Chairman Paul Sullivan called the Board of Selectmen to order at 7:40PM on Monday, May 5, 2008, in the Atkinson Town Hall. Vicki Polito lead the group in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Paul Sullivan, Chairman Craig Kleman, Interim Town Administrator

Fred Childs

William Friel

Non-Public meeting minutes were available for April 21^st and on a motion by Mr. Childs to accept the minutes as written with a second by Mr. Friel, the Board voted 3-0 to approve them.

Public meeting minutes were available for March 24^th and on a motion by Mr. Childs to accept the minutes as written with a second by Mr. Friel, the Board voted 3-0 to approve them.

Mr. Magoon, Commander of the Atkinson Veterans Club, announced that a Veterans group meets at the Community Center this Wednesday to discuss benefits and that they will have a guest speaker. He asked people to fly the flag on Memorial Day and that if people have old flags that they take them to the community center to be burned properly. Mr. Magoon said that Selectman Childs takes care of the flags in town and that when the new library is finished a flag pole will be placed there in honor of Mr. Childs.

Mr. Dick Magoon was in attendance with Messrs. Jake Collins and Elmer Stuart to present Girl Scout Vicki Polito with an award for her project updating the veterans’ grave markers at the Cemetery. She received a standing ovation for her good work.

Mr. Ted Stewart, Road Agent was the next speaker. He announced that the Household Hazardous Collection Day will occur this Saturday and that it will take place at the Plaistow Highway department located on Old County Road near NB tractor of off Rte. 125. He added that it is a free service and will run from 9AM to noon and paint cleaners, thinners, etc. can be bought to be disposed of properly.

Mr. Stewart spoke about the Selectmen’s action to hire the Seasonal Laborers for the department but to limit them to 20 hours a week. He said that they are needed for flagging during the construction season. He mentioned that he did not overspend his labor budget. Mr. Stewart said that Busby Construction will start next week and the laborers will work 60 hours for the week. He needs three workers for traffic as well as perform other tasks in Town. He asked the Board to reconsider their decision to limit the hours of the workers; he said that they would work 60 hours during the construction season and less when outside contractors are not present. He added that the hours average out. Seasonal workers do work year round and have no guaranteed minimum hours.

Mr. Friel said that two persons have been hired. Mr. Stewart replied that Mr. Dugdale got promoted and one worker resigned. Mr. Dugdale replaced the assistant in January of this year. Mr. Childs asked if he does labor and Mr. Stewart said that he does and works as hard as anybody. Mr. Friel said that the department has four workers and a dump attendant.

Mr. Childs asked why Mr. Stewart does not stagger his crew into two different shifts and Mr. Stewart said that it was a part time crew, that he does not go over budget and that the part timers have other jobs. Mr. Childs felt that he should look for ways to save the town money. Mr. Stewart discussed the budget cut of 200k while he has more roads to maintain. Mr. Stewart urged that a study be done to compare Atkinson’s department with other area towns’ public works departments. Mr. Childs asked where the 200k was cut and Mr. Stewart replied that it came from paving and labor, line items and he added that such actions were alienating the workers without saving money. He followed up and said that workers expect to make more money during construction season.

Mr. Friel said that he did not want to limit the hours of the workers and Mr. Sullivan added that Mr. Stewart did not go over budget. Mr. Childs interjected that Mr. Stewart should be looking for ways to save the town money. Mr. Sullivan said that the department head could use the dollars that he has budgeted and use the seasonal help without restrictions. Mr. Friel made the motion to modify the previous motion made regarding the seasonal workers in that they not are held to the 20-hour limitation. Mr. Sullivan seconded the motion and the vote was 2-1 in the affirmative.

Mr. Stewart said that the Tree removal bid and the engineering services for Capital Improvement of the roads did not receive any bids. Mr. Sullivan said that the board would take it under advisement and that the board had made a decision as to who would be the Town Engineer to provide engineering services. Mr. Sullivan said that the Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) is for the whole town. Mr. Stewart said that it is the Master plan for road improvement.

Mr. Stewart mentioned that there usually are two household hazardous waste days but he has learned that state funding is gone for both events this year. Atkinson is supposedly to host the second event in the fall in October but he said that the first one this weekend might kill the budget. Mr. Stewart said that a Plaistow worker had applied for the grant but that it has not been funded as yet due to a change in state workers.

Mr. Sullivan asked the town administrator to contact the state worker at DES regarding household hazardous waste day and to call the interim TA in Plaistow re: Plaistow’s grant. Mr. Sullivan asked about the Walker Road project and Mr. Stewart said that he meets with the president and they are ordering all of the drainage structures by middle to late May.

Public meeting minutes were available for April 21^st and Mr. Childs made a correction to the minutes in that the word "powerboat" should be replaced with powerbait. On a motion by Mr. Childs to accept the minutes as written with a second by Mr. Friel, the Board voted 3-0 to approve them.

Mr. Childs made a motion to amend the March 10^th minutes with the following: "A brief discussion was held among the board in regard to signs." Mr. Sullivan seconded the motion and the vote was 2-0. Mr. Friel could not vote, as he was not on the board at the time.

Public meeting minutes were available for April 7th and on a motion by Mr. Childs to accept the minutes as submitted with a second by Mr. Friel, the Board voted 3-0 to approve them.

Public meeting minutes were available for April 21^st and on a motion by Mr. Childs to accept the minutes as submitted with a second by Mr. Friel, the Board voted 3-0 to approve them.

Announcements

Mr. Childs said that Durkins Karate School will be having a fundraiser at Atkinson Academy on May 17^th @ 10 am to 130 PM and that you don not have to do kicks to participate.

He said that the Atkinson Youth Baseball and Softball will start on May 10^th at 11 AM and that the fishing derby will start at 730 am with kickoff at 8 am til 1030 AM.

Mr. Sullivan said that the Ham and Bean Supper will be between 5 to 7 PM.

Mr. Gary Brownfield came before the Board and Chairman Sullivan laid out the ground rules for BOS Business meetings. Mr. Brownfield discussed his right to know request submitted on April 14. 2008 and subsequent requests to the BOS on the same subjects. He said that he did not received any information regarding his RIGHT TO KNOW (RTK) requests for:

 His questions to the Board were:

Mr. Brownfield presented his fourth request for the above information and requested another meeting with the BOS to discuss reevaluation. Mr. Sullivan said that another meeting would not be granted. Mr. Brownfield said that he would make his request in writing.

Police Cruiser Bids: two Bids were received. The first by Grappone said that they have no 2007 cruisers available and the next bid was from Irwin In Laconia that had a 2007 Police Interceptor cruiser for $21,300 with a two-year lease and payments of $11,099 per year. The board said that they would review the lone bid and discuss it at the next meeting.

On May 7^th there will be a hearing on a Large Groundwater withdrawal application that starts at 7pm at the Dyke Auditorium at the Academy.

The Board made the following appointments:

Joseph V. Pagliarulo

Tim Dziechowski

N. Scott Kukshtel

Peter O. McVay

Philip V. Consentino

Rose Cavalear

Debra L. DeSimone

Philip V. Consentino

Robert A. Murad

D. Paul DiMaggio

Michael Fletcher

Susan A. Miner, Alternate

Joan M. Fettes

The Board decided to hold off on making appointments to the Emergency Communications’ Committee.

Chair Sullivan discussed the initial letter from DRA with the Town’s equalization ratio.

The Board agreed that BayRing needs to be followed up on with their revised bid quotes and that the Town needs to go out to bid on telephone services.

Mr. Friel discussed the need to review memos from the Tax Collector on abatement issues and the board also discussed the deeding of properties that they agreed was not in the best interest of the Town to get into the real estate business. Chair Sullivan said that the town could still have tax liens on properties.

Mr. Friel discussed the issue of flagpoles that needed to be illuminated. They are the Commons, Kimball House and 2 flags at the cemetery. They felt that it might be hard to get a light to the middle of the Old Cemetery area. The area to bring power to the flagpole will be measured.

The board also mentioned that the flags are at half-mast because of the deaths of two workers from the Police Department.

Mr. Sullivan asked Board members and the TA what the Board’s priorities were. The list included;

Chair Sullivan discussed next week’s Workshop that will focus on Personnel/ the Employee Handbook. He felt that it should include: job Descriptions, Code Enforcement and Vacation and Sick days. He added that there would be no agenda but that the Police Cruiser would be discussed at the next meeting. It was agreed that Department Heads would be brought in to discuss Personnel issues at subsequent meetings.

On motion of Mr. Childs, seconded by Mr. Friel, it was voted unanimously to adjourn the meeting at 9:24PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Craig Kleman

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Paul A. Sullivan, Chairman

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Fred J. Childs, Jr

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William G. Friel