Town employees now able to serve on agencies

By Colleen Gundlach

At a special town meeting held at Botelle School on December 4, three changes were approved by the residents in attendance. First, an amendment was made to a resolution approved at an earlier town meeting, on May 14, 2007. At the 2007 meeting, residents authorized the town to obtain a loan of up to $468,467 to purchase a new pumper truck for the Norfolk Volunteer Fire Department. At the meeting last month, the town was additionally authorized to enter into a lease with option to purchase agreement, the terms of which would need to be satisfactory to the Board of Finance. The town treasurer or the Board of Finance or Board of Selectman was authorized by the town meeting to apply for and accept federal and state loans and/or grants for the project, and the treasurer and first selectman were authorized to execute the necessary paperwork. In addition, town officials were given the go-ahead to pay project costs from temporary advances of available funds, in anticipation of reimbursing the advances from proceeds of the borrowings. Secondly, employees of the Town of Norfolk now will be able to serve on land use agencies within the town. Previously prohibited from doing so, these employees are now eligible to run for and to serve on the Planning & Zoning Agency and/or the Inlands/Wetlands Commission. The only caveat was that the employee may not serve on a board that supervises that employee’s job with the town. The third item approved at the meeting concerned raising the prices of fees for the processing of applications by the Norfolk Planning and Zoning Agency and by the Inlands Wetlands Commission. The following fees were enacted: 1) Subdivision or re-subdivision application involving the building of a public or private road $350 plus $50 per additional lot. 2) Subdivision or re-subdivision application which does not involve the building of a road $300 per lot plus $50 per additional lot. 3) Application for zoning permit for shed or outbuildings under 150 square feet $30. All others $150. 4) Application for special permit $350. 5) Application for change of zone or change of regulations $350. 6) Application for approval of erosion and sedimentation plans $75. 7) Application for any permit ex post facto $250. 8) Application for scenic road $350. The final item approved by the gathered residents enacted an ordinance that exempts any specially equipped motor vehicle owned by a person with disabilities or by the parent or guardian of a person with disabilities from personal property tax. Any motor vehicle which has “undergone a permanent modification to its frame or other structural member by the bolting or welding of special equipment for the purpose of adapting its use to the physical impairment of the owner of such motor vehicle or the physical impairment of the owner’s child or ward. Such equipment shall include raised roofs with roll-bar systems, raised doors, special control stations, dropped floors, kneeling systems, wheelchair lift, ramp, hand controls, cart lift and any other device or mechanism necessary to permit its accommodation for the owner’s child or ward.” More than one specially equipped motor vehicle can be exempted from personal property tax, and medical certification by a licensed physician will be required to prove the disability involved.