LIVERMORE — Administrative Assistant Aaron Miller told Selectpersons Tuesday night, Sept. 13, that Jean Tardif and Renda Guild will be retiring Jan. 3, 2023.

The Town Clerk, Guild is in her 25th year with the town. Tardif, the deputy town clerk has been with the town 13 years.

Guild’s is an elected position, the law says someone can be appointed upon resignation, Miller said. Inquiries have been put out, a couple of applications have been received, he noted.

“I would prefer a town clerk with experience,” Miller said. The deputy town clerk could be trained, he said. Even for someone with experience using TRIO [software], and inland fish and wildlife [licenses] there are nuances on how the town runs credit cards, creates reports, he added.

New employees typically want to give two to three weeks notice, Miller said. At the very least they should have a week with Guild and Tardif, he noted. The town clerk could be from out of town with experience, the deputy could be local, he added.

Giving time to build rapport with other employees was suggested by Selectperson Randy Ouellette.

The Town Office will be closed two days the last week of December, Selectperson Scott Richmond noted.

Dec. 19 would be almost three weeks notice, Selectperson Brett Deyling said. “I would like to do the hiring at the Nov. 22 meeting,” he added.

By consensus Selectpersons agreed that applications would be due Nov. 8 to give time to review them and schedule interviews. Hiring decisions would be made Nov. 22.

“Start day would be Dec. 19,” Deyling said.

In other business Selectpersons voted to sign a Community Resilience Partnership resolution needed to move forward with a $50,000 grant to install one heat pump each at the town office/fire station complex, community building and highway garage.

“The early estimates are less than $50,000,” Miller said. Three contractors have been spoken with, two have been met with, he added.

Selectpersons also agreed to do more research about installing a street light at Brettuns Pond. An option with Central Maine Power would result in a life lease, which Richmond said he didn’t want to do.

“We have to get a private contractor to put the pole in, do the tree trimming,” Chair Mark Chretien said. “We need to check the second option, see how much it will cost.”

Richmond also suggested including a town hall meeting about Brettuns beach with the public hearing needed to review recommended changes to the town’s Shoreland Zoning Ordinance. Voters will consider the issue at the Nov. 8 elections. Selectpersons have put their ideas about the beach out there, others may not want that, he noted.

A date for the public hearing has not been set.

Deyling also gave an update on the Ford Brook culvert. The estimate given last meeting for his company’s estimate is pretty close, about $500,000, he said. The entire road budget would go for one culvert, spending money that couldn’t be recovered were concerns he noted.

The grant application is due Nov. 10, Miller said.

This project doesn’t need to be done right now, these grant programs run every year, Deyling noted.

Chretien said the Board would continue to pursue it, see how much funding Trout Unlimited could provide.

Richmond agreed the town couldn’t do the culvert replacement without other funding sources.

Deyling noted he would need to recuse himself as his land is in that area.

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