Selectman’s Meeting – September 5th 2017

My hubby and I are very interested in the welfare of our little town. So we always try to make it to the selectman’s meetings, the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays of every month.

After looking thru MrGillis’s and I’s separate notes (yes we take notes), I felt I had to share what was discussed at this meeting because, small town life.

Out esteemed town manager Ardis Brown, she is a HBIC for sure. Like, I have aspirations to be as knowledgeable, in control and respected as she is. She runs this place like its an actual business. And she’s funny too. If only every town manager could be like her…. *side eye*

On to actual juicy bits.

So I’m not even kidding when I say this is the quick version of topics discussed but, its fun. The meetings are usually over a hour, so it’s hard to pack in everything talked about. I feel these were the key points.

Ok- so first up – two separate families of beavers are doing their thing, building houses and dams, but unfortunately for the town, they are doing their thing in two of the towns culverts. This leads to roads flooding, leading to damage. Leading to lots of money for repairs. The short term plan for Boulder Road is to use a crane and a big log to unplug the culvert. Eventually, they’d like to do what they did with Maple Street, which is replace the original regular size culvert with a jumbo one, but those cost a few grand. Just for the culvert. So that’s how it is going to have to be for a little while.

Next item on the list was the renovation of the Founder’s Cemetery. It was quoted at about $4000 to grade, level and redo the 40 grave sites and stones. Some of the stones need complete cleanings, others need actual work. Everyone agreed it was money well spent as it should keep it looking nice for a good while.

This, somehow, not quite sure how, but it did, led to the annoyance the general public and selectman feel towards the Town Hall’s Clock not being on time, most of the time.

Next on the agenda was scheduling a Town Meeting on this coming Thursday to appropriate money to fix the really bad sections of road in town.

After that, our town manager brought up the fact, for such a small town, she is getting ready to process 105 (!!!!) tax liens for unpaid property tax. Then a couple of town acquired properties were discussed as how to get rid of them, Including the old antique shop which is completely filled with asbestos. That one is going to have to be torn down, but the others are either being sold or possibly auctioned.

Also, we have a tennis court? MrGillis knew this, because he’s from around here, but I had no clue. And no one really knows who is supposed to maintain it because of serious delegation of duty issues back a few years ago when we had a very different town manager.  So Mrs. Brown has promised to look into the matter and figure out what the what is going on.

Next up on the agenda was community events – We have a citizen that would like to help organize a trunk or treat In Town so that people that don’t live in town can participate in giving out candy. The idea was met with a big thumbs up and the possibility of some prizes for best dressed trunk and such were thrown around. I know MrGillis and I are interested, as we live at the end of Maple St up a long driveway and didn’t think we’d get many trick or treaters because of it.

Some minor decisions regarding Summerfest were made as well, such as fixing the benches with pressure treated boards, and how to store the bounce house over winter.

The last thing discussed was the need to reclaim our internet identity (which is a topic I am very concerned with and had brought up to a couple people earlier). We have no control over the old facebook page, the old website, none. So some very good ideas were bounced around about how to fix this situation, and make our town web savvy. This is pretty exciting for me, because I’ve been harping about the situation to MrGillis for years.

So, that doesn’t cover the whole meeting, but it is the gist of it. I guess if you want to know the exact details, you should move to Danforth and come hang at the meetings with us.

Until next time, have a wicked good day.