Thursday – June 1, 2006 – 7 pm
Members Present: Neal Brown (Chairman); Bob Jennings, Lee LeBlanc, Roger Lessard, Miriam Lockhart, Frank Pelkey (non-voting), Kent Vincent
Chairman Brown called the meeting to order at 7:15pm
Member Kent Vincent taking minutes
Agenda:
1. Neal explained the GRC mandate, ground rules, requirement to be "sworn in" by Town Clerk.
Action taken: Neal will provide appropriate certificates for swearing in all members not already have taken the Town Oath.
2. Discussion held as to which Thursday is to be our "official" meeting time.
Action taken: The first Thursday of each month is so designated. Neal will keep member Dan Wolaver abreast of Committee activities until Dan can attend the Thursday meetings starting after July 13th.
3. Action Taken: Roger Lessard chosen as Vice-Chair; Kent Vincent chosen as Secretary to take Minutes.
4. As requested by the BOS, discussion started as to the merits of having the GRC put under the supervision of, and reporting to, the Highway Dept. The whole committee agrees that this issue must be resolved as soon as possible. Unresolved, it is a hindrance to addressing other critical issues facing the committee. It was quickly determined that Duffy Fox should be invited to speak to this issue as soon as possible.
Action taken: a) Neal will meet with Duffy ASAP (hopefully Friday) to invite Duffy to attend at his earliest opportunity, which Duffy had previously indicated could be next week;. b) a special meeting has been set for Tuesday, June 6th at 7PM, subject to Duffy’s availability. Neal will advise the members as to the meeting going forward and post the meeting on the Town Website; c) the Committee plans on concluding its deliberations at the next regularly scheduled meeting (July 6th)
5. Neal handed out copies of a review of the GRC by NRRA, so members will be ready to discuss the points raised therein at the next regularly scheduled meeting (July 6th). The report is fairly comprehensive and may take several meetings to fully discuss. The NRRA review was done at the request of Frank and the Committee.
6. Discussion was held on the Monadnock Ledger news article concerning the reported practice of individuals having free and unsupervised access to the various piles of materials at the GRC. While the article clearly referred to the GRC, it was accompanied by a photograph of a pile of material that is not actually at the GRC, but adjacent to the Highway Department building. The article also strongly implies the BOS support open accessibility to the material at the GRC, which is unlikely to be accurate. The Committee is very concerned about several aspects of what was reported. The most overriding concern is the potential liability for injury to someone pulling material
from the piles (throwing material on is less dangerous), especially if the Town is perceived as condoning, and/or not having taken proper steps to prevent, such action by the public. To a lesser degree, the Committee is concerned the public could also assume they have access to the other stores of materials (plastics, glass, oil, etc.) in what have always been restricted areas.
Action taken:
The Committee urges the BOS to quickly publish (GRC, Town Office, Town Website, Newspaper- perhaps a Letter To The Editor, etc) clear statements that:
a. The GRC is a resource open to Greenfield Residents ONLY.
b. No one, resident or not, has open access to remove anything from any material pile at the GRC. The ONLY area open to residents from which residents may freely take material is the “mini-mall” (small shed and immediately adjacent display area). Removal of any material, except from the “mini-mall” is by permission only, and under the supervision of GRC personnel (town employee or volunteer).
On a related matter, the Committee asks that the BOS direct the Highway Dept to properly dispose of discarded material at the GRC proper. It is important the public know there is only one storage pile, which is at the GRC. Otherwise, we will loose some progress we’ve made in getting discarded material being properly taken to the GRC, and not left along our roads, in the woods, and/or water.
Finally, in this regard, the Committee asks the BOS to reaffirm that by not taking discarded material to the GRC, and paying the appropriate fee as required, the town is denied funds needed to cover the cost of the ultimate disposal of that material at a future date; and, by not allowing the GRC to include the material in the material stocks sold for revenue, the town is further deprived of anticipated revenue for the GRC.
The meeting ended at 8:30 pm.
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