Board of Selectmen Meeting, October 17, 2022

Town replacing a $50k culvert on a private road. Alleged unfair treatment of Republican party events. Recycling Center complaints. Alleged misuse of ARPA funds. And more....

Culvert Collapse

A 48-inch culvert on Birch Tree Lane (formerly North River Road East) has collapsed. The town has put metal plates over the collapsed culvert and instituted a 2-ton weight limit. Interim Town Administrator John Scruton estimates it will cost $40k to $50k to repair and that the town does not have money in the budget for this. There was a discussion of how the town would find the money for this.

[Commentary: The fact that Birch Tree Lane is a private road was never mentioned. The road has a sign on it saying that it is private, and the town’s list of roads says it is private.]

It is suspected that a construction truck caused the culvert to collapse. One of the homes on that road is having major construction. Forms have been set up for pouring concrete, but now that the culvert has collapsed, cement trucks cannot get to the site. No weight limit on the culvert had been posted prior to its collapse.

An emergency wetlands permit is required to repair the road. Use of a contractor will be necessary. We do not know how long it will take to repair the road. The area of drainage is extensive, requiring two 48-inch culverts to replace the one that has failed. 

The collapsed culvert is preventing the draw-down of North River Lake. The state had originally wanted to draw the lake down three feet all at once, but if that had been done it would have completely washed out Birch Tree Lane.

Alleged Unfair Treatment of Republican Party Events

A citizen suggested that the town’s website include contact information about the town’s local political groups: the Democrats and the Republicans. Interim Town Administrator John Scruton replied, “this is a government website. Hence, we can’t do that.” The citizen asked, where does it say that? That they had looked for this and could not find anything prohibiting it. John Scruton replied, “it has to do with the basis with which we have a dot gov extension. We are not allowed to do those kinds of things…. We can’t advertise, we can’t do commercial, we cannot promote political parties…. This is a governmental domain, so we are governed by that restriction. … You run into First Amendment rights. How come you don’t have the KKK or you don’t have other political groups on….”  

A discussion ensued around the fact that one the Democrats held events in the town hall and that this was listed on the schedule for the town. It was debated whether this did or did not constitute promotion of that political party. It was argued that to be fair the Republicans should be allowed to list their meetings on the town calendar. Selectman Tony Dumas said that the Republicans should ask to have their events put on the calendar. The citizen said then that they were asking to put it on the calendar and that they had tried to do this when the former Town Administrator, Chris Sterndale, was here. They said, “He twisted himself into a pretzel to find every single way possible to say no.” 

The citizen noted that many events not run by the town are listed on the town’s website. 

John Scruton said he thought that non-governmental activities should be taken off the calendar. 

The Board concluded that it would investigate the matter and develop a clear policy. 

[Commentary: Restrictions on .gov domains are that “A .gov domain must not be used for political campaign purposes or to distribute or promote material whose distribution violates applicable law. On the town’s website I was unable to find any identifying information about the Democrats’ most recent event. It just says it was private. Correction: the event is not listed. The listed private event was for something else.

However, it appears likely that the website was changed right after the Board’s meeting because older political party events are labeled on the calendar, such as this one.

Recycling Center Complaints

A citizen complained about broken equipment at the Recycling Center and that there appears to be an employee there shirking work. 

This was followed by another citizen complaining about (presumably) the same employee, who appears to just talk on their phone all the time instead of working. They complained about another employee who is rude, who harasses citizens using the Recycling Center, and who smokes cigarettes on the job. The citizen suggested that the town adopt a no-smoking policy to prevent this behavior. They also requested that the swap area at the Recycling Center be restored. 

This citizen complained that the town fired the only employee at the Recycling Center who appeared to be working. Not only that, the town used to have a good team of employees at the Recycling Center and it’s a mystery why the town fired them all. They complained before about this, to the former Town Administrator. The problem appears to be getting worse. So they wanted to present the problem directly to the Board of Selectmen.

Budget Committee member Tom Butkiewicz complained that one of the employees at the Recycling Center “goes out of his way to harass” him. It’s so bad that he has started wearing a very obvious body camera with a red flashing light on it when he goes to the Recycling Center. Since he has started doing this he has generally been left alone. “I shouldn’t have to wear a body camera just to go to the dump… that’s ridiculous. This is harassment. I don’t understand how this gentleman still has his job with this many complaints in town and being known as the ‘Dump Nazi.’” “Find the people who worked there three years ago and get down on your knees to beg them to come back.”

Ben Bartlett said the board of selectmen should consider contracting out the operation of the Recycling Center.

Alleged Misuse of ARPA Funds

A citizen alleged that the town was using ARPA funds for things they were not supposed to be used for, such as paving Marston street. The citizen called for the town to have a public meeting so that the Board of Selectmen could get the public’s input about what the money should be used for. 

Milfoil Infestation in Pawtuckaway Lake

Neil Santos, representing the Pawtuckaway Lake Improvement Association, presented an extensive update on the milfoil (an invasive species that destroys the recreational value of our lakes) containment efforts. The lake became infested in 2015. Even with extensive containment efforts, the infestation is spreading and the amount of milfoil removed from the lake is growing at about 30% per year. Up until this year the PLIA has been able to run its containment efforts exclusively with volunteer labor, but the infestation has grown to the point that this year the PLIA had to hire extra divers to extract milfoil. The PLIA expects that it will need to hire even more divers next year. 

Because of the increasing costs of milfoil containment, and the cap placed on the town’s budget, the PLIA will be proposing a warrant article to fund the containment effort. 

Selectman Ben Bartlett complained that the state, which owns most of the waterfront on the lake, has failed to contribute to the milfoil efforts.

Preliminary Budget

The preliminary budget represents a 6.55% increase over the current year’s budget. $121k of spending must be removed from the budget to meet the 4% cap.

Health insurance premiums will increase by 11%. The total net change will be an increase of $139k, but most of this is due to adding staff.

Upcoming Road Maintenance Expenses

Interim Town Administrator John Scruton said the town has three culverts that will need to be replaced. He estimates that replacing these will cost about one million dollars, plus another $100k in engineering costs. There was a discussion about how federal money might be obtained for this work.

He said, “the town should be aware that all of those camp roads you accepted are probably going to cost you several hundred thousand dollars over the next few years because of maintenance that is going to be necessary just to keep it to a town standard.” He went on to say “those camp roads are going to be very expensive for the town. Hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

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