Minutes Board of Selectpersons of Sweden, ME

August 25, 2009

Present were: James Willey, William Jones, Alberta Ridlon, DJ Curtis, Warren Noble, Heather Hoover, Bob Johnson, John Clifford, Jane Gibbons and Tom Chandel, Accountant. The Pledge of Allegiance was said and the Warrant signed.

Mr. Chandel went over the accountant's report, saying it was his responsibility to check on the accuracy of the town's financial statement. There was $249,067 in the unrestricted surplus and $408,589 total in the surplus at the end of the year. Several areas of concern were the internal control issues around old tax accounts which should not carry over and need to be assessed after two years. Another area was the timely issuing of liens. A third issue was the segregation of duties. He has seen improvements over previous years, but these are areas that need constant monitoring. He noted that there have been improvements in the general ledger accounts.

DJ Curtis reported that a request from Loon Echo for a water spot was made for their September 19th event. This was approved by the Selectpersons. Financial reports for the Fire Department Association were given to the Selectpersons. The winter roads contract will be signed. Winter road closings include Marr Road from Jones' property to Hardscrabble, Fern Drive beyond the Dunlop residence and Bennett Road. All other roads previously listed have been abandoned. A broken ladder on the float on Keyes Pond at the town beach has been repairs by Mr. Noble.

Mr. Noble said that a discussion with an MMA person said that having the Fire Department become a municipal entity would make things cleaner. The Association would need to transfer the right of ownership to the town for vehicles and materials they own and the town would need to approve this new arrangement. Mr. Noble was asked to clarify issues around workmen's comp should the department become municipal. Mr. Noble thought that if the fire department were municipal we would qualify for more grants. Mr. Noble had by-laws from the Town of Denmark as an example. Mr. Noble reported that the reason the deadline for the grant for the fire station was missed was because all contractor's bids for the project needed to be in and the town must approve the project in order to make the proposal. Once a grant is approved the project must be started within 30 days. When asked if the grants would become available again, Mr. Noble said having the fire department be municipal would help in the process.

A complaint about rubbish on Central Maine Power leased land had been received. It is not the town's responsibility to clean it up. Mr. Willey will write a letter to William Hayes clarifying the responsibility of the owner for trash removal.

Mrs. Ridlon talked about an issue of back taxes not being paid by one of several family members. There was question about a check not being cleared. Mr. Jones said that the issue did not meet the criteria for an executive session. DJ was to research this.

Mr. Jones mentioned that we needed a credit card in order to have internet service established with Hughesnet. DJ suggested a debit card with a limit. She will investigate.

Shelving for the vault room was discussed. It was DJ's opinion that if they were bolted into the building it could come from the building account. If they were free standing it would be office equipment and would come from town charges. No final decision was made.

Ms. Gibbons reported that she'd been working on filing boxes of materials from when Warren Noble had been a Selectman, most of which concerned roads. She also discovered a box with old town reports dating back to 1889. Some of the reports had been damaged by mice.

The minutes of the August 11th meeting were approved with the correction of the word Warrant which missed a W.

The meeting was adjourned at 7:55 p.m.