Members Present: Jennifer Morin, Mona McCready, Carol Merrill, Robin McAfee, David Eaton, Larry Anderson, Brian Duchesne, Phyllis Parker, Don Chaput, Peter Viar

Excused Absent: Dan Howe

Unexcused Absent: Tom Irzyk

Others Present: David Jodoin, Lt. Shaun Mulholland, and Matthew Eaton

Jennifer called the meeting to order at 7 p.m.

Jennifer introduced the two new members of the Committee, Phyllis and Don.

She explained that the first things that the Committee does at their first meeting is to fill the positions for the year. The positions are Chairperson, Vice Chairperson, a Meeting Secretary, which Dave has been doing, and a Transcription Secretary, his wife.

Peter made a motion to open the nominations for chairperson, Larry seconded. The motion passed unanimously.

Larry nominated Jennifer as Chairperson, Robin M. seconded. Jennifer accepted the nomination. The motion passed unanimously.

Larry made a motion to open nominations for Vice Chairperson, Peter seconded. The motion passed unanimously. Jennifer stated that Tom Gilligan was the Vice Chair last year and he is no longer on the committee.

Robin nominated Larry as Vice Chairperson, Phyllis seconded. Larry accepted the nomination. The motion passed unanimously.

Peter made a motion to open nominations for Meeting Secretary, Larry seconded. The motion passed unanimously.

Carol nominated David Eaton as Meeting Secretary, Robin M. seconded. David accepted the nomination. The motion passed with one no vote. Jennifer asked if Peter would still be the backup for Dave, he agreed.

Peter made a motion to open nominations for Transcription Secretary, Mona seconded. The motion passed unanimously.

Jennifer nominated Jeannine Eaton as Transcription Secretary, Robin seconded. Dave stated that he had asked Jeannine if she would continue as Transcription Secretary and she had indicated that she would. The motion passed unanimously.

Jennifer stated that the Committee usually meets on Thursdays at 7 p.m. and asked if this was a good night for all. Everyone agreed.

Robin M. stated that there will be a conference room at the new Police Station and that Lt. Mulholland had offered the Committee use of the room for their meetings. Lt. Mulholland stated that the chairs were very comfortable. Jennifer asked if David J. would mind going over to the Police Station for meetings, he stated it would be fine.

Jennifer stated that the Committee would meet monthly right now, take the summer off and then start back up in September. Larry asked when the Committee would be meeting. Jennifer stated that we will meet again in May and if there was nothing going on that we need to meet about, we will probably not meet in June, July and August. If something comes up that we need to meet about, David J. will let her know and she will call a meeting.

Jennifer asked how the Highway Department had done with the winter. David stated that they are over budget for overtime, salt; there will be some problems if there is any snow, sleet or ice in November or December. Overtime is over by $5,200, there is only $1,000 remaining in the salt line, by the end of the year the cost of salt was $120 a ton, sand and fuel are also over. Fuel will affect everyone because the pumps at the Highway Garage have been closed, now we are using the pumps at Mega-X or Mobil on the Run.

The landfill testing is being done and need to do well monitoring, so the pumps had to be shut down. This will effect everyone, Police, Fire, Highway, etc. We are paying over $2.00 a gallon now where before, with our discount, we would have probably been paying $1.85 a gallon.

Jennifer asked Peter if there is any plan in place for the situation the Town will be in with gasoline etc. Peter stated no because the budget is done and they will have to stay within the bottom line. The fuel is an issue that we need to deal with each year no matter where we buy it. Even though there is a contract cost at the two stations, we are hoping we do not have an early winter. We will manage, Jimmy will cut something and we will be able to stay within the bottom line.

Carol stated that she had heard that the Fire Department was looking at buying a ladder truck, is this true? Peter stated that they are looking at a truck to replace the rescue truck. Carol asked what budget this would be coming from. Peter stated that if it gets approved, it will come from their capital reserve fund. The Fire Department went to look at the truck, with the permission of the Selectmen. We are trying to come up with a resolution to get the rescue off the road, because it has many problems. It order to get the rescue off the road, we need to put the equipment in something else. The Department went to look at the truck and have made a presentation to the Board twice, they will be back again next Monday with the final presentation to the Board for a vote by the Board to decide if they want to get the truck or not. It is a relatively inexpensive vehicle. The purchase price is $39,000, the Town cannot buy a Ford Explorer and outfit it with three pieces of equipment for $39,000.

Brian asked what they were looking at, Carol asked why they needed a ladder truck. Peter stated that there are two issues, there is not a need for a ladder truck. We do get rated by ISO, when we lost our old ladder truck our ISO rating declined. The ISO rating does a lot for businesses because their business insurance is based upon certain criteria in each municipality. The higher your ISO rating, the better your rates from a business rating perspective. This is not a motivation for anyone on the Board to say yes to this truck. Because we took the old ladder out of service, the Town’s ISO rating went down.

The bottom line is that the Board made a decision last year to get them not to come forward for a half million-dollar truck, because of the PD and other things. There has been many discussion with the Fire Department regarding this truck. Currently it is leased to a Fire Department in Patterson, NJ and they have had it for four or five months under a lease while they are waiting for a new truck to come in. The Fire Department has to do something to get the rescue off the road. There is enough money in the capital reserve fund to buy the truck if we as a Board agree to buy it. The Board will make a decision on Monday, Tom had a couple of additional questions last Monday that the Department will research regarding the warrantee and a clause from Brumley which stated that if you purchase the vehicle and then decide it does not fit your needs, they will take it back and refund your money with the exception to what the cost is to return the truck. This was not spelled out clearly in the contract.

From a financial perspective, this is a win/win situation; we could get 15 to 20 years from this truck. We will not have this opportunity again. It is not a two-driver ladder truck, it is shorter than the first ladder truck we had before. They came to the Board about the truck, asked permission to look at it, the Board voted 2 to 1 to allow them to look at it and come back with a report and recommendation.

Peter really feels that the rescue truck is an accident waiting to happen. It needs to come off the road. If we can buy a truck for $39,000, even if we have to put $4,000 to $5,000 into it, and then move all the equipment from the rescue to this new truck, we will spend approximately $45,000. The truck is a 1991 and it will be the third newest truck that we own. The rescue would be parked and all the equipment would be moved to the new vehicle, including the cascade system. We could take the box off the rescue and turn it into a forestry truck. Right now two of our forestry trucks are a 1955 and it may be a good idea if we had something a little bit newer. The new truck will fit into the station.

The original price of the truck was advertised at $65,000 but they have offered it to us for $39,000. Not because it is a junk, but because it is a 1991 and they want to move it. The truck will be certified by Brumley and it will be guaranteed by Brumley. There will be a period of time that if we want to return it, we can. We will need to have the ladder certified and this will cost $500. The lugs on the two back wheels will need to be changed and this will cost $328.

Peter stated that he indicated that if the Board agrees, please do not come here in the fall and ask for another truck. We still do need one, but we need to look at tax dollars.

The guys rode on the truck and spoke with the mechanic who services it, they have done a significant amount of homework.

Jennifer asked about maneuvering the ladder truck around the Town streets. Peter stated that the new vehicle goes out on most calls, it could not be a problem. David J. stated that with the ladder truck is more for insurance, workers comp, etc. If they have to go up on a roof, as opposed to going up with a regular ladder and falling, they have a stable environment when they are on the truck.

Peter stated that they will take the newer vehicle out of most calls, they will only take the ladder with the extraction equipment out when they have to. The ladder truck will not role on all calls.

Mona asked if there was sufficient money in the capital reserve account, Peter stated yes.

Lt. Mulholland stated that everything is on track and under budget. If the Selectmen approve the bid specs, we have $85,000 left and the only other big-ticket item is the generator and we have $30,000 budgeted for generators and they are $7,600. It will cost of run the gas and electrical line to the generator so there should be a surplus left on this line. He is anticipating a surplus in the computer line, we have been able to save some money on this already.

Most things came in under budget, a couple of things came over budget, but ended up being a wash later on, so things are in great shape. The volunteer efforts have been great, and the donations continue to come in. We have received two truckloads of basically new furniture that was donated by Southern New Hampshire University and there is more coming. Lt. Mulholland stated he will try to replace some of the furniture at the Town Hall also. We are expecting on saving $5,000 on toilets, but we will wait and get the toilets from the jail that they are moving out at the end of June. It makes no sense to purchase brand new metal toilets that last forever, when they are going to be sitting in an empty jail. They will give them to us, so as soon as they ship the prisoners to the new jail, we will go up and get the toilets and put them in our building.

Jennifer asked what they estimated move in day was. Lt. Mulholland stated that he was hoping for June, but the tension doors need a 12-week lead-time. They had to be a special order and this will hold us up also the new jail is running behind schedule, so we may not be able to get the toilets until July. He does not want to move into the building until it is completely finished. There will be a grand opening ceremony. The Police Association will be holding a barbecue for all the people who donated there time and for all the officials in the community.

The contractors want to start next week. If all goes well, the major construction will start next week.

The ball fields are also on track. Telephone polls were installed a couple of days ago and we will have lights in the parking lot. The Highway Department is helping out a lot. All the material for the parking lot has been donate by Allenstown Aggregate and it will be put in during the next few weeks. Dugouts will be constructed and they are just waiting for us to level out the area.

We will miss the baseball season but we will be playing soccer on it this fall. We will cut the baseball diamonds when the season is over. There will be one softball field and one baseball field.

Peter stated they needed a tractor to manage the fields, Shaun was able to make a deal with Allenstown Tractor for an $18,000 tractor for $11,000. It has a 16’ cutting deck, a bucket in the front, so this will help us maintain the fields. Shaun tried to get one for free, but this is a great deal. There will be a metal box at the field to keep the equipment in. The money is money that was saved on fencing and other things.

Jennifer stated that Shaun has done an incredible job. If you tried to figure out the dollars that he has saved and the programs that he has put into place, it is great. Peter stated that Shaun is very conscious of the public and making sure that every item has crossed every t, he has just done a spectacular job.

Shaun gives the Selectmen an update every couple of weeks on this project and he gives them documentation on what is going on line by line.

The next meeting will be Thursday, May 19 at 7 p.m. at the Town Hall.

Peter made a motion to recess, Mona seconded.