Board of Selectmen - Regular Meeting

Are you ready?

We're going to call the meeting Tuesday, July 14th. We're actually just by dint of how many signatures have to happen.

We're going to move the consent agenda first.

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

I would just check, everyone check to make sure they don't have a conflict because there's so many things on there.

If you give me Adrian is our new person on site. Hi.

Yeah. I had a question on number 37. Or page 37 or.

On number 37.

Yeah, just what page it is. Because this was too much for my computer to handle.

What is the actual question?

Request for consideration total and permanent disabled veteran. Is this just an application?

An application that was untimely filed. It was leaked, but it was due to accident and state misfortune. So he's asking for you to consider it.

Gotcha. Okay, that was it. And your recommendation on that was. My motion, I don't have a conflict with any of these, so my motion can stand second.

I have a motion in a 2nd, and further discussion. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Thanks for staying late. Seeing none, we now have two public hearings. The board is just on the site walk of two properties for discretionary preservation easements at 91 South Bow Road and 183 Woodville-Hooksett Road. The town staff suggests that we grant, basically continue the same exception as before. which is the full one, because both of those properties were clearly, in my view, well maintained, beautiful barns, very much fulfilling the role of the discretionary preservation easement. So we need a motion. I think we have to open the public hearing, right? We'll open the public hearing. Rich, it's your nightmare.

I'll make a motion to approve the staff's recommendation regarding both 91 Southwell Road and 183 Woodhill-Hooksett Road.

I'll second.

I have a motion to second. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. So 4-0. So now we run the New Hampshire Department of Safety Office Highway Safety Grant, $11,000. Rich, can you speak to that? Yeah, go ahead, Rich.

That's not why you speak. It's police speed.

It's police speed in Carolina. I'll make a motion to accept.

All right, we'll open the public hearing on the grant. I think no one wants to speak. We'll close the public hearing.

I make a motion that we approve the acceptance of an $11,000 grant via RSA 3195B to use to conduct highway safety, presentation, speed, DUI, distracted driving, seat belt, and dependent driving. Who else?

Second. I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye for nothing. I'm going to guess what you're here for, which is the gym equipment. Okay, we'll move item seven of the discussion action items up. So, Rich, over to you. Just say your name and your position if you could.

Thank you. It's Richard Oberlin, 14 Meadow Lane. I am the new president of the Bow Fire Association. I've taken over for Ted Bardwell, who has decades of service in that position. I just want to publicly thank him for that. And then secondly, the association would like to donate a stair mill that's brand new, worth $1,499 to the town of Bow. And we would like you to accept that donation for use in the gym at the Bow Public Safety Complex. The purpose of the safety mill is part of the CPAT test for firefighters is to climb stairs and go in that mill. And believe it or not, it's kind of hard to find those things in gyms lately. And so we wanted to add that so that we can train our folks to prepare for the CPAC that are looking to do full-time firefighting, as well as maintain our physical fitness in that event.

I'll make a motion to accept the offer, the generous offer to donate a stair climber from the Bow Fire Rescue Association. Second.

Second. Do people wear gear while climbing on it? How much gear?

I'll have to ask the fireman in the room. If it's not carrying tools, it's $85.

Can Kip try it? Yeah, I'm kind of keen. I want to actually compete with him. I'll do it too. You're going to fall backwards.

Let's see who can make the pass the physical fitness test.

Now I actually kind of want to do this. The standard portion of the CPAP is three minutes and 20 seconds on that machine wearing a 75-pound weight vest.

How fast?

At 20 steps a second or a minute for 20 seconds to warm up, and then three minutes at 60 steps a minute. We're going to do this. It feels very arduous. We'll be live-streamed. For the handles, you basically hold the vest and climb it. If you're prepared, it stinks, but it's very doable.

The equipment actually showed up.

We were able to purchase it prior to the fact that I could get here to see if you would accept it.

If not, I was going to find someone that would take it.

And among other things, if you guys, we would love to set you up if you want to come to the fire academy and get hot.

Yes. It's a lot of fun. Very much in. Very much in.

You mean in the chamber? In the burnt, yeah, in the blast chamber chamber.

Yes.

You got to do it, otherwise you get toasty.

He wants to get shit. That's right, that's what I'm doing now. He wants to practice. He wants to practice. I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Yeah, and I think the association, I think he took over the association. Yes.

Yeah.

He's been doing it that long, so big shoes to fill, but it's the right person.

Make a motion to accept the minutes from June 9th.

I'm second. 1500.

I have edits. Hold on. This is perfect. Thank you. Underscript shirt. I don't know what it's here for. I'm abstaining. That's blue.

Where are they?

I need glasses. Before that, we have a town manager's report. So while you get your edits ready, David, do you want to do the town manager's report?

Yes. Thank you. The landfill solar project is still, they're still trying to get their last permits or permit amendments from New Hampshire DES, which basically at this point is We have a closure plan and management plan on file for what we have to do for a number of inspections per year, clear brush, do a bunch of other things. We need to amend that permit. And so they're looking for a fair amount of stuff to do that. And they've been working with the company that we use to manage and do the testing on the water testing and just manage the closure tasks. And so they're working with DS and with care search. So hopefully that's the last. I believe it's probably the last piece that we need to put in place and we're ready to go with the least the pilot. So I'll keep it posted on when we get back the commemorative coins. They are for sale. The pewter coins are at the library.

Are there silver ones too?

I have, yeah. I've been hanging on to those. I haven't gotten them down to her yet.

I had a resident ask me yesterday. They went down to get one. I was looking.

Oh, down there. Yeah, I got to get those too. I've sold maybe 20 out of here. When people just come by and say, hey, silver.

Come see you. Yeah, probably. If we could, I've had some people approach me as well. If we can get just, I'm sure it's been on there, but re-put it on Facebook. Yeah. Particularly market the coins. Yeah. On the correct site. You know, avenues.

All right, the download 3 intersection, they're moving along. We have the development agreement that we'd signed. They kind of surprised us when we got word that they had started on the morning of the 22nd and they said. He's talked to the attorney and said, we don't have a signed development agreement yet. So he scrambled, I already made it work, his attorney, and got me everything I needed.

I thought that was going back out to bid so that we could have local companies bid on it. I was very surprised to see that work done.

Yeah, what ended up is we...

I concur.

The best way I guess we found to do it was treat it as a developer building a subdivision road where they would have to do the bonding and they're paying for our oversight and they choose the contractor, but they have to And also meet the other requirements of the state.

I had thought our motion was to require them to go back out to bid so that we could ensure that both contractors had an opportunity to bid on it. It's over now, but I have the same recollection. I was very clear. I expected oddly to have a chance to bid and to have that get done by the exact same person who was in the quote that we saw was, that's half of our money.

Yep. It is what it is.

I was also disappointed to see that as well. But it's nice to see that intersection get fixed. Yep.

Yeah, I drove there even today. I did too. It's going to be so much better with just basic sight lines.

And last but not least, we did swear in Officer Matthew Pelletier, and he's going to be serving as our school resource officer. He served as SRO for the town of Gossetown, I think for six years, and seems like a great guy, good fit. I know the chief wants to hire people that will fit with his department and his people. Not sure if he's made his way around, but he will be done with his field training. It's shortened because he's certified.

uh for school you know and he'll so we'll be starting right away with the school here in august that's all my report thank you david okay so minute meetings um minutes motion to approve the morning minutes from june i had some edits as well did was that second second today yeah okay um they'll just minor uh on okay i just circled it okay uh I'm assuming this is page three of the meeting minutes. Yeah. Under hawkers and peddlers. Yep. The motion that was made to my recollection was to send the hawkers and peddlers ordinance over to town council for review and revision if needed. Got it. Not sending the application. And then on the last page, select women Brennan did indeed say happy summer. but she did not also say none, that was me.

Good catch. Wow. All right, I have a motion, a second on the amended minutes. I won't be voting as I wasn't present. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Ayes have it, three nothing. Myself not voting. All right, moving on to the acceptance of the DWSRF loan and grant for the Bird Junction Water Loop project. We are not to do anything on the grant as we need a public hearing for that. We can make motions on the loan. So, David, maybe just give us a brief overview on that.

Yeah, the loan is the. I think it was a 301,500. I was ready to further so I don't have the exact number, but you're correct with the grand at the 1.5. we do need to hold a public hearing for the statute. The loan is the again 300,000 plus or minus and that's the forgivable loan for once we get going with the project. And after a certain amount of time, they'll forgive that long. and then the balance to come from the TIF district.

And just to remind everyone, we wouldn't actually spend any of the money until we had an agreement with Concord to connect. And we'll do the public hearing at the next meeting? Yeah. Okay. Can we make a note of that?

My thought would be let's just wait to vote on both of them. I didn't expect anybody to raise any concerns in public hearing, but...

I'm fine with that. Is there any reason that a delay is a problem? No. Okay.

No, they're okay. DES is good with that.

Okay. Okay. All right, moving on to item number three, choice of consultant for Bonewell's redevelopment strategy. We have a note from Carrie basically saying that there were, with the RFP, there was two bids that came in, both the exact same price of $75,000 within budget. She's reviewed it, and she suggests going with resilience planning and design because of a, quote, robust proposal of a somewhat experienced team of well-perspected professionals. So that's Carrie's recommendation of the two bids. between our net development and resilience planning and design. Should we go with the latter?

And I reviewed it and concur with her, and Bill Hickey also looked through it. I don't know if you had a chance. I think you did too. So we were all on the same recommendation, basically.

I'll make a motion to adopt the town staff's recommendation regarding the Beau Mills Development Strategy Consultant and selecting Resilient Planning and Design for their contracted amount of $75,000.

Second. I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Ayes have it. Five nothing. Moving on to item number four, response for New Hampshire Department of Transportation regarding installation of audible crossing. A reminder, we had a request from myself or the high school here who is sight impaired about putting in an audible crossing between the middle school and Bowe Youth, and we had sent a letter to DOT, and they have come back with a response basically saying, will you correct me if I'm wrong, we will work with you, but the town will have to cover all the costs just as we did at the 3A crossing.

Yes.

And so I'm not sure what actions we need on this tonight, except do we want to proceed with the understanding that we would be covering the cost of that? In my view, this is much more important than the one down on 3A. It's so heavily trafficked.

We didn't pay for the one on 3A. We're probably paying 100% of it because it was a staff safety concern for them.

I get that. This one seems way more important to me than that. I understand they paid for it, but I'd love to hear anyone who has opinions on that.

I think as long as it's driven by a button for when people want to pass. We don't have it in the budget. And so where are we going to get the money for something like this?

I think we've made a budget for next year on it.

Yeah, so maybe we just ask for RPs to get an idea of what it's going to cost.

Yeah. Do we need a motion on that, David?

I'll make a motion that we authorize David to submit or post an RP to get quotes on an audible crosswalk for the rank and the schools.

I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Moving on to the variability application from Mr. French. Eric has filed, as he has in the past, permits to bait for bears on town land for him and I believe it's his children. The only request from the Conservation Commission is that the results of the hunt be reported to the Conservation Commission. I believe that's the only request from them.

I make a motion to approve the application from Eric French, conditioned on them reporting within 30 days of the close of the season to both the Conservation Commission and the Board of Selectmen. the results of the hunt with an understanding that if they fail to report to us, we will take that into consideration next year when they come.

Second.

And I just want to be really clear that this year it is a permission to bait for deer and bear, whereas previous were just bear baiting applications. So Just in case there's different substances in the woods, then you would, I'm assuming they're going to put out different items.

Not a hunter, but I believe you do bait with different stuff for them. Yes. My understanding is that.

Was there a second?

Yep, there was. All right. I have a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Five nothing. Nay.

Nay.

Thank you. Board is 4-1 with Select Woman Brennan voting in the negative. Moving on to item number six. Correspondence from New Hampshire Department of Transportation on salt contamination of the water system. As a recap, we had sent a letter asking for a fair amount of information about how much salt was being put down on 3A, specifically in the wellhead protection area run a mile. They came back with a report basically saying we don't have perfect data. I'm summarizing here. This is all in the public record. We don't have perfect data, but we have pretty good data. And we put around 40 tons of salt on that one mile strip of land this past year, I believe. Reading the letter from a state maintenance engineer, Alan Hanscom, who was here previously, Basically, they're asking if we want to start the formal process of requesting that become a low salt roadway, which comes with a memorandum of understanding and other things that we would work with the state on. So my read of it, Dave, unless I'm wrong, is that tonight or in the future, we have to decide where we want to start that somewhat formal process.

I'd like to make a motion that we start the process to engage the state on making that area of 3A a low salt area. As all of you know, our wellheads are there, our aquifer is there. There are lots and lots of low salt areas that are still safe and well managed. And I think given what Bo has done for our water system, being prudent in that area is just good business.

Second.

I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion on starting that process? Hearing none, all those in favor say aye.

Aye. All of us have been listening for the last 10 years.

If you say something enough, if you say something enough. We'll catch on.

I'm excited that they're willing to engage us. Three years ago, they were like, no, you don't qualify for the discussion. You have too many cars. You have too many cars. We don't engage this when you have lots of cars. I was like, there are highways that have low salt signs. Not in New Hampshire, that's Massachusetts.

That's right. I assume we'll work with you on this and you'll be involved.

We look forward to it. It appears like the key part of it, they kind of obscured it a lot, but the key part is getting the chief of police to say, let's take all those people calls on any problems on that, rather than them all calling you.

Pretty low bar. We'll have Tanya take them. She's great at that. Yeah. But I think the point I'm making is, I think it's a very achievable MOU.

I think it can be done in a pretty reasonable amount of time.

Great. Yeah, ideally quicker than, I mean, it's July, right?

We've made more progress in this month than we ever have.

The individual information company's letter did give several grads on it. They'll give more information on quantity, a bunch of more information. They're all real people.

Okay, so we've done item 7 item 8 as a follow up. We got a letter back from community power. It was not clear and we had some clarification for a lawyer. So, I would suggest if we do discuss this, we would go into non public as it's a communication from our legal counsel.

Hi, I actually think. that I would like to make a motion to just have our legal counsel engage directly with them to clarify the difference of opinion. Okay. Second. I think that's... We are reading plain English, interpreting one thing and you say maybe it's something else. Just get the two of them on the phone. Okay. So my motion is to authorize town council to coordinate with community power to understand what options we have.

Second.

I have a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

All right, board committee reports. I'll start with planning. It's been somewhat quiet, but just so everyone knows, we do have a cell phone application on private land in South Bow. We're doing the hearings for that and the CUP on Thursday. There are some abutters who are not happy with it. You didn't vote on it. There are some abutters who are not happy with it. So Thursday night could be somewhat likely, but we updated our tower ordinances after the previous debacle around the cell phone tower. So I suspect it will be a somewhat cleaner application and look forward to Thursday night. What's planning? Okay, then CIP, which I cover for Angela and Angela will take over that. That seems to be very clear purpose here. I don't foresee any wild cards on that one.

My committees don't meet this time of year.

You're a winter committee guy. I know.

So for Heritage, they took this month off. Their next meeting is August 11th at 9 a.m. For the 300th anniversary committee, we had our second meeting, put out a second poll to the community to gauge interest in various types of commemorative items that they might want to see, apparel, license plates, and some sort of ornament is at the top of the list. We discussed that our next steps are in logo design so that we have something to kick off marketing, bringing awareness, creating a Facebook page and social media. I did research the formalities of getting a license plate. You can do plastic ones that aren't legal to display Or we can do something more elaborate that's more of a keepsake. It can be metal. And there's a bit of a process. Chief Miller had directed me. So it's possible that there might be an opportunity to apply for a formal license plate that can be displayed on the front of a vehicle legally for like a year.

Like, the ones they just did for the centennial. Yeah, I've seen that. So that is a 1 more exemption. Yes. To get that to our plate to write on the front of your car. I like that.

Yeah, I think that that's worth it as a committee. Hopefully, then we'll go forward. The next meeting is the 27th this month at 530. I guess that's it.

My sibling had a German exchange student and she was very unimpressed. Because her talent was turning 800.

Can we just take a minute to discuss Water Committee for just a moment on two topics?

Yes. Sure. Come on up. Who are you? Who are you? I'm Wendy Lynn.

In our gray, not blue shirt. Blue shirt on the microphone there, Tom.

Thank you. Tom Abad from the Drinking Water Protection Committee.

Cynthia Clemens, Water Protection Committee.

So, we don't meet again, and in between the timing of our meetings, Eversource sent a letter to the Town announcing that they're getting ready to apply pesticides across all the transmission right-of-ways, herbicides, sorry, herbicides. As far as we can tell, that's never been done before in Bow, and it came up at the Conservation Commission meeting last night. It was the first we'd ever heard of it. I pass that information over to the Water Committee. We have some concerns. The Eversource letter lays out how they're going to go about it very broadly. It's not really a plan. It just says, here's the five or six chemicals we're going to use. Here's the wells that are near, the private wells that are near the transmission right-of-way, and here's the vegetation management we're trying to achieve. We're looking for something that the Conservation Commission stated last night for a little more information, like what kind of chemicals, what effect it has on fish and wildlife and vertebrates, that kind of thing. From a water committee side, we're a little bit more concerned about the wells. What are the possible impacts on contamination to the wells? We've done a little bit of research on what the chemicals are. Some of them have very long durations, up to two years, for example, which is plenty of time for penetration into groundwater. All of them are classified as low risk by EPA. Some have health advisories associated with that. I have my own opinion about what a health advisory from EPA means, and we can talk about that if you're interested. But Eversource letter does conclude that they will be applying these herbicides in accordance with state and federal law. We just wanted to register with you the select board that this is about to occur. The letter is dated June 26th and they're going to apply on the 17th of August. We thought that was very, very short notice. They do have to go through a bit of a public process. They got to take out some ads in the paper and that kind of stuff.

Are they required to notify each individual well

Oh, yeah, let's see. Give me a minute to remind myself what the letter says. I don't think they do. We have to cover administration five of side regarding public notification. Riverside treatment rights way. We can close the following for information review copies it. So, then send it to the town is assumed to cover. That is what I read that to say.

I would. I thought we did this, but we've never done this before.

Yeah, DPW has done it for not weed.

DPW has done it for not weed, but we've, as far as anybody, Sandy's an institutional member. She's never seen oversight applied on transmission right-of-ways in Bow.

Yeah, this seems a little bit more extensive. What does the board feel about trying to determine how many properties are there and requesting Eversource send them letters or?

You sign these? I gotta sign these.

Is the application process, given that these are right-of-ways, what is the likelihood that these right-of-ways are within proximity to

Like, the water table where well, so they included this, these kinds of graphics are there 3 pages of this. This is the right away and these are the wells they identified from the state level well inventory. But we believe that well, inventory is at least 3 to 5 years out of date and there are more wells close to the transmission lines. So, the date of the well inventory is a problem, but there gives you an idea, at least on the stretch here in southern. Uh, gives you an idea how many wells are near the right away.

Does the letter describe an application process that is like an airborne dispersal of herbicides, or is it a more targeted application?

It says in accordance with state and federal law, that's all it says.

My understanding is that the application of herbicides and the products that are used all go through the state's pesticide control board and the regulations, you know, are through that process of which there are experts. I wonder if we are overstepping.

My question was like, educate me. If the state allows the herbicide and the federal government allows herbicide, how can Bo say no?

Right. It's not what the Water Committee is proposing that we say no. The Water Committee just want to make sure you are presenting to the public for when this is about to occur. No. That was what our comment was. Well, I wasn't aware.

No, I wasn't aware until today.

I think what we're proposing is notification for the homeowner, just so they're aware that they have a degree.

Is there a public notice that's going to go out? The letter that again, this is times understanding based on 24 hours of analysis that letter to the town. And the ads are going out in the 2 newspapers, the concrete monitor and the, and whatever the other paper they mentioned. That's it that's the public notification as far as other sources concern.

I will ask that I'll probably ask that Tanya put this on the Facebook page. and make sure we point them towards Ebersource as being the contact, not... We've received this notice, there are some properties that are going to have herbicide for this notice, that people better... Yeah, link to the letter, whatever the official public notice is from the Concord Monitor or something.

Yeah, for the row, so that people can see where... Yeah, I think that's perfect.

They just need to be aware. That's a motion. Do we have a second? Second. Further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. I'd like to make a motion. Oh, bottom lines, I forgot to look. Slackman and Colby, bottom lines? Took the time to write them out, I have to say.

Bill Rotary is holding its concert series, and this Thursday is Mr. A. Abram. Sorry, Aaron. And I've been really impressed with the enthusiasm of the different organizations that are represented on the 300th Anniversary Committee, the volunteers, wide age range, wide backgrounds, all different, bringing everything different to the table, and they're so selfless, and just thank you to everyone who has volunteered to sit on that committee.

Stop texting.

Sorry, Nick, we're rolling.

Nothing.

Select woman, Brennan.

Nothing.

I want to thank Rich Olbermann for that donation to the fire department. I think it's great that they're always thinking about... We're doing this. Oh, yeah. I have a way of asking. I'm starting training. No, but I think it's 35 or 40 people. They're always looking for ways to make themselves better and to improve and to be strategic about how they do it to keep this town moving forward.

All right. I'd like to welcome our new school resource officer, officer to the force. That'll be my... Our new assessor.

And our new assessor.

And welcome back, Carrie, from her maternity leave. You missed her so much. So, all right, and that's bottom lines. I'd like to make a motion to adjourn. Selecting Michaelopoulos and selecting Brennan, motion and second. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

We adjourn 5-0. 6-14. 6-13 on. with the longest case and then the history of incentive show up a little late.

So you have to