discussed related to the boiler replacement at Tracy Hall. The board voted down the measure with only Mary Layton in favor.
The SB discussed looking for an interim Town Manager and approved posting advertisements. Mary Layton asked SUFN for assistance in identifying candidates.
The SB discussed the budget process, which will start with Rod Francis’s draft and Aaron will review with each department. The board discussed but decided not to try and reinstate a finance committee.
There was discussion but no decisions about Q&A sessions, hybrid meetings starting in January, updating the town website, and updating employee policies.
Meeting Notes
Marcia’s proposal for agenda items was changed and the Q&A session and budget discussion were moved to “future agenda items.”
Marcia called out the updates from departments in the packet for folks to read through.
Chris Kaufman (DPW) provided background on snow plow agreements. First agreement wasn’t able to commit to the needs. New contract is a better fit, flat rate, municipal truck, which means they can also do sanding. New Boston and Turnpike covered by employees. One new hire is interested in getting a CDL.
Plowing contract was approved for $78k which covers the average amount from past years. The contract is a flat rate regardless of how much it snows.
Chris gave an overview of the process underway at Moore lane to put an absorbent material under the bridge. Marcia asked about what the source of the material is and what we need to think about to remove the bridge.1-2 year process of review and design, about $750k to replace.
Peter Orner and Katie Crouch asked about what’s getting contained, what the long term plans are and what happens if the absorbent material fails.
Marcia acknowledged Peter and Katie’s concern and raised questions about whether this is the right approach and brought the discussion back to the board to figure out what needs to happen. The board discussed that this requires a budget discussion.
Stuart Richards asked if this absorbent material would need to be disposed of. Chris stated that the material would not have to be replaced and would contain all of the material.
Linda asked whether we should limit the weight per the design vs the trucks that may currently be over it.
John asked - this bridge was done as an experiment by the State. The town only paid for 4% of the cost. Has anyone asked the State if they should be responsible for this and help pay for replacing it. Marcia confirmed that the board will be looking into this.
Wade Cochran is working on recruitment to fill police department positions. He’s looking for people to “fit” Norwich, to be a right fit for the town. He’s thankful of Tracy and Anna’s help in getting him up to speed. Current salaries are not competitive, he wants to Selectboard to discuss working on the salaries to attract the best candidates. Just took delivery of the Rav4 vehicle that was purchased last month. The Chief is getting up to speed quickly and is looking forward to meeting the town residents.
Meet the Chief is 11/29 5-7pm at the PD Community Room
New Town Health Officers: Alena Berube and Alka Dev.
Marcia suggests having information on the website so people know the resources are available. Marcia asked about the email from the State toxicologists.
Alka doesn’t have any background and is just hearing about the information now. They haven’t seen the tests that were done. They’re meeting tomorrow to discuss this. The email looks like a standard form. Requests a town health officer email rather than personal emails and phone numbers.
Mary asked about mold and heat issues from rentals. Those requests come from the renters, which makes them vulnerable. Going to think about how to make that less risky. The town doesn’t have a list of rentals.
Peter thanked both for serving and provided context about the State toxicologist letter. The previous town health officer didn’t act on it.
Appraisal review panel appointment from SB. No public applicants. Rob Geere is appointed by the SB to serve. The panel will meet at the end of the month to review proposals for the town wide reappraisal.
Aaron was appointed as a liaison to the School board with Rob as backup.
Gingerbread festival will be allowed to serve alcohol in Tracy Hall. Expect higher bids.
Lots of complex issues related to the boiler replacement at Tracy Hall and the control systems, including the short term heating concerns and impact to the building if the systems fail and long term plans for handling Tracy Hall. The board voted down the measure with only Mary in favor.
Discussion about interim Town Manager. Mary has been asking VLTC, MRI, SUFN, Thetford and others. The board will advertise on the Valley News, VLTC, and other usual locations. Motion was approved.
Discussed budget process and reconvening finance committee. Collect what Rod has prepared (last year adjusted for inflation) and share this with the departments. Then Aaron will review with each department.
Discuss a Q&A session. Aaron pushing back.
Discussed hybrid meetings starting in January. CATV can manage these. Possibly meet in the Police community room.
Discussed updating the website. Need to budget for this to be done professionally.
Discussed updating employee policies. This is the TM's domain.
Discuss how to structure future items, starting with Marcia’s spreadsheet.
Dispute over “protecting staff from town.”