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| MINUTES of the BOARD OF SELECTMEN MEETING Wednesday December 23, 2009 EMERGENCY WORK SESSION Board Members Present: Gustave Ruth, Chairman; Sherman Tedford; Roberta Fraser; and Kenneth Gardner. Also present Robert Gray, Town Administrator and Ellen Cole, Executive Assistant. Kenneth Berthiaume is absent. The meeting convenes at 8:05AM. 1st Order of Business: Special Town Meeting Discussion Chairman Ruth called an emergency meeting to discuss the likelihood of holding a special town meeting by January 8, 2010 to get an additional $500,000.00-$600,000.00 appropriation for the upgrade to the wastewater treatment facility. Specifically, a House Bill 239, under Chapter 229:14:2II was passed to allow for a shorter period of 7 days for towns to hold a special town meeting. Winchester is an SB2 town, in which their town meeting consists of a deliberative session, and then a ballot vote. Bob called the Town’s attorney, who agreed that Winchester would need to hold a deliberative session with a 7-day notice, and Winchester is not in a position to schedule a special town meeting by January 8, 2010 given today is December 29, 2009. Bob will check with the DRA, to make sure, but based on this information, no one believes Winchester can meet this deadline. The DES needs a vote by January 8, 2010 in order to process paperwork (20 days) in time. Attorney Paul Heirtzler further suggested that the DES might be able to subsidize additional monies by 50%. Rick Meleski is present. The Board also has two other options, which are: 1] to do a change order on the original construction base bid (to match the $3.4 million appropriation), or 2] put a warrant article on the March 10, 2010 ballot (which might not be part of the stimulus funding) using a different approach, such as SRF or USDA funding. Both of these suggestions were posed in the presence of Brian Hilliard of DES, last week, which agreed these were possibilities. Most important for the Board to remember is the need to award the construction contract so the Town can receive the ARRA funding. It appears that at this point in time, the Board is not in favor of holding a special town meeting because they cannot meet the ARRA appropriation deadline. Selectman Gardner stresses to the Board that is a priority to award the construction contract so this stimulus money is committed. Once the DES approves everything, change orders can be executed. Selectman Tedford and the Board members work the numbers and determine a shortfall of $367,000.00 in order to accept Weston & Sampson’s bid, including contingency money set aside and postponing the I&I work. Bob Gray makes the Board aware that T&H has been checking Weston & Sampson’s references, and there was some negative feedback, but he has not received specifics. When Bob does, he will forward to the Board for their review. The Board asks Rick Meleski what the wastewater plant can afford not to do. Rick would really like to see the I&I work get done, and suggests the rotors could go on the back burner. The two options at this time are to remove the new headworks ($405,000.00) or oxidation ditches/rotors ($253,800.00 for two). As of this time, T&H has not negotiated with the contractor to drop these costs. Tentatively, the Board is in favor of removing this equipment, which will ultimately need DES approval before the plans are changed. Chairman Ruth mentions a grant, which the Town may be eligible to receive of up to $400,000.00 for energy efficiency, which will be opened the first week of January. Susan Olson is the contact person for this grant, and Chairman Ruth was thinking this money could be used for the oxidation ditches. The Board would like to see Weston & Sampson’s breakdown of expenses on the oxidation ditch rotors, headworks-itself, and the piping to the headworks, which will include elimination of the appropriated engineering fees. The Board understands that they have $2,816,000.00 to work with to make this project happen. 2nd Order of Business: Recess Selectman Gardner makes a motion to take a 10-minute recess. Selectman Tedford seconds the motion and it passes 4-0. 3rd Order of Business: Reconvene Meeting The Board reconvenes at 9:10AM. The consensus of the Board is NOT to do a special town meeting. Bob called Kristine with T&H to discuss some of the Board’s brainstorming ideas. Regarding the Weston & Sampson complaints, Brian Hilliard advised Kristine that good cause for not awarding the contract to the lowest bidder would be if the contractor walked off the job, the town terminated the contract after work commenced, or bid bond failed, otherwise the contractor would not be disqualified. Brian further advised T&H to exercise additional due diligence. Kristine will type this up and forward to Bob and the Board. If the headworks and ditching is removed, that creates $658,000.00 in savings. The Board contemplates not doing the I&I or the two ditches. Selectman Gardner would really like to see a breakdown of these expenses to accurately determine what to eliminate from the scope of the project, and at this time is not in favor of removing the headworks. The Board starts from the beginning to work the numbers of what has been spent and accounted for, and determines they have $658,000.00 to work with. Kristine provides the Board with the contractor’s estimates on equipment of: Headworks-$405,000.00; and 2 oxidation ditches-$253,800.00. If we do not do the I&I or ditches, the headworks would still be short of $113,000.00. Rick advises the ditches create efficiency; and a new headworks would screen more solids out, instead of grinding. Rick is still in favor of having the I&I work done, but the Board assures him that it’s a great possibility that the I&I could be done within six months time. Selectman Tedford makes a motion to keep the headworks, postpone the I&I and two ditches, to make the base bid numbers work. Selectman Gardner seconds the motion and it passes 4-0. Bob will speak with Kristine about having the numbers ready by tomorrow night, and Chairman Ruth reiterates that no special town meeting will be held. The Board has some time if they decide to put an article on the warrant, and First session is scheduled for January 30, 2010. DES has also suggested more money will be available after March 2010. Selectman Tedford makes a motion to not hold a special town meeting at this time. Selectman Gardner seconds the motion and it passes 4-0. 4th Order of Business: Adjournment Selectman Fraser makes a motion to adjourn. Selectman Gardner seconds the motion and it passes 4-0. The meeting adjourns at 9:48AM. Respectfully recorded, Ellen A. Cole Executive Assistant | |
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Another Fine Mess We're In ..
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13 comments:
More of the same - 9 more days and counting................
The crying from the town hall with their screw-ups made me remember my Harmonica Club membership is due: Anyone know the lyrics to Doobie Brothers - Long Train Running so the selectmen can hum along and the tax payer can beat the drum as all of us tax payers are flushed down the proverbial rat hole. Are the selectmen going to tells us next, somehow the Winchester tax payers, missed the boat? When we applied for these grants, we did tell them we were shovel read. Didn’t we! Maybe the selectmen being a little slow misunderstood them, we have shovels and they are ready. All I can say…Jabawalki
They were brilliant in finding the one thing that would get the voters to fork out additional funds - the roofs on the clarifiers! If they aren't built, we will enjoy the aromas of the sewer plant.
Something else stinks!
What are we at now? $4 million?
Totally incompetent and not one brain in the bunch. They should all be removed for their inability to add and be responsible. What fools !
And they wonder why our town has the whole county laughing at us. As someone said, truly dysfunctional.
Too bad people can't be prosecuted for stupidity and lies.
By the time they're done we'll all be in the poorhouse if it isn't already being foreclosed on too. MORONS.
It seems the selectmen have put themselves into a situation with unsatisfactory choices by using terms like emergency meeting, can't meet the deadline, do a different approach, do a change order on the project, award the contract and we can fix it later.
Can we expect to lose the grants or have the plant be Mickey Moused or hodge podged with parts of the plant's design missing or settle for a we will fix it later solution? That just has to have the DES and others involved scratching their heads with bewilderment.
Question to the selectmen, of what part of "we are tax broke do you not understand"? Don't you understand families are losing their homes because their escrow payment, held for taxes has doubled their house payment!
As I have been saying right along, in their attempt to keep the price tag of the sewer plant down the selectmen have hidden the real costs of this endeavor. This mess started when Stetser was in control and now continues today. Instead of being up front and asking the tax payers to bite the bullet and fixing or repairing the plant the right way from the very start, we are facing ridiculous notions which will cost us tax payers millions to repair in the future.
With all of their attempts to appease the wasteful spenders in our town, like the dept heads that think it's their God given right to stick-it-to-us with all of their requests for new and expensive toys, plus adding in the true cost of the sewer plant, the Selectmen knew the tax payers would have revolted.
Instead of honesty and integrity they continue to feed us a line of bull at every turn and now they sit there with egg on their faces at the mess they have created that we will all be saddled with the costs to straighten out. What a disgrace.
Can anyone smell tar and feathers?
Reading these latest BOS minutes I see they are going to ask us for another $500-$600 thousand to make up for all of their incompetence and wastefulness. Maybe if they hadn't squandered our money on a new firetruck we didn't need or the new ambulance we could have done without or the police vehicles or new town trucks or new computers every year, cable TV, free coffee for town employees, outlandish benefits, bonuses, raises and lets not forget the annual cola for all town employees. Perhaps if they had been just a little frugal with OUR money and spent if where it was needed most, we wouldn't be in this predicament.
Hindsight is always 20/20, with any luck we can get a new start on turning this situation around when voters go to the polls and vote for change instead of their past choices who have done nothing but lead us down a slippery slope of which we all will suffer the consequences. We can't afford to keep making the same mistakes year after year.
Right on Mr Davis and Informer, right on! Time to clean house and start anew, it's a no brainer that those we have in charge now can not do the job, never could and never will. No wonder Kenny is jumping ship.
Today's Keene Sentinel there is a section titled economic outlook 2010. They interviewed lots of business owners and CE Os ,and what they said is that Gov. has to tighten there belt. In Winchester its make sure the employees have what they want and every thing else is secondary. Anyone that has the time and think they can make a difference, there are lot of openings including 2 selectmen and town clerk. Sign up ends the 29th.
Does anyonr know what Sherm Tedford did before he retired that has him running scared from Phillips? Rumor has it that Gary has Tedford where he wants him because of something Tedford did around the time Sheats was there. Judging by Tedford's actions towards Phillips there seems to be some truth to the rumor.
No idea but heard a rumor that Sherm would like to replace Phillips with Sepe. When they get rid of Phillips they need to put a lot of though and research into this dysfunctional dept. They can start by looking into a Chief with no or little Tye's to Winchester. Just replacing the Chief with a former employee is not an option.
I can see us paying for these repairs for many years to come while many will lose their homes or have tax liens put on them all because these out of touch board members are not really qualified to run this town. They truly are clueless and in their haste to try and grab some of Obama's stimulus money have dug themselves and us such a hole we'll all go broke before this fiasco is over with.
To the board members and all of their ignorant supporters, the Informer is right. This is another fine mess you have all gotten us into.
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