Board of Selectmen - Regular Meeting

I'll call the order of the Board of Select Committee meeting for Tuesday, June 9th, 2026.

The first item on the agenda is public comment.

anybody here for any public comment seeing none we'll move on to a public hearing is anybody here we're not we don't have a public hearing today actually now the next item on the agenda is a meeting with cheryl linda our finance director welcome cheryl hello nice to see you all again i have been

Year-to-date update for you. It's on your desk. We managed to come in estimated right now a little bit higher, about $60,000 higher. We were a little lower on payroll one of the weeks, and we were a little under on payables. So Judy has done a really good job of paying everything weekly, and so... paid what came in and it was a little under what I had estimated as a cap. So we had some, we added a little extra to what's estimated for remaining. So what is the total estimate to be remaining now?

165 up from 106. Okay. And so do you have any recommendations for us for things that we should consider?

So the department has came in with a couple of things that if they could put into this year's budget, they're in next year's budget, just to give them a little bit of room next year. It's not that much. It's about maybe $15,000 to $20,000. And one of those was a request from the PD. I don't know if it's going to be possible to encumber those funds because it hinges on a start date and things like that. And then we had a couple of smaller facilities projects that One was gutters for about $10,000 and then lighting for about $4,000.

The police one was sign-on bonus.

Sign-on bonus. There will be plenty of money in the police budget for next year for sign-on bonuses with the openings we have.

Yeah, and it depends on the start date if those funds were even committed this fiscal year. So that's the other piece too. So there was gutters for $10,000.

And then there was a lighting project for $4,300. So I'm going to make a motion that we authorize, David, to accept quotes for up to $14,000 for letters and lighting projects in next year's budget to be encumbered in this year's, provided he can get acceptable quotes in time. Second.

We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All in favor, say aye.

Aye. Guys, I remember we talked about something two weeks ago that we might want to consider. Do you guys? Was there something? Painting the Bobag meeting house? No. Oh. Was there nothing? Is there something else?

construction manual that we did want to take out of this year's will not be ready in time so that will also have to go in that into an encumbrance just so the board is aware and there are a couple computers that are in process that will have to go into encumbered but those are in the total for the departments they're in this year's budget it's just a timing issue with them

No, I know we talked about it today. I can't remember if there was anything really else.

I don't think so. I mean, Tim can always use more salt if it's available, but again, I don't think much.

Maybe 25 grand, maybe 100 for surplus. I'll make a motion to authorize Tim to purchase an additional $25,000 worth of salt, provided he can get a price that he thinks is prudent and can get encumbered by year-end. Second. Second.

I have a motion in a second. Any further discussion?

Don't show your waiver. I do need a motion to share a couple of things for this. The construction manual and the guys can do that. We do that. OK, that's because it's in the budget, right? It is in the budget. Yes, just signed contracts. Perfect.

I would like to make a motion to move items. Discussion and action items number 5 and 8. up to the top. Number four and eight. Sorry, number four and number eight up to the top for Mrs. Linder so that she can go home.

Okay. Do we have a second?

Second.

All right. Motion second for the discussion. All in favor? Aye. Aye. So 4-0. So we'll go to items number four and eight. So four is a fire suppression water supply out of the CRF withdrawal.

So the board or agents to expand on this. We did have a dry hydrant repair this year. They're not very frequent, but they come up and this is what the capital reserve fund is meant to pay for. How much? It was $13,519.90. I'll make a motion that we authorize a withdrawal of $13,519.90 to...

cover the cost of the dry sump system. Second.

We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Aye. Ayes have it 4-0. Okay, so then item number eight.

Make a motion to approve.

Just a permission to do it. No water bill change requests.

So we're currently billing monthly and I've spoken to several parties saying that quarterly would be. Much appreciated by time for timing and expenses and to control some of the costs that were experienced in the water system as well. It's great idea. Make a motion to authorize sorry.

I don't want to interrupt. Do you want to ask the question first? We can open it for discussion. That's fine.

I'd like a motion to authorize the town to move to quarterly billing when it's ready and appropriate to move forward that way.

Second.

Okay, I have a motion and a second. Select woman, Colby.

Yeah, just a quick question. My only reservation is that by going from monthly billing to the quarterly billing... Should there be a leak? Yes. And a leak happens in month two of a billing cycle. That customer may not know in month three and not then therefore know for an additional one, two, three.

Yes. So we will still read monthly. Whitewater still will still read monthly and we will be able to see if there's an anomaly in there. And we are setting up a training with Stiles who helps us monitor the beacon software that we purchased for the water system, and they will tell us how to notice if there's a leak once they wait every month.

Perfect.

Thank you.

And just to get around the record, if we were to find that a resident was unfairly impacted by that, considering we have unlimited water, I would be very open to being flexible with that bill.

Yeah, it's more just the loss and not knowing that you have...

Tens of thousands of gallons flowing somewhere. And I would like to avoid that as well. So that was part of why we will still read monthly. We will just bill quarterly. So we will give everybody a few months notice and update all our contact information for our water customers. So we're going to communicate each month until we can get it quarterly. It'll take a couple of months to set it up with the billing and everything. So we will, in each bill that goes out, notify people this is coming so everybody knows. All right.

So a motion, a second, all in favor? Aye. Aye. It was 4-0.

I think we have a guest here to tell us about her candidacy. Typically, we would have allowed you to say that during the public comments section. Well, he has to recognize it. I'm just making a recommendation.

Yes, if we could go back to the public comment section, if you would like to come up and make a public comment. You can sit down, press the button on the... Name and address and name all of them.

Sarah Rogers, 27 Grove Street, Concord, New Hampshire. Thank you for letting me speak today. I wanted to come and introduce myself to everyone because I'm running for a Merrimack County attorney. I have been an attorney in the state for 13 years. I've been a prosecutor in three different offices in Hillsborough County, Rockingham County, and Merrimack County for three years. I also did a year working for CASA New Hampshire, the Court Appointed Special Advocates. So some of the reasons I'm running for a county attorney are that I really, really care about this work. It was my life's dream to be a prosecutor. And when I realized that dream, it became my passion, working with victims and working with children. And I want to make sure that every victim who comes through the Merrimack County Attorney's Office is treated with respect, is treated with kindness and patience. And I know how to do that because I've done it. I've worked with a lot of child victims. I've been through a lot of training on trauma and how it impacts victims. And I want to empower victims through the process rather than re-traumatizing them. So that's really, really important to me. Another thing I want to do is make sure that we are enforcing the new bail law that was passed. We are holding people who are dangerous, we're holding people who are committing new crimes without on bail, and we're holding people who aren't showing up to court. All three of those things not only put our public safety in jeopardy, but they bogged down our court systems when people aren't showing up. So enforcing the bail law is really important to me. It doesn't happen unless the prosecutors make it happen, file the motions to put them in front of the judges, and I want to make sure we're doing that. I was also talking a little bit before we started about transparency, and the office as it stands right now is the highest paid county attorney's office in the state. And so it should be the best performing county attorney's office in the state. We don't know if it is right now because no one's tracking the data. If we asked right now how many trials the county attorney's office went to last year, they wouldn't know. And they should know. And it's not even hard to track this data because they already have a system to do it. It's called Prosecutor by Carpel. And if you use that system to its best ability, which I've seen done when I worked in Rockingham County, you can run reports for anything your heart desires. You can see how many convictions we've had, how many trials we've gone to, what our dispositions were. And I think that's important information for the towns that we serve. So those are the reasons that I'm running for Merrimack County Attorney. Like I said, I'm really passionate about this work. I worked in that office for three years. I know the people there and I know they trust me to lead them. And so that's why I'm here. Thank you.

All right. Thank you.

Pretty rare that a candidate running for office comes to visit us, but it's always a really great opportunity for us to hear from someone. As you're not surprised, the people at Bow are pretty avid voters. So hopefully they see this and they hear about your minutes and vote for you. Thanks. Thank you very much, Hugh.

All right, so move on now to the consent agenda.

I will make a motion. David, what's tax cut to prepayment authorization?

We need to do a certificate that will allow her to collect prepayment of property taxes. We're just required to get authorization.

I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda. Second.

We have a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda. Is there any further discussion? All right. All in favor?

Aye. Aye.

Aye. 4-0. All right. Town Manager's Report.

Yes, I enjoyed my conferences. The back-to-back PRIMEX was very interesting. They do a very good job with their conferences. A lot of safety things and kind of runs the gamut from leadership things to practical advice on operations. And then we had the Municipal Management Association Conference, which similar type programs. But I do have an announcement that I've chosen a new captain emergency management director. His name is Craig Bolak. He's a call firefighter, advanced CMT with the Bowe Fire Department since 2007. He's a graduate of Bow High School, bachelor's degree in Homeland Security, and he has an associate's in Fire Science. His current position is Emergency Management Specialist with FEMA in the Maynard Mass Office. He leads coordination between federal, state, and local agencies for disaster response, supports the development of operational plans, policies, and procedures, conducts after-action reviews, evaluates and recommends policy updates. Prior to FEMA, he worked at the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services as a response section chief and emergency preparedness planner, directed staff performance and resource allocation during COVID-19 response operations, implemented a new statewide hospital emergency management software program, built partnerships with healthcare organizations for emergency preparedness initiatives, developed and implemented agency-wide continuity of operations plan for the agency. Prior to that, he worked for the New Hampshire Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. He was a program planner. He was there about five or six years and a field rep And what he did there as program planner was streamlined program development processes, reducing lead times and increasing efficiency, supported emergency management activities across municipalities, strengthening local preparedness, supported local planning efforts, including EO operations, emergency operations plans and hazard mitigation plans. And he will be able to start with us the week of July 6th.

Fantastic.

Coming right up. Bob, congratulations on getting such a qualified candidate.

Yeah, I think. Absolutely. That's all I have for Mike.

I'll make a motion to approve the meeting minutes of May 26, 2026. Second. I have a motion and a second.

Any further discussion? Theron?

AYE. MAKE A MOTION TO APPROVE THE RESOLUTION TO ADOPT FEMA'S FLOOD INSURANCE STUDY, THE FIS REPORT AND THE FLOOD INSURANCE RATE MAP FIRMS REPORT OUTLINED IN PIECE 6 IN OUR PACKET.

AYE. I MEAN SECOND.

AYE. WE HAVE A MOTION AND SECOND FOR THE DISCUSSION. ALL RIGHT. ALL IN FAVOR SAY AYE.

AYE.

AYE. Third item, hawkers and peddlers.

I thought it would be a good time for us to just review the ordinance, compare it to current state statute, amend as needed. We don't have to do this process tonight, but just so that everyone has a copy of the hawkers and peddlers ordinance. We don't have to address it tonight, but there are some changes in state statute that we might need to adopt in here.

I will make a motion that we provide this to town council and ask him to update it consistent with new state law and good practice for us to review.

It looks like it was last reviewed in 2016, so that's a good idea.

Well, it's going to be very formal now once we approve my motion.

Second.

All right, we have motion to second. Any further discussion? All right, all in favor say aye.

Aye.

All right. Ayes have it, 4-0. 4, we've already gone over 5. Backtoberfest request for their annual 5K, which is always a hit for the community. We have a letter in our packet from Jared Bland, who would like again to do the Backtoberfest on September 26th, 4 p.m. HE HAD RECOMMENDATIONS FROM BOTH CHIEFS ABOUT THEY'RE GOOD TO GO.

THIS IS WHAT A WHAT A SUCCESS THIS PROGRAM. MAYBE I MENTION BEFORE CHRISTOPHER MAKES A MOTION.

TO APPROVE THE REQUEST FOR THE ROADWAYS AND THE FIREWORKS AND TOWN SOCIAL HOURS AT ALBAN ROAD AFTERNOON. SECOND. ON 9-6-26-26. SECOND. AT 4 PM.

All right, we have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? That's Sarah's birthday.

Very nice. Happy birthday.

What's your name? Fireworks. I don't know what to do. There's all sorts of potential voters.

You also have to run a 5K.

Yeah.

I mean, if you're giving me fireworks for my birthday, I'll run 5K.

It's a good time.

As you can tell, since we all... All right, we have a motion and a second.

Further discussion?

i get fema flood maps and they get back toberfest last year was the opposite yeah um six we have deed waivers we have three deed waivers in here for people who are perpetually on their taxes one of them is an empty lot one of them is an abandoned house um My preference is, unless we get a recommendation from Medulla that we absolutely should, I think we should move forward and deed these properties and draw a line in the sand, but consistent on Medulla telling us in two weeks that we should, in fact, give these for some reason that we weren't provided tonight.

So is that a motion?

Well, it's actually a non-motion.

Do you want to label this?

We'll be passing it.

We'll just take them. Yeah, we'll just, we'll lead them to the town, right? Because all we can do, the board is, excuse me, is doing a waiver of we don't want the deed. But if you don't take any action, then the deeds, the deeds get transferred to the town. Yep.

Subject to their right of reclamation, reclaiming it based by paying their back.

Would you have a one through three or would you just do one and two?

I think the third one is almost minimal.

Yeah.

And so I would, I would be okay if we waive that one.

Okay.

I'll make a motion to waive number three for $400 and some dollars. 488. I don't have my glasses. 488.95.

All right.

So we have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All right. Motion and a second. All in favor say aye.

Aye.

So ayes have it 4-0.

Tonya, when's our meeting in July? Who's going to be here?

I don't have any money because I have kids. I have children.

If we're all going to be here, I want to do it by the 14th.

If you move to the next item on the 14th, we do have a sidewalk.

That's what I'm talking about.

No, the sidewalk. You've moved on. He's already moved on. He's moved on.

I'm so confused.

I thought we were still on the way of this. I put the page over. Yeah.

Yeah, I think we should, I mean, we have to have a sidewalk. I think what we've learned recently is that we need to have a representation go there and actually see it. Board members, select board members have to go. So, yes, we could do five. Should we do July 14th? We have two properties to go to. So should we do 515? Close. One is on South Bow Road and the other was Woodhill.

Those are close. Yeah, let's do 5 and 5.30 and then we'll start when we get back.

Okay.

Did you want a 5.30 start time for the board of staff meeting that night?

I would say 6. Let's go 5. We'll start sidewalk at 5, go one to the other, and then we'll start our meeting when we get back.

Okay.

So 5.30. In case we get back early. They can see us live.

So that was a motion.

Do you need a motion to set a public hearing, David, or just that?

Yeah.

Make a motion to set a public hearing at a sidewalk and public hearing for July 14th, sidewalk at 5 o'clock, public hearing at the start of our meeting. Second.

All right, we have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All in favor? Aye.

Aye.

The ayes have it for nothing, Tonya. Eight is all done, so board committee reports.

I don't have any.

Select women, Colby.

I have nothing at this time.

Select women, Brennan.

Nope.

Okay, bottom lines. Start with selectmen, Nikopoulos.

Nikolopoulos.

Nikolopoulos. Sorry about that, Alan.

That's all right.

Thank you. Select woman, Brennan.

Happy summer.

Select woman, Colby.

I don't think anything has really happened since we last met that I can think of.

Second.

All right. All those in favor?

Does anything need to be signed for those deed waivers, David?

Yeah, this deed waiver and then what was the other thing to be signed? Okay.

So another part of that. I thought it was inside of it, but.

I don't know.

You can vote.

So there's a motion.

There's a motion and a second.

Second, yeah.

All in favor?

Aye.