The Lebanon Maine Truth Seekers is not an official representative of the Lebanon Maine Board of Selectmen. The notes below are not an official record of the Town of Lebanon or any of their boards or committees, they are only the notes of LMTS resident sitting in on Board meetings. For the official minutes of these meetings, please see the Town of Lebanon Maine Official Town Website.
In light of statements made by individuals at the Lebanon Maine Board of Selectmen's Meeting, it is also important for us to write that we do not represent any one person, board or committee within the Town of Lebanon, Maine and that these are only our notes on the events, happenings and statements during that meeting.
The final Lebanon Maine Selectmen's meeting prior to the May 10th Town Elections was held at the Town Office on Monday evening, May 9th.
While the meeting was scheduled for a 4 pm start with Tom Torno on the agenda, Torno, for the 16th consecutive meeting, was a no-show.
Selectmen Heath and Nadeau were late arrivals, due to being at the Lebanon Elementary School helping Town Clerk Mandy Grenier set up voting booths and get ready for the upcoming election.
The pair of Selectmen arrived shortly after 4:20 pm and the meeting got underway with Selectmen's Assistant Sue Collins addressing the three member Board.
Collins first questioned the Board regarding a resident's question, asking for the status of Upper Middle Road. The resident asked whether Upper Middle Road was a town approved and accepted roadway, or if it were privately owned. Selectman Thompson told Ms. Collins that there was no way for the Board to answer that question without the presence of Torno, and suggested that she try to phone him on Tuesday morning regarding the question.
The next question was regarding a mobile home trailer that needed to be removed from a property. The address was not disclosed publicly. Collins stated that she had called "The Dump Guy", who had quoted her a price of $3,800 for the removal, however, Selectman Heath said that he wanted to make a few telephone calls on the matter, thinking that he could possibly have the trailer removed for free by someone interested in the scrap metal.
Selectmen Heath and Nadeau were reminded that there was an assessing job that needed to be done on Moose Lane. Selectman Thompson suggested that the pair head right out in the morning.
The town's Certified Ratio certificate was presented by Ms. Collins. Thompson later explained that the Certified Ratio was the State certification of the job done by the Assessors of the town, and measures the difference between what properties are assessed at versus what they sell for. The Town of Lebanon is Certified at 98%.
Sue Collins stated that she had received a phone call from Abby Rider, a representative of Ranked Choice Voting. Ms. Rider was asking to come and give a presentation to the Board regarding ranked choice voting. Collins asked if there were any interest in having Ms. Rider attend a Board meeting. Only one Selectman, Mr. Nadeau, had any response, asking Ms. Collins to tell Ms. Rider, "No, we're very busy".
There was a long discussion regarding a residence on Spencer Lane and the proper way to assess the property following State of Maine guidelines, due to the fact that the property was split by a roadway.
At 4:50 pm, Interim Town Treasurer, Ms. Rix, entered the meeting to discuss a few billings that had been presented for payment.
Ms. Rix stated that she had been hired only short term for approximately 25 hours per week, however, she has worked 34 hours one week, and 39 the second. She told the Board that she could stay on for a longer length of time than originally planned if they needed her to, however, she could not work a 40 hour work week.
Discussion was held on the fact that State Law requires that a Town Secretary publish hours per week that the Treasurer would be available to the townspeople. Ms. Rix noted that has not been done in Lebanon, but that she wanted to comply with State Law and make posted office hours on Tuesdays or Thursdays, however the Board decided. The Board stated that they would let Ms. Rix know the best day for her to hold office hours with town residents.
Ms. Rix also stated that she had remained busy by writing out instructions on the many functions that the Town Treasurer performed. Selectmen were thankful for Rix's time in writing detailed instructions.
Deborah Dorey Wilson spoke to the Board regarding the newly formed Cemetery Committee. The Committee has identified 5 small cemeteries they want to visit as the first on their list, 2 on Rt. 202, 1 on River Road, and 2 on Smith Lane. Wilson stated that the committee had identified the owers of those properties and would like to send a post card alerting them to the fact that the cemetery would be visited by representatives of the town and the date of the planned visit.
All 3 Selectmen agreed that the postcard prior to the visit would be a good idea.
Wilson also stated that the committee would like to send a letter to J&S Masonry, the company that won the 2016 bid for cemetery mowing. The Cemetery Committee would like to identify themselves to the owner, and offer help in finding some of the smaller cemeteries on the list, and also ask Ms. Antolin's help in identifying problems that need fixing as she comes across them.
All 3 Selectmen approved Wilson writing the letter to J&S Masonry from the Cemetery Committee, and Selectman Heath provided Wilson with J&S Masonry's e mail address, stating that it might be easier and more effective to e mail than to send the letter via USPS.
Wilson stated that she planned to have a booth at the Lebanon Festival on August 20, 2016 and that she would like to have a photography contest, offering the winning photos in a printed calendar for sale, using some of the money to purchase a handheld GPS unit for the Cemetery Committee's use. Selectman Nadeau asked Wilson if there would be any conditions placed on the donation, and Wilson stated that there would not be any conditions, the GPS unit would become the property of the Cemetery Committee. There was discussion regarding the price of a GPS unit, and Selectman Thompson stated that he had seen some good ones for sale at around the $100 price range.
Selectman Nadeau stated that he wanted the Cemetery Committee to create a binder with photos of each grave in the cemeteries they visit, noting the oldest grave in each cemetery, along with GPS coordinates and that the binder be kept at the Town Office. Wilson stated that was a long term plan and that the Committee needed the GPS in order to provide some of the requested information. Wilson said that she also wanted to note the approved right of way (to be identified by the property owner) for people to access the cemetery as provided by Maine State Law, and coordinate interesting facts and stories regarding the people buried in the town's cemeteries. Wilson did caution Selectman Nadeau that categorizing every Cemetery in town was a very big, long term goal and would not take place in a Summer. Selectman Thompson stated that there were apps available on cell phones for calculating GPS coordinates, and discussion was held that cell phone apps are not as accurate as a dedicated GPS unit, as cell phones calculate coordinates via pinging from cell phone towers and then calculating via triangulation methods, and if you were out of cell phone service range, you could not utilize the cell phone app.
All three Selectmen agreed that they would approve of Wilson donating a GPS unit to the Cemetery Committee from the planned calendar which would be a result of a photography contest held at the Lebanon Festival on August 20, 2016.
Selectman Thompson noted that there was now a mailbox at the Town Office for the Cemetery Committee, taking a moment to show the box to Wilson and Cemetery Committee member Dana Coull. He added that Town Office staff would soon be adding a page to the Lebanon town website as well. Thompson reminded Wilson to create an e mail address for the Cemetery Committee and be sure to provide it to Town Clerk Mandy Grenier to be included on the website.
Wilson took a moment to speak to the Board on her appreciation of Selectman Heath's help at the Lebanon Clean Up Day.
Discussion was held that Road Commissioner Tom Torno had kept Heath and Wilson along with Firefighter Sanborn and resident Dana Coull, waiting at the Town Office for over 1 1/2 hours, saying via phone communication with Selectman Heath, that he would be there shortly for members of the Road Crew to have lunch, but never showing up at the office. Wilson did state, however that Torno's crew had done a fantastic job of picking up bagged trash and large debris that had been left by residents who had cleaned up the roadways. Discussion was held that Torno's original time to bring the crews to lunch was 12 noon, however in a phone discussion with Selectman Heath, it was noted that Candidate for Road Commissioner, Chris Gilpatrick, had headed out with his own vehicle, picking up the trash and debris and Torno wanted to be sure that folks saw the current Road Commissioner taking part with his crew. Wilson asked the Board to thank Road Commissioner Torno for doing a great job.
Selectman Thompson stated that the Board needed to go into Executive Session, citing personnel issues, and the public vacated the meeting room at 6:55 pm.
The Board returned from Executive Session at 7:08 pm and Selectman Thompson made the following motions regarding their Executive Session discussion.
1. Thompson motioned to transfer the amount of $25,000. from the town's contingency fund (Currently in the amount of $65,390.27) to cover the town's legal fees. Thompson stated this was necessary as the $35,000.00 budgeted for legal fees in the June 2015 vote, had been expended and that there was currently $1,100.00 in the Legal Fees account. Thompson added that the additional $25,000.00 should be enough to see the 2016-17 Board through to the end of the year.
Selectman Nadeau seconded the motion and all three Selectmen were in favor.
2. Selectman Thompson motioned to transfer the amount of $750.00 from the town's contingency fund into the Code Enforcement budget to cover wages and mileage. Thompson stated that due to the amount of training required of the Lebanon Code Enforcement Officer, the additional money was to cover training hours and mileage expenses. The motion was seconded by Selectman Nadeau, all three Selectmen were in favor.
Selectman Paul Nadeau made a motion to adjourn the meeting, seconded by Selectman Ben Thompson. The meeting was adjourned at 7:15 pm.
