Thank you, Marilou Blaine for getting us these minutes.  One more way to try to stay up-to-date with what is happening in Walpole. – Lil

Walpole Zoning Board of Adjustments

Minutes: July 16, 2014

Present: Board members: Chair Myra Mansouri, Vice-Chair Peggy Pschirrer,  Ernie Vose, Jan Galloway LeClerc. Alternates: Judy Trow.

Absent: Board members: Mary Therese Lester. Alternates: Bob Anderson, Stephanie Stoughton.

Roll Call: Ms. Mansouri called the meeting to order at 7:32 p.m. She asked Alternate Judy Trow to sit in as a board member.

Minutes: Ms. Mansouri said in the third paragraph of the section on the Special Exception hearing of the minutes the honorific was left out. It should read Ms. M. T. Lester. Mr. Vose made a motion to accept the minutes with the correction. Ms. LeClerc seconded the motion and the motion was unanimously approved by the board.

New business: Mr. Ray Boas and Ms. Barbara Kasper of Walpole and Ms. Lynne Rollins-Kinnier of Maryland, have purchased the American Legion building at 73 Main St., Walpole, for the purpose of moving the Costume Ladies business from its present location in a portion of the building where Mr. Rob Kasper’s law offices are on Main Street to the former Legion building.

Mr. Boas said that the second story will be used for storage and the first story will be retail. The entrance to the building will be from the rear with an emergency exit in the front from a doorway and three steps on the west side of the expansion, facing towards the driveway.

The owners’ plans are to remove the concrete pad, which includes the sidewalk and three steps into the building. That area will be grass. The facade of the building will change by increasing the area where there are now double doors with a 5-foot-by-5.83-foot expansion. This will be where the display window is.

The flagpole will remain, but by request of  the American Legion, the lettering saying American Legion and its number will be removed. The back of the building will remain the same as now with the exception of switching the door to the entrance from the side to the back of the building. The parking lot will remain as it is now – hard pack.

Ms. Mansouri asked it there would be steps at the back entrance. Mr. Boas said he wouldn’t know until the entrance was built if steps would be needed. Then Ms. Mansouri asked what they would do as far as keeping cars from going near the entry way. The area needed something like a curb to safeguard shoppers going into and out of the building. Ms. Kasper suggested railroad ties. Ms. Mansouri said that would work.

Mr. Boas said that Mr. Herb Hurlburt of the Walpole Fire Department and Mr. Mark Houghton of E.E. Houghton Plumbing and Heating have looked at the building and whatever they say are requirements, it will be done.

Ms. LeClerc made a motion for a hearing at the Zoning Board’s next meeting in August for Expansion of a Non-conforming Use. The motion was seconded by Mr. Vose and approved by the board.

Signage for the new building: Ms. Kasper asked about permission for a sign and wondered if the matter could be settled now since it is a simple 7-foot-by-2-foot oval sign that will replace the sign that formerly had the name of the Legion Lodge on it.

Mr. Vose said that the signage conforms to the ordinance and made a motion to accept  Ms. Kasper’s request. The motion was seconded by Ms. LeClerc and approved unanimously by the board.

Update on Tim Graves Gravel pit hearing: Mr. Vose reported that Ms. Rodriques sent a letter to Mr. Tim Graves offering to sell her property to him for $200,000.  He said the state still has to look at the site before rendering a decision in court.

Sprint work on Fall Mountain: Sprint has a tower on Fall Mountain in North Walpole. A company representative, Ms. Kerra McMullin, was asking for information on who is responsible for permitting in the area. Sprint wants to add an antenna to the Fall Mountain tower.

Ms. Mansouri directed the secretary to have Ms. McMullin contact someone from the North Walpole Zoning Board and also the Walpole Planning Board, which is in charge of cell towers. Ms. Pschirrer suggested Ms. McMullin talk to Ms. Barbara O’Brien, a commissioner in North Walpole. Ms. Mansouri suggested Mr. Jeff Miller, the chair of the Planning Board.

Ms. Trow found the reference to telecommunications in our zoning ordinance. It is Article IV, Part J but doesn’t say what the actual ordinance says.

Site Plan Review Amendment added by Planning Board: Board members received a copy of an amendment to the Site Plan Review that was voted on by the Walpole Planning Board. The amendment deals with excavation and timber cutting.

Ms. LeClerc said that the RSA states that residents can cut timber to build a house and also sell it for fire wood as long as its not their main business.

Walpolean: The secretary said that Ms. Lil DeCoste had approached her about submitting the Zoning Board minutes to her to put in the Walpolean. Board members didn’t object saying it was good to have them more available to the public. Mr. Vose said the minutes must say that they are unapproved minutes.

Handouts to the board members were: a copy of the telephone and emails of all board members and alternates; minutes of last month’s meeting; a copy of an article from Town and City titled “Q and A: Preparing a Certified Land Use Record”; and a Keene Sentinel article on the latest events in the Spofford Zoning Board vs. Spofford Selectmen dispute.

Respectfully submitted,,

Marilou Blaine, Secretary.

These minutes are unapproved and will be reviewed at the August 20, 2014, meeting for corrections, additions and/or omissions.