Pelham News : selectmen

Planned roundabouts in Pelham may delay fire response

Salem Editor — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 18:13:00 GMT

BY DERRICK PERKINS

Local firefighters are worried a project designed to rework the roadways in the center of town will result in slower emergency response times.

Selectmen gave state officials at the Department of Transportation the green light to draw up final plans for the project and begin work on right-of-way acquisition late last month. Intended to relieve traffic congestion in the center of town, the road work will replace the intersection of Nashua and Marsh Roads and the entrance to Village Green with two new roundabouts.

Though originally given two options to pursue by the state, selectmen have tentatively endorsed the second plan, which may force Pelham Fire Department to forgo using the front entrance of the building during emergencies.

According to Planning Director Jeff Gowan, the preferred first option – which would have required the Fire Department to relocate – was effectively taken off the table after voters rejected a proposal to build a new $4.7 million firehouse during the March election.

Officials will have an opportunity to put a proposal for a new fire station before voters again next year, but acting Chief James Midgley is not optimistic given the recession and is, instead, looking to funding from the federal economic stimulus package as a possible solution.

“It looks hopeful for us in potentially getting stimulus funding because the town manager is working diligently to make these plans shovel ready. If the money came through we would be ready to start in a couple of weeks, and that rates you very high on potential funding,” Midgley said.

While nothing is set in stone yet – the plans are nearly identical for either proposal and selectmen reserved the right to switch to their preferred option if funding for a new station came through – Midgley worries that were the town and state to go ahead with the project, it would leave his fire apparatus doublestacked inside the station with only one way out.

“Right off the bat, they’re talking about bringing the road within a few feet of the front doors. We would have to look at the options of not using the front doors anymore. It’s going to delay our response,” he said. “There are a number of issues and none of them are good.”

For the time being, officials do have some room to work with, according to Gowan. A public hearing is set to be held sometime in May to review both roundabout options with the governor’s council, and construction would not begin until 2011.

At stake is a potential $3.9 million federal earmark to fund the project. While there is no timeline to use the money, Gowan is concerned that waiting too long to go ahead with the construction could result in the funds being rescinded. The project is already a year behind where it should be, Gowan said.

He also worries that construction costs could escalate and drive the price tag for the project upward in the meantime.

“It is money dedicated toward a specific project, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be rescinded,” he said. “We want to get whatever traffic solutions we’re able to complete completed without the town funding it.”

Pay-as-you-throw debated in Pelham

Salem Editor — Wed, 14 May 2008 19:42:00 GMT

BY JIM DEVINE

Selectmen are considering a pay-as-you-throw program for the town’s transfer station following a recent presentation from the Department of Environmental Services.

David Degler, a solid waste program coordinator for DES, presented the proposal on Tuesday, May 6, as a way to curb transfer station costs on the budget while letting residents pay incrementally for the amount they bring to the dump.

“There’s a lot to be done and more estimates cost-wise just to get things started,” Degler said. “I was there to let them know what’s going on regionally and compared it to some of the other towns near or similar to Pelham.”

A charge of $1.50 a bag, for example, would add up to $156 a year for a household creating two bags of trash each week, Degler said. About $242 per year per household is included in the tax rate for operational costs to maintain the current waste program.

“It puts the cost back on the user,” Degler said. “The more you generate, the more you pay. The town can then cover all the cost or some of the cost. It depends on the dynamics of the town.”

Degler said about 47 communities in New Hampshire have instituted many variations of pay-as-you-throw programs that often encourage recycling as a free alternative to having to pay individually for each bag of trash.

“That’s the great thing about pay-as-you-throw,” Degler said. “There’s 47 towns and they all do it differently. There’s just a lot of flexibility with how they run the program.”

Degler said Lancaster is a good example of a community that reduced its transfer station costs to taxpayers from $178,000 to $83,000 since the town instituted a program in the 1990s.

“As costs went up for everything else, they were able to decrease it starting eight or 10 years ago,” he said.

Pelham selectmen back roundabout plan

Salem Editor — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 18:17:00 GMT

BY JIM DEVINE

Pelham town officials are backing a plan to expand a roundabout traffic intersection at the current fire station’s location as a solution to growing traffic problems.

In a 3-2 vote on Tuesday, April 8, selectmen backed one of two traffic proposals for a roundabout to be constructed in the town center, which would force the fire station to relocate.

While only one of the two traffic options required finding a new station location, the less invasive plan would not allow much clearance for fire engines entering and exiting the station, according to town planning director Jeff Gowan.

“The fire station is basically sitting in the middle of the intersection of every single solution pattern,” said Gowan.

Two years ago, the town received a $3.9 million earmark in state and federal money to correct ongoing traffic congestion where Route 111A goes through the town center, Gowan said.

While voters have turned down two new fire station projects in the past two years, Selectman Harold Lynde said the government earmark may not be able to wait until voters are ready to approve a new station.

“We have to go back to voters, but we’re going to stall the process, and if we stall that too long someone might grab that money from us,” Lynde said. Previous studies among local residents and businessmen eliminated traffic light solutions to relieve congestion, according to Gowan, after simulations showed an increased impact from population growth and I-93’s widening.

Lynde, Robert Haverty and Douglas Vigor backed the proposal to look forward before the earmark lapses. Selectmen William McDevitt and Victor Danevich voted against the proposal.

“I think the sentiment is to solve this problem,” Lynde said. “The town said no to building a $4 million new fire station. They didn’t say no to the traffic solution.”

Lynde said the need for a new station remains as the town has grown since the station was built in the 1970s.

The Fire Department could be housed temporarily in an unused portion of the old Sherburne School, according to Lynde.

“It just happens that these two projects have met each other head-on right at this intersection,” Gowan said.

Three file for vacant seat

Salem Editor — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 16:48:00 GMT

BY DARRELL HALEN

At least three people are interested in filling a vacant seat on the Pelham Board of Selectmen.

Brian O’Hearn, school district moderator Ken Dunne, and former Selectman William McDevitt have applied to be appointed to the seat that Ed Gleason vacated on Oct. 9.

Selectmen will choose Gleason’s successor. The candidates for the position will be interviewed at the board’s Tuesday, Nov. 6 meeting.

Gleason announced that he was stepping down because his goals and objectives couldn’t be reached in the “current environment,” and that they may have been contributing to disharmony on the board and with the town’s Budget Committee. Selectmen said they were surprised by his decision.

The person who is chosen to replace Gleason will serve out the remaining four months of his term, which was set to expire in March.

The appointment will mark the second time this year that someone has been put on the board to fill a vacancy. In June, Tom Domenico, who moved to North Easton, Mass., with his family, was replaced by former Budget Committee member Doug Viger.

Board of Selectman chairman resigns

Salem Editor — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 19:39:00 GMT

BY DARRELL HALEN

The chairman of the Pelham Board of Selectmen, Ed Gleason, has resigned from the board.

Gleason announced he was leaving the board near the end of its Tuesday, Oct. 9 meeting. His resignation took effect the next day.

It was a move, he wrote in his resignation letter, that was made with “sincere regret and great disappointment.”

“After considerable reflection and an introspective review of my personal priorities, I have come to the realization that, despite the time and effort I have committed to this task, I am no longer capable of dedicating the time and resources to effectively carry out the duties the townspeople deserve and elected me to accomplish,” Gleason wrote.

He added: “Further, recognizing that the goals and objectives I have established for my term cannot be met in the current environment, and may, in effect, be contributing to an ongoing disharmony within the Board of Selectmen and with the Budget Committee, I have decided to step aside in favor of new leadership and allow the Board to seek a more committed and effective replacement.”

Gleason, who was the board’s representative to the Budget Committee, was elected a selectman in March 2005. His threeyear term would have expired in March 2008.

Contacted by telephone, Gleason said he did not want to elaborate on his letter. In an e-mail to others, he said that he and his wife, Mary, are both in good health.

“I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the current board, all the many dedicated town employees I have had the pleasure of working with and those wonderful and unselfish volunteers who have been so supportive of my efforts on behalf of the Town of Pelham, which I am proud to call my home,” Gleason wrote in his resignation letter.

Gleason’s resignation caught others, including Selectman Hal Lynde, by surprise.

“He expressed frustration with the inability to get things done,” said Lynde. “I know he worked hard at (the job), put a lot of effort into it.”

“It was a shock. I don’t think anyone was expecting it,” said Selectman Victor Danevich.

“Pelham lost a really good guy.”

Danevich and Town Administrator Tom Gaydos said that selectmen can appoint an interim member to serve until March, when town elections will be held, or leave the seat vacant until then.

“I’m open with any way the board wants to go,” said Danevich.

“It’s the board’s choice.”

If they don’t fill the seat, someone could petition the Superior Court to make an appointment.

Gaydos said he expects the board will decide how to proceed when members meet again on Tuesday, Oct. 23. One person has already expressed interest in serving but has not officially applied, he said.

Gleason’s departure is the second time in five months a selectman has resigned from the board.

In June, Tom Domenico, citing personal and business commitments, left the board. Domenico, who works for the Massachusetts Port Authority, moved to North Easton, Mass., with his family. He was replaced by former Budget Committee member Doug Viger.

If the board decides to appoint someone to fill Gleason’s seat, Danevich said, he expects the board will follow the same process used after Domenico resigned: posting the vacancy and interviewing candidates before making a selection.

Viger sworn in to board

Salem Editor — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 18:39:00 GMT

BY DARRELL HALEN

Doug Viger, who was appointed to the Pelham Board of Selectmen late last month, has been sworn in to his new position.

Viger officially joined the board on June 12.

He replaces Tom Domenico, who cited personal and business commitments when he announced he would be stepping down from the board. Domenico, who works for the Massachusetts Port Authority, moved to North Easton, Mass.

Viger is no stranger to issues facing Pelham. His familiarity with thoses issues was cited when selectmen selected him to replace Domenico in late May.

“I thought he was a good choice because of his breadth of experience,” said board Chairman Ed Gleason, citing that Viger has served on the town’s budget committee, capital improvement plan committee and sought to be a selectman last March.

“It’s all indicative of someone who’s conscientious and who really wants to do the job,” Gleason said.

Viger was elected to a two-year term on the Budget Committee in 2003. He was elected to a three-year term two years later.

Viger was one of five candidates who ran for the board of selectmen last March. Two seats were available. Viger made a strong third-place finish garnering 1,067 votes, finishing behind Bob Haverty who got 1,191 votes and Hal Lynde who received 1,158 votes.

Viger will serve on the board of selectmen until March 2008, when Domenico’s term was to expire. He said he will run for the seat in March.

His main objective, Viger said, is to identify all capital improvement needs, prioritize them and put them on a timeline.

Viger has lived his entire life in Pelham. He is a 1991 graduate of Pelham High School. He earned an associate of applied science degree from New Hampshire Technical College in Manchester, where he studied heating, ventilation and air conditioning. He is currently employed as a territory manager for FW Webb. He and his wife, Donna, have two sons, Tyler and Connor.