Capital Improvement Committee
CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM
PUBLIC MEETING MINUTES
June 2nd, 2021
Present: Bob Holmes (Chair), Bob Edwards (Ex Officio), William Bryk (Member), Bill Fluhr (Member), Neal Pattison (Member), and Victor Rosansky (Vice Chair)
Staff Present: Ashley Brudnick-Destromp (Assistant) and Carol Ogilvie (Planning Consultant)
Absent:
Others in Attendance:
*This Meeting was also made public via Zoom*
CTO: The Assistant called the Meeting to Order at 5:01 PM.
I. Organize the CIP for 2021: Elect a Chair and Vice Chair
Motion: At 5:0z PM Mr. Bryk made a motion to appoint Mr. Holmes as Chair, at 5:01 PM Mr. Pattison seconded it.
Discussion: There was none.
Roll Call Vote: Bob Holmes, “Aye,” Bob Edwards, “Aye,” Neal Pattison, “Aye,” Victor Rosansky, “Aye,” William Bryk, “Aye,” and Bill Fluhr, “Aye.”
Motion: At 5:02 PM Mr. Bryk made a motion to appoint Mr. Rosansky as Vice Chair, at 5:02 PM Mr. Fluhr seconded it.
Discussion: There was none
Roll Call Vote: Bob Holmes, “Aye,” Bob Edwards, “Aye,” Neal Pattison, “Aye,” Victor Rosansky, “Aye,” William Bryk, “Aye,” and Bill Fluhr, “Aye.”
II. Decide on Timeline for 2021 CIP and any changes from 2020
The Board discussed the timeline used last year and decided that the Department Letters would go out on June 16th and be due back by July 21st and that their next meeting would be on July 28th to review the information and determine what Departments they needed to follow up with or have a site visit. They will present to the Planning Board on October 7th pending if the Planning Board has any Public Hearings going on, and then would present to the BOS on November 8th.
Mr. Edwards opened a discussion on the level of importance of road improvements, and how the Town spends roughly $300k a year on paving. He went on to add that the CIP should consider a Capital Reserve Account for this in the future. He also mentioned that the Henniker CIP information is located online, and how he liked that they used photos to show the conditions of every building or capital improvement related vehicle to show the condition. Mr. Pattison agreed that this was a good idea. The Board discussed doing photos on top of the spreadsheet that was created last year to list the inventory, condition, year of purchase, and expected year of replacement. After a brief discussion the Board decided to hold off on the photos for now, and if they decide later to use them the Assistant can inform the department heads that they will be taking photos.
The Board decided to leave the department letter as is from the previous year.
III. Review/Amend Minutes from 8/18/202
The Board felt where the minutes were almost a year old, that they did not feel comfortable voting to approve them and instead opted to just leave them as is. Ms. Ogilvie confirmed this was ok to do.
IV. Other Business:
The Board chatted briefly with Mr. Fluhr to make sure he had a grasp on the CIP’s purposes. Mr. Fluhr and the Board discussed how the point of CIP is to spread out costs over a period of 5 years for big ticket items. The Assistant mentioned touching base with Rick Wood from Library since last year was his first year doing CIP, and the Board discussed how the Library’s request was reduced and allocated to the dam fund. Mr. Edwards explained that the BOS has the power to cut requests if additional information comes in later, and has the authority to allocate those funds as needed for the Town. There was a discussion on how a lot of the requests seemed to be cut last year. The Assistant added she recalled there being a concern with the COVID pandemic on if people were going to be able to pay their property taxes, so to her recollection there was an attempt last year to cut back as a safety precaution. Mr. Edwards confirmed that was correct, but it ended up not being an issue once the December tax bills went out last year.
The Board briefly went through the fund balances. Mr. Holmes mentioned that he felt the names on the accounts should be the same on the spreadsheet. There was discussion on the Bridge Maintenance Capital reserve and how based on allocation it might be excessive and might be re-allocated. As of 12/31/2020 the Reserves have the following:
Highway $217,864.48, Bridge Maintenance $556,587.45, Renovation of Town Buildings $90,186.62, Recreational Field Development $136,294.57- The name on this account sparked another conversation as that fund is used for Memorial Park and Gregg Lake as well, Fire Department $216,277.91, Library $21,317.73, Dam Capital Reserve $62,100.94, and there were a couple other funds not CIP related but were for scholarships. The Assistant inquired about the Police technology Capital Reserve Fund that was approved at Town meeting, and why there was no such fund on the list. The Board explained it would be by the end of this year.
There was a discussion on the Liberty Farm bridge and how it will be the most expensive bridge to replace. The Chair asked that the new spreadsheet have the updated fund balances, Ms. Ogilvie said that is her first step. There was a brief discussion on the Rec Fund, and how $40k of that was from the Wind Turbines. Mr. Edwards mentioned that they might need to start allocating funds for well testing, as NHDES keeps changing their standards and they might need to test the well several times before construction begins to make sure they aren’t building a new well that no longer meets the States requirements. He mentioned that testing is around $25k, but it would be a shame to do the expensive project to only find out it no longer meets the States standards.
Motion to Adjourn: Mr. Bryk made a motion to adjourn at 5:48 PM, at 5:48 PM Mr. Rosansky seconded it.
Roll Call Vote: Bob Holmes, “Aye,” Bob Edwards, “Aye,” Neal Pattison, “Aye,” Victor Rosansky, “Aye,” William Bryk, “Aye,” and Bill Fluhr, “Aye.”
Next Meeting: Wednesday July 28th at 5:00 PM in the Antrim Little Town Hall.
Respectfully submitted,
Ashley Brudnick-Destromp
(Assistant to the Land Use Boards)