TOWNSHEND — Town leaders electing to suspend the town's website and listserv as a response to tough new open meeting laws July 7 is just one action Townshend's newly elected Selectboard is grappling with.
Here are a few others culled from Selectboard meetings June 30 and July 7:
Town needs auditors
Townshend is trying to replace its complement of town auditors after Kristine Grotz-Kuch and Ryan Hockertlotz, incumbents, quit their posts. Grotz-Kuch's and Hockertlotz's written letters of resignation were read and accepted June 30.
Now that the town has no elected auditors, Melis moved to post vacancy notices for the position, which will run until Aug. 1. The town also will research hiring outside auditors, the Selectboard agreed.
They said July 7 that no candidates had yet been identified.
Tax rate workshop set for July 16
Work can proceed on setting the town's tax rate now that the Listers have remedied their apparent oversight in not including some $12 million in current use offsets with the calculation of the Grand List Abstract filed on June 16, the Selectoard said July 7.
Town Meeting members voted that the tax rates must be set prior to July 24, which caused some concern at the Selectboard's June 30 meeting after the error was discovered. The calculation is needed in setting the municipal tax rate; the education tax rate was unaffected.
Meanwhile, a tax rate workshop is set for July 16 at 6 p.m. at the Listers' Office. The public are welcome, though selectmen said this is a working session and no decisions would be reached there.
Appealed assessment to cost town 'thousands'
Board Chair Kathy Hege informed board members of Townshend's loss in a state appeal hearing brought by Mary Grace, Inc. Discussion centered, minutes say, “on the town attorney's lack of preparation by the Listers, and by the Listers themselves, in defense of the property assessment.”
The minutes continue: “Aside from the embarrassment to the Town, the consequence of this now entails issuance of a tax refund for many thousands of dollars and the loss of projected revenues for this and succeeding years.”
$20,000 bridge loan for school OK'd
The Selectboard on June 30 unanimously agreed to ratify an unprecedented $20,000 bridge loan to the elementary school so it could meet its payroll.
Under warrant 63007, the money was formally released from the General Fund - it had already been paid by consent of a quorum of the Selectboard - “because Townshend Elementary School hadn't enough funds to pay off its bridge loan before the end of the fiscal year,” the minutes record.
The school had asked for an interest-free loan from the town, promising to pay the town back immediately upon receipt of new loans after July 1.
Selectboard members took up what the clerk recorded as “rhetorical questions about the financial solvency of the school, which had received $280,000 from taxpayers two weeks prior, received a bridge loan from the bank to pay off its line of credit, and was to receive $400,000 in loans prior to tax payment receipts in September. When the motion was called, it carried by those present.”
Soveren Solar said good to go
Following discussion June 30, board member Carole Melis moved to permit Soveren Solar Inc. to begin site work and construction on land to be leased from the town for a solar array, pending receipt of liability insurance certification.
This was seconded by board member Bob LeCours and carried by those present.
The facility will be located at 3533 Grafton Rd. Private investors are funding the $500,000 project. There is no expense to Townshend.
Quotes due for time clocks over payroll submission gaffes
An employee or employees of the town are suspected of falsifying payroll hours, intentionally or otherwise, so board clerk Craig Hunt is tasked with researching alternatives to time sheets.
Hunt is to return to the Board at its next meeting with options of up to $500 for mechanical and biometric, e.g., fingerprint-aware, time clocks, possibly to be installed at Town Hall and at the highway department.
“As errors in record-keeping continually come before the Board, and as suspicions have long existed that some employees rely on memory to document what hours they worked in prior weeks or months, discussion turned again to the necessity of installing time clocks for all municipal employees to use,” read the minutes of June 30.
Keep Hunt as a full-time employee
The Selectboard on June 30 took up the question of whether to keep administrative assistant Craig Hunt as a full-time staffer as his responsibilities shift from bookkeeping in the Finance Office to management of a new purchase requisition system and oversight of physical infrastructure, in addition to Selectboard administrative duties.
By general consent, say the minutes, the Board agreed to maintain Hunt as a full-time employee at his regular salary.
New board to hear flood-zone appeals
In other business on June 30, Hege briefed the Board on a conversation with Art Monette, chairman of the Planning Commission, requesting “that the Selectboard and the Planning Commission be jointly named as the Board of Adjustment to adjudicate any appeals to a denial of a permit for construction in a Flood Hazard Zone.”
Following brief discussion, Melis moved for the Selectboard to agree to form such a board jointly with the Planning Commission, seconded by LaPointe and carried by those present.
Ancient Roads hearing set
A meeting to take up the town's interests in meeting the state's deadline on ancient roads is set for July 21 at 5:30 p.m., at Town Hall.
Highway Department must note calls
Following a claim of property damage brought by a motorist - owing to alleged vehicle damage produced by a tree down in the town right of way - Hege reports the claimant “informed the Highway Department of the hazard but couldn't recover repair costs from the Town's insurance because knowledge was being denied.”
Hege asked that from now on the Highway Department keep a written record of all complaints received. Selectmen agreed a pad affixed to the wall by the phone would suffice.
Other business
Selectmen on July 7 took up the Residential Deputy Program, which has a deputy assigned in a town 40 hours a week; a renewed Windham County Humane Society contract, which is amended to $30 per call to deal with strays, rather than $25, and whether Townshend ought to be in the trash business.
That item is a perennial topic at town meetings, and will return July 21 with renewed discussion on whether to buy a $125,000 municipal trash compactor in light of pending changes to state laws on waste and recycling.