Assessor's Meetings

Highland Plantation

Assessor Meeting October 24, 2024

Meeting Minutes

Present: Assessors — Dan Howard, Lois Bouquet; Treasurer/Collector — Patricia Dunphy

     Visitors: Paul Boucher, Donald Gould

The meeting called to order at 5:30 pm

The Board reviewed and approved the minutes of the September 26, 2024 meeting.

Financials —

The Board reviewed bills for payment and signed a warrant in the amount of $41,556.56

The Board reviewed and initialed bank reconciliations

The Board reviewed and initialed Collector/Treasurer cash sheets.

Old Business —

Status of School Audit – Have heard nothing from the auditors. Have received a Request for an Audit Exception from the State. Arrived through Highland’s Superintendent. Need to have it explained before the next meeting.

      The assessors will start the budget process at 6:30 on October 31.

      The Town House's roof was finished on October 24th. There was a discussion of how to get rid of the mold and the possibility of keeping minimal heat on through the winter. There was some dry rot and a few other problems. No bill has been turned in yet.

        The new savings accounts have been started, and 1 additional account needs to be started. A motion was made, and it was unanimous and accepted.  

New Business —

        Some research has been done since the September meeting With Stacy Benjamin. It would cost about $2,543 if we went through LUPC, this would be a savings of over $3,000 per year.  Also, through a meeting, it was discovered that the documents concerning the Zoning may not be valid.

        As of October 12, 2024, we no longer have a CEO. A motion was made not to hire a CEO for 12 months, and it was a unanimous vote and accepted, because of the emergency situation the assessors will share the duties.

        The assessors recommended a town hearing to state the case of terminating the plantation comprehensive plan and zoning ordinance to return to LUPC. Possible hearing date after the 1st of 2025. TBD

        The landfill has a fallen tree on it and needs to be removed, Redmond Pinkham was suggested and Donald Gould said he would ask him to contact the assessors.

        It was suggested that it is too long between the meeting and having the minutes added to the website. So, after deliberation on posting the minutes, the clerk has between 48 hours and 7 days to get the minutes to the assessors, and they have 48 hours to 7 days to get their approval back to the clerk. The time to get the minutes out to the public will change from just over a month to a maximum of 2 weeks.

        The assessors had a discussion about the salary of the assessors and a motion was made to reduce the 1st Assessor's salary to be reduced from $5,000 to $3,000. It was unanimous and accepted.

        There was a discussion of having the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd assessors’ duties defined.

 Continuing Business – These tasks will be moved to Old Business as they near completion

        Audits – End Dates _____________________________

        Budget – End Dates _____________________________

        Full Commitment Book – Due Date 11/1/2024

        2025/2026 State Valuation – Prep material due January 1, 2025

 Planning Board — No member present,

Public Comment — None

Adjourn  6:35 pm

A True and attested copy:

Patricia A Dunphy / Clerk

Highland Plantation

Assessor Meeting September 26, 2024

Meeting Minutes

Present: Assessors — Dan Howard, Lois Bouquet; Treasurer/Collector — Patricia Dunphy

 Visitors: Stacy Benjamin, Raymond Dionne

The meeting was called to order at 5:30 pm

The Board reviewed and approved the August 30, 2024 meeting minutes.

Financials —

The Board reviewed bills for payment and signed a warrant of $1,582.92

The Board reviewed and initialed bank reconciliations

The Board reviewed and initialed Collector/Treasurer cash sheets.

Old Business —

        At this time, we are still waiting to hear from the auditors about the school audit.

Lois is taking on the role of Public Access Officer (PAO). She took the oath at the end of the meeting.

Dan took on the role of Fair Hearing Officer (FHO). He took the oath at the end of the meeting.

Dan will call again to see when Somerset Improvements will start the roof.

Dan asked for the invoice for the work done on Old County Road. He may be able to get some money back from the State.

New Business —

        The Assessors will start the budget process in October no date was set.

        Discussion on setting up savings accounts for different accounts to set them in order.

        This was voted on unanimously.

        There will be 8 accounts

All this will be taken from the Highland Checking Account.

        The Clerk will begin setting up the accounts in the first part of October. 

Planning Board — No member present,

Public Comment — None

Adjourn  6:45 pm

True and Attested Copy

Patricia A. Dunphy / Clerk

Highland Plantation

Assessor Meeting August 30, 2024

Meeting Minutes

Present: Assessors — Dan Howard, Lois Bouquet; Treasurer/Collector — Patricia Dunphy

                     Visitors: Paul Boucher, Bethanne Perera, Nathan Kolosko

Meeting called to order at 5:30 pm

The Board reviewed and approved minutes of the, August 30, 2024 meeting.

Financials —

The Board reviewed bills for payment and signed warrant in the amount of $16,492.57

(the change is due to check # 4308 for $219.58 was voided due to payoff of the  line of credit.)

The Board reviewed and initialed bank reconciliations

The Board reviewed and initialed Collector/Treasurer cash sheets

Old Business — Voted to give $100.00 to the Winslow Community Cupboard. Due to members   of Highland utilize the traveling pantry. 

The commitment progress was approved at 100% valuation.

The CEO contract is due October 11th, and are pursuing other means of getting a CEO’s                  services. Other alternatives may be coming soon

New Business — At this time we are still waiting to hear from the auditors about the school audit.

        Lois is taking on the role of Public Access Officer (PAO).

        Lois has also taken the certification training for E-911 Access Officer, and is in the process of proving data and compiling data list.

There was discussion for Lois to resign from Election duties, due to conflicting duties. It was brought up that the only conflicting duties would be if the town held elections for offices at the same time of the state and national elections.

Plantation needs to have established business hours along with the explanation that these are by Appointment Only.

The meeting with Stacy Benjamin will be rescheduled to September due to a conflicting appt. with Ms. Benjamin.

Planning Board — No member present,

Public Comment — None

Adjourn  6:30 pm

HIGHLAND PLANTATION

Assessor Meeting – July 25, 2024

MINUTES

Present:   Dan, Lois, Pat                               Visitors: Mr. Dionne

The Meeting was called to order at __5:45___pm.

The Board reviewed and approved the minutes of June 27, 2024

Financials   ---

The Board reviewed the bills and agreed to pay the warrant in the amount of $ 4,320.95. They also reviewed and initialed the Bank Statements, reconciliations, trial balance, Clerk, Tax Collector, and Treasurer Cash Sheets.

Planning Board ­­–

   No one was there from the Planning Board

   It is known that Mike Atwood is completing a building permit.

Old Business –

a.     New adaptations were discussed in reference to GA

b.     There was talk about discontinuing the Planning Board as it is cost-prohibitive to keep it.

After looking into this more there will be a need for a hearing and a special town meeting.

c.      The meeting in November was changed to allow the warrant to be signed so the Treasurer could pay the monthly bills. Also discussed was the bill for TDS is always late to be paid and discussion about paying the August bill and the September bill at the same time to be one month ahead to prevent the notices from TDS

New Business –

a.     The commitment book has been completed, and setting up the new commitment book will be started soon.

b.     Jo still has some files that are needed.

c.      There is a need for a new CEO but will have to do some research about what can be done. Skowhegan and Farmington were called and were told that their CEO had too many permits to be able to share theirs. There are also too few CEO’s in the state as it is. It is possible to have one of the Planning Board resign from the Planning Board and take over the role. This can be done for 12 months.

d.     Any work that is done by the Planning Board to change ordinances with need a hearing and a special town meeting. This was tabled in order to get more information

e.     I September the assessors will address the spending of miscellaneous spending of the officers in town.

f.       The task calendars are there to keep track of what is happening throughout the year. There was talk about merging them into one yearly calendar, to be better prepared of what is coming up.

g.     They have not heard anything of the tax audits, either from the state audit or the school audit. Will need to look into it.

h.     Line of Credit is to be started being paid off, as the money from the taxes starts to come in.

i.       Tree growth files needed to be gone over and updated.

j.       Somerset Home Improvements needs to be called to schedule an appointment to get started on the Town House roof in September.

k.      Lois is getting ready for a four-hour training for GA on Monday.

Public Comment –  Mr. Dionne asked for clarification on his land evaluation and questioned the tax process that we go through. Tree growth was mentioned to him as an alternative for his acreage. The assessors tried to give him the answers that he was asking.

Adjourn at _6: 53__

HIGHLAND PLANTATION

Assessor Meeting – June 25, 2024

MINUTES

Present:   Dan, Lois,  Pat                           Visitors: Paul

The Meeting was called to order at __5:30___pm.

The Board reviewed and approved the minutes of May 30, 2024

Financials   ---

The Board reviewed the bills and agreed to pay the warrant in the amount of $14,033.98. They also reviewed and initialed the Bank Statements, reconciliations, trial balance, Clerk, Tax Collector, and Treasurer Cash Sheets.

Planning Board ­­–

The Board reviewed and voted yes on the permit application, if certain changes were made. 

1.     That a fee schedule was added to the packet with certain changes made to it as well.

2.     The address is changed to Highland Clerk, 130 Howard Hill Road, as there is no mailbox at the Town House.

3.     There are 3 copies of the CEO completed part of the form 1 – to the Clerk, 1 – to the owner’s file, and 1—to the CEO.

The Tax Assessor needs to be responsible for the upkeep of the Property Tax Cards.

Old Business –

a.     The Certificate of Discontinuance was signed by the assessor’s and it needs to be notarized, taken to the county Registry Office, and mailed to the MDOT in Augusta.

b.     There is only one lien that needs to be filed ( B. Pinkham)

c.      This has been filled out and the next one will come in September.

d.     Commitment book is almost complete and will be signed and turned over to the Tax Collector before the week’s end.

New Business –

a.     There are new adoptions per GA and more information is needed. Lois is going to look into that.

b.     The clerk compiled a list of CEO’s at the state level and Dan is going to call to find out more information.

c.      The information was given to the assessors about the new LPI – Ed Avery oath was given for 3 years on June 5, 2024

d.     Tree Growth Notices were discussed and there is one notice that needs to be taken care of this year. (G. Drummond)

e.     A discussion on dissolving the Planning Board took place and there needs to be more information gathered. Lois will look into it.

f.       The locks on the Town House needs to be changed. No one knows how many locks there are out there and because of the materials being stored there it needs to be more secure. There will be new locks and a log for anyone needing a lock for the Town House.

g.     The November meeting needed to be canceled and arrangements were made to get the Warrant to the clerk for the bills to be paid.

h.     The Salt bid was finalized before the meeting on 6/10/2024 because of the deadline, and it was agreed on by the assessors that the bid was accepted at the June meeting 6/27/2024

Public Comment – “I need to find out more about the lemmings.”

Adjourn at _6: 55__

HIGHLAND PLANTATION

Assessor Meeting – May 30, 2024

MINUTES

Present:   Dan, Lois, Jodie, Pat                               Visitors: Jo, Terri, Josh. Rose, Mike Atwood

The Meeting was called to order at __5:40___pm.

The Board reviewed and approved the minutes of April 25, 2024

Financials   ---

The Board reviewed the bills and agreed to pay the warrant in the amount of $10,256.24. They also reviewed and initialed the Bank Statements, reconciliations, trial balance, Clerk, Tax Collector, and Treasurer Cash Sheets.

Planning Board –

         Rose brought in the new application packet The Planning Board had prepared for review and acceptance. It will be on the agenda for June.

Old Business –

         Josh gave a report on the repairs to the Old County Road. The culvert was replaced and a dirt berm and rip-rap were added around the culvert ends. There were questions about why the extensive work was being done at this time with finances the way they are. Jodie resigned as the 3rd assessor.

New Business –

         A report was given by Lois about the findings on the research over a new website. The report was in great detail and because of the financial accounts this was tabled for a later date.

         The GA was assigned and sworn in by Dan.

         The 30-Day Notice was discussed there are two taxes have not been paid and the notices will be sent out on Friday.

         The Property Tax was discussed and it was agreed that the tax properties will be raised 15% across the board. Jo and Lois will start the process of the commitment.

         Dan asked for a list of Auditors to be sent to him. We have to start the school Audit shortly after June 31st and a second town audit will be needed at the end of the year.

         There needs to be an emergency town meeting for a new assessor and the discontinuance of the end of the Howard Hill Road. This is slated to be on June 15th at 10:00am. The clerk was asked to get the paperwork ready for this meeting.

Public Comment –

Adjourn at _6:30__

HIGHLAND PLANTATION

Assessor Meeting – April 25, 2024

AGENDA

Present: Dan, Lois, Jodie, Pat                                 Visitors: Rose, Art, Terri, Jay

The meeting was called to order at 5:30 pm.

The Board reviewed and approved the minutes of February and notes of March 2024

Financials   ---

February’s bank statements, reconciliations and Trial Balance were reviewed.

Also, the Clerk/Collector/Treasurer Cash Sheets of February was reviewed

   March – The Board reviewed bills for payment and sign warrant in the amount of: 

$ 10,413.15

The Board reviewed and initialed bank reconciliations and Trial Balance.

          The Board reviewed and initialed the Clerk/Collector/Treasurer Cash Sheets.

Planning Board – CEO, Terri had nothing to discuss.

     Rose wanted to discuss what was being done about the new application.

She also asked if there was anything that the board could do to help the planning board with some changes that was needed in the ordinances.

  Mike Atwood will have an application for the planning board.

  The Blue shed was discussed but it was stated that was over and done, we need to move on.

   Old Business –

School Committee report – A second meeting had taken place to hire Laura Columbia as the new superintendent. She will be taking over July 31st as Mike Tracy will be leaving us. She is filling out the paperwork and will have everything ready to go in July.

    Roofing on Town House was discussed that there was no second quote and because the board had already agreed to get Blin Rollins to start getting materials for the project it could not be stopped at this point. Jodie will be there to supervise.

New Business –

  Freedom of Access training papers were passed out to Dan, Lois, Jodie, and Terri to be completed and returned to the clerk.

Assessor Meeting dates were discussed and set from May through December; January through March will be revisited at a later date in September.

Summer Roads grading was discussed and the assessors will get prices from Jordan’s, Nate Manzer, and Josh Nunes before deciding.

                 Old County Rd culvert repair/removal was discussed.

                 Bulky Pick-up will take place on May 28th.

                 Because of a change in Assessors the bank needed to have information. The clerk passed out the sheet from the bank to be filled out. They will get them back to the clerk.

           The salt needs to be ordered and the clerk will get the past information from the bills to Dan.

Public Comment –

       The website needs to be changed, Lois said she would be glad to help. That some of the pages on the currant website could not be accessed. Discussion on the possibility of going through MMA and getting a .org site, and also emails for the officers in town.

The meeting was adjourned at 7:30 pm.

HIGHLAND PLANTATION

Assessor Meeting -  March 23, 2024

MINUTES

1. The meeting did not take place this month due to a particularly bad snow storm.

2. The warrant was emailed up to the clerk so the bills could get paid. Bills amounted to $14,525.79.

3. The warrant was signed by the first assessor and mailed to the 2nd assessor to sign and then given to the clerk.

4. The reports for the month of February will be reviewed with the currant reports in April.

Present: None                                                                                Visitors:

HIGHLAND PLANTATION

Assessor Meeting -  February 24, 2024

MINUTES

Present:     Jo, Jodie, Pat                                                                     Visitors:

1.     Call to order at ___9:50__am.

2.     Review of January 27, 2024 minutes were approved

3.     Financials –

Board reviewed bills for payment and signed warrant in the amount of 12,650.38

Board reviewed and initialed bank reconciliations

Board reviewed and initialed the Treasurer, Collector and Clerk Cash Sheets.

4.     Planning Board –

It was determined that members present would be sworn in at the end of town meeting.

5.     Old Business –

Dan is supposed to talk to MDOT about there request. Road Discontinuance needs to be put in the Irregular or Morning Sentinel. Public Hearing to be held 9:30 on the 31st of March. Just before Town Meeting. Discussed the steps needed to go through to get the end of Howard Hill Road discontinued.

Budget meeting was discussed and added monies to the contingency account.

Elections were discussed with the clerk about the ballot clerks, if everything was all set to go.

6.     New Business –

The Budget looks good and ready to go.

School committee was discussed and the budget for the school. School Committee Chair said We have one student and are trying to bring down the fund balance as to the request of auditors and DOE.

The March Assessor’s Meeting will be held March 23rd at 10:00am and the Town Meeting March 30th at 10:00 am

7.     Public Comment –

8.     Adjourned at 11:00