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MINUTES
OF THE February
16, 2010
The
moderator Kurt Brown called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. Those present were
the Prudential Committee members: Dennis Stocker, Charlie Baker, Scott Sendra
and Maureen Duchesne the Clerk/Treasurer. There were twenty-five (25) Fire
District Residents, along with six (6) visitors in attendance.
Moderator Kurt Brown read the warning.
The
legal voters of Fire District No. 1,
Article
01. To
approve minutes from previous Annual Meeting dated February 17, 2009.
Dennis
Stocker made a motion to open the floor for discussion seconded by Bruce
Duchesne.
Article
02. Will the District vote to
approve and authorize the Prudential Committee to expend the specific amounts of
monies to be appropriated for all necessary Water Fund expenses and apportioned
by the Prudential Committee for the several purposes provided as per the
proposed 2010 January-June Budget and the 2010-2011 Fiscal Year Budget contained
in the Annual Fire District No. 1 Report. (Australian
Ballot)
Kandie
Stocker made the motion and seconded by Donnie Boyd to open the floor for
discussion. The motion carried. Rose
asked a question as to why there was no dollar amount under the delinquent rents
line 4103. Scott explained
that Quickbooks does not separate out payments to the delinquent line item.
The total collected for the year does show up in the Tax Collectors
Report. We will not even show those
line items in next year’s report. Alicia
Sharp as the delinquent tax collector tried to explain how the billing and
receiving of payments comes up in Quickbooks so that people would understand the
process. Gary
Fredette then asked if 4103 is a checkbook number since it is said that we
cannot separate the payments out. Scott
stated that it was used with a previous form of bookkeeping but is no longer
used so it can be deleted. There
was quite a bit of discussion as to how the billing and accepting of payments is
done with the Quickbooks system and that each district member has just one
account not all separate for each item in their invoice so that the payments go
to the account as a whole. Rose
then had a question as to when the board made the decision to go from a calendar
year to a fiscal year. Scott said it
was done during the year at the Prudential Committee meetings.
Rose wanted to know exactly what month it happened as she felt the public
should have been notified. Scott did
state it was on the agendas for the meetings and people could have come to the
meeting to voice their opinions. Joel
Mudge stated that he was pleased with the switch to a fiscal year. Alicica
Sharp made the motion to cease discussion on article 2 and Joel Mudge seconded
it. The vote was called for and with
none opposed the motion carried. Article
03. Will the District vote to
approve and authorize the Prudential Committee to expend the specific amounts of
monies to be appropriated for all necessary Sewer Fund expenses and apportioned
by the Prudential Committee for the several purposes provided as per the
proposed 2010 January-June Budget and the 2010-2011 Fiscal Year Budget contained
in the Annual Fire District No. 1 Report. (Australian
Ballot) Charlie
Baker made the motion to open the floor for discussion; it was seconded by
Kandie Stocker. The motion carried. Charlie
Baker stated the reasons why we were going to a fiscal year as opposed to the
calendar year. He stated that with a calendar year we are spending money at the
beginning of the year that we have not even voted on yet.
The switch to a fiscal year will end this. Rose Regula asked a question as to where the lost capital fund money was. Scott explained that this fund was consolidated into the regular water/sewer account a few years ago and he did not know the reason why. Scott did state that clerk is in the process of opening up a separate sewer capital fund again and the money would begin to get transferred back into that account. Gary Fredette then asked if we only have one checking account then all the capital funds have to be in there. It was explained that the capital funds are savings accounts and separate from the checking. Kurt asked if there were any other questions on Article 3, with none Donnie Boyd made a motion to end discussion. It was then seconded by Joel Mudge and a vote was called for with none opposed the motion carried. Article 04.
Will the District vote to approve and authorize the Prudential Committee
to expend the specific amounts of monies to be appropriated for all necessary
General Fund expenses and apportioned by the Prudential Committee for the
several purposes provided as per the proposed 2010 January-June Budget and the
2010-2011 Fiscal Year Budget contained in the Annual Fire District No. 1 Report.
(Australian Ballot) Charlie Baker made a motion to open the floor for discussion and it was seconded by Donnie Boyd. The motion carried. Rose wanted to know why there was no FICA amount in the budgets. Scott Sendra told her it was added into the salaries and not a separate line item any longer. With no further questions Charlie Baker made the motion and Donnie Boyd seconded it that we end discussion on Article 4. A vote was called for and with none opposed the motion carried. Article 05.
Will the District vote to approve and authorize the Prudential Committee
to expend the specific amounts of monies to be appropriated for all necessary
Fire Protection Fund expenses and apportioned by the Prudential Committee for
the several purposes provided as per the proposed 2010 January-June Budget and
the 2010-2011 Fiscal Year Budget contained
in the Annual Fire District No. 1 Report. (Australian
Ballot) Charlie Baker made the motion to open the floor for discussion; it was seconded by Dennis Stocker. The motion carried. Rose asked a question as to why the money from the sale of the fire trucks did not show in the income. It was explained that it was used as expenditure right away and did not get entered as an income. We can easily have this fixed. John Cotrupi asked if the trucks that were sold went out for bid. Dennis Stocker said that yes they did. Rose asked about the sale of the gas left in the outside tank being sold to only fire fighters at cost. Dennis explained this was done to empty the tank as soon as possible because they had a security camera that had picked up people stealing the gas but could not get a good picture to tell exactly who it was. Rose asked what grants the fire department had applied for and who signed the paperwork. Stephane Goulet explained that he is the one who writes and submits all grants. He said they had applied for an equipment grant, a vehicle acquisition grant, and a grant to remodel the fire house. At this time they have not received any grant money. Scott said that the board gave Stephane the authority to go for these grants as they are not going to be asking the voters for any matching funds, and he is allowed to sign all paperwork to apply for grants. Kurt asked if there were any other questions on article 5, with none Joel Mudge made the motion to end discussion and it was seconded by Alicia Sharp. A vote was called for and with none opposed the motion carried. Article 06.
Will the District vote to have all Fire District Taxes, Water Bond,
Water/Sewer Rents payable to the Fire District Treasurer when due? Donnie Boyd made a motion and it was seconded by Charlie Baker to accept Article 6. With no questions a vote was called for and with none opposed the motion carried. Article 07.
Will the District authorize the Prudential Committee to borrow such
monies as may be necessary to meet the operation expenses of the District? Charlie Baker made a motion and it was seconded by Charlie Gauthier to open the floor for discussion. The motion carried. Scott pointed out that the fire district did not have to take out any loans to operate this past year. He then stated that we are going to be using a flat rate throughout the year for the water/sewer bills. Donnie Boyd asked how this was determined. Scott stated that we took an average of three year’s worth of usage and came up with an amount for the year. John Thomson, Sr. asked if we did it for each household or as an overall usage. Scott said it was an overall amount. Gary Fredette then asked how we would show this at the end of the year. Scott said that if the amount was not enough it would then show as deficit and the board would look at something different for next year. Donnie Boyd made the motion to end discussion and it was
seconded by Charlie Gauthier. A vote
was called for and with none opposed the motion carried. Article 08: To
elect all Fire District Officers required by law. Kandie Stocker made
the motion to open the floor for nominations for officers of the Fire District
and it was seconded by Joel Mudge. The
motion carried. Kurt then said the
first one is a 3 year member of the Prudential Committee. Melissa Boyd
nominated Alicia Sharp, Bill Brooks nominated Charlie Baker who then declined,
and Bill Brooks then nominated Gary Fredette who then declined.
Charlie Baker made the motion to cease nominations and have the clerk
cast 1 ballot for Alicia Sharp, it was seconded by Dennis Stocker.
A vote was called for and with no no votes Alicia was elected for 3
years. Alicia then said
she would resign as the delinquent tax collector.
Kurt told her she would need to send a letter to the board. The next to be
elected was Moderator a 1 year term. Charlie
Baker nominated Kurt Brown with no other nominations a vote was called for. It
was seconded by Charlie Gauthier. A
vote of all yea’s and Kurt was elected for another term. A letter was then
read by Kurt from the Fire Department as to who was elected at their Annual
Meeting held on February 8, 2010. Dennis Stocker
nominated Jeff Duchesne as Chief and it was seconded by Donnie Boyd and for the
clerk to cast 1 ballot for Jeff. A vote with 1 no and the rest yeas votes Jeff
was elected Chief. Charlie Baker
nominated Dennis Stocker as 1st Asst. Chief and it was seconded by
Joel Mudge and for the clerk to cast 1 ballot for Dennis. A
vote of all yeas and Dennis was elected 1st Asst. Chief. Charlie Baker
nominated John Thomson, Jr. as 2nd Asst. Chief and it was seconded by
John Thomson, Sr. and for the clerk to cast 1 ballot for John.
A vote of all yeas and John was elected as 2nd Asst. Chief. Bill Brooks then
asked if we shouldn’t go ahead and vote a Delinquent Tax Collector for the
remainder of Alicia Sharps term of 2 more years since she will be resigning. Charlie Baker then
nominated Melissa Boyd and it was seconded by Scott Sendra.
With no other nominations, Charlie Baker asked for nominations to cease
and have the clerk cast 1 ballot. A
vote was then called for and with all yeas Melissa Boyd was elected for the
remainder term as Delinquent Tax Collector. Article 09: Will the District vote to approve the reports as submitted? Dennis Stocker made the motion to accept all reports as presented and it was seconded by Joel Mudge. With no discussion the motion carried with none opposed. Article 10: To
act on any legal and necessary business. Dennis Stocker made
the motion and it was seconded by Charlie Baker to open the floor for
discussion. The motion carried. John Cotrupi asked
as to what the total amount was to repair the lodge. Scott said it came to
around $340,000.00 It was then
explained that we had contractors come to a board meeting and that the board
made the decision to go with The McKernon Group.
The board did say they did not have any local people come forward to ask
about doing the work at the lodge after the fire. After some talk
about the people who always seem to come up in the delinquent tax report and
what the district can do about it Bruce Duchesne made a motion that we go back
to collecting the 8% penalty after
the 15 day grace period of when the payments are due and not wait until the end
of the year. The motion was seconded by Joel Mudge. Gary Fredette asked
if a lawyer doesn’t check for delinquencies when they are doing a title
search. He was told that they
usually do but not all the ones in the fire district get caught. Joel Mudge asked if
the board felt that going back to the original way would help out in the amount
of delinquencies. Scott stated that
he felt it would now give people the incentive to pay on time and not be late. Bill Brooks said
that a policy could be set up as far as liens on properties for the tax
collector. This is something the
board will be working on this year. Kurt then asked if
there were any other questions and with none a vote was called for. With none opposed
the motion carried. Dave Gilman then
asked about the grant for the fire house. Stephane Goulet explained that it is a
totally funded grant to do a total renovation of the existing fire house keeping
the historic look though. Stephane did
explain that if the fire department gets any of the grants the Fire Protection
Budget would then go down as they would not need to collect the money from the
town’s people as the grants would pay for things like gear. Ann Jarrosak then
asked why they needed a new fire house and couldn’t they use the money for
better things. Stephane explained
that the grant money can only be used for what is stated in the grant and
nothing else. Joel Mudge then
made a comment as the Safety Officer it was his job to make sure that everyone
is following all safety regulations while on the scene of a fire, such as always
having on an air pack to enter a burning structure.
He said that this is sometimes not followed because it cost money every
time you have to refill an air bottle. Jeff Duchesne as
the Fire Chief at this time presented Charlie Baker with a plaque for 20 years
of service on the Fire Department as he was not at their annual banquet.
He also announced that Charlie Gauthier got a 25 year plaque. Kurt then asked if
there was any more business to come before the meeting.
Hearing none Charlie Baker made the motion to recess the meeting and it
was seconded by Charlie Gauthier. The
annual meeting recessed at 8:46 p.m. Respectfully
Submitted, Maureen Duchesne |
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