Selectboard Minutes

Minutes

Town of Greenfield

Greenfield Town Offices, 7 Sawmill Road Greenfield, NH

Selectboard’s Minutes

Tuesday, March 07, 2017 – 5:30 PM

Selectboard: Chairwoman Margaret A. Charig Bliss, Selectman Stephen Atherton Jr., Selectman Robert Marshall

Staff: Aaron Patt, Town Administrator; Fire Chief David Hall; Ken Paulsen, Trustee of Trust Funds.

Public:

5:30 p.m. The meeting was opened by Chairwoman Charig Bliss.

Documents for Review/Approval

• A/P Check Register
• Payroll
• Minutes of Selectboard Meeting
• Fire Warden Appointment
• Abatement for V3-10 Sewer - Off. Manager memo
• Fairpoint – Consolidated Communications Letter re: Acquisition
• Welfare Voucher

5:30 PM: Selectboard Work Session – Consent Agenda

At 5:30 pm the Chair opened the meeting. Selectman Marshall, after review of the consent agenda items, made a motion to accept the consent agenda. On a second by the Chair, the Board voted 3-0 to accept the consent agenda.

The Selectboard reviewed the ‘Fast Facts’ document draft. The document is a hand-out for Town Meeting, which the Board feels will help people navigate the financial material in the Town Report. After a brief conversation a member of the public asked if the Board were concerned that the Fast Fact document could be construed as electioneering. The Board discussed the question and agreed that a review by Town Counsel is appropriate and asked for that to occur prior to the 3/16 meeting.

5:45 PM: Fire Chief David Hall

At 5:45 Fire Chief David Hall introduced Eugene Hennessy as a candidate that the Fire Dept. is putting forward for the Fire Warden position. Mr. Hennessy provided some background to his appointment request. He stated that the State will reimburse for brush and forest fires if the data regarding those events are provided to the State within a 48 hour period. Mr. Hennessy intends to put processes in place in order to ensure that this information is communicated to the State whenever there is a qualifying incident. There followed a discussion on the payments to firefighters for brush fires and the recent creation of an expendable trust fund for this purpose. At the end of the discussion the Board signed the Fire Warden appointment form.

At 6:00 pm Chief Hall informed the Selectboard that Greenfield had placed the winning bid on the New Boston 4WD ambulance and there followed a discussion on the steps that the Town would need to take in order to complete the purchase of the ambulance. On a motion by Selectman Marshall and a second by Selectman Atherton the Board voted 3-0 to instruct the Trustees of Trust Funds to release the amount of $20,100 from the Fire Department Apparatus Capital Reserve Fund in the form of a check made out to the Town of New Boston to complete the purchase of a 1999 Ford Ambulance.

7:00 PM:  Police Chief Brian Giammarino

Chief Giammarino came before the Selectboard to discuss police department goals for 2017. The Chair opened the meeting and asked several questions regarding part-time staffing. Chief Giammarino explained that the Greenfield Police Department currently has three part-time applicants that it is vetting. There followed an overview of the part-time police officer application process. Chief Giammarino explained each of the three candidates' backgrounds in general terms and then stated that the Department’s goals for part-time officers is to include them in the shift rotation. Chief Giammarino explained that the department is service oriented with respect to the community and that part-time officers help fulfill this mission.

After the discussion on part-time police officers and the shifts and responsibilities that they carry, the Board touched on the need for an incident-managment program that the Selectboard can rely on in the face of natural disasters, serious town-wide departmental issues, man-made disasters and other “all hazard” issues. The Board explained that they would like to craft a document that provides them with a series of steps that they can refer to when such situations arise. The Board asked the Chief to help them to draft the after-action program that they can use in the future. This discussion touched on risk management and the Board asked that Primex be consulted to see if such a program or document is already in place in other towns. If not then the Selectboard was interested in hosting a series of meetings where the question of building such a program could be facilitated.

The Board discussed the need to make progress with the request for name changes on certain roads in Greenfield (Gulf Road, Francestown Road, and Dodge Road). The Board requested that the process be placed into an outline and brought before the Board at the March 21st meeting.

Lastly, the Board reviewed a request by Asplundh to conduct routine utility line trimming on property that abuts town-owned land across the street from Zephyr Lake Beach; in order to pull some fiber optic cables. The Board discussed the question at length and then by consensus decided to pass the request on to the Planning Board to see if the Planning Board could schedule a site-walk of the location. It was noted that the residents in the vicinity of Zephyr Lake have voiced concerns in the past regarding tree cutting and trimming and that having the Planning Board provide a site-walk would help ensure that past concerns were incorporated into any permissions that the Town provides to Asplundh regarding this recreational property.

Adjournment

The time being 8:45 pm, Selectman Marshall moved to adjourn. Selectman Atherton seconded. All were in favor, and the motion carried 3-0. The meeting adjourned at 8:45 PM.

The minutes are final when approved and signed by the Selectboard. A signed copy is on file in the Selectboard’s office.