TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2003 - MUNICIPAL CENTER
TO BEGIN AFTER THE WORKSHOP - APPROXIMATELY 9:00 PM
CALL TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order by Chair Hopkins.
ROLL CALL
Councilors present: Christy, Hopkins, Nesbitt, Pomerleau, Simpson, and Spencer. Councilor Lymburner was excused.
NEW BUSINESS
34-03 Confirm Town Manager's Appointment of Fire Chief and the Director of Public Safety Department [Hopkins]
Chair Hopkins said that she was very excited that the Town was able to attract someone of Mr. Butkus' experience. Not only in the Fire, EMS and regionalization experience but also in some of the initiatives that we are looking forward to. She went on to say that he has strong personnel management skills. She said that she was looking forward to having an energized person to work for and with the Town. She said that when you get a chance to meet him and his family you'll see that his family also has a high commitment level to the move. She went on to say that during his interview Mr. Butkus brought a presentation that she had hoped that they would be able to play for the public. We don't have a PC that has good audio and the audio is very important. We hope that at the next meeting during the Managers Report
we will be able to borrow a machine so that everyone can see it because it was a wonderful presentation. It shows his current roll and some of the initiatives that he has put together.
Gordon Billington explained the selection process for the Fire Chief. Mr. Billington explained that when Chief Plummer gave us notice that he was going to leave we had a thirty-day period before he was going to go to Biddeford. This gave time to do the search and interview prospective applicants. We placed two ads in the Portland Press Herald from which we received over thirty applications in response to the ad. This was a much better turn out than we had last time when Chief Plummer came to us. Mr. Billington explained that we convened a committee that consisted of the Public Works Director, Finance Director, Mr. Billington, Chief Plummer, Deputy Chief Perham and Chief Lefebvre the Gorham Fire Chief. The committee looked at all the applications, evaluated them, and prioritized them based on the criteria
that they were looking for in the background of the Chief. Mr. Billington explained that the Chief would have to be EMT qualified, at least 5-years experience of being a Chief or assistant chief officer. He explained that we had looked for someone with a strong background in dealing with Call Companies rather than necessarily a full time Fire Department. From that list we chose to interview the top three candidates. Mr. Butkus really gave us a superb interview, he came well prepared. Mr. Billington explained that he had came over two days in advance to look at the Town. He knew the Town very well by the time he came to the interview. Mr. Billington said that he knew our issues which they were impressed by that. He brought with him as Chair Hopkins had mentioned a DVD, which showed the Fire Department that he was coming from in Essex, Vermont. Mr. Billington went on to explain that is a community that shares duties with the Town of Essex Junction, Vermont. Mr. Billington said that he
had all the qualifications that they were looking for. He has a strong budget background. He currently in addition to being a Fire Chief for an all volunteer Call Company he also is the vice president for a major company in Vermont that deals with HVAC installations in three states and handles a fairly large budget. He has a lot of budgetary background; a lot of personnel management experience and came highly recommended from other Fire Chiefs. The Committee was unanimously in favor of hiring and making him an offer from the Selection Committee. Mr. Billington explained that we have offered him the position and the information is being forwarded to the Council tonight for their confirmation. Mr. Billington explained that he had accepted the position; the start date will be no later than March 31 to give him time to transition from his current employment. Mr. Billington said that he may come earlier than that and he will be here for all the budget negotiations for the Fire/EMS budget
for next year. Mr. Butkus has met with Chief Plummer and Acting Chief Perham to get some additional information on the budget which he is going to have to support throughout the budget process. Mr. Billington said that he is very excited to have him come. He is young and he will bring a lot of youth and energy to the position. He went on to say that he gets good information about him with everyone that he has talked to. Mr. Billington explained that he will relocate to the Town of Standish.
VOTE: 6 yeas - 0 Nays
Chair Hopkins asked Mr. Billington if he had any idea when we might get a chance to meet him?
Mr. Billington said that he may be available to come to the next Council meeting.
35-03 Authorize Use of Town Council Contingency for Relocation Allowance for Fire Chief [Hopkins]
Chair Hopkins asked if this is normal expense request in the hiring of a department head that needs to relocate?
Councilor Simpson agreed to that it was.
VOTE: 6 Yeas - 0 Nays
36-03 Authorize Submission of Grant for Steep Falls Community Block Grant [Nesbitt]
Councilor Nesbitt explained that this is the follow-up to the workshop discussion regarding the grant application. He explained that the role of the Public Safety Committee has been that of a facilitator. The work has been done by the Steep Falls residents through the members of the Public Safety, which consists of Kathy Walker and Councilor Lymburner and others. In addition there was significant involvement with the Steep Falls Improvement Society. He explained that they had met a number of times as indicated in the application and have worked closely with Karen Allen who is the Community and Economic Devolvement resource person for GPCOG. He said that it is his understanding that she is fine-tuning the application because this is a draft at this point. He said that the feedback that he has received is
that the Steep Falls residents are very excited about this. It is an excellent opportunity to do some planning. This is strictly a planning grant and it was his opinion that we meet all the requirements of the grant proposal. Councilor Nesbitt said that it was his understanding that there would be no additional staff expense, no maintenance or other expense or budgetary items.
Chair Hopkins said that there would be no expense to the Town at all.
Councilor Nesbitt said that was right. He went on to explain that based on their budget it is up to a $10,000 grant. It would certainly be best to utilize what they can with the GPCOG membership, although some items may be contracted out. He said that they have done an excellent job on it and that are enthused. He went on to say that they he hoped that the Council would move forward on it. He explained that Kathy Walker who was the spearhead of this project said that she would be happy to answer any questions.
Chair Hopkins thanked Kathy Walker for putting the information together. She went on to say that she was pleased that this type of grant was applied for and it will benefit both the safety and economic areas.
Councilor Pomerleau said that he would support it but he thought that the draft mentioned blight and slum conditions many times and that bothered him. He said that makes him nervous.
Chair Hopkins said that to be honest, before the meeting, she had discussed that word blight with Councilor Nesbitt because she had not seen that used for several years. She said that he had explained that is a word that is being used in the industry.
Councilor Pomerleau said that when he sees the terms slum and blight conditions he didn't want to vote on an issue and have a resident offended by that term.
Kathy Walker explained that it was necessary to use those terms because they want you to identify. They want you to say that there are these conditions. She explained the other option that they wanted to go with was low to moderate income terminology.
Councilor Pomerleau said so we are lying a little bit about what's up there.
Kathy Walker said that if you looked at the series of pictures it would show the concerns.
Councilor Pomerleau said that the Historical Society probably wouldn't let you touch that property.
Kathy Walker said that they will have to touch it because it is a safety hazard. She pointed out that the top was rotten and was surprised that it hadn't fallen. She went on to say that there are several buildings in the middle of Steep Falls Village there is an old Agway building that is used for storage, which abuts the park.
Councilor Pomerleau said that is a great building.
Kathy Walker said that no one has said that it's not a great building but nothing has been done to it in years.
Councilor Pomerleau said that he didn't want to be put on the spot to tell them that they have to do something to these buildings. He said that bothered him.
Kathy Walker said that no one will tell them anything.
Councilor Pomerleau said that for a group of people in the Village and say that we don't like this building and that one, bothers him. He said that he was sure that the application has to be written that way to get the grant but it's almost that we're singling out some buildings there.
Kathy Walker said that what they are saying is that all Steep Falls Village over the years has been pretty much ignored. She said that like Mr. Spencer had mentioned about Sebago Lake Village that there is no overall plan. She went on to say that we are trying to avoid that by being a little more proactive and having a plan that everybody can hopefully be happy with. She said that there were some old beautiful structures before that were torn down or burnt.
Councilor Pomerleau questioned that said that the word slum really didn't mean anything?
Kathy walker said that was their terminology.
Chair Hopkins said that she would like the industry definition of blight/slum. So that when an area is characterized as being in a blight/slum area we know what that means.
Kathy Walker said that she could give her definition.
Councilor Nesbitt said that the grant application says that we have to address one of two national objectives. He explained that one was the low to moderate income and the second is blight/slum. He said that was the federal governments guidelines in the grant application. He said that what you try to do is gather information and taken the pictures. They have determined their definition and how the perception of the Steep Falls residents is of the Village and how they will address that. He said as far as specific definitions his guess was that you will not find one.
Chair Hopkins said that we have taken those words and said okay because of the characteristics of this property we can characterize that as blight.
Kathy Walker explained that they had wanted to use the word blight but you also have to use the word slum.
Councilor Pomerleau said so these are not words that the committee came up with you had to use them?
Kathy Walker said that the committee had a hard time using that terminology.
Councillor Christy questioned that most of these grants are geared to the inner city and to compete with those cities you have to use the same terminology.
Councilor Nesbitt said that this was a Maine grant so probably that wasn't the competition.
Councilor Christy asked what the outreach in the community was, as far as getting permission in obtaining pictures? Were the people contacted?
Kathy Walker said that there were no pictures homes, just some buildings that are not used any more. She said that she took a picture of the flower shop which was vacant. She went on to say that the point was this used to be a thriving community where a lot went on. That changed when the railroad went away and things have just sort of evolved. She said that there are fragments of things left over but now we would like to rebuild or at least make a plan so things don't continue to happen fragmentally.
Councilor Christy said that he applauded there planning.
Councilor Simpson said that his only concern was that this grant has no cost to the town but if you take a look at the way it is laid out the development of strategy and so forth. He went on to say that those are private buildings and how are you going to implement a plan where you have private buildings...where's the money going to come from to develop the plan? If you look at the development of the strategy it says that you have to define those things, inventory and prioritize and develop a plan that has specified recommendations and steps to address the prioritized problems presented to the Town of Standish for consideration. He said that will be future dollars.
Councilor Christy said that any plan has recommendations during the planning stages. Future expenditures will have to be considered as the representative body of the Town.
Chair Hopkins wanted to thank Kathy for answering the questions tonight. She went on to say that just on principle she liked to see the planning grant and see the citizen involvement now before it's too late. She said that she appreciated the focus not just on cleaning up the Village but at looking at economic development and revitalizing it as a community. She said that she thought that was as important as physically updating the buildings.
VOTE 6 Yeas- 0 Nays
PUBLIC ITEMS
No public items this meeting.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Several upcoming meetings were announced.
EXECUTIVE SESSION Moved by Christy Seconded and Voted to move into Executive Session for the discussion of a personnel matter. The Council arose from executive session by unanimous consent. The meeting adjourned at 10:10 pm.
Submitted by: _________________________
Clerk/Secretary
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