Washington Planning Board
Washington Planning Board
Meeting Minutes - DRAFT
December 6, 2016
0.0 Assembly: 6:30PM
0.1 Members present: Kluk, Schwartz, Dulac, Williams and Crandall joined by phone
0.2 Alternates present: Hatch and Terani
0.3 Members and Alternates Absent: Russell
0.4 Visitors: None
Kluk called the meeting to order at 6:30PM.
1.0 Minutes:
November 1st Hearing: No changes suggested except one typo that Schwartz will correct. Dulac made a motion to approve the minutes as corrected, Crandall seconded the motion and all voted in favor.
November 1st regular meeting: Dulac asked for clarification of 3.4 and wanted to know what were the air bottles we were discussing. Schwartz explained that they are actually air tanks and the SCBA facemasks come with air tanks. No changes were requested. Kluk motioned to approve the minutes, Dulac seconded the motion and all voted in favor.
November 3rd working meeting: no comments were made, Hatch asked about the CIP and whether we kept items spread out over years as we had discussed. Schwartz said we changed the CIP back so that things weren’t so front loaded, we realized the tax rate was going to be increased too much (by $1.00) Dulac moved to accept the minutes as written, Schwartz seconded and all voted in favor.
November 17th working meeting: Kluk asked for comments, Dulac asked about the BoS conditions put on the F/R building plan, Kluk said they wanted them to use the existing building and have an open connector to a new barn. Williams had no comment. Kluk said the BoS doesn’t feel they are placing conditions but that the F/R are placing conditions. We are trying to bring everyone to the middle. There were no other comments. Dulac made a motion to approve the minutes as written. Hatch asked about the packet for the Community meeting that was mentioned. Kluk said she wants to do a PowerPoint because she feels it is easier to stay on track. Schwartz said we could print out some pages to use as a handout. Kluk seconded the motion and all voted in favor, with Williams abstaining.
2.0 New Business: None. Williams asked about the email he sent about a subcommittee that was formed and where did we want to cover a discussion on his issues. Kluk informed the board that Williams sent an email to Crandall and Kluk with some concerns; she suggested we take it up under old business.
3.0 Old Business:
3.1 Municipal Buildings project update and Community Meeting:
Kluk said we are on for a community meeting on December 14th at 7PM in the Town Hall, she said we have done posters, passed out cards at the Craft Fair and sent a web mail reminder. Dulac asked if the Town Hall is big enough. Schwartz said there is seating for 60 or so. Terani asked about how many people the space is rated for. Schwartz said he could ask the Fire Chief. Crandall said he is in touch with Drasba and he is going to Milestone to get new numbers for the 14th. Kluk said that on the F/R side, Jed just got a sketch late this afternoon. She said that Schwartz and herself were invited by J. Schwartz to go see Kyle Barker on Wednesday the 23rd. She felt he seems to understand what we are looking for. Dulac asked if we will have numbers on that for the 14th. Kluk said we will have numbers but they might not be solid numbers, so we will present what we receive. For F/R it is the barn, connector and the renovation of the existing building. It was asked if the Fire guys agree that they may not have the renovation done with bonding? Kluk said that there is no agreement yet. Crandall said they are aware of the PB votes. Kluk said we are letting the community know where we are, what progress has been made. Hatch asked about the holiday fair. Kluk said it was not well attended, we reached out to everyone we could to get them to come to the community meeting. We took up the survey, Kluk explained that “Something’s Happening” came from a Buffalo Springfield song and she thought it was appropriate. She said Terani took a first pass at the survey then Kluk pulled it together using what he had done. Dulac commented that it is a post presentation survey for those attending the meeting. Kluk agreed that people need to be there for the presentation and then fill it out. Terani asked if they would get a copy of the PowerPoint? Kluk said yes as a packet. Terani wanted the buildings in alphabetical order. Crandall wants to show no priorities. Discussion followed for and against this idea and Kluk made a motion to go with alphabetical order, Schwartz seconded, three voted yes and Williams abstained. We went through the survey question by question making tweaks and comments. Kluk made notes on changes we made to the survey. We decided to change “Something’s Happening” to “Planning on Moving Forward”. Kluk said we kept the survey page anonymous and have a second page, which is a donation, volunteer and promotion page. Hatch suggested flipping the questions. We all agreed that we are good with the handout incorporating the changes.
Kluk took us through the PowerPoint presentation and we made comments and changes to each page. Dulac commented that people will leave with three points in their heads; you need to make your points clear and simple. We agreed to look at it again next Tuesday and make final decisions on what goes into the presentation. We will invite F/R to the meeting to get a consensus on what we present. Crandall commented that if we want to recommend a plan we can, if F/R doesn’t agree, whatever. Schwartz said if we don’t have a plan there may not be something on the warrant, we shouldn’t think in terms of our plan/their plan. We went through the rest of the presentation and Dulac asked if Crandall is presenting or reading the slides. Crandall said he will present and anyone can add what they want to add. Kluk asked Dulac if he wants to present the Old Schoolhouse and he agreed to. Kluk said Crandall can think about who will present.
Williams asked about Janice Philbrick’s plan for the Safety Building (see 6.1), he wanted to see it. Kluk made copies and passed them out. Williams said he didn’t want to discuss it he just wanted a copy. Kluk explained that when we were passing out cards at the Craft Fair we spoke to Janice, who said she had a plan for us to consider so Kluk stopped and got it from her later that day.
Kluk said we should plan a working meeting for next Tuesday, December 13th at 6:30PM to discuss everything again and plan for the community meeting on the 14th. She asked Crandall if he wanted a meeting on Wednesday morning also. We set Wednesday at 10AM at Town Hall, to set up and finalize details for the meeting, Schwartz will notice both meetings.
3.2 Master Plan – No discussion
3.3 Building Permit issue – Structural alterations definition:
Schwartz said she is keeping this on the agenda as a placeholder. We will move this discussion into next year.
3.4 Williams’ email issue: Kluk made copies of the email and passed them out to the board; she said it is essentially a Right-to-Know issue. Hatch commented that after reading the minutes of the meeting he felt he was aware of all meetings that took place and any ancillary meetings, he is unaware of any meetings that were not referenced. Williams said he wants to make it clear that there is a subcommittee created at the November 17th meeting and meetings of the subcommittee need to be noticed and minutes taken. He thinks we created a subcommittee with the F/R and the public needs to be able to attend any meetings of the subcommittee. He said that 4 people were voted to be on a subcommittee. Kluk said his point is taken. Williams said that our minutes say that we made a subcommittee; Kluk said we didn’t make a subcommittee. Dulac commented that 2 PB members isn’t a quorum. Kluk said that she and Crandall worked with Dave Drasba on the MH project and it wasn’t a subcommittee, the intent here was not to make a subcommittee but to agree to move forward with the F/R committee, this effort is being paid for by the F/R department. Williams argued that it is being paid for by the 501(c)3 corporation board not the F/R members. Schwartz disagreed; it is coming out of their building fund and the members voted to spend the money on this. Dulac said that our concern is with quorums and holding public meetings, if two of us want to go out and get some information, we shouldn’t be subject to noticed meetings, no subcommittee was formed. He feels we could use technicalities to block forward movement. Crandall asked if Williams intends to bring legal action. Williams asked Crandall if we are ignoring the law until we are sued. Schwartz asked if we should take a vote to unmake the subcommittee that we didn’t intend to create? Kluk said that we should clarify and unvote the subcommittee that wasn’t formed. She said the intention was just to move forward with F/R or be done. Hatch feels he is now up to speed on the issue and thinks it is a storm in a teacup, he doesn’t think Williams should take a dark view of things. If we need to be procedural we should abandon any subcommittee. Dulac thinks we should not make a motion but a statement; the rational was informational and not intended to be secretive. Kluk said we discussed who could be involved but didn’t create a subcommittee. Dulac said we should make a statement in the minutes that the intent is to get information and share information; there was no vote to make a subcommittee. Kluk said if there were a gathering we would notice it. Dulac disagreed saying we have a right to gather information without it being a subcommittee. Hatch said we were in the dark about Williams’ email and wonders why he didn’t bring it up during the discussion of the minutes of that meeting. Williams said the email was sent to the Chair and Vice Chair. Kluk said anyone can have input on the agenda for the meeting and Williams could have requested it was put on the agenda. Terani asked why Williams didn’t send the email to the whole board. Williams commented that he felt the activities of this supposed subcommittee were intentionally subversive and secretive. Kluk felt this accusation is an insult to those who are volunteering their time to move plans forward for the town. As an example Janice had a plan and wanted us to have it, Kluk picked it up from her to share with all of us. Janice made the building larger and included Police in the existing F/R station. Dulac asked if we are going to consider her plan with the other info we get on the 14th. Kluk said we would add it to the feedback information we get at the Community Meeting.
4.0 Driveway Permits: None
5.0 Mergers: None
6.0 Communications:
6.1 Plan from Janice Philbrick for Safety building
6.2 Intent-to-cut, TM13-9, John Manning, East Washington Road
6.3 NH Div. of Historic Resources, project review for Smith Pond Bridge rehabilitation project
6.4 Copy of letter to Liquor Commissioner re: Ryan Curran, WGS
7.0 Meeting date for next Planning Board meeting, January 3, 2017, at 6:30PM
8.0 Adjournment: Time: 8:50 pm
Motioned by Dulac, seconded by Crandall, all voted in favor.
Respectfully Submitted,
Nan Schwartz