Selectboard Minutes
Minutes
Town of Greenfield
Greenfield Town Offices, 7 Sawmill Road Greenfield, NH
Selectboard’s Minutes
Thursday, August 2, 2018 – 5:30 PM
Selectboard: Chair Robert Marshall, Selectwoman Margaret A. Charig Bliss, Selectwoman Karen Day
Staff: Aaron Patt, Town Administrator; Todd Mason, DPW Road Manager, Rick McQuade, DPW Buildings and Grounds Manager
Public:
Documents for Review/Approval:
- A/P Check Register dated August 1, 2018
- Selectboard Minutes – 7/26/2018
- Meeting House Rental
- Welfare Letter (2)
5:30 PM: Public Forum
At 5:30 pm Chairman Marshall opened the meeting and noted that there were no members of the public in attendance for the public forum. The Selectboard began working on the Consent Agenda items. Chairman Marshall recognized Todd Mason, DPW Road Manager, and asked if Mr. Mason had any updates or items for discussion. Mr. Mason had three things for discussion. The first was the budget transfer to support the grounds keeper contract, the second was a discussion on New Boston Extension Culvert, and the third was an update on the engineering plan for the Dunklee Hill Culvert. After a short conversation it was agreed that Mr. Mason would bring a vendor to the Selectboard meeting on August 23rd to discuss the New Boston culvert. Mr. Mason is interested in advancing S. R. Jones to work with the town to complete the project. By working with a contractor that is hired to complete the culvert replacement the town will benefit from cost savings and the job will go faster, he said. Mr. Mason explained that the size of the culvert and the work that has to be done is outside the scope of the equipment owned by the town. He will have to rent the equipment. Further, the scope of the installation will require him to hire an outside contractor to run an excavator if the town does the job. He has a contractor in mind, if this is the route the Board chooses, but he is unsure of the contractor’s schedule.
The Selectboard took up the conversation about the groundskeeper contract. At the end of the discussion, Mr. Mason indicated that he could provide $8,000 toward the shortfall from the DPW Manager Salary line. This line was under-spent while the town went through the hiring process.
The Chair recognized Mr. McQuade. A discussion followed regarding open projects for the remainder of the year. Mr. McQuade indicated that he was prepared to provide $3000-$4000 from the Meeting House, DPW, and Library Building Maintenance line items in the Buildings and Grounds DPW budget. The Board thanked Mr. Mason and Mr. McQuade for their contributions.
The Chair indicated that the Selectboard had received emails from Fire Chief Hall and Recycling Supervisor Burgess offering $3000 and $1000 respectively. Chairman Marshall noted that the Board would be meeting the Police Chief later in the evening and would discuss a contribution from the Police Department at that time.
5:45 PM: Doug Batty, Captain Greenfield Fire Department
Chairman Marshall recognized Doug Batty. Mr. Batty has been pursuing grants on behalf of the Fire Department. Mr. Batty stated that it is possible that the town may be receiving a grant for an exhaust system for the bays in the fire department building. Mr. Batty explained that in mid-February he applied for a FEMA grant. Recently he received word from FEMA that the town needed to update its direct deposit information. He stated that he expects to receive a letter in the near future indicating whether or not the town of Greenfield has been awarded the grant. The grant totals $75,000, with a requirement of 5% in matching funds from the town. Mr. Batty explained that the grant from FEMA would equal $71,250 and the matching funds from the town would be $3,750, for a total of $75K. The Administrator stated that the grant would be treated as unanticipated grant income and unanticipated grant expense because the 2018 budget process was closed when the grant was submitted. After some additional discussion, the Board noted that as they are on summer session and Selectboard members will be away during much of August and part of September and because the grant has deadlines for acceptance and payment of the match amount, the Board determined that it would vote on the award. Selectwoman Day made a motion to conditionally approve the AFB FEMA grant for an exhaust system at the Fire Department building, and to provide a 5% match in the amount of $3,750 to be appropriated from the Town Buildings Capital Reserve fund, subject to the award of the FEMA grant of which $71,250 is from FEMA, with the remainder from the town, for a total amount of $75,000. Selectwoman Charig Bliss seconded the motion. The motion was called and passed 3-0 in favor.
Mr. Batty thanked the Selectboard for their support of the Greenfield Fire Department.
6:30 PM: Police Chief Brian Giammarino
The Selectboard welcomed Police Chief Brian Giammarino to the meeting. Chief Giammarino provided an update on departmental statistics for the year to date. The statistical data comes from the Hillsborough County Dispatch. Chief Giammarino outlined the number of court dates, traffic stops, arrests, and Calls-for-service. At the conclusion of the report, he noted that the overall numbers were down compared to previous years due to the loss of the third full-time officer. There followed a discussion about the police officers on staff. The focus of the discussion was primarily regarding part-time officers. Chief Giammarino stated that he has become aware in recent months that the part-time wages in Greenfield are low again. Despite raising the part-time rates to $20.00 an hour a few years ago, the market has gone higher still. Chief Giammarino stated that he was hearing that surrounding towns were paying as high as $23.00 an hour. A discussion followed in which the Selectboard asked for a wage study in order to determine how to address the issue. Chief Giammarino indicated that a $1.00 an hour raise would keep part-time officers committed to his department. Chairman Marshall outlined some of the budget pressures that the town is facing. He stated that this year the school budget is going up dramatically and it's going to have an impact on the budget in 2019. Chairman Marshall asked Chief Giammarino about his contribution toward the groundskeeper shortfall. The Chair indicated that unfortunately the Board cannot wait until the fall to vote on transferring funds. Chief Giammarino indicated that he could provide up to $3,000 from his department out of the full-time wages line. The Chair explained that the Selectboard will do everything it can to limit the amount of funds it takes, but ultimately the Board is required to vote sufficient funds to meet the contract that the town has entered into.
The Selectboard meeting with Chief Giammarino ended at 7:03pm.
7:00 PM: Selectboard Work Session
At 7:05 there followed a discussion on the process for filling the third position. After some discussion the Selectboard asked the Town Administrator to ensure that an internal posting for the third police officer was posted so that if an internal candidate is interested in the full-time position then the Chief can move forward with hiring. If the internal posting expires without a new full-time hire, the Selectboard will request that the Police Chief post the job for external candidates.
The Selectboard noted that the department heads had provided the following amounts from their budgets:
DPW Roads - $8,000
DPW B&G - $4,000
Fire Dept. - $3,000
Recycling - $1,000
Police Dept. - $3,000
Total $19,000
The Selectboard noted that the total amount of funding needed is $19,165.00. The Selectboard voted on a motion by the Chair and a second by Selectwoman Charig Bliss to transfer $19,165 with $19,000 from town departments as noted above and $165.00 from Personnel Administration to the Other General Government Groundskeeper, Cemetery Groundskeeper, and Parks and Recreation Groundskeeper line items, as required, through the end of the 2018 groundskeeper contract period. The motion was called and passed 3-0 in favor.
Next the Selectboard discussed a response from Town Counsel regarding RSA 95:1. At the conclusion of the discussion the Board found that the complaint received by the Town was not supported by RSA 95:1. Further, Town Counsel had provided ample court cases that outlined how courts in the past have dealt with conflicts of interest such that the Selectboard could refer to the guidance in the future should an instance of conflict arise. At the conclusion of the discussion the Board agreed that a letter should be written to the complainant and on a motion by Selectwoman Charig Bliss and a second by Selectwoman Day, the Board voted 3-0 in favor of having the Chair sign the letter given that the Selectboard will not convene for more than two weeks.
A discussion followed on Selectboard member schedules. Then Chairman Marshall provided an update on progress with respect to opening the trail behind the old baseball diamond.
A discussion on the progress made with the State of New Hampshire in order to close the cut-through gravel road from Forest Road to Route 136 along the edge of Oak Park was held. At the conclusion of the discussion, Selectwoman Charig Bliss made a motion that should the State agree, to have DPW erect a barrier to close the road. The motion includes a note that aesthetics should be considered if possible –on how the road is closed. The motion was seconded by Selectwoman Day. The motion passed 3-0 in favor
Adjournment
At 8:40 pm Selectwoman Charig Bliss made a motion to adjourn the meeting, the motion was seconded by Chairman Marshall, the motion carried 3-0.