Board of Selectmen Meeting, January 8, 2024
Well failure at Recycling Center. Private well poisoned by town's road salt. Pothole filling. Nepotism concerns.
Recycling Center Well Failure
The well at the Recycling Center has been compromised by flooding. A new one will need to be drilled. The well is full of sediment. Shortly after the filter was cleaned it plugged right back up. Currently, there is no running water. A porta-potty has been brought in. Tasker gave a quote of $24.6k to replace the well. The Town Administrator is to get two more quotes.
Poisoned Private Well
A citizen on Kelsey Road appeared before the board for a fourth time to discuss the town’s poisoning of his well with road salt. The resident has lived in this home since 1974 and went decades without problems. Historically, the town used only sand on this road. It has only been in the past few years that it has been salted.
For over a year now the salinity of their water has been too high for both human consumption and for plants. They claim that salt came from excess road salting by contractors employed by the town. Last winter they said their road was salted 89 times. They said that the state replaces wells next to state roads that reach this level of toxicity.
They again asked the town to replace their well and proposed that the town sue the contractors.
They have an 18 ft deep dug well that is about 30 ft from the road. Selectman Morin pointed out that such a well would not be permitted under current regulations.
They mentioned other residences in town that also now have elevated salt levels from excess salting.
Another resident of Kelsey Road also spoke to the board about the environmental hazard of road salting.
The board said that the town’s new Highway Director aims to use much less salt. The new standard mix is ⅔ sand ⅓ salt. Pure salt will only be used in extremely icy conditions.
Budget
The board noted that in its budget workshop it had accepted $105k of the $160k of changes recommended by the Budget Committee and that it will put $100k of road work back into the operating budget. They sent their proposed changes to the Budget Committee, which will finalize the budget.
Warrant Articles
The board reviewed the warrant articles it wishes to propose. A future article will cover these in more detail. This article will just cover the articles the board had substantive discussions of.
$60k salary for the Fire Chief. Selectman Shirland noted that the word “hire” could not be used in this warrant article because it is contrary to the RSA. The board sent the text to the Town Attorney for review.
$100k to the highway truck fund. Selectman Bartlett was opposed to adding more funds as no highway equipment is projected to be needed until 2025. The current balance of the fund is $174k. Selectman Morin proposed lowering the figure. The board decided to keep it at $100k, with Bartlett opposed.
$40k for preliminary design work for a new Police Station. Selectman Dabrio noted that the school spent $95k for the design of the school addition that voters turned down. When the Fire Station was designed in the ‘90s the designs included expansion plans for adding a Police Station. This article will be a test to see if the voters are receptive to a huge later expenditure to build a new Police Station.
The board discussed the two ways the voters could transfer the unspent funds from the Tricentennial fund to a new Celebrate Nottingham fund. It chose the simplest method, but this one requires ⅔ majority vote.
$50k to gut the interior and renovate the back of Town Hall. This space is currently used only for storage. It is hazardous and in extreme disrepair. The board debated whether “demolition” is the appropriate term for this, as the outer frame of the building is being retained.
Two new vote-counting machines had been proposed, but the board decided to recommend only buying one. The town currently has one machine, acquired in the ‘90s, and this is the last year it can be certified for use. Without a certified vote-counting machine the town will have to resort to hand counting.
Other News
Pothole Filling: You may have noticed potholes being filled on some of the town’s dirt roads. The Town Administrator said, “The highway crew used this method as a temporary fix to the gravel roads while we were without a grader operator, and also when conditions were not ideal for grading (too wet, too dry, frozen, etc.). The road grading schedule suffered drastically from both not having a town grader operator and due to issues with the subcontracted grader operator having staff/equipment issues. We are optimistically hopeful with now three grader operators on staff in the Highway Department, that the roads will receive the appropriate amount of attention they deserve.”
Nepotism? A subscriber has asked if the town has a nepotism policy. I could not find one on the town’s website. The subscriber claims that the brother-in-law of the Police Chief was just promoted to Police Lieutenant. Earlier this year the town fired the Fire Chief and his wife, a Fire Lieutenant.
The January/February issue of the Nottingham Community Newsletter is now available.
The town’s Democratic and Republican party organizations are still seeking volunteers to bring items to provide the Presidential Primary poll workers with free meals throughout the voting hours of 7 am to 7 pm.
Saturday, January 13 is the town bonfire.
Watch the video:
We need a nepotism policy! Can we also get a ‘conflict of interest’ policy?