Board of Selectmen Meeting, June 3, 2024
Reopening Town Beach will take a long time. Public meeting to be held to discuss the Recycling Center's hours.
Town Beach Closure
Selectman Decker amended the draft minutes of the May 23 non-public session to note that the board could not legally discuss the document prepared by the Town Attorney regarding access to Town Beach because it had entered non-public session on grounds of section “I” not “L;” and therefore had to table the discussion to the next meeting. The draft minutes say that non-public was entered into in order to discuss legal matters, and that “The Board briefly reviewed a document submitted to the BOS by the town attorney and agreed to table it for another meeting because most members had not had a chance to review in detail.”
Chairman Morin said that the town is working on a plan with the attorney and the landowners to reopen Town Beach and is trying to get it settled as soon as possible.
Selectman Dabrieo met with the Police and Recreation departments about the matter. Both confirmed that the beach has been the location of lots of behavioral problems for the past several years. The landowners said they have thousands of hours of videos of problem behavior they could provide as evidence.
Selectman Dabrieo said, “whatever we do is going to cost money.” For example, the Recreation Department says that the beach needs $1k for new swimlines, which the department did not budget for. Nor did the department budget for someone to install the swimlines.
Selectman Dabrieo said it will take a long time to find a solution, and it will require having an attendant. The Town Administrator said it would be difficult to find anyone willing to be an attendant. It’s also an open question about what department would be responsible for the attendant.
Chairman Morin said the issue may need to be presented to the voters as a warrant article to gauge the voters’ willingness to provide the necessary funding.
The Town Administrator said that the town’s insurance company said it’s not unusual for towns to have insurance coverage for private property used for public purposes. However, the insurance company could not commit to offering coverage until they review the legal agreement for the public’s use of the private property. Such an agreement does not yet exist.
Several members of the public made comments about Town Beach. One person admitted that they were one of the people who regularly illegally accessed the beach and that their child had an illegal cupcake party on the beach during Covid that was broken up by the police.
One commenter asked if citizens could get free or discounted entrance to the state park’s beach. The board reported that the library has a few passes that can be borrowed. Selectman Decker said that the state has refused past requests to provide discounts to Nottingham residents.
There was a discussion about the tax map erroneously showing that Town Beach Road traversed the property of two landowners. It was affirmed by the landowner that this was an error and that only one landowner was involved. It was also determined that the error was the town's fault, not the map contractor. The town has failed to provide the contractor with updated information.
One person asked why the board prohibited kayaking to the beach. The answer was that the board had closed the beach to all uses.
Status of Road Grading
After a five-week wait for parts, the road grader was back in action Monday on Ledge Farm Road, where it suffered a coolant leak and had to be taken out of service for repairs. Grading on Ledge Farm is expected to resume on Tuesday. Once Ledge Farm is finished, the lake roads will be graded, starting with Barderry Lane.
Recycling Center Hours
The Town Administrator reported that the Recycling Center’s staff had collected the signatures of 330 people visiting the Recycling Center on a petition to end the Recycling Center’s summer hours. Selectman Shirland pointed out that it was unknown how many people the staff asked to sign the petition refused to do so. There was no discussion of whether the employees’ actions violated any law or town policy. RSA 98-e allows public employees freedom of speech on the job, although there are restrictions on electioneering.
A discussion ensued, which Chairman Morin cut off because the Recycling Center was not on the agenda. The Town Administrator noted that the operating plan on file with the state since 2013 says that the center may only be open from 6 am to 6 pm. There was a discussion about whether these times were mandated by the state. Selectman Decker noted that the center had had summer hours long before 2013. [Many towns offer hours outside the hours of 6 am to 6 pm, so the hours in the town’s operating plan appear to be in disregard of the town’s own practice, not hours mandated by the state.]
The board agreed to schedule a public hearing on the question during its first meeting in July.
Other News
The Police Department has issued an employment offer to fill one of its two open positions.
The town’s insurance will cover $9.5k of the $12k spent to repair the Recycling Center’s damaged well.
The Dam Bureau will be replacing the no-trespassing signs on Dolloff and Drowne’s Dams.
The board had a 55-minute-long discussion with the owner of the former USA Springs property on Rt 4 regarding the building permit fee. The owner is developing the property exactly as the town had approved for the prior owner, but because development had to be halted due to the prior owner defaulting on taxes and the property eventually being taken in a tax lien, the new owner did not think it was fair to charge them $122k in fees for completing a project the prior owner already paid for. The board agreed to lower the fee to $42k (35% of the normal fee) by a 3-2 majority (for: Dabrieo, Shirland, Decker; against: Welsh, Morin). The owner accepted the compromise. Selectman Decker was concerned that the existing fee schedule did not properly take into account the complexities and timelines for the construction of commercial properties and asked the Planning Board to review the fee schedule with this in mind.
Watch the video:
Outstanding reporting
Is the revenue from building permits used to reduce the tax rate? I always thought it was, but it seems that this was not considered in the debate. The "waiver", or whatever it is to be called, approaches $100,000. Would a Nottingham homeowner be eligible for a similar "waiver" if he were to put an addition on his home?