CALL TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order by the Clerk.
The newly elected Councilors were sworn to office before the Town Clerk.
ROLL CALL
Councilors Present: Christy, Hopkins, Lymburner, Nesbitt, Simpson and Spencer. Councilor Pomerleau was excused.
Election of Council Chair and Vice Chair:
Councilor Spencer nominated Councilor Simpson as Chair, Seconded by Hopkins. Councilor Lymburner nominated Councilor Nesbitt as Chair, Seconded by Councilor Christy. Moved by Councilor Christy for nominations to cease, Seconded by Councilor Hopkins. Councilor Christy asked that the voting be by secret ballot. Six ballots were cast. Councilor Simpson received four votes and Councilor Nesbitt received two votes. Councilor Simpson was elected as chair.
Chair Simpson said that he wanted to thank the Council for giving him the privilege to serve at the Chair for the next year. He said the before we select a Vice-Chair he would like to take the opportunity to address and tell them some of the issues that he's sees forth coming during the course of the year that they will have to address. He said that they were very fortunate to see the re-valuation pass in the Town. He said that indicates that people understand the predicament that we are in with our property values. He said as we go along through the next year re-valuation will be foremost on our minds even though we won't be directly involved with it. He said that the first big thing that we need to address is our Comprehensive Plan followed by the Land Use Ordinance or so called Zoning Ordinance. He said
that the Ordinance Committee was already working on this but the Comprehensive Plan has to be updated because it hasn't been in a great many years. He said that Gordy is working on Code Book revisions and those will be looked at through the course of the year. He said that it is about time that we put some good strength and energy in Economic Development in this Town if we are going to look at our tax base. He said that it is a residential tax base and even though re-valuation should bring the mil rate down we have to do more to start looking at business and industry to improve the base to get it off the residential mil rate. He said that he thought that it was time to take another look at the Charter. He said that he realized that two years ago or a year ago the Charter was turned down at referendum. He said that there were many things in that Charter that really needed to be changed. He said that we have run in to a couple of them just in the last week or so relative to the lame
duck period between now and July 1st as to appointments and committees that we need to address. He said that we will be looking at the range roads in the Village Center and make sure that we have ownership of those range roads per the original lay out of the Town. He said that they will be looking at the range roads in the rest of the Town as well. He said that we will have to continue an education program on recycling. He said that in recycling we have accomplished a lot this year in the way of recycling but not anywhere near the goal that we set out of ourselves. So we have to continue to encourage people to recycle. He said that most of you realize that we have had our controversies with the Portland Water District but on the other hand we have defended our rights with the Water District but at the same time we want to make sure we stay on a good footing with them and keep our communications lines open and therefore we are looking at are there any benefits to membership within
the Portland Water District? He said that is a decision that we will probably finally have to make next year one way or another. He said that you will see new term out there now called GASB-34 it's a new auditing procedure that is being mandated on the municipalities. He said that this will be the first year that you will see that in effect. He said that those on the Finance Committee who had a taste of it but those you who haven't will have to get use to it. You will see that now as we go along during the course of the year. He said that in the year 2005 our membership in RWS - Regional Waste Systems expires. He said that most of us understand that there is a lot of problems with RWS right now and we are not a voting member. We will have to make a decision in 2005 if we will stay or not so during the course of next year we will have to lay the groundwork and monitor that operation. He said that shortly we will be receiving the recommendations of two ad-hoc committees one on the
beach from Councilor Christy and another on the community center Chaired by Paul Mosley to study the needs and design a community center in the Town. He said that we are going to see two major reconstruction projects during the course of the year. One being on Route 114 and one on the Boundary Road. He said that although those had been approved there will be issues that will affect the Town Manager probably more than us. As people have to get used to that construction just like this year on Route 25. He said that Roger will be completing the salt and sand storage shed before long and this will be the first year that will be in that type of operation and getting our sand off our own gravel pit.
Councilor Christy said that he would like to say few words about the person that he will nominate. He had appreciated this past year more than any other due to the service that he has seen. The style of treating the public, commitment to the welfare of the people of the Town of Standish. He said that he feels so great for what she has done for the Town this year in moving us forward in a progressive and enlightened way in as far as what he's seen. He said that he was pleased that she got reelected. He said that he felt that if Larry was out Cindy will make a good Vice-Chairman for the upcoming year. He said that she is the type that is committed and has the time to do it. He said that he as one Councilor thank-you for all you have done for us this past year. He said that it is one of those things that
sometimes you have three or four meetings a week and you have been to the majority if them just to keep yourself informed.
Councilor Christy nominated Cynthia Hopkins for Vice-Chair Seconded by Lymburner. Moved by Spencer for nominations to cease Seconded by Lymburner. Councilor Hopkins was elected as Council Vice-Chair by unanimous consent.
Chair Simpson said that he would echo Councilor Christy's sentiments. He went on to say that she had done a very nice job.
NEW BUSINESS 115-03 Adopt Standish Town Council Rules of Procedure [Hopkins]
VOTE: 6 Yeas - 0 Nays
116-03 Call for Special Town Meeting and Approval of Warrant [Hopkins]
Chair Simpson said that he wanted to call your attention this Special Town Meeting Warrant. He said that any time there is a department that we recognize will overdraft their budget, not purposely, but because of circumstances. We can only take money out of undedicated reserve funds through a Special Town Meeting. He said that we did not have good enough figures until now. We will have a Special Town Meeting at our next workshop on June 24. We will take $20,000 out of reserve for the Public Safety salary account. He said that the reason for that and we were afraid quite frankly that the account would be $50,000 overdrawn. But thanks to Chief Plummer, Chief Butkus, Brenda and Gordy they have pared this down to the point of $20,000. He said that we had a lot of emergency repairs this year that we were not
prepared for. He said that there was $45,000 in the EMS budget that was not in the EMS budget last year for salaries. He said that the EMS runs have increased this year. That is where the Department is over spent. He said that there was not enough money in the rest of the items in the Department to move monies around.
VOTE: 6 Yeas - 0 Nays
Chair Simpson said that he would entertain a motion to take an order by unanimous consent out of order and add it to the agenda, an amendment to the Town of Standish fee schedule.
Moved by Hopkins Seconded by Christy to add order 117-03 Amendment to Town of Standish Fee Schedule to the agenda. 5 Yeas - 1 Nay, Lymburner.
Chair Simpson said that it was not unanimous so it could not be taken out of order. He said that it is not debatable but the Chair will call a recess of five minutes.
Chair Simpson questioned Councilor Lymburner since she was on the prevailing side if she would be interested in making a motion to reconsider?
Councilor Lymburner said no.
PUBLIC ITEMS
No Public items were brought up.
Councilor Christy announced that the Ad-hoc Beach Committee meeting would not be on the 25 but the committee would present their information to the Council on June 24.
Chair Simpson said that tonight there will also be a Special Council Meeting and Special Town Meeting that same night but they should be short.
Councilor Spencer said that he assumed that this item will be on the agenda at that meeting so it can be discussed as an order.
Councilor Lymburner said that she would like to see some justification of about why we should operate a facility and continue to lose money. She said that she would also like to see continued negotiations with the Department Conservation because the numbers that she just saw show that we will continue to lose money.
Chair Simpson said that we will have those numbers for you but the public needs to know what the order was. He said that we have been told by the Department of Conservation that we are in violation of the contract we have with them when they gave us $25,000 to help install the boat launch ramp back in the late 1980's. He said that contract is in effect until 2008. He said that they have challenged our fees that were recently approved. The fee that had been approved would have met the expenses that we occurred so the taxpayers were not subsiding that. The Department gave us a recommendation because in the contract they have to approve the fees. He said that we did not send them a copy to approve. They also say that we are discriminately in our fees in the way that we had them structured. We had them $20 for
a season pass for residents and $20 a launch for non-residents. They have told us that they would accept a fee of $5 for a day pass for residents, $10 a day pass for non-residents, $20 for a resident season and $40 for non-residents for the season. He said that they challenged our budgetary figures. He said that we took a look at those at the Special Finance meeting and took out the Public Safety figures because there was a one-time cost to monitor the Sandbar. The Public Works figures were cut n half. He said that the Department didn't realize the amount of time that Public Works puts in down there maintaining the area. He said that they also wanted the $500 Sandbar lease taken out, which we did. He said that they would give us the capital expenses down there but we are not sure on what exactly they meant. This will be put on a Special Meeting agenda.
ANNOUNCEMENTS Several upcoming meetings were announced.
EXECUTIVE SESSION (S) An Executive Session was not needed.
ADJOURN Moved by Hopkins Seconded by Spencer to adjourn the meeting. All in favor. the meeting adjourned at 10:00 am by unanimous consent.
Submitted by: __________________________ Clerk/Secretary
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