Wales Planning Board Meeting
August 14 2006
Minutes
In Attendance: Alice DiPaolo (Chair), Lori Blier
(Secretary); Lyndon Spaulding (WPB), Eric Gagnon (WPB)
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Alice
opened the meeting at 7:15. Lori distributed the agenda, minutes from July 10,
2006 meeting, and the
Draft Bylaws document. The minutes were
reviewed by board members and approved as written.
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Alice
opened the discussion on Alternate Planning Board Member Roberta Ross who was
elected during the 2005 Town Meeting.
Since that time, she has not attended a single planning board
meeting. Alice verified that letters had been sent to
Roberta regarding her membership and lack of attendance. Former Chair Ed MacDonald sent a certified
letter to Roberta requesting her to either withdraw as a member or become an
active member to which he received no response.
After discussion, Alice
made a motion to remove Roberta Ross from the planning board since she has
attended no meetings since her election over a year ago. The motion was seconded and the board
unanimously voted to remove Roberta from the board. Lori will notify Paul Burgess that this
action has been taken, so that the selectmen can appoint another alternate
member.
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The board
opened discussion on the mining ordinances from Appleton and Washington that we
plan to model a proposed Mining Ordinance of the Town of Wales on.
The board agrees that there is a need for a mining ordinance to
establish some parameters so that a developer can’t come in and just dig out a
huge pit anywhere. We are vulnerable
because we have no guidelines in place.
There is some control in that it would fall under the site review
process and possibly the land use ordinance, but we have nothing specific to
mining or surface or subsurface mineral extraction. Members determined that the lay out and
language of the Appleton ordinance was easier to follow, but that the
Washington ordinance had some additional language regarding sound and surface
rock harvesting in tandem with a forest management plan that we would like to
incorporate. Lori will download the Appleton Ordinance and Washington Ordinance and take a first cut at putting
together a draft Mining Ordinance of the Town of Wales putting the sections in the standard
format of the Wales Ordinances for review at the next regular meeting.
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Discussion
was opened on the bylaws document which Lori has put into electronic format and
made some minor modifications. The board
agreed with the change to the first sentence of Section 3 on meeting times
eliminating the specific meeting times and clarifying where set scheduled
meetings would be posted. It was also
agreed to eliminate the specifics under the order of business items also in
Section 3 and to eliminate Other Business.
The board also agreed to strike sections referring to “licenses, permits
and other approvals” which was overly descriptive for this document. Eric noted that the document referred to
“associate” members where currently our additional members are referred to as
“alternate” members. The wording in the
bylaws will be changed to refer to these members as “alternate” members. Lori will make the appropriate changes to the
document and have it ready for final board approval at the next meeting. Lori noted that the wording in the charter
should probably also be changed for #3 and #4 under the Planning Board Section
since we don’t do violation inspections or building permits any more. Alice
will come up with alternative language for discussion at the next board meeting
and ultimately for recommendation to the selectmen for change at the next town
meeting.
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There was
discussion about the Basic Workshop for Local Planning Boards session to be
held on November 30 in Augusta. The town will cover the costs
for these workshops. We can either
submit a receipt or request a check from the town treasurer to cover the
costs. There is some interest from Eric,
Lori, and Alice in attending.
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The next
regular meeting will be on September 11.
Meeting was adjourned at 8:20 p.m.
Lori will update the Board Membership list with new e-mail addresses and
phone numbers and distribute to board members via e-mail.
Respectfully
submitted,
Lori Blier, Secretary
Related
documents: Draft Bylaws and mining
ordinances from other towns for review
