JULY 11, 2006

The meeting was opened and called to order at 7:00 p.m.

Mr. Greenwood was asked to sit in on the Commission for Mr. Douglas.

MINUTES of 13JUN06: There were no changes to the minutes. Ms. Heaney made a MOTION, seconded by Ms Gordon, to ACCEPT THE MINUTES. The motion CARRIED.

Drafting of Historic District Commission by-laws: At the May 9, 2006 meeting the Commission raised some questions regarding the draft by-laws. Mr. Dingman researched these and had the following to report:

1. Article I, Section 2. Are Objects pertinent to the HDC? – Yes; "objects" are simply "objectives."

2. Article III, Officers, Section 1. Will the HDC have an official "Annual Meeting" as per this section? Yes, this will be our first meeting after the town meeting.

3. Article III, Officers, Section 5, Clerk of Records. Is this applicable? Yes; our secretary is considered the Clerk of Records.

4. Article IV, Meeting of the Commission, Section 3. Should we omit Workshop Meetings? It was confirmed that we would not require extra meetings in order to provide workshops, so this would be omitted from the final draft.

5. Article V, Miscellaneous, Section 1, Applications. Does the Secretary or the Clerk of Records keep the HDC informed about any change in status of approved applications? Yes; as determined before, our secretary is considered the Clerk of Records and therefore would keep the Commission abreast in any change in status.

Mr. Dingman asked for a motion to approve the by-laws as amended. Sandra Heaney made a motion, seconded by Dorcas Gordon. The motion passed.

Hire of HDC Secretary: On June 26, shortly after accepting the position of Secretary with the HDC, Janet Capaul sent an e-mail message to Mr. Veloski letting him know that she was resigning her position; she copied Mr. Dingman on the message. The message had been in response to Mr. Veloski’s asking Ms. Capaul if she would consider working additional hours for the Town beyond those required for the HDC.

Without a Secretary, Mr. Dingman wondered if it might make more sense to wait until a new town manager was hired and have this new position help the Commission to hire a person to replace Ms. Capaul. Ms. Gordon cautioned the Commission on not using the current funds appropriated for the position of Secretary, as it might be difficult to get them reinstated by the Budget Committee for 2007 if those allocated for 2006 were not used.

Ms. Heaney asked if she could be hired as the Commission’s Secretary, given that it was part-time, but also still serve on the Commission. Mr. Dingman said that he could look into this but it might make sense to check with the new town manager first. Either way, he said, it was more important to have Ms. Heaney as a member of the Commission, given her dedication to the job.

Election of Officers: With Mr. Douglas away for the next two meetings, Mr. Dingman proposed to hold elections at the September 12 meeting. The Commission agreed to do this.

NEXT MEETING: will be held on August 8, 2006.

With no further business, Mr. Dingman made a MOTION, seconded by Ms. Heaney, to adjourn at 7:30 p.m. The motion CARRIED.