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Town of |
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Town Council Meeting |
September 18, 2007 |
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Tuesday 7:30 p.m. |
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Call to Order Salute to
Flag led by Councilor Fairbanks, Warning of Fire Exits, Handicap Access, Turn
off all Cell Phones and Pagers Staff
Present: Frank Childs, George Sioris, and Mike
Fowler Roll
Call: Consent Agenda 07-83 Acceptance of Minutes –
September 4, 2007 07-84 Schedule Public Hearing –
October 2, Consent Agenda Accepted Chairman’s Report: Asked
Council to schedule an Economic Development Workshop for Tuesday October
23rd. Asked TA Stenhouse to invite
others participants. TA Stenhouse
suggested a facilitator. Administrator’s Report: Heart Safe Program – Tuesday, September 25th NHDOT 10-Year Highway Plan- will hold a Public Hearing on
October 10th at 7:00 PM at the DMC. Public Hearing 07-74 Supplemental Appropriation of $147,116 for
Engineering Services related to Exit 4-A Chris
Bean, CLD Project Manager– spoke on the schedules being adjusted for the I-93
widening and the exit 4A project.
Stressed the fact that the EIS for Exit 4 –A needs to be
completed. Motion to
Open the Public Hearing 7-0-0 Doug
Newell, Ron
Goldthwaite, Bob
Letourneau, Carl Accardo, Jack
Dowd, Sundown Dr (DEDC) – This appropriation will finalize the EIS. He feels it’s important for Al Dimmock, Council Discussion Councilors asked various questions regarding
the funding and billing of the EIS by CLD.
When and if the project would be scheduled. If they could receive an exact
amount it would cost. The main focus of this project is to relieve Rte 102 of
the major traffic issues we presently have.
Councilor
Coyle asked to review the Contract with CLD for this project. (Councilor
Coyle stated he would be rescuing himself from any vote on this project.) Councilor
Chris
Bean, CLD answered that due to the Public Hearing held 9/12, they would have
to review the comments to know if they would need additional funding to
resolve any issue brought about by this Public Hearing from other State
Departments and other Agencies. Motion: To have CLD return to the Town Council when
the comments have been reviewed and a firm price has been determined. Council Discussion on the Motion Town
Administrator Stenhouse advised the Council on the process of this project as
he has been through this process before to try and clarify the issues the
Council were discussing. Town
Administrator Stenhouse stated that there were unpaid bills for CLD awaiting
Councils approval. Motion made by: Town
Council authorized to pay July and August bills to CLD out of the FY08
appropriated budget of $37,847. Chairman
Bulkley requested that Town Administrator Stenhouse or CFO Frank Childs
become the active Town Project Manager to relay billings and updates to
Council. Chairman
Bulkley reserved the 1st meeting in November as a tentative date for CLD to
return to the Council. Old Business 07-78 Approve purchase of 25 +/- acres – Councilor Chairman
Bulkley explained for public benefit that an abutter requested to purchase
this land. Paul
Dionne, Conservation Chair – if an individual is willing to purchase the land
and a conservation easement is in place for this land then he doesn’t believe
there would be anything wrong with this.
They would withdraw their application for the grant. (The email
and response are attached at the end of these minutes.) Motion: To authorize the Motion Made by: Metts Seconded by: Ferrante Vote: 5-1-1 (no: 07-78 Approve purchase of development rights – Motion: To authorize the Derry
Conservation Commission to purchase the development rights of 94 +/- acres of
prime agricultural lands, in the form of a conservation easement, from Phil Ferdinando, Tax ID #11/097 112 English Range Road and Tax
ID #12/021 121 Chester Road the cost of the purchase is $250,000,00 and will
come from the Derry Conservation Commission Land Conservation Fund,
establisher per RSA 36-A: 5-I Motion made by: Metts Seconded by: Carney Vote: 7-0-0 New Business 07-85 Mike
Fowler gave the background for this fund appropriation. A sprinkler system needs to be installed
and the existing water service to the building is inadequate to support the
fire protection needs. The cost for the exterior piping is estimated at
$20,000-$25,000. The source of funding
will be from the FY08 Buildings & Grounds Budget. Motion: The Motion made by: Carney Seconded by: Chairman
Bulkley asked the Council if they would agree to have public input in three
minute intervals for comment. Everyone
Agreed. Mike
Fowler, Director of Public Works, gave information and input for this
project. He gave his knowledge of the
basic reasons for the connectivity and suggested it be a two-way street. Councilors
discussed and asked questions pertaining to the bike path, the Fiber Optic
“Right of Way”, drainage, safety of children going to and from Councilors
Ferrante and Chirichiello disagree with this
connectivity. Councilor
Councilor
Chirichiello asked if the Planning Board under RSA would have to lay this
out. (Mike Fowler replied yes) Then
Councilor Chirichiello referred to the study on page 11, Summary of Unsignalized Intersection Capacity Analyses - it was
broken down as No-Build, Build, and Build w/Connector Rd. What is that (Mike Fowler replied it would be I
believe the Manning St Ext.) Councilor
Chirichiello replied then in fact this study would be for the Manning St
Ext. For the record I would like this
to be noted. Public
Input Maureen
Rose, Bill
Cooper, Raigh Paradis, Motion to extend 10 minutes
Councilor Coyle, Seconded Councilor Metts.
7-0-0 Eric
Whitney, Chairman
Bulkley asked if there could be an elevation for the Bike Path. (Mike Fowler gave and explanation of
achieving this.) Holly
Whitney, Edie McGillian, Rollins St – There will be more pollution if
we open the road up. The fiber optics is
in place. Site view onto Rollins is not good. Against Manning St Ext. Janet
Conroy, Sylvia
Booty, Motion to Extend 10 minutes
Councilor Coyle, Seconded Councilor Metts 7-0-0 Mark Samsell, President of the Windham Trail Alliance –
Submitted a letter to the Chair. The Manchester/Lawrence rail bed is a
benefit as a Bike Trail that would ultimately assist the trail connection
from Al Dimmock, Agrees
with opening Manning St Ext. Carl Accardo, Motion to Suspend the Rules by
Councilor Metts, Seconded by Councilor Chirichiello Vote: 6-0-0 (Councilor Coyle,
absent) Margaret
Ives, Motion: To direct the Planning
Board to layout the road for construction by the Public Works Department with
in the appropriation that was voted by the Council in the FY08 Budget with
construction of a bike path to be included. Motion by: Councilor Carney Seconded by Councilor Adjourned 10:30 PM |
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To whom
it may concern, My name
is Brian Pellerin, I reside at For the
record I support the towns efforts to purchase land
and keep it from getting developed. This effort will keep our community from
becoming a huge city and keep the taxes down so that we stop the flow of
residence being forced to sell their homes because the taxes are so high. I
think the town should look to all the land not just all the land around my
house (or the houses of the Conservation Commission). I am
writing to you today in response to a statement made by Paul Dionne that was
misleading at best, and an outright lie at worst. He indicated at a town
meeting that a developer had made an offer on the land. This is outright
false and I would claim that Paul knew it when he made the statement. I approached the Johnson's (Gary and
Heather my neighbors for the last 6 years) about buying
the acreage out behind my land. I
knew the Conservation Commission had approached them when they first moved
in, asking them to donate their land. I also knew that the town was now
offering to purchase the land for $100,000. I offered the Johnson's $120,000
for 25 acres. This was $20,000 more than the Conservation Commission had
offered. The Johnson's asked for some time to consider my offer and then
later accepted it. I gave them a $10,000 deposit and we agreed to get the
paperwork together to finalize the deal. About 3
days later I got a frantic call from Heather. She indicated that she was
worried about the Conservation Commission and that she may incur some legal
penalties from the town and/or Walmart if she
proceeded with our agreement. She was extremely nervous and acted in a manor
uncharacteristic for her. She was going on about needing to return to me the
$10,000 before the 3 day right of recidivism. She said she wanted to give the
town 45 days to honor their agreement and indicated that if she didn't have
the money in hand by then our agreement could continue. I explained to her
there is no 3 day right of recidivism on real estate especially where she was
the seller, that she was getting very bad advise and that the town did not have any legal document signed that would hold her to any agreement. She said
Paul had told her that because the town spent money with an appraiser she was
legally obligated and may face some punitive action if she didn't continue
with their pursuit from the town. She also seemed very worried about getting
sued by Walmart, which I told her was impossible
since she never had any agreement with them. My belief is that this was
another threat made by Paul Dionne but I don't know that for sure. Heather
has left for I
accepted Heather Johnson's return check because I call her a friend and I saw
how distraught she was from the pressure being applied to her by Paul Dionne
and the Conservation Commission. I did not have to accept the return check, by her cashing my check we had a binding agreement. To be
clear I am NOT a developer. This statement was made by Paul Dionne on more
than one occasion. I have worked for the past 20 years in the Software
Industry and had no intentions of developing any land. My only purpose for
purchasing that land was to tie it to my 8.81 acres so that I could put it in
Conservation Easement and lower my exorbitant tax bill. Because I own under 10 acres of land (all swamp in the Beaver Lake
Watershed) I am unable to get any tax relief. If I was successful in
purchasing the Johnson's 25 acres I could have placed the whole thing except
for the 1 acre where my house sits and gotten some tax relief. My taxes are
$1000 per month to live in this town. My land is taxed at $20,000 per acre
even though all the land around me {Carases 11
acres, The Caras Conservation land 99 acres, the
Johnson's land 28 acres, and the swamp in front of my house) are all taxed at
$3,000 - $4,000 per acre because it is all swamp and worthless. In fact the
town saw fit to only offer the Johnson's $4000 per acre while taxing me
$20,000 per acre for the same land. In my
conversations with Heather she made it very clear that she told Paul who I
was and why I wanted to purchase the land. When she gave me the deposit back
she said she spoke to the Conservation Commission about maybe selling me a
few acres so that I could achieve my goal of getting more than 10 acres to
meet the easement requirements. I told Heather she was dealing with dishonest
people and there was no way they would ever approach me to help in any way. I
was not happy about her not honoring our agreement but decided to let it go
so that she could just move on in peace. The fact that Paul now misrepresents
the facts to get a ruling in his favor does not surprise me. I just wanted to
set the record straight. Thanks, Brian Pellerin |
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Subject: RE:
Land Purchase at Attachments: Brain: It
doesn't appear this left my mail server. If you received this twice, I
apologize. Sincerely, Paul
Dionne Sent: Monday, September 17, 2007 6:28
PM Subject: Land Purchase at Dear
Brian: I received
r e-mail by one of the Council members. To say I was surprised is an
understatement. To the best of my recollection, we have never met. The Derry
Conservation Commission (DCC) has spoken about land protection with Gary
& Heather Johnson for over 4 years. Following the Town's purchase of the
Cares property, it became all the more valuable from a water quality
standpoint. Sometime in 2005, Keith Coviello
contacted me indicating that the Johnson's were considering a timber harvest
of the property for financial gain. I asked Keith & he agreed to
co-ordinate a meeting with Heather & Gary. Margaret Ives, Conservation
Commission Treasurer & I met with Keith, Gary & Heather. At this meeting, the Johnson's agreed to work
with the DCC for a land protection project. From there, the DCC had a
non-public meeting and felt this was appropriate for protection. Once we
received the letter of interest from the Johnson's, the DCC arranged to have
an appraisal of the property done by a licensed appraiser. Upon receipt of
the appraisal, a copy was given to the Johnson's, and we had a subsequent
meeting. Present were Gary, Heather, Margaret, Heather's father & I.
During this meeting, the Johnson's stated that they would agree to sell the 25+/- acres to the Town for $100,000.00.
The DCC agreed to this. At that time, the Johnson's were very patient. As you
may know, the Wal-Mart Corporation had offered $100,000.00 to the DCC Land
Conservation Fund; in return the DCC agreed to release a 2 +/- acre easement
we held that happened to be located at the only entrance in to the proposed
Wal-Mart Superstore site. As the Johnson's were in no hurry, they agreed to wait for the land
purchase until we received the funds form Wal-Mart. The Johnson's were
extremely patient for about a year. On May
22, 2007, T received an e-mail from the Heather Johnson that their plans had
changed: I was
unaware who had tendered the offer to the Jonson's. At no time did they
notify me who the other buyer was. I was led to believe from general
discussion, that the unknown other buyer was not looking to keep it
undisturbed. It was my understanding from discussions with the Johnson's that
an individual who had abutting land wanted to purchase the parcel for
development potential. The
testimony I presented to the Town Council at their last meeting was truthful
based on the information I had at hand. I did make some mistakes: one in
particular was the status of the land. I stated incorrectly that the land was
not in current use. It is, in
fact, in current use. If The
DCC had known that an abutting neighbor wished to purchase the "back
land" to qualify for current use and there were no plans to develop it,
I would have contacted you immediately & discussed a possible easement on
the property to prevent it from being developed at any time in the future. At no
time did anyone indicate to me
that you wished to purchase the land for the above stated reason. Further,
there was at no time any mention of allowing you do purchase enough property
to qualify for current use status. That simply is not true. Would you
like to discuss the possibility of you putting your parcel in a conservation
easement? You have a relatively small parcel standing alone. However, with
the protection of the Caras property & the hope
that the Town Council will authorize the DCC to finalize the land protection
of the Johnson parcel, we would be very interested in seeing a layer of
protection for your parcel. Your property has one of the prime wetlands so
very important to the continued water quality for the If you
would like to discuss this further, please feel free to call my cell number:
1-781-953-2898. I would also be willing to share the e-mail correspondence
with the Johnson's from May 2007 on. Very
truly yours, Paul
Dionne, Chairman |
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________________________________ ______________________ Town Clerk Date Attachments:
Email & Response |
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