The May 6th Board of Selectmen began Monday evening at 5 p.m. with a public hearing to discuss “Overlook Sidewalk”. Unfortunately, I am unable to attend meetings earlier than 6 o’clock based on my other commitments so the information available to me at the time of this article is this, there is a proposed sidewalk that would begin near Grandview and end at the scenic overlook, intended to improve pedestrian safety and connect downtown to the overlook. Don’t hesitate to request additional information at the Town office and/or watch the video of the meeting when it comes available on the Town’s YouTube channel.

The regularly scheduled meeting was called to order at 6 p.m. and after a few adjustments to the agenda and approval of the previous meeting minutes the floor was yielded to Janice Adler with WRGY as public to speak on a non-agenda item. She presented the board with a memo regarding WRGY informed voters’ program it read, as part of their mission to serve the community WRGY is planning to educate and inform the residents/voters about the upcoming June 11th election. They offered articles they determined contentious for discussion, by the time you read this article the deadline for submitting your opinion on the topics will have passed but tune in to hear the opinions of those who took part in it.

The Board unanimously authorized several consent items, the first was to approve a correction to a couple of dates in the Marijuana Ordinance, the date by when licenses would be available and the deadline by which applications must be submitted. They authorized accounts payable warrant numbered fifty-two in the amount of $107,863.29, event permits for Art in August, Birds of a Feather Art Guild and Rangeley RUKABI (Run, Kayak, Bike) and two corresponding vendors licenses for each of the RFA (Rangeley Friends of the Arts) events, Art in August and Birds of a Feather Art Guild. They would vote to approve liquor licenses for Mingo Springs Golf Course, Country Club Inn and The Gingerbread and authorize an expense of $637.56 from the downtown revitalization reserve account.

The Board was provided with a copy of the Northern Border grant to be resubmitted for the Loon Lake Road project. They discussed the public/private partnership details and its impact on the application and subsequent construction bids. Currently M&H Construction has submitted a letter of partnership support in the amount of $50,000. The question was raised since the public/private partnership funds were included in the grant application would it be a requirement of any interested contractors to include in their bid documents when the project goes out to bid, the response was no it would not be required.

The Wright Pierce downtown parking plan was back on the agenda for yet another amendment, or rather a request to rescind the previous amendment and approve a $9,600 downtown parking plan, pending budget approval. There appeared to be some discrepancies in the number of parking spaces that taking away more green space in the park would yield. There was some concern that a public hearing hadn’t been hosted to discuss the proposed plan and that all authorities hadn’t been given the opportunity to weigh in on it. Selectman Burgess would make a motion to approve engineering of the downtown parking plan pending budget approval.

Seven firms responded to the RFQ (Request for Quote) for Loon Lake Road engineering, it was suggested the Board be presented with the top four choices and hold a workshop Wednesday, May 8, 2019 at 5pm. Selectman Egan asked if the Board could receive a copy of the RFQ that went out so that they could make sure they were comparing apples to apples and make an informed decision.

Additional old business items discussed included a Town park dock use request submitted by the Sinnett’s. Kevin and his daughter Rheanna requested and were approved to use the Town dock for an open house, houseboat/floating cabins, scheduled for Friday, May 31, 2019 from 3pm – 5pm. The Board would also vote to approve the first reading of the Draft Media Policy.

New Business would see almost $30,000 in expenditures approved for the Airport in various areas. The feasibility study would rear its head again without ever having given any further discussion or consideration to the material offered by Selectman Egan at a previous meeting. It was presented as not only a necessary step but something that would require an expense, in this case of $18,243, when in fact feasibility studies can waste smaller municipalities time and money and are not necessarily required to pursue a solar project. The work performed by a consultant hired for a feasibility study is the same work that is performed by a solar company following an RFQ (Request for Quotation) or RFP (Request for Proposal). The Board would vote three for and two against for the feasibility study to be conducted by Dubois & King. The Board would also be presented with a proposed property management agreement for the Airport property, hangar specifications, leases and locations, hangar development, etc. It was discovered that some language was not the same across hangar leases, there was no clear language for future development and documents lacked standardization and rather than task the Airport Commission/Airport Manager with reviewing and amending its current documents/creating documents it would be voted to expend $9,608 for the property management agreement with Dubois & King. The Board was informed that an RFQ would be going out for airport consultant services, the current agreements between Stantec and Dubois & King expire in January 2020. The Board would also be informed that without directive from them an RFP for Audit services was put together and that it was the opinion of the Town Manager and Treasurer that the Board go out a year early, current agreement for services is three years, based on performance and cost. The audit is essentially the Boards document and services for such should be initiated by them, if there are concerns regarding the current services the Board should be made aware of them and be given the opportunity to act based on a collective decision to initiate a new search process, they would vote to post the RFP with a request for clear language of specifications, components and associated cost.

The usual department head updates were provided and Town Clerk, Tricia Roy announced absentee ballots would be available May 10th.

The next Board meeting is scheduled for Monday, May 20, 2019 and a Public Hearing on the Town meeting warrant will be held on May 28, 2019 at 6 pm.