By Natalie Bazinet
Staff Writer
LIMESTONE — In an effort to make the rules more “user friendly” for the small town, the Limestone Board of Selectpeople have decided to revamp their bylaws, adopted back in 1994. The board tabled changes in order to properly review the existing rules and draft proposed alterations.
It was the first meeting of the Limestone Selectpeople since the election of two new board members (Danny Gahagan and Gary O’Neal) on June 22, and it was kept relatively short despite one “messy” agenda item — the library’s broken sewer pipe.
Over the past two winters, the sewer line of the Robert A. Frost Memorial Library has frozen a few times and, despite efforts by members of the Library Board of Trustees to resolve the issue in other ways, the pipe will need to be excavated.
Library volunteer handy-man and member of the Library Board of Trustees Larry Tardy informed the selectpeople of details surrounding the problem pipe, but the issue comes down to dollars and cents; if the pipe is found to have been incorrectly laid by the contractors, the repairs will not be at the expense of the town. Inversely, the town will pay the repair bill if the pipe is found to be correctly laid, but requires additional depth or materials for proper insulation to prevent freezing.
As approved by the Selectpeople during their last meeting, excavation of the pipe was delayed until after the town’s Fourth of July festivities.
The date of the dig has yet to be set as of yesterday, but the selectpeople were wary that the current conditions surrounding the pipe could be compromised through digging too deep with heavy machinery — a few even stated that they plan on being in attendance at the excavation to make certain the pipe is dug up carefully.
As this was the first meeting of the board since the election, the selectpeople named a new chair; Fred Pelletier was chosen to fill the position, with Tom Deveau acting as the board’s vice chair.
The board accepted two bids during the meeting, one for trash removal and the other for vehicle maintenance repair.
Only one bid was received by the selectpeople for the town’s vehicle maintenance contract; as the only bidder, the award was given to Cote Auto Repair.
A sanitation contract for services at Trafton Lake, the library and the municipal building was awarded to Caldwell Sanitation.
The next meeting of the Limestone Selectpeople is scheduled for Wednesday, July 6 at the Municipal Building in Limestone at 6:30 p.m.
