Selectboard Meeting Minutes

Town of Greenfield

7 Sawmill Road, Greenfield, NH 03047

Selectboard Minutes

Saturday, November 2, 2024 9:00 AM

Selectboard: Chairman Mason Parker, Selectman Tom Bascom, Selectman Michael Borden

Staff: Aaron Patt, Town Administrator; Janice Pack, Budget Advisory Committee Chair

Public: Ryan Shirk, Chief Danielle Gardiner

9:00 AM: Selectboard Budget Summit

The Chair opened the meeting at 9:00am and announced to those present that the Selectboard will meet with the DPW Director, then the Fire Chief, and finally the Police Chief. The Board will go over the 2025 budget requests for the respective departments and will receive an update on progress for the year-to-date. At the conclusion of each meeting, the Chair will provide for the public to ask questions. Seeing no questions regarding the agenda, the Chair signaled the start of the 2025 budget discussions.

The Chair welcomed Department of Public Works Director, Jim Morris to the 2025 Budget Summit and asked Director Morris to provide an overview of the department’s progress so far this year. Director Morris stated that this is the first year that the department has been fully staffed since he has been working in Greenfield, beginning in 2017. The difference between this year’s progress and last year’s progress is significant. In 2023, the department was down two men, but they still managed to complete the work he scheduled. Director Morris went on to outline many of the projects completed this year, including the paving of New Boston Road, the completion of the Town Office renovation, brush cutting on County and Holden roads, rebuilding the DPW salt shed, adding gravel to Slip Road and Fletcher Farm Road and a portion of Old Lyndeborough Mountain Road, Chip Sealing/Crack Sealing the length of Russell Station Road and Knotwood Drive, Seal Coating and restriping the Library parking lot, and overhauling the track at Oak Park. Ditching on Swamp Road and County Road and parts of Muzzy Hill was also accomplished along with completing the annual grading in Spring and Fall. The Board and Director Morris discussed the increased capability of the department as a result of the tractor purchased last year. The ability to grade the track at Oak Park and some of the smaller gravel roads has improved these surfaces significantly.

For 2025, the DPW budget provides for the paving of Coach Road and Lakeview Circle. These are both gravel roads today, however Coach Road washes out every year, which requires expensive rebuilds -sometimes more than once. Paving Coach road will result in a reduction of costs for rebuilding the road every year. The department plans on paving the drainage swale to further provide for erosion control. Lakeview Circle presents many of the same problems, with continual washouts into residential driveways and yards.

A discussion on contract services followed. The Board suggested that the line be broken into Subcontractors and Contract Services. A discussion followed about the materials that the department purchases or contracts to make, which are spread throughout different lines in the budget. The Board requested that the materials in the budget be subtotaled so that residents will have a better understanding of the costs of the raw materials needed for road maintenance. Specifically, the Board requested that Material line items be grouped similar to the Buildings Maintenance lines.

Next the Board and Director Morris discussed the age of the 2014 MACK ten-wheeler. This truck is reaching its end of life for municipal work, which is evident by the increasing number of expensive repairs. Director Morris indicated that the Board should expect to review a request for a new 10-Wheel truck next year.

At the conclusion of the discussion, the Board thanked Director Morris for his hard work.

The Chair welcomed Fire Chief Jeff LaCourse to the 2025 Budget Summit. Chief LaCourse provided an overview of Fire Department’s plan to move to a new dispatch service out of Milford, the costs for new and refurbished equipment that they are seeing in other departments compared to the much smaller amount that Greenfield spent on upfitting the truck purchased from the village of Pelham Manor, and the increased costs for reimbursement of EMT and EMT-A training. When the EMT classes were first reimbursed, the cost per class was approximately $800 per license. Currently, EMT classes cost in the neighborhood of $1500 and EMT-A training is $3000. Paramedic training is much higher but the Chief does not see the need for a paramedic on the roster in Greenfield. A discussion followed regarding the dispatch services, and the possibility of placing a signal booster on a tower at Crotched Mountain School, which would have the advantage of providing adequate radio coverage town-wide whereas currently there are a number of areas that do not have adequate coverage for the department’s radios. Another option is to put a repeater on the response truck to ensure coverage at the scene of a fire or motor vehicle accident. A discussion on the current cost of radios was taken up. Chief LaCourse indicated that the cost for radios and the cost for the new PFAS-free turn-out gear has risen considerably. He stated that this has put a dent in his budget so he is requesting additional funding in those lines. Overall, however, the budget is down from $174,591 to $171,736 primarily due to cost savings associated with lower dispatch services.

The Board and Chief LaCourse discussed the budget for stipends in 2024. Currently the budget line is 30% spent with the remainder set for disbursement at the end of the year. After a discussion, the Chief suggested that the Board monitor the line until December before making any decisions about this line item. The Board agreed that a review could be taken up in January as part of the overall wage review.

The Board and Chief LaCourse discussed paying down the SCBA loan with CRF funding and the Chief stated his agreement, saying that the department is a team player. The Chair thanked Chief LaCourse for his hard work this year.

The Chair welcomed Police Chief Brian Giammarino to the 2025 Budget Summit. He invited Chief Giammarino to provide an overview of the year to date. Chief Giammarino stated that with the closing of the State Park for renovations this year, the police department’s call volume is down. Another factor to lower call volume has been the professionalism of the staff at Crotched Mountain School. The number of calls for service has dropped significantly as a result of the new owner’s management. Chief Giammarino, who prosecutes cases for Greenfield, has had 67 cases so far this year. Normal volume in years past is usually 100 or more cases. So overall, calls-for-service are down, and this includes motor-vehicle stops.

The Chief and the Selectboard discussed the Body Worn Camera (BWC) line item and determined that a policy discussion on another meeting night would help the Board understand the complexity that the department faces as they look at adopting this new (to the department) technology. The Board and the Administrator discussed placing the software storage fee for the BWC into the Other General Government Software Maintenance line, which would increase that line by approximately $3,000, but is where the department’s Crimestar software expense is housed. The Chief explained some of the issues associated with the technology and will bring forward the department’s BWC policy to a separate board meeting.

The Selectboard discussed the Part-Time wages line with Chief Giammarino. Chief Giammarino outlined the difficulty facing departments across the State, and the nation, in trying to attract PT and FT police officers. Departments are using significant sign-on bonuses, which Greenfield cannot compete with. Instead, Greenfield has focused on providing a good benefits package as its primary retention strategy. Additionally, the Chief noted that nationwide there is more emphasis placed on work-life balance, so it’s often difficult to find officers willing to take Work Details. Work Details can pay $50 an hour which is double the rate of PT wages in Greenfield. A discussion followed with the Selectboard about raising the PT wages. The discussion included the reality that PT workers may need to be paid more than FT workers (on an hourly basis) in order to cover vacations and benefit time of FT staff. At the conclusion of the discussion, the Board outlined the need for Greenfield to address this issue as the department is dependent on having some PT officers. Chief Giammarino outlined his interest in increasing pay to PT officers once they have completed Field Officer Training (FTO). The Board stated that Greenfield has to try to be more attractive to PT officers.

Next the Selectboard and Chief Giammarino discussed the electricity line. For 2024, this line was a combination of Heat and Electricity from previous years. As the 2024 year concludes, the amount of funding for Electricity can be reduced. Chief Giammarino suggested lowering the line by $2000. As a result of this change and moving the BWC storage to the OGG budget, the police budget is reduced by $5000.

At the conclusion of the discussion, the Chair thanked Chief Giammarino for his hard work.

The Chair noted that Danielle Gardner, Chief of the Wilton Ambulance had joined the audience. He invited her to speak to the Board. Chief Gardner thanked the Chair and outlined the results of a recent Ambulance Advisory Committee (AAC) meeting. The AAC was presented with a request from Wilton Ambulance to increase wages through wage adjustments, in order to counter the overly low wages at the Wilton Ambulance, which would bring the department into competitive range of other ambulance services in the surrounding area. Chief Gardiner provided a wage study of neighboring ambulance programs, which showed Wilton’s wages significantly below the “competition”. Chief Gardiner explained that it’s difficult to make the case that an EMT or a Paramedic should work at the Wilton/Lyndeborough/Greenfield ambulance department for $3 dollars less an hour, or more, when they could be working in a neighboring program for significantly higher hourly pay. Chief Gardiner stated that she would like to approach the Wilton Selectboard with a request to increase wages by $3 per hour in order to ensure retention of staff. The increase to the budget from 2024 would bring the budget from $103,465 to $105,683.

In addition to the wage increase, the department needs a new ambulance. Chief Gardiner outlined the results of the department’s due diligence with several ambulance providers. The ambulance that met the department’s needs was the second lowest bid at $393,892. Given that the pipeline for new orders takes up to two years to fulfill, Chief Gardiner stated that the AAC discussed putting in an order this year with the hopes of having the order filled in 2025 or 2026. Chief Gardiner stated that the AAC favored increasing the wages this year and arranging for delivery of the new ambulance in an out-year. The Chief explained that the thought process was that there needs to be bodies [retained] to drive the new ambulance. After some additional discussion, the Board appointed the Administrator to attend a Zoom call with the other AAC members, so that Chief Gardiner can finalize her presentation to the Wilton Selectboard. Chairman Parker thanked Chief Gardner for bringing the Board up to speed on her efforts.

At this time, the Chair closed the Selectboard’s 2025 Budget Summit and thanked the Budget Advisory Committee Chair for attending.

Adjournment

At 12:30 pm, the Chair made a motion to adjourn the meeting; the motion was seconded by the Selectman Bascom. The motion carried 3-0.