Office of the Select Board

Town of Orange, New Hampshire

Minutes of April 10, 2017

 

Present: Dorothy Heinrichs, Chair; Robert Ells, Lyell ‘Skip’ Smith, and Sandi Pierson (clerical). Others present: Beverly Ells

Meeting opened at 6 PM.
Minutes: The minutes of March 28, 2017 were unanimously approved.

MS-232: The Board reviewed and signed the MS-232 (Appropriations as Voted). Sandi will upload this to the DRA web portal. All calculations were the same as the Budget Committee’s MS-7 because there were no amendments at town meeting.

Abatements:

  •   The Board reviewed the opinion from Avitar regarding the abatement filed by the New Hampshire Electric Co-op. After discussion, the Dorothy motioned to deny the abatement based on Avitar’s recommendation. Bob seconded. Motion passed unanimously in favor.

  •   Sandi reported that the town’s assessor has visited the Harold Toms property with the Building Inspector and will follow up with a recommendation on Mr. Toms abatement application.

    Pay schedule: The Board continued their discussion on the town’s conformance with the Department of Labor’s (DOL) payment timetable for employees and officers. Dorothy stated she spoke with Inspector Campbell from the DOL. She reiterated that elected officers are not considered “employees” thus the rule of payment of wages (DOL 803.01) only pertain to non- elected workers such as the Board secretary, appointed deputy officers, etc. She said the Board has the option of filing for an exemption under 803.05 which would allow the Board to set the frequency of payments as bi-weekly, semi-monthly, or monthly. That would allow payment periods to correspond with Board meetings when the vouchers are signed and processed. If they establish the time for employees to submit their time sheets on the second and/or fourth Mondays of the month, payment would undoubtedly be paid within the DOL-regulated timeline. Dorothy asked Sandi to draft letters for the Board to sign notifying all employees and officers of their new rate of pay and when they need to submit the hours they’ve worked.

    Liability contract: Dorothy stated that the town’s attorney has not yet given the Board an opinion on the contract for the vehicle registration software for the town clerks’ office. Dorothy to follow up.

Secretary’s report:

  •   The printer in the office is not working. It is an aged printer that hasn’t been up to par for some time. Skip will take a look at it. If it cannot be put back into working order, Sandi will look at similar printers at Staples and report back to the Board. Dorothy said she will ask Jay Heinrichs for his recommendation. A new printer will need to have the capability of printing, copying, and faxing.

  •   The 2017 informational directory will be mailed to residents this week. The Board agreed they would like to include their email addresses and directed Sandi to ask other officers if they may include theirs.

Reports from other Boards and Committees: n/a Public comment: n/a
Bills and vouchers were reviewed and signed. Meeting adjourned 6:20 PM.

Respectfully submitted, Sandi Pierson

Dorothy Behlen Heinrichs

Robert Ells

Lyell Smith