Resident to donate and install beaver deceiver; Selectboard accepts donation and authorizes resident to maintain it (4–1)

The Bow Selectboard voted to accept a donated, professionally installed beaver deceiver for a pond on Rollins Road and granted a resident permission to install and maintain the device. Jeremy Simmick of 21 Birchdale Road told the board he would pay for the installation and work with an expert (referenced in the transcript by name and a trademarked site) to install a device that he said requires less maintenance than the existing structure.

"I'm willing to pay for this, with my own money and just kind of maintain it myself however he wants because I just don't wanna see a flood," Simmick told the board, describing prior flooding problems and a history of ad‑hoc repairs on the site. Board members asked whether the motion would lift the town’s moratorium on Class 6 road work and whether acceptance would make the device town property. Officials stressed that donated items become town property once installed and noted the board’s historical caution about non‑refundable donations.

A Selectboard member moved to accept Simmick’s donation and to allow a professional installation; that motion passed. Later, the board moved and approved a follow‑up motion to formally accept Simmick’s offer to maintain the device and to make clear that the authority to maintain the device is being granted only to him; if another person needs to perform maintenance, the board must be notified. The maintenance authorization carried 4–1 with Selectwoman Colby recorded as the dissenting vote.

Board members directed staff to require written documentation of permissions and to document the donation in town records. The board also reiterated that the town’s moratorium on staff authorizations for Class 6 road work remains in place generally and that individual permissions are to come through the Selectboard.