Minutes of the
Westmoreland Selectmen's Meeting
PRESENT: Marjorie Merena, Russell Austin, Russell Kotfila, Tina Blanchard, June Hammond, Jackie Cleary, Dick Cate, Scott Harden, George Laine.
Marjorie Merena called the meeting
to order at
At the opening of the meeting Marjorie stated that the meeting would be
recorded. The minutes of the meeting will be available as a DVD audio recording
as well as the usual printed minutes.
Jan Carpenter with the Historical Society attended the
meeting to request submitting an application for designation as a
ACCOUNTS PAYABLE: Marjorie moved to approve the Accounts Payable Manifest in
the amount of $19,637.77, Seconded by Russ A. All in favor,
so voted.
Russ K. read the two following e-mails he had sent to Russ
A. and Marjorie M. opening statement of
Good Afternoon;
Since there was no provision in our budget for Library
restroom we have to specifically inform the treasurer in writing and by vote
where in the budget she should take the money from. I stopped at the town hall
and deleted Pat Rawson’s invoice along with Sam Bradley’s invoice since we have
not heard an answer to my email on Friday on what one of the of the charges was
for. This dropped the manifest down to $21,008.18. At our next meeting when we
write our request and vote on where the money comes from we will also have to
correct the minutes as to the deletions. I would also like to suggest that in
the future Marjorie and I recuse ourselves from any
votes on the Library and Cemeteries since we are both Trustees. I would also
suggest that any future use of Sam Bradley’s Office have all of our approval or
a the very least two of our board aware of the
contemplated use. As I stated in my previous email I will not be able to attend
to the meeting in
Good Morning,
When I got home Lat night I looked on the calendar and saw that I had that commitments scheduled for the evening of August 11th and 13th. Marjorie last night when Russ A. and I were reviewing the manifest we had two bills from Sam Bradley’s office. One we pulled out because it was on the Beardsley matter. The other was for my conversation and Russ A. conversation and email with and to Sam. The other charge was for a conversation Marjorie, that you had with Sam about voter eligibility that Russ A and I were not aware of. Would you enlighten us on this matter. It looks like it is going to be a beautiful weekend, enjoy. Russ K.
The June 4 Meeting was unacceptable. Please be advise of the following:
The Selectmen are three parts of a whole.
The duty of the selectmen is to “manage the prudential affairs of the town.”
The Selectboard enforces the rules; it does not make policy. Residents bring their issues before us a out regularly scheduled meetings and we listen, discuss, and decide how to resolve. We do not present their issues for them.
Meetings are open to the public and we welcome all who care enough about our town to attend. All those who attend will be listed as such in the minutes. The first item on our agenda is “Public Business” which is when we listen to the public. After “Public Business” the meeting continues but only the selectmen may speak. Guests are to be still. The chair may recognize a guest and allow him/her to speak – after all, we are all in this together – we are here to serve the town.
We disregard anonymous e-mails and letters and anything said or brought before us by an unnamed person.
Common courtesy is all I ask.
As the Vulcans say, “The honor is to serve.”
SELECTMEN'S MEETING MINUTES: There was some discussion
as to whether the August 6 minutes should be corrected or not. After prior
approval, Russ K. had withheld two
invoices because he felt they were approved inappropriately by the
Board. It was decided that the two invoices would be paid as approved on
8/6. Marjorie moved to approve the minutes, seconded by Russ A. All in favor, so voted.
OLD BUSINESS:
Avitar Software - Pam (the Avitar trainer for this software
package) is interested in setting up a time to meet with Cindi to introduce her to the Tax Collect program. Russ K.
will try to arrange a convenient time for Cindi
and Pam to meet for training.
Storage Space in Town Hall - The Board discussed storage of Historical Society
records in the upstairs of the Town Hall. It was decided that their file
cabinets can be stored in the back of the main hall on a temporary basis until
the renovation of the Selectmen's Office is complete.
Appointment - Marjorie nominated Louise Slayton as Library Trustee. Seconded by Russ A. All in favor, so
voted. This appointment will continue until the next election in 2010.
NEW BUSINESS:
Letter from Sam regarding residency requirements for voter registration and for
pistol applications.. The board had some discussion
(and decided to go into go into Non-Public session at the end of the meeting.)
Marjorie will talk to the Supervisors of the Check list about reviewing and
correcting the list.
US Census Bureau - Marjorie will talk to our Census contact, Jim Petry.
The Board had some discussion regarding the invoice for work done at the WPL
and which account it should be paid from. The Selectmen decided to
instruct JoAnn to take $3000 from the Repairs and
Maintenance section of the General Government Buildings account and $2,475 from
the Library account to pay the invoice from Pat Rawson.
Town Appreciation Day:
Russ A. received a call from Kelly Goodrich. He may be interested in
purchasing some town owned property that abuts his land. The Board will look
into this.
Non - Public: At
At
Marjorie moved to adjourn the meeting at 9:08 PM. Seconded by Russ A. All in favor, so voted.
After the meeting ended, the Board realized that it had neither opened nor
closed the Non-Public portion correctly. Consequently, the minutes should be
open and a part of the public record. These minutes are as follows: This
portion of the meeting was held at the request of Russ K. The topic of discussion
centered around voter eligibility, specifically
regarding two members of Russ' family. During a brief, heated exchange,
Marjorie and Russ K. both expressed their divergent opinions to each other on
this issue. Neither person agreed with the views of the other. Since there was
no possibility of any common agreement, the session abruptly ended after only 8
minutes.
Respectfully submitted,
Tina Blanchard, Secretary
BOARD OF SELECTMEN
Marjorie Merena, Chair
Russell Austin
Russell Kotfila
THESE ARE UNAPPROVED MINUTES. ANY CORRECTIONS WILL BE SHOWN IN THE SELECTMEN'S
MINUTES OF