Hermon council adopts ADU ordinance, rejects fuel system bid

[0:00] Speaker A (unidentified): I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [0:19] Council Chair (presiding officer): Can I get a roll call, Kristen? Joshua Berry. Here. Adam Brewer. Here. Richard Sear. Here. Jason Forbes. Here. Kristen Friend. Here. Christopher Gray. Here. Terry Hamm Horst. Here. And we're going to move on to public items or comments. This is an opportunity for members of the public to comment on non-agenda items, contribute information that may be of interest to the town council or ask clarified questions. Please wait to be recognized and identify yourself before speaking. This is not a time to register complaints or promote a personal agenda. Please remember that you may not identify any person by name or job function. Any public comments? [0:59] Dan Wiseman: Come on, sir. My name's Dan Wiseman. [1:05] Council Chair (presiding officer): Dan, if you would, just press the button so it goes green. [1:11] Dan Wiseman: My name is Dan Wisner. I live at 729 Newburgh Road, across the road from the Bog Road. We have a problem of people speeding between the Bog Road and the Hinkley Hill-Newburgh Road intersection. There are no speed limit signs along this stretch of road. I was told by the state that the town manager must ask the state to lower speed limits and put up new signs. There are many trucks, cars, motorcycles travel at high speeds, including dump trucks, which travel the road a lot, putting residents in danger. There are young children who live along this stretch of road, as well as people walking along the side of the road. There is a blind spot before the Charlene farm stand that makes it dangerous when trying to pull out of their driveway, as well as my own. It's my opinion that the speed limit should be no more than 35 miles an hour and I'm asking the town manager to submit a request to the state to do that. [2:46] Council Chair (presiding officer): Thank you, sir. Yeah, come on up. Just make sure the green button is on. [2:57] Timothy Page: Hit the green button? No, it's on. It's on. My name is Timothy Page. I'm Dan's neighbor. I'd like to reiterate a couple of situations that we have there, not only to lower the speed limit to 35, but to get some patrols there. We have the farm stand there, Sean Lynn, across the street. People in and out of there, the farm stand is open 24-7. People come up to the Boglot Road. I sleep in the pool room, and they get on it and squeal their tires right up the road, coming one way and the other. The increase of the traffic from the Dysart Superstop there in Newburgh, where since they paved that road, the north road has increased a lot of traffic, especially early in the morning. 5 30 you get people exercising, 5 30 some of us trying to keep our weight down a little bit. You have the farm across the street, he has 10 head of cattle, he's there with his tractor and whatnot. And if you would travel down the bar grow and I'm thinking hill road, you can see where there are numerous people doing break stands. If we could have some increased patrols, too, not opposed to the sheriff sitting across the street from my own driveway, if that's what it takes. All right, thank you. [4:36] Council Chair (presiding officer): Anybody else for public comment? Seeing none, I'll close that at this time. Board. And could I get a motion to approve the consent calendar? So moved. Second. Any discussion on that? Can I get a vote, Kristen? Terry? Yes. Chris? Yes. Kristen? Yes. Jason? Yes. Richard? Yes. Adam? Yes. And Josh? Yes. Thank you. And we'll move on to news presentations and recognitions. C Timothy Shoppy from Joseph Murphy. Mr. Murphy. Mr. [5:21] Town Manager: Chair, members of council, thank you. I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge the recent passing of Tim Shoppy, former town council member, school board member, licensed plumbing inspector, local business owner, and longtime member of our community. Tim passed away on August 24th at the age of 87, leaving behind his wife Joan of 67 years, their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, as well as extended family and friends. Tim moved to Hermann in 1969 and made Hermann his home for the remainder of his life. His service to the town of Hermann spanned more than five decades and touched nearly every part of our community. Tim served as a member of the town's very first seven-member town council when the charter took effect in 1974. 74. He later served for over a decade on the school committee and then beginning in 1989 served as the town's plumbing inspector, the LPI. Tim also served on the municipal review committee, municipal building committee, land use committee, ecotab, board of trustees, and the board at United Technology Center, UTC. He was involved with the Herman Historical Society and alongside his wife Joan spent many years helping our local elections. Tim was also a local businessman. He served as president of American Concrete in Bangor and later established Downeast Concrete here in Herman with Joan. Tim was a man of hard work, storytelling, a hearty laugh, and stubborn determination. I think anyone who had the opportunity to get to know Tim would recognize those qualities. The Town of Hermann recognized Tim back in 2014, dedicating the annual town report to his years of service. It was written that the time, dedication and commitment he had given to the town was near immeasurable. At that time, the town also recognized the incredible amount of Tim's own time, materials and equipment that he dedicated to Pottle Field and Ecotap Garden, and the important role he played in preserving and improving Ecotat Garden property for future generations. With that in mind, I am pleased to share that next spring we plan to plant and dedicate a tree at Ecotat Garden in Tim's memory. I cannot think of a more appropriate place for a lasting remembrance of someone who gave so much of himself to both Ecotat and the town of Permon. It will be something that can continue to grow and be enjoyed for generations that follow us, much like the community Tim spent so many years helping to build. On behalf of the town of Herman, I would like to extend our sincere condolences to Joan and the entire Shoppee family and recognize the tremendous gratitude Tim's lifetime of service to our community will be greatly missed. [8:13] Council Chair (presiding officer): Thank you, Mr. Murphy. And obviously, I myself would say our deepest condolences to the Shoppee family. Moving on to public hearings. First public hearing, proposed accessory drilling unit ordinance. We'll open this public hearing at 608. It's for them to discuss. Anyone from the public? Anybody have any comment [8:50] Mr. Christensen: on that? Seeing [8:53] Council Chair (presiding officer): none, we'll close the public hearing at 609, and we'll open second public hearing, proposed amendments to 154.082, manufactured housing slash mobile homes on individual units, and 154.084, mobile home parks. We'll open that at 6.09. Any comment on that? Seeing none, we will close that public hearing at 6.09. It brings us down to new business. First one is 026-27-06, consider adopting EDU ordinance and repeal moratorium. [9:41] Speaker J (unidentified): I'll read the resolve on that. [9:47] Council Chair (presiding officer): Be resolved by the Hermantown Council and Town Council assembled to approve accessory dwelling unit ordinance and repeal the moratorium. I'll entertain a motion on that. So moved. Second. Any discussion? Nothing [10:05] Speaker K (unidentified): different from what we discussed last time. [10:10] Council Chair (presiding officer): Yeah, I read through this. I didn't see anything that was glaring to me. Anybody else? All right. Seeing no more discussion, could we have a vote, please? Josh? Yes. Adam? Yes. Richard? Yes. Jason? Yes. Kristen? Yes. Chris? Yes. And Terry? Yes. All right. Moving on. 026-27-07, consider approving amendments to 154.082, manufactured homes, mobile homes on individual units, and 154.084 mobile home parks and repealing mobile home park moratorium. I will read the resolve, which I pretty much just did, didn't I? Be resolved by the Hermantown Council in town council assembled to approve proposed amendments to 154.082 manufactured housing slash mobile homes on individual units and 154.084 mobile home parks. So moved. Second. Motion and seconded. Any discussion? [11:25] Speaker L (unidentified): The parameters for having a mobile home park are pretty similar to having a house, really. You have to have a lot of frontage, you have to have places for people to park, you have to have a building for them to put their trash in. So it looks like, you know, I read over this and it's a pretty good plan and, but we don't have any, we only have one mobile home park, but we try to encourage more while we're not trying to discourage them. [11:54] Council Chair (presiding officer): Mr. Murphy, do you have any comment on that? [11:58] Town Manager: Thank you, Mr. Chair. So this is to, I wouldn't necessarily say encourage, but to bring our ordinances up to speed with a lot of the federal and state guidelines. Since our ordinances haven't been updated since 2013, we are in the process of updating them. We have two mobile home parks currently in town. One of them we have had some issues with and hoping to help improve. [12:24] Speaker L (unidentified): Is that one getting under control? Yes. We've certainly seen a lot of information about it. [12:33] Town Manager: Sure, yeah. So to our understanding, the property has changed hands and does have a new owner. I've met with them recently and they do have a really good plan moving forward. [12:45] Speaker M (unidentified): That's good to know, I [12:48] Council Chair (presiding officer): assume everything aligns with the state statute and in that regard, yeah, so [12:53] Town Manager: with mobile homes and mobile home parks there's a lot of federal and state guidelines that have to be followed. The amount of restrictions that the town can put on is limited. You know, we can put in there that can't have broken windows bringing a mobile home and can't have crack back siding. We were requiring them to have frost protected foundations to sit on, that type of stuff. But HUD and the Maine State Housing Authority does have a lot of authority over this. [13:24] Council Chair (presiding officer): Yeah, I believe it's my understanding that the state requires foundations underneath mobile [13:29] Town Manager: homes. Is that correct? Yes. [13:33] Speaker M (unidentified): They can't be older than 1976. Is that right? Correct. I believe the [13:38] Town Manager: The date's June 15th, 1976. That's when HUD came about. All right. Anybody else? [13:51] Council Chair (presiding officer): Thank you, Mr. Murphy. Seeing no more discussion, we'll move to a vote. Kristen? Terry? Yes. Chris? Yes. Kristen? Yes. Jason? Yes. Richard? Yes. Adam? Yes. And Josh? Yes. And that'll move us on to the next new business, 026-27-08, 8 fuel system replacement project. I'll read the resolve on that. It was all by the Herman Town Council and Town Council assembled to reject the bid quote received for the fuel system replacement project in the amount of approximately $126,000 due to insufficient appropriated funding and the need to revise the project specifications to accurately reflect current regulatory requirements. The fuel system replacement project is deferred and shall not proceed until, excuse me, under the current procurement. I'll entertain a motion first on that. I'll move. Second. And Mr. Fields, do you have anything to add on this? The resolve stated it very well. The issue we ran into was the scope of work did not meet the current requirements. So we talked to a couple individuals within the state to determine the scope, and that was deemed correct that we do not have the requirements at this point. It was a CIP project. That's why the funding was allocated for $70,000 this year. Obviously, that well exceeds it, so that is the request to delay the project at this point and notify the bidder of such. Yeah, that's a discrepancy of about $56,000 there. So glad we were able to look at that first, obviously, before going ahead and any further discussion on it see it done we'll move to a vote kristin josh yes adam yes richard yes jason yes kristin yes chris yes and terry yes thank you and we'll move on to 026-27-09 ordinance committee amendment to membership this is a long resolve so i'm not going to read that whole thing i will entertain a motion to accept the resolve is written. So moved. Second. Any discussion? Mr. Fields, anything on that? Once again, the resolve spells it out. There was just changes from the previous discussions we've had on the membership allocation, and that's what we're putting in the finalization. Any further discussion? Seeing none, I'll ask for a vote. Kristen? Josh? Yes. Adam? Yes. Richard? Yes. Jason, Kristen, Chris, and Terry. That closes out new business. We'll move into workshops. First workshop, we will open at 617, zone change of parcel 014-028-000. This is 757 Coldbrook Road from Residential B to Village Commercial. And Mr. Murphy. [17:17] Town Manager: I'll turn this around for everybody to see in just a moment. So thank you, Mr. Chair, members of the council. What I'm here to talk about is the potential zone change that's coming before the planning board. Then it would eventually come before you folks for approval. We like to do these workshops ahead of time to give you a little bit of background history before it reaches in front of you. So the parcel is located on Colbrook Road, just past Diesel Shop Road. Road, it's this one here outlined in red. They are looking to change it from residential B to village commercial. They currently have a bucket truck business renting that parcel, that's parking their trucks there, and would eventually like to make it a commercial property with a garage there, so [18:07] Speaker N (unidentified): that's where Atlantic Electric is right now. I'm sorry, Atlantic [18:11] Town Manager: Electric. I'm not sure which company is in there. PH Rentals LLC is leasing it out to a bucket truck company, but they're probably safe to assume so. That's great solution. A lot of other, yeah, I believe the industrial line is just before the railroad tracks. Have my binoculars to see past shot, but somewhere right just past that. So just looking to open [18:44] Speaker K (unidentified): open up other potential avenues down, correct? Yeah, what's [18:51] Council Chair (presiding officer): the acreage day up there? [18:54] Town Manager: Excuse me, four or eight, I can't remember which one. Ralph caught my head. [18:58] Speaker A (unidentified): I'd have to get back to you on that. It looks to be about eight. Anything [19:06] Council Chair (presiding officer): concerning with the zone [19:07] Town Manager: change? Nothing really, yeah, nothing really sticks out. He has done a workshop with the planning board next Tuesday. He is set to go in front of the planning board for that zone change proposal. Okay, all [19:28] Council Chair (presiding officer): right, thank you. Thank you, sir. Maybe else have anything to add? Seeing no additional comments, we'll close this workshop at 6:19 and move on to the sewer transition update, and we will open this workshop at 6:20. [19:57] Mr. Christensen: Mr. Christensen? Good evening, councillors. So with this update, I wanted to just discuss that the town of Hermann, we have initiated the billing for the sewer using our new software with New Lake. We have undergone this with several sewer cycles so far, as well as the trash, the additional trash bin billing. Things have been going smoothly. There have been minor hiccups, but between the City Sewer District, the Water District, and our software support, we've been able to get through them seamlessly. So the software allows residents to create online accounts, receive their bills online, and make payments. So overall, it has been pretty seamless. Things have been going fairly smoothly. smoothly. With this transition, I think it would be a good time to discuss closing out the prior sewer billing process that was through the city of Bangor. Initially, Herman residents that used the sewer system would be billed by the city of Bangor. If those balances went unpaid for a certain amount of time, the town of Herman would be billed, pay those balances, and then And ultimately, there is a balance that should be written off because it is uncollectible through the current state statute timeframe and the lien process. Currently, I believe there is a balance that would be more expensive to go after and collect through the other methods at our disposal through the state statute process. [21:32] Council Chair (presiding officer): Do you know roughly what that is? [21:36] Mr. Christensen: It is in the ballpark of $75,000. That's for what? That is a... Do you have your speaker on? I do, yes. Sorry, I can move that closer. That is for sewer balances that went unpaid that the town of Hermann paid to the city of Bangor that would not be collectible [21:58] Council Chair (presiding officer): through the current lien process. [22:01] Speaker L (unidentified): Would not be collectible? [22:03] Mr. Christensen: In a cost-effective manner. Yes. [22:09] Speaker L (unidentified): Hey, explain that to me again, from pay, buy? [22:12] Mr. Christensen: The city of Bangor would bill Herman residents for the use of the sewer system. If those balances went unpaid to the city for a certain period of time, the city then built the town of Herman, which paid those balances as a part of the contract with the [22:27] Speaker L (unidentified): city of Bangor. So who created those balances? [22:32] Mr. Christensen: The sewer system was used by Herman Properties. Herman Properties. So they're our bill. bill. Herman residents or businesses. Correct. I see. So those bills went unpaid to the city of Bangor. The city of Bangor is a part of the contract with Herman built the town of Herman [22:49] Speaker L (unidentified): and we paid. So we would have to sue each individual person to get the values to get the [22:54] Mr. Christensen: The methods that would still be at our disposal would be the small claims court process, which would be time consuming, time consuming and would have increased costs, unfortunately. So typically, the process would be to go through the lien process. However, the timeframe based on state statute would not allow it for this balance. Other balances, we have gone through the lien process and collected a portion above that. [23:21] Speaker L (unidentified): So people can run up $75,000 worth of balances? [23:26] Mr. Christensen: No longer. Our plan is to keep on top of that through the lien process going forward. [23:32] Speaker N (unidentified): Terry it's been a learning curve about eight years ago I think seven years ago there was a section of town that didn't even know was on the sewer system and there was a significantly larger bill than this owed and the way it was written it was owed by the town just the agreement with the city of Bangor the town had to pay it they had no recourse had to so because of that the statue has taken place what's going to happen in the future it's called a metering pit when we take over the town of Herman is fully just depending on Bangor to treat our sewage. What was happening was the water going in on the water use meters is how they built for sewer. Bangor is no longer going to bill it. Now we are, and they're going to go by the water meter, but we are going to be billed by Bangor for all the water going into the Bangor treatment plant through the flow meter. Meter so we may have more water going into Bangor than we are billing for and that's what we call the I and I we have to find that they've been very diligent about this but you're going to see this over the next year probably fluctuations in sewers until they get a handle on all this [24:48] Speaker M (unidentified): There's a lot of work to be done yeah but it's yeah I wouldn't have known about that [24:55] Council Chair (presiding officer): Mr. Cushman, you say the time frame on the balance is, I'm assuming, what they say about assuming, but assuming they're too old? [25:04] Mr. Christensen: That is correct. So state statute only gives you a certain time frame to initiate the lien process. Other than that, the only method of collecting that would be through the small claims court process. [25:15] Speaker L (unidentified): You budget for that? Knowing it was coming up? [25:18] Mr. Christensen: This is the money has already been paid to the city of Bangor so it is money that has been spent this would just be a write-off of debt essentially that is not cost effective to go back and collect [25:34] Council Chair (presiding officer): by those that would have owed it to us thank you could you explain what ini is again [25:41] Speaker N (unidentified): ini is infiltration of groundwater any source of water going into the sewer system that isn't due to the intake of water by the water system. That's how they base your bill is they take the water bill coming in, they see the volume of liquid coming into the house, it has to go out of the house. So that's what they base it on. That's for the individual user. As a whole for the town, the town is going to be built on metric flow of what goes into the waste treatment plant in Bangor. that volume could be much larger than what we are currently charging the user for because we may have some cracking pipes we may have some manhole structures that are leaking we could have some people that have floor drains in their basement with some pumps will do it i've been a couple of years trying to stop this in the town that i run the sewer department in it's going to be a learning curve it's going to be a lot of work there's going to be hours and hours of people maybe a couple of other workshops we could all sit down and talk about ways to reduce the i and i on top of the camera inspections that we've done there's some freeways that i utilize but you want to minimize the amount of water going through the sewer system you want to make the volume be as close to the mark of the water coming in as possible because in a whole all the taxpayers are going to have to pay for the portion to have the water treated instead of the user so those of us that are on private sewer we don't get the benefit of that so it's everybody's responsibility to make sure if you're on the system if we set up a i do home inspections. I go in, I have a check-off list, what I look for. We do a surcharge to the customer [Speaker A (unidentified): quarterly, $100.] It prompts people to let us come in and do an inspection so they can get that $100 off their bill. But that extra $100 we're taking in quarterly per customer, that's not just, that's everybody. That helps offset that I&I cost. So it gives us a little more revenue to play with for those unforeseen bills that are going to be coming and these bills can drastically change on rain events if we get a really wet event or a really wet spring or we get seven or eight ten inches of water all at once you may see a bill of tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands [28:20] Speaker L (unidentified): of dollars just appear. Didn't you say the last time we discussed this that it's possible that there are industrial entities in the area that sometimes have groundwater that they pump into the system that leaks into their. Absolutely. Yeah. Which could be a huge amount of money, huge amount of water. Absolutely. [28:42] Speaker M (unidentified): So again, no, that's what you have to get. [28:44] Speaker N (unidentified): I would be willing to outside of a meeting like this, have a conversation with Mr. Perkins and the town manager about how I go about for community that's next door to us. It's my job to take care of the sewer. I wouldn't have any problem directing Nick how to do that or those factions. I mean there's there's plenty of things that can be done to minimize an [29:08] Speaker M (unidentified): expense. Sounds like it might be something that we really need to look into. It's something that [29:14] Speaker N (unidentified): is going to become very apparent making sure that gets done over the next year once all the things are finalized once this transition starts. I it's going to be eye-opening for everybody. This is something new for the community so they're they're learning on the go. I think they're doing a great job. I'm on the other side of it. I hear it in Bangor. I'm in and out of that office all the time so I kind of keep my thumb on the pulse of everything that's happening. I try not to step over my bounds to say all right what are we doing in the town of Herman. It's not my place for that. But I do keep a close eye on it for the town of Hamden because that is my responsibility. But I have a very good working relationship with the Bangor Waste Treatment Plant. The director and I are very good friends. We work together on a lot of issues. I was working on one today, as a matter of fact, in the Trashed Energy Plant. So there's lots of things that we can implement that don't cost a lot of money to try to curb this, but it's going to be a learning process. [30:17] Mr. Christensen: So based on that, any new bills we are billing for, people are paying as soon as next day in a lot of cases right now based on the software that's available. So we're not planning on going through this ever again. We're going to stay on top of the lien process. This is essentially just cleaning up the old process that is no longer in place. But with your approval, we will prepare that paperwork for the next council meeting to wrap up that write-off essentially. [30:47] Council Chair (presiding officer): About how many households are on the work system? [30:53] Mr. Christensen: Currently, I'm trying to think between households and commercial properties. It's under, it's about 300 to 400, depending on how you look at the accounts. [31:04] Council Chair (presiding officer): Just residential or is that? [31:06] Mr. Christensen: That's a combination of both. Yeah, so some properties have several meters, some only have one. And it's been a very eye-opening experience going through all of these accounts and making the transition from the city and coordinating with the water district as well to get these all squared away. [31:23] Speaker L (unidentified): How many businesses would we have that are like industrial and industrial parks? [31:28] Mr. Christensen: It's a portion of that three or 400. I'm not sure the exact split, but for the region of town, it's the business parks almost all the way up through where the railroad bridge is on Hayman Street. And then a good chunk of Colbrook Road and the business parks on that side of town as well. [31:52] Speaker N (unidentified): So basically any place that has city water has city sewer in our community. So city water comes in on Hammond Street on Route 2. It ends at the trestle. So all of those, North Street, all those adjacent, those are all on city sewer and city water. On the Colbrook side of things, we pick up everything at Dice Arts. We travel down Colebrook Road all the way to the railroad tracks again, just after the railroad tracks is where the water line stops and the gravity sewer ends. So it's just basically the industrial side of town. [32:35] Council Chair (presiding officer): Any further discussion on that workshop? Seeing none, we'll close that workshop at 6.32. We'll move into the next workshop, Newsletter Policy with Mrs. Ouellette and Mr. Fields. We'll open that at 6.33. Thank you, Mr. Chair. It'll be just me. Before I begin, I'd like to thank Councillor Forbes for his expertise on that last discussion. He was very appreciative. The newsletter policy was drafted and approved back in 2011. That's a long time ago. So I've gone through and talked to Councillor Watt in regards to the current policy. We've changed the publication process to a quarterly system basically seasonal instead of monthly and then the new draft is also highlighting a few different changes with regards to how submissions are handled with regards to elections and political content as well as advertising sizing and the content that is not accepted. It's pretty standard flow for current use of any newsletter policy. So that is where I am at with regards to changes. It was designated as a policy. We could consider a procedure and moving forward, if we went to the procedure route, it would not have to continue to come to council if there were any issues or changes on it would just the internal administrative process so based on that look forward to the guidance recommendation of the thought process on the draft version that you have as well as if you entertain the change from a policy to a procedure i'm open for questions i did read through these from the email that we received my problem is these ipad things only allow you to have one open at a time. So I can't do a side by side comparison of them. I have to keep switching back and forth and back and forth. Just a small request. Is it possible to get printed copies for the time that this comes on the agenda? Perfect. We'll do that. [34:56] Speaker K (unidentified): I like the thought of it going through a procedural method to control the office staff. [35:05] Council Chair (presiding officer): I agree with that. I think Lindsay does an excellent job with the newsletter and it's the community loves it. I know I look forward to it, especially that little Danforth coupon that comes in the back of it. I enjoy reading. I enjoy reading what's going on in the town. Any further discussion? Seeing none, we'll close that workshop at 635. And we will move on to manager status report. [35:40] Speaker M (unidentified): report. Mr. Fields. [35:44] Speaker L (unidentified): Thank you, Mr. Chair. Excuse me. Could I ask for the sound to be turned up a [35:49] Council Chair (presiding officer): little bit? Yeah. Thank you. Good evening. School has started. [36:01] Speaker L (unidentified): Oh, certainly I can hear that. [36:06] Speaker M (unidentified): Test one, two. That's good. It just didn't seem to be any louder than your voice. [36:14] Council Chair (presiding officer): That's fine. So once again, good evening. School has started again, so please use caution while driving. I would like to wish all the students the best for the school academic, sports, and extra-curricular events and competitions throughout the year. Reminder to the citizens for the statutory election training, the town office will be closed on September 23rd and 24th. I'd like to thank the residents and businesses of Herman for their understanding and cooperation during this time. the hvac air handler has seen the end of the life cycle on august 12th in the town office the team is researching with vendors on replacement alternative boats the tax payments are being received with some concerns and justifications by staff to the overall understanding of the process as of august 28th 292 accounts had paid for 806 000 compared to august of 2025 225 with 117 accounts and 260,000. This is just for a reference point for revenue at this time. Did you know that the town has published e-news? On our website, scroll to the bottom and subscribe to updates to receive electronic updates to your email. These emails are upcoming closure reminders, upcoming events, and announcements from departments. This service launched in October of last year. We currently have 77 residents signed up to receive these emails. A thank you goes out to Ms. Shelby Reynolds for launching and maintaining these updates. The public works access equipment has been sold. We received about $35,000 total. The Boston cane will be presented soon to the next resident. The clerk is in coordination with the family to present. Once finalized, a notice will be sent to counselors. procedures. Sergeant Decker from Pekinopskaw County Sheriff's Office has resigned his position and will transition to another department on September 13th. On Saturday, October 10th, we will have the fall cleanup day. More information will be coming on the official town websites and media sites. We are coordinating the efforts right now, so more information to fall. Save the date, October 10th. And on October 25th, it's Trunk or Treat at the Herman High School parking lot from 4 to 6 p.m. Recreation is the point of contact, and we'll be having information on the official town recreation sites. Councillors, I sent an email out to you for the County Caucus for the Fiscal Budget. If you are interested, please attend that meeting. I've had a inquiry from a citizen on having a library installed in town with notice that it has been received and discussions will happen in the future and then this is an action item for minutes I am requesting a special meeting as of yesterday the assessor received an abatement request and by statute we have 30 days to respond to that abatement request which puts us 30 days on October 8th which is the next council meeting. We are actually requesting the assessor and I to have a special meeting either next week on the 17th or the following week on the 22nd and 23rd based on a form and we do have a resolve for that as well. So at this time, I'll turn it back over to the chair to discuss the special meeting. [39:56] Speaker J (unidentified): Thank you, Mr. Fields. Down to the chair. [40:12] Council Chair (presiding officer): So we will, I'll read the resolve here. 026-27-10 special council meeting be resolved by the Hermantown Council to schedule an additional special council meeting on blank time, blank date for the purpose of an executive session for the discussion of confidential records. Can I get a motion on that? So moved. Second. Hurry up. Motion and second. So we'll open for discussions. Mr. Fields has given us some dates times here. I don't know what works for all you guys. What were the dates again? We're looking at potentially the 17th, 22nd, or 23rd. After the executive session there will have to be an action item as well. There will be a very brief meeting with the individual being present for the executive session. September and we're looking is this next week, next week, so next Thursday we're following Tuesday and Wednesday, not Thursday, so [41:19] Speaker N (unidentified): It'll be two nights if we don't [41:20] Council Chair (presiding officer): Do it Thursday, it'll be, it's only, it's only one night. We got three nights to choose from. Okay. [41:24] Speaker M (unidentified): Seven, I'm open for anything. Yeah, any of those. Oh, I can't remember, what's the 17th? What's the 17th? [41:33] Speaker O (unidentified): Next Thursday. I will be unavailable Thursday. The following Tuesday, Wednesday I would be free. [41:40] Council Chair (presiding officer): Yeah, I'm free on all of those dates, so if we have to do the 22nd or the 23rd, that's fine. 23rd would work for me. I won't be back until late on the 19th, so 22nd and 23rd works for me. Sounds like maybe the 23rd. Absolutely. Adam? Harry? Yep. It's a Wednesday. Yes, that is a Wednesday, and that'll be at 6 p.m. Okay, so we're looking at September 23rd, 6 p.m. for the special council meeting. Could we go to a vote? Josh? Yes. Adam? Yes. Richard? Yes. Jason? Yes. Kristen? Yes. Chris? Yes. And Terry? Thank you. Thank you, Councilor Schneider. Thank you, Mr. Fields. Moving on to final public items or comments. This is, again, for items not currently on the agenda. Open to anybody if you have public comment. Yes, sir. [43:03] Public commenter (Fuller Road resident): I live on Fuller Road in Herman, a lifetime resident. My only question, and it's not really a major concern, but there was two stop signs put on the corner of, I guess it's a three-way intersection at the end of Fuller Road and Boston Road. Boston Road's always had a stop sign, and there's two stop signs put on Fuller Road's side both ways. I just, I've been on the Fuller Road since we got married in 1998, lived in Hermann my whole life, but I just was curious as to what prompted the stop signs to be put in. Was it some sort of traffic study? Was it an individual request that was worried about? Go [43:42] Speaker N (unidentified): Ahead. I can answer that. Sure. I'm the one that approached town for it. Okay. So I live on the New Boston Road on the corner. I live next to the Olivers. Okay. Yeah. And Mrs. Oliver approached me and said, you know, with this new development, they've gone from six dwellings being there to over 60 right are going to be there so the traffic was coming all that nobody was stopping and people were trying to turn off a new boss and you couldn't see up the full road towards the town office this way the way the telephone pole and stuff is was people weren't stopping to turn either and it was causing people to pull up in front of each other she had witnessed a couple of really close calls she walks her horses there's been a lot of fast moving vehicles through that yeah so it wasn't a state issue it was a in-town issue I brought it before the town council and the town manager and we made the decision to make that a three-way stop for the safety of the area because of the extra flow of traffic that's not always there right now but it's coming [44:40] Public commenter (Fuller Road resident): Yeah I say I agree with that I just I think just throwing up the stop signs begin with didn't really have any I mean most of us didn't even realize they were there and I'm sure you probably did the same so I think it was more of an eye-opener it's going to be a learning curve A learning curve for sure. So I'm not asking for more patrol or anything like that. I just was curious what caused it. And, Kustaf, when they put the stop sign, there was no white lines. Now there's some white lines. It just was just stuck there. [45:04] Speaker N (unidentified): If you look, there's also dig safe marks because you can only do so much and you have to be dig safe. There's actually dig safe marks. If you look about 40 feet in front of that, they're going to put a stop ahead sign. It's coming. It just isn't put up yet. So those will be on the fuller road on both ends. But it was to slow the traffic down in that area. And there is a tremendous amount of heavy truck traffic going through there right now with the building of that complex that's going in. [45:28] Public commenter (Fuller Road resident): Right. I got a lot of feeling on both sides of this road and the bus road and the Polar Road side in front. So to begin with, it just felt like it really wasn't being useful. But I think it's like you said, it's a learning curve. And I didn't know if there was any sort of flashing lights that were going to come on there because I go that way every day, probably three, four times a day. And people just don't, I mean, I've been doing this for 40 years. They're just not stopping. We're always stopping at the end of New Boston Road going left to right, but then it's not stopping going up the full road yet. So hopefully some additional signage or something will help that because you definitely want to stop at the end of New Boston Road because they're just coming through because they're just not paying attention. But I just was curious more than anything. [46:09] Speaker N (unidentified): It was more, the intention was more people coming off New Boston, not getting hit by somebody coming from the dead end side of Fuller. Because there's going to be so much more traffic coming that way. People don't tend to look to the right at that stop sign because of that. It's never ever been anybody there, right? But like I said, it's gone from six residences there to the potential is 66. [46:33] Public commenter (Fuller Road resident): Yeah, for sure, that's, that's why it was. I figured I could see that way. I wasn't sure. Right, I'm coming from a long distance follow roadside. Why that was 100 necessary? But if you're going to do it, you might as well have all three really, honestly. But just more of a curiosity and hopefully. [46:46] Speaker N (unidentified): And the coming towards the New Boston from here, that was put in because of that blind spot. As you know, you've traveled there for years. When you look to the left at the New Boston Road, you have that telephone pole there in the tall grass. You can't see a vehicle that's coming. So if that vehicle is slowing to stop, it gives you a chance to get out and not get hit. [47:06] Public commenter (Fuller Road resident): Where the stop sign was installed there on coming from this way, it was almost hard to see the stop sign. I mean, there's almost like some brush there or whatever. But putting that line across there does help a little bit, hopefully some further. It's just like I said, for years and years and years we've been going this way and it's just one of the things you got to get used to it and that line will help. But thank you. I hope that [47:24] Speaker M (unidentified): clarifies why it was done. I appreciate it. Yeah, thank you. With that, I've had a couple of [47:30] Speaker Q (unidentified): Reach out recently, I know we approved the contract for the roadside mowing, but there's a lot of places in town that it seems it hasn't been done yet this year, and it's it's pretty tall, and the people that reached out are talking about, you know, they're having difficulty seeing at some of the intersections. Do we have any idea when that's going to be done? What goes? [47:58] Council Chair (presiding officer): It's the same road, we can't touch it. [48:00] Speaker Q (unidentified): No,, these are town roads. So it would have been that way, Wing Road and Annis Road intersection. [48:09] Council Chair (presiding officer): State. State. State A, we can't touch it. [48:13] Speaker Q (unidentified): It's weird how it travels. So who would they need to contact for that? DOT. Okay. [48:17] Council Chair (presiding officer): We have a map in town that we follow over there because it's not also part of the wing road. It's confusing that there's chunks of roads. Like, I'm on a state road and I'm not. Right. I appreciate the concern. Any further public comment? Seeing none, we will move on. [48:44] Speaker L (unidentified): Can I ask a question? Yeah. I see that we bought a new boat, a little fire department, which I know about inflatable boats. So anyway, what are we selling the other one for? Any idea? Because it should be pretty valuable, I would think. It hasn't even been outside. [49:14] Council Chair (presiding officer): That piece of equipment was the second round to us, so it's not an original boat. It has issues. We don't know what we're going to get for it. The fire chief and I have discussed it. We do not know a value yet, but it was secondhand to us, and it has, when we received it, was not in 100% shape. So we're not going to get as potential much money as you would think at this point. And the trailer itself is going to be a one-way trailer because the trailer is not safe either. [49:45] Speaker L (unidentified): The trailer's not safe? [49:47] Council Chair (presiding officer): No, not for that moment. We'll move on to some council items. First we'll sign orders and results from section nine before we move into an executive session, so we'll do we handle that now, oh you want to do that first, yep, thank you, yeah no we'll do a council items first. [50:14] Speaker Q (unidentified): We'll start with, you know, I think I'm all set, I had those couple of concerns but I'll get [50:21] Speaker M (unidentified): back with those people and also thank you Adam Terry, yeah I just addressed mine so thank you [50:27] Council Chair (presiding officer): Today is the first anniversary of the assassination of Charlie Kirk. [Dan Wiseman: Sorry] for his widow and people need to be considerate in free speech and not try and [Speaker J (unidentified): take it] take it into their own hands if they disagree with other people so and tomorrow is the 25th anniversary of 9-1-1 [51:12] Speaker J (unidentified): and a lot of people [51:15] Council Chair (presiding officer): I was saying 30% of the people in the United States weren't even [Speaker J (unidentified): born then so] those that served [51:27] Speaker J (unidentified): And lost their life and pray for them. Thank you. Thank you, Richard. Josh. Yeah, just real quick. [51:39] Speaker K (unidentified): appreciate the supper coming up giving us a bit of a heads up on the zone change i think anytime we can get a little bit of cover on what's going on in town that's a big help we appreciate the extra effort on that my condolences to the shoppy family anybody that knew tim or had the chance to work with them or you know he's he did a lot for the town and when you look back at it 's quite impressive so it's he's a guy that i've always tried to kind of curtail my public volunteerism and service around so i just really appreciate all that he's done for the town and i'm trying to think if i've been stopping at the fuller road now i've been passing through but i agree they 've come up quick but i can see where once you once all the signage is up i think people will be able to see it a little bit better so thank you nice to see some new faces [52:38] Speaker O (unidentified): here tonight. So appreciate the attendance, Mr. Friend. Yeah, my heart goes out to the Shabby family. I didn't have the privilege of knowing them personally, but it's clearly had a big impact on this town. He will clearly be missed. I'd love to communicate more with Mr. Forbes as well as others connected to the sewage problem regarding Bangor. I have a working relationship with some of the city councilors in Bangor for my organizing work. If it's something the council is interested in or the town, I'd love to help get involved on that. Additionally, I'd love to talk more with individuals on BACRU. I do care about public safety, and I'd love to learn more about what's going on. Thank you for your time, me. [53:25] Council Chair (presiding officer): Thank you, Mr. Friend. Mr. Forbes, excuse me. [53:30] Speaker N (unidentified): Yes, again, my heart goes out to the Shopee family. Our condolences, and tomorrow, the anniversary of September 11th, in my lifetime, being a veteran, I don't recall a time in my lifetime where there was more unity in this country than shortly thereafter that occasion. And I just kind of hope some of us can think back to the way it was when we all unified instead of having all of this contradictory one-sided, two-sided things and go back to that tragedy. But on a separate note, with our transfer station having closed in July, there's been a little bit of confusion about where the transfer station is in Hamden. And I don't, I'm not blaming it on anybody. There's been some phone calls coming into the Hamden town office. And I know this because my assistant also is the public works assistant. So the phone calls have been going through her. For the people, just so they know, the transfer station in Pine Tree is not part of the town of Hamden. It's owned by Casella. It's on 358 Emerson Mill Road, which is just the other side of Dysart's. And their phone number is 862-4200. So if you could direct your telephone calls and inquiries to Casella at 862-4200 and not call the Hamden Town Office, it's causing a little bit of taking away of time for people doing their other projects. They're getting called saying, well, the town of Herman told me to call you and it's a separate entity. So if you could just please refer your telephone calls to Casella. And thank you and I appreciate everybody being involved with that. Thank you. I've heard [55:18] Speaker J (unidentified): I guess [55:22] Council Chair (presiding officer): That leaves me for last. I don't really have anything additional than anyone has already touched on. Obviously the 25th anniversary of September 11th is tomorrow. I remember where I was and hopefully you all do too if you're old enough to remember number. It's important to pass on the message to the younger generation, the ones who weren't here or were too young to remember 9-11, because it's important to keep that sort of solidarity together within the United States and our citizens. All politics aside, you can be a human first and just love your neighbor as you love yourself and treat everybody with kindness and this world can be a better place for it. That being said, Mr. Friend, congratulations on your a recent marriage. Best of luck to you. And Apple Hill Stables has a rodeo coming up starting tomorrow. Tomorrow, Saturday, and Sunday, they'll be hosting their eighth annual rodeo in Levant on Outer Union Street there. So if you can't attend, I'm sure it's going to be quite the event. And again, just to reiterate what Mr. Fields said, 10-10. Save the date, fall cleanup. Yep. There'll be some more information coming out that. Just visit Herman.net. Is it.net now? HermanMain.gov. HermanMain.gov. Our website, HermanMain.gov, and look for more information on that. School has started, so please slow down. There's been studies out that says post-COVID everyone's speeding because they're used to not having any traffic on the roads back then. And it is true. People are going a lot faster than they used to even five years ago. So pay attention. Stay off your phones and make sure you're obeying the speed limits and the stop signs and the world will be a better place for it. One thing on the rodeo, they love going that to that place. They have given them awards on how they treat the participants. It's actually going to be on the [57:23] Speaker L (unidentified): Cowboy Channel this year. Yes, so that, yes. And it is for charity. Yes, it is charity, Children's [57:29] Council Chair (presiding officer): Miracle Network. It's fun to dress up in cowboy clothes. So that's the end of the council items. We'll sign orders and resolves from Section 9, and then we will go into Executive Session. When we come back from Executive Session, we will just adjourn. So if everyone doesn't want to hang around just to watch us adjourn, you're more than welcome to leave. And thank you to everyone who showed up today and I expect your comments. Appreciate your participation. Just a reminder, we are still on the live feed. Thanks. Chris, yeah, they treat the [Speaker J (unidentified): rodeo] guys and gals to lobster feed, fire pet and everything. Oh, that's nice. Yeah, I caught a couple of the calf ropers at Dysart's last year after the rodeo [59:34] Speaker A (unidentified): and they pulled up chairs [59:36] Council Chair (presiding officer): and ate with us and talked with us and just really good people. Yep. [59:49] Speaker L (unidentified): Last five years or so. Stacking up on you. [1:02:30] Speaker A (unidentified): Well, hopefully I'll get my stent removed. We'll pull it out for you. [1:02:37] Speaker J (unidentified): They didn't leave the string. All right, yeah, you got a leather. Who needs a string? [1:02:44] Council Chair (presiding officer): The doctor said too many people playing with this, so they said they don't do it anymore. I was like, I see that. It reminds me of that Bill Eggball there. He did a stand-up skit on it there. Funny and also true. Drink [1:03:12] Speaker A (unidentified): water, friends. Drink water. It's lots of water. [1:03:19] Council Chair (presiding officer): Right, at least for that thing here. [1:03:24] Speaker J (unidentified): Beginning of October, the flight. [1:03:30] Council Chair (presiding officer): He's getting excited. It was really fun. [Speaker J (unidentified): I don't] know if you ever saw the movie The Quiet Men, Maureen O'Hare and John Wayne. [Speaker A (unidentified): They had little] ironsmen in there, McLean, and you, instead of being matchmaker, goes into the house and asks Kate Danaher if she has anything to drink, and he brings, he gets a bottle of whiskey brought to him, and she pours the whiskey into the glass and puts a cork back on it, and puts a bottle down, and he picks it up, throws the cork away, and she asks him, would you like some water with your whiskey? When I drink whiskey, I drink whiskey. When I drink water, I drink water. It seems like there's a lot of people that get disgruntled with certain people because they don't like what their company is doing or what they represent. They figure they can take care of it, but I'm blowing them away. I would consider a motion to enter into executive session for a discussion on economic development for one MSRA section 4056C. So moved. Second. Can whoever makes the first motion read what you just said? And then the second. Sorry. [1:06:20] Speaker N (unidentified): Yes. Yes. You can make the first motion. No,. See how that goes? [1:06:32] Speaker K (unidentified): I motion we consider entering an executive session for a discussion on economic development per one MSRA subsection 405.6C. [1:06:43] Council Chair (presiding officer): I can. It's a lot more difficult than it looks, isn't it? I'll take a vote. Yes Adam, yes Richard, yes Kristin, yes Chris, yes and Tara, yes. Thank you.