Town of Lamoine, Maine
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	Administrative Assistant to the Board of Selectmen				Stu Marckoon
	Report for Meeting of May 7, 2020

Hello from a relatively busy town office.  And by busy, I mean the phone has been busy, people coming for door service is relatively busy, and e-mail is busy.  Oh, and then there’s this who COVID-19 closure thing which makes doing business twice as difficult.

We are muddling through this.  For the most part, people have been very good about the changes in the way we’re doing town business.  Excise tax collections will continue to lag, no doubt.  I will have to move some money from investments into the checking account next week in order to cover the school and town payrolls, but that’s to be expected at this time of year anyway.

You will meet by Zoom again.  This will be carried on the TV channel and town hall streams as well.  Those who wish to speak are asked to call or e-mail the town office to get a meeting invitation.  The previous meeting had a 4-screen display – the three meeting room cameras and the computer.  That happened due to the power outages earlier in the week and I had not reset the video mixing board.  That’ll change for this meeting, and just the zoom video will be full screen.

I hope you are all getting through this different way of life successfully.  It’s tough keeping socially distant.  I miss our residents talking face to face with us.  I miss being in the same meeting room with the Board.  And I really don’t like doing things relatively inefficiently.  I hope that we are still serving the town adequately. 

I’m going to put together printed packets today (April 30^th) and deliver them to you, as there are some big written documents that will be easier for you to read such as the emergency operations plan.  Expect to get them mail Friday.

You have a pretty busy agenda to get through.

Minutes – April 16, 2020 – Please read them over and check for errors.  If you can e-mail any corrections that need making, that would be helpful.

Warrant 24 – As mentioned above, I will have to move about $50,000 from investments to checking to cover the school expenses.   We have two town payrolls on this warrant.  It’s posted on the website and will be updated periodically. 

Cash & Budget Reports – These too will be updated periodically on the website.  I’ll print it out as of the day that I put your packets in the mail so you can have a copy.

Checking Account Reconciliation – This will be e-mailed to you, probably Monday unless I catch up on things Friday.

Chicken Complaint/Rooster Ordinance – The person with the rooster has received the letter and has spoken with Kathleen.  She called me and will get an invite to the Zoom meeting as she wishes to speak with the board.  She mentioned something about wanting others to speak as well.  I’ve put this up top on the meeting agenda purposely.

Tax Acquired Property –  Map 4 Lot 52 - We’ve received several bids on the piece of land.  I’ll open the bids and read them to you at the zoom meeting.  This will require final approval from town meeting to deed over the property.  

Map 4 Lot 53 – This small (0.15 acre) piece is bordered by the heirs of Terry Bragdon and Bill Haass.  To me it makes sense to offer this to both parties for the best offer.  We had offered that triangular piece back to Mr. Sullivan for $425.00 and did not get any response. 

Map 4 Lot 45-1 – I have heard nothing from USDA on this matter.  I did get an opinion from Dan Pileggi and this will be in your packet.  My suggestion on this is to now offer the property to the local heir (Ms. Leslie’s daughter) for $7,200, and give her 30-days to respond.  I will draft a letter to her.  Should she decline, then this could go to auction as well.

Municipal Operations – There is a separate memo (very lengthy) on resuming operations.  This should get a lot of discussion!  Please review this carefully.

Emergency Operations Plan – Kathleen, Larry Libby, Jeff Cosulich and Kathie Gaianguest put in a couple of hours on updating the current plan.  I have printed the updated version and this will be in your packet.  There are no drastic changes per se, except that we opt to keep in the pandemic part!  There is updated information on contacts and some language cleanup.   I thank them for their assistance with this.   Please look this over and if there are any glaring errors that you come up with, let me know ahead of the meeting so it can be corrected. 

Roads & Public Works – Pavement Mgt. Services Contract – Roger Picard was in town last week to measure up the portions of Shore and Mill Roads that are due for paving in 2019.   This will be the last year that he is doing the bidding and oversight work for paving – guess we’ll probably have to do it ourselves in future years which doesn’t excite me all that much.   My suggestion is to sign the contract with him, even though our budget has not yet passed.  He plans to go to bid in mid to late May.    Obviously we will have to wait for final budget approval to contract with the winning bidder.

I’ll work on a memo for some spring road projects.  We’re done paying for plowing for the fiscal year, and according to the budget, we’ve got some money left to complete what was outlined last fall. 

Mowing – Richard McMullen has proposed to hold prices steady on mowing the town hall, salt sand shed, Anderson lot and the park.  My suggestion is to stick with them – they do a good job.

Parks Commission Appointment – The Parks Commission has suggested that Lori Jordan be appointed to fill out the term when Doug Jones resigned.  I messaged Lori, and she’s excited to do that.

Meeting Dates – I have those listed on the agenda through July.  We’ll plan on Zoom meetings until such time as the state says we can be in closer proximity unless you decide differently.   The Hodgkins Scholarship subcommittee should meet by zoom on the 4^th at 6PM.  We’ve only received one application thus far, but the deadline is June 1^st.

Executive Session – You all received an e-mail regarding a personnel matter.  I will speak with the employee involved in regard to discussing it with the Board via zoom, but at a closed meeting (no public allowed, no TV).    

That’s all from my safe little corner office.  See you on the computers!

stu