Monday evening, June 29, 2015 found the Lebanon Board of Selectmen with a full agenda.
The Board spent their time just prior to the 4 pm meeting start by signing appointment paperwork for Jeanette Lemay as the Town of Lebanon Treasurer and several other Deputy Officer appointments for Lemay to be able to function in assisting other Town Office workers in their positions as needed.
At 4 pm. Road Commissioner Tom Torno arrived in the office with a Purchase Order to spend a bulk of the $28,000 Roads Budget increase given to his Department in a last minute hasty motion and vote by Selectmen Heath and Nadeau at the end of Thursday, June 25, 2015's Selectmen's Meeting. At the time that the money was added to the Road budget, both Heath and Nadeau had stated there had been no prior discussion between themselves, or between either of them and the Road Commissioner that the two of them appointed in a surprise motion back on June 11th of this year.
At the beginning of the discussion, Select Board Chairman Ben Thompson presented Torno with a letter from a resident at 34 Jim Grant Road who has been having issues with water flow in and around his property stemming from a culvert situation. There is a lot of talk about this property as it's unsure if the landowner holds a subdivision allowance that may make the placement of an additional culvert to route the water around his property hard to place without knowing where a second driveway would be added. Tom agreed that he would go an speak to the homeowner.
Lebanon Maine Truth Seekers asked if Torno had given any thought to where he was going to use the $28,000 budget increase given to his Department by the Dynamic Duo of Selectmen, and he said that he had just presented Selectmen with a purchase order for materials asking for a total of $38,000 for paving the section of Center Road between Jim Grant Road and Holtby Lane. Torno stated that number included the money left in his former budget plus the $28,000 additional given on June 25. He said that the job will likely only spend roughly $21,000 of the additional money, with the remaining dollar amounts going back to the Town's General Fund, as mandated by law, on July 1, 2015. "Roughly $7,000 to $8,000" said Tom Torno when questioned as to how much money he thought would wind up not being spent.
***After the meeting, Lebanon Truth Seekers later did a Google Map search to find that $30,000 paving job would be for exactly .04 miles of Center Road.***
Selectman Thompson, still reeling from the surprise motion and pass dealt to him on Thursday by his fellow Board Members, asked when Torno expected to perform the work, to which Torno added that the work would be done, and completed, on Tuesday, June 30th, to remain in compliance with the requirement that the money must be spent prior to the close of business on June 30th in order for the job to fall into the 2014-15 Budget. If the job is not complete, it loses it's funding as the Town's new Fiscal year, 2015-16 will begin on Wednesday, July 1, 2015.
The Road Commissioner stated that this would be just a "quick paving job" with no plans for grinding the underlying existing pavement, only adding a coating of asphalt to the top.
Chairman of the Select Board, Thompson, was clearly agitated when he questioned Torno as to how this decision was made and Selectman Heath seemed to momentarily forget that there was no discussion allowed on this outside of the Board meeting, and indicated that perhaps there may have been some prior discussion, but Heath recovered quickly throwing some jabs of his own in Thompson's direction.
Lebanon Truth Seeker Sandy Adams had a few questions for the young Road Commissioner regarding several workers seen sipping coffee and having conversation across from her home at the intersection of Dixon Road and Shapleigh Road during a road paving operation there. Torno assured her that the asphalt was bid "by the ton" with all labor included in that price for the laying of the material on Dixon Road. "We only pay them for what they're putting down", added Tom.
Deborah Wilson brought up some local residents' questions regarding the use of Torno's family members for doing all of the road work in town, and being paid over 40% of the Road Budget money, to which he replied, "Nobody working for me right now is related to me, except for Bobby", and he explained that the Selectmen had put the work up for bid and had accepted Robert Torno's bid amount for road work in the Town of Lebanon. "I have nothing to do with that", he explained.
After a question from Sandy Adams regarding the drainage culvert from Dixon Road onto the Moulton property next door to her, that Mr. Torno has said he will look into, Selectman Heath stated that he and Nadeau had already signed the hefty Purchase Order and placed the paperwork in front of Thompson, who stated he "absolutely would not sign it".
After being questioned as to WHY his signature would be absent from the Purchase Order for the project, Thomson, still heated from the earlier volley with his peers, explained that the expenditure of the money on this project would "effect the Town's cash flow" and could result in the Town's needing to apply for a TAN (tax appropriated note).
When asked to explain what a TAN was, Selectman Heath tried to pass the question back into Thompson's lap, but when pressured, gives his understanding of how a TAN works, including the fact that compound interest is applied to the base amount each month until the Town returns the money borrowed, so each month the actual principal of the note grows by the generated interest, so the Town would wind up paying interest, on interest. "That's if we don't watch our spending", he added, saying that he didn't think that the Town's cash flow would be effected at all, or that it would be necessary to use the TAN line of credit.
**After this section of the meeting, Lebanon Truth Seekers questioned Town Tax Collector, Jeanette Lemay as to the rate of interest the Town would be expected to pay should they need to open a TAN line of credit with the bank. While the exact interest rate would not be known until the application was complete, Lemay did disclose that last year's loan of $350,000.00 was kept by the town from 9/16/2014 to 10/17/14 (one month) and the Town paid back $280.29 in interest payments***
WATCH Part 1 of the Selectmen's Meeting video of 6/29/15 HERE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yb7ib1Okeb0
After the discussion with Road Commissioner Torno, the Board of Selectmen went into a scheduled Executive Session with newly appointed Code Enforcement Officer, Mike Beaulieu.
Returning from Executive Session with Mr. Beaulieu, in which the Board had gone over some Assessment issues and questions that Mr. Beaulieu was having, they welcomed Mr. Herb Hamblen, Vice President of Direct Sales, from Mosaic Technology, a computer technology company based out of Salem, NH.
Hamblen, along with two of his Associates, was asked to appear before the Select Board by Town Treasurer, Jeanette Lemay, who acted as a go-between for the Selectmen. According to Lemay, the Town's technology is antiquated and outdated, running off a single tower computer rather than a server. There is no off site backup of any of the towns data, and it was questioned as to whether the payments being accepted by the Town for fees, fines and taxes via debit and credit cards were actually secure. Ms. Lemay was not even sure if debit and credit card information was "encrypted" by their payment processor or not.
Mr. Hamblen took time to speak about what his company does, and stated several times that they would be willing to do an "on site assessment" of the Town's technology needs, leaving the town with a generalized report, that they could then use to formulate a request for proposals on the work needed to upgrade the Town's system and bring it into compliance. Not one Selectman asked how much that assessment would cost, but Lebanon Truth Seeker, Sandy Adams did.........."About $1,250.00", stated the technology company VP.
But no speedy motion was made to snap up that offer, although in the greater scheme of things, it seemed like a better expenditure of Town dollars than some others we've been hearing lately.
**After the meeting, in a momentary discussion with Mr. Hamblen, Lebanon Maine Truth Seekers asked if the credit card and debit card information being used as payments by the town were "safe" to which he replied, "Well, maybe. And maybe not....... All present agreed that we will be making any payments via cash or check until the issues are resolved!!***
WATCH the Selectmen's interview with Mr. Herb Hamblen of Mosaic Technology HERE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJUjik4BkKQ
The next section of video is very short. Only a few minutes. The Selectmen sit down with Mr. Mike Lonergan of Norton's Insurance Agency, the Agency that carries the Town's insurance policy to go over any policy changes and sign the renewal. The residents in attendance could not hear Mr. Lonergan, even after several attempts were made to have him speak up. Selectman Thompson halted the discussion for a few minutes so that Lebanon Truth Seekers could move to a closer point in order to capture the insurance discussion on the video tape.
WATCH the very short portion of the Selectmen's discussion with Mr. Mike Lonergan of Norton's Insurance Agency HERE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rQQQSEUczU
The fourth part of the Monday, June 29th Selectman's meeting continues the discussion with Town of Lebanon Insurance Agent, Mike Lonergan after Lebanon Maine Truth Seekers moved to a closer seat in order to hear what the discussion entailed. Selectmen Heath and Thompson seemed to be very interested in what was being said, but we weren't sure Selectman Nadeau was even hearing the very soft spoken agent. During the discussion, the Town's MOD rates were consistently brought up, so Selectman Thompson was kind enough to give us an explanation as to exactly what a MOD rate was. It seems that in adding the Fire and Rescue Department volunteers now onto the Town's payroll as employees, the Town's insurance rates will rise, coupling that with the fact that the Town went through 3 years of troubling times when there were several Workmen's Compensation claims, and the Town's insurance rates will be a little higher than usual. (although no actual dollar amounts were discussed with the public).
Fire and Rescue Chief Daniel Meehan arrived at the meeting after being summonsed by Thompson, and discussed with the agent the fact that he's implementing some better policies for Ambulance and Fire Truck Drivers, which would require them to be at least 21 years of age, even if they pass qualifications, in order to drive an apparatus without a more experienced driver along. Mr. Lonagren discusses with Chief Meehan the insurance carrier's availability of many "Safety Workshops" that could help to bring the Town some credits, or at least help with the Town's underwriting.
All 3 Selectmen signed the policy documents to renew the Town's insurance policy.
WATCH as Selectmen and Fire and Rescue Chief speak with Mr. Lonagren from Norton's Insurance Agency HERE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ngs4y6FVisM
The final part of our video of the June 29th Selectmen's Meeting shows Lebanon Animal Control Officer Mary Kinney as she arrives requesting to speak with Selectmen regarding an issue she's having with a local resident who calls her constantly even though she has investigated the claims many times and found there to be no wrongdoing. Kinney claims the woman is not only calling her repeatedly, but also the Maine State Police, and the Animal Welfare Society in Augusta. "I'm done, the State Police are done, and the Animal Welfare Society are done", stated Kinney in obvious frustration.
The Selectmen, deciding not to enter into Executive Session to hear the complaint, heard Kinney's assertions that she had investigated, that Assistant Animal Control Officer Carol Harris had investigated, and that both the State Police and AWS had investigated the complaints. "The main problem she (the town resident who remained nameless throughout the discussion) was having, is in jail now", stated ACO Kinney. "There's nothing wrong there and it's just not right".
After answering a few questions from the Selectmen and the public, Kinney shook her head stating, "I have done everything in my power to stop this", adding that it's beyond her control and asking Selectmen to step in and write a letter to the resident.
Board of Selectmen asked Ms. Kinney to write a letter on her own, and if nothing changed, they would step in as the next level of buffer between the resident, their neighbor, and Animal Control agencies in town, and at State level.
Mary Kinney said that she would write the letter, but that she didn't think that it was going to stop the resident.
WATCH Animal Control Officer's conversation with the Board of Selectmen HERE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FY6WxT6bDcU
In final Selectmen's business, the Board tended to Accounts Payable and Payroll, and then had an Executive Session meeting with Martha Sawyer Community Library, Librarian Marcy Poletta. The Library has employed Ms. Poletta as an MSAD60 School Department employee for the past few years, with subsidies from the Town of Lebanon. However, as of July 1, 2015, Ms. Poletta is now a Town of Lebanon employee, being funded solely by Town Budget.
The Selectmen's meeting was adjourned and there were no other items discussed for the evening.
Once again, the Lebanon Truth Seekers would like to send a BIG Thank You to Chris Gilpatrick for allowing us the use of his video camera to record the Selectmen's Meetings.
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