SPECIAL MEETING MINUTES
September 8, 2014

The regular meeting was called to order at 8:04 AM at the Halifax Town Offices. Board members in attendance were Lewis Sumner, Earl Holtz and Edee Edwards. Also in attendance were Brad Rafus and Christina Moore, and later in the meeting, Patricia Dow and Joe Tamburrino.

Changes and Additions to Agenda

Edwards proposed adding “Award of Salt Shed Bid” to the agenda.

New Business

Award of Salt Shed Bid

Edwards moved and Holtz seconded the award of the salt shed bid to SMR Contracting, Inc. for $16,600. After some discussion about timing of the project, and what Rafus and others knew about the vendors’ work, the motion carried 3-0.

Sign Road Commissioner Orders

As stated.

Hearing of Visitors

Edwards proposed moving up hearing of visitors to accommodate Christina Moore.

Halifax EMS proposed lease of Old Town Garage

Christina Moore, Chief of Halifax Emergency Medical Squad (Halifax EMS), noted that the organization had been given a response vehicle via a grant program. Because of the medicine in the vehicle must be temperature-controlled, the Halifax EMS needs a central location to shelter the vehicle in the winter. She proposed that having a long-term lease (49-years or 20-years or the like) at the Old Town Garage might be advantageous.

Preliminary discussions were held about sizable repairs which would be need on a building that the Selectboard had (likely under-)budgeted to demolish. Heating the vehicle can be done with a small electric heater inside the vehicle.   Grant ideas were also tossed about. For the upcoming winter, Moore will be housing the vehicle in her own garage, while her personal vehicle will be outdoors.   In the end, after Edwards labeled the idea of “intriguing,” the Selectboard decided to have further conversations in October.

Act 250 –Denison Quarry Information

Edwards clarified a percentage on the quarry questions from the 9/6 meeting (traffic increase on Stark Mountain Road, 100% to 50%).

Rafus noted that he’d gathered or calculated the following information:

• The slope of Stark Mountain Road, on the top section to Sanders’ field, is 10.9%
• The slope of Stark Mountain Road, from Sanders Road to the end of Stark Mtn Road, is 7.5%.
• The slope of Jacksonville Stage Road from “Anderson’s gate”/Denison property to Ian Hull’s is 8.3%.
• The slope of Jacksonville Stage Road from the Red Barn (Jared Smith’s) to Old Stage Road is 7.6%.
• Signage such as “Steep winding road” and % of grade at the top the hills was noted to work out to about $60 per sign. This does not include labor/installation.
• Guardrail recommended on Stark Mountain Road would work out to about 2,000 linear feet. This doesn’t include armoring of the road, which is largely held up by the existing trees and root systems. Erosion would be a problem, based on past experience of the road, where a bank didn’t stabilize for a number of years after some road work was performed.
• Guardrail recommended on Jacksonville Stage Road would work out to about 150 linear feet needed.

Roadside Mowing

Rafus noted that the contractor to whome we’d awarded the roadside mowing bid has now stated that he will be delayed further, and cannot start for several weeks, which is getting pretty late to have much effect. The vendor said if we could get someone else, we should. The board instructed Rafus to ask around for borrowing equipment or getting another vendor or other options.

Culvert Inventory

Windham Regional Commission will be assisting in a town-wide culvert inventory starting September 17^th. It may not be completed this fall, but will help with updating things post-Irene.

Selectboard Position Interviews

 At 9:10 a.m. Edwards made a motion to go into Executive Session for the purpose of discussing the applications for open Selectboard positions. Sumner seconded the motion, which carried 3-0. Sumner, Holtz and Edwards went into executive session.

The board came out of executive session at 9:32 am.

Holtz and Edwards will each follow up to schedule interviews the week of September 15 and September 22, while noting Sumner and Edwards both had some conflicts.

Adjournment

The meeting ended at approximately 9:33 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Edee Edwards, Selectboard Member