Town of Greenfield
Selectmen’s Meeting Minutes
Tuesday – January 20, 2009 – 6:00 pm
Present: Chairman, Aaron Kullgren, Selectman, Jarvis Adams, IV; Selectwoman, Karen Day
Minutes: Administrative Assistant, Deb Davidson
Call to order: Selectwoman Day called the meeting to order at 6:00 pm.
Appointments:
6:30 –Greg Heyn, DRA; Mark Stetson, Avitar - To discuss the State assessing requirements –
Selectman Kullgren opened the meeting and discussed the possibility of the Board doing the assessments in 2009 rather than continue with the contract through Avitar. They will do the pick ups, abatements, building permits etc.
Mark Stetson responded by explaining the statute for assessing services. He went on to explain the cost effect it could have on the town in the long run.
Deb asked about the credentials required for performing assessing duties, even though the Board is ultimately responsible for the assessing
Stetson explained the various levels of assessing qualifications required by the Department of Revenue Administration. The beginning qualification is to be a Measurer & Lister, then it graduates to an Assistant Assessor and finally you become a Supervisor of Assessing. A Supervisor requires 5 years experience & many hours of class time and courses. Someone performing assessing services must have certain amount of certification, maintain a certain amount of ratio within the town, and meet the requirements from the DRA to keep the town equalized.
Stetson continued the conversation with the equalization and fairness if each town (especially in a cooperative school district) and the importance that the towns are equally assessed.
Abatements were discussed – Stetson explained with the changing times we should expect more abatements due to market values dropping.
Discussion followed regarding the contract signed with Avitar, our contract typically is construed of a specific number of days Avitar is required to perform the assessing duties. If the Board chose Avitar would renegotiate less days of usage.
Mr. Heyn was present to discuss the assessing process from the states perspective. Heyn explains he works for the DRA in the Assessing Dept., he is the Town of Greenfield assessing monitor. He is here to discuss the review of our assessing process. He suggested to the Board that if they chose not to have an assessing firm there is a possibility that any time a town could have an assessment review, it is the Towns advantage that Greenfield is having a review and assessment update in the same year. That is definitely to our town’s advantage, there will be more eyes double-checking assessments.
Heyn stated that every town in the Conval District is having a statistical update this year. This is also to our advantage.
Mr. Hynes explained the assessment review guidelines and provided a copy of the guidelines for the board.
Notification to residents, via the Spirit if possible, either way Heyn assures the residents will always be notified via fist class mail.
Mr. Hynes thoroughly explained the level of and the importance of uniformity of assessments, assessing practices, exemptions & credits, data accuracy, proportionality and the USPAP complaint report.
In summary the data the DRA works with will be notified and reviewed with Deb in advance. When in the field, he is not there to police the town, but to help the town stay fair and equitable for everyone.
Heyn went back to the USPSP report to discuss that after Avitar is completed with their portion of the assessing, they will provide the town with a report, the DRA will review the report and if needed it may be changed one way or another before a finalized copy is signed off on. He further discussed the base year being in 2004 the steps that have been taken to get Greenfield to 2009 have changed significantly, this will have somewhat of an impact on the final reports.
The board thanked Mark & Greg for attending the meeting and explaining this process so thoroughly.
7:00 –Fire Chief, Jim Plourde – to discuss purchase of an emergency generator – Plourde stated he has met with Andy Frisk and they have visited the various town buildings, allowing an assessment to see what it would cost for emergency generator(s). Mr. Frisk was assessing the buildings to evaluate what would be needed for each building and/or if a portable generator was large enough to support the needs of all the buildings. Plourde is researching a grant for this purchase; the one that has been looked at most closely is a 50/50 matching grant.
The generator will be presented as a warrant article in March with a 50/50 match.
This was also brought to the attention of the school; in hopes the district could get 9 generators for all the elementary schools. The schools are wired for a large generator and it makes sense to get one for each school. It would be the hope that if this were obtained, towns could utilize the elementary schools for a shelter in the event of any future disasters.
Jim asked if the Chief position could be considered for a two-year term, this would then coincide with the elections of the fire station. Selectmen said yes, they would put it on the warrant. Discussion followed as to why this is a logical decision.
The Board discussed the proposed budget with Plourde; they will add subsidized insurances as a line item. Deb was instructed to take the funds for this insurance out of radio repair, the cost for the insurance is $350.00.
Plourde discussed the need for a warrant article to authorize paying the volunteers a set rate in the event the president declares a state of emergency in NH. This warrants article must pass and a written policy must be in place, in order to receive federal funds for reimbursement of these funds.
Plourde indicated he would like to attend the meeting on February 17th in Keene, which will provide education on properly running meetings. Deb will sign him up.
Approval of minutes:
Minutes of 1/13/08 Selectmen’s Meeting were approved as written.
Sign Documents: Selectmen signed the following
Invoices
Payroll
Old Business:
Selectmen discussed Budget review with CRF
New Business:
Treasurer position was discussed; the Board would like interviews to be arranged before Town Meeting
Selectmen reviewed incoming mail
Selectmen reviewed the DRAFT Town Warrant
Town Report – Items of discussion for the Town Report were:
- Cover -
- Dedication Page –
- Property tax summary – Selectmen would like to have the brochure made earlier this year available at Town Meeting.
- Delinquent tax list – Lengthy discussion took place around this mater, no decision was made at this time – Karen will put something in the Spirit asking residents if they would like to have the delinquent tax list printed in the Town Report.
Tax Collector had questions about the Carbee’s tax lien; she will contact the Local Government Center for advice on this matter.
Selectmen discussed their meeting night will change to Thursdays beginning January 29th 2009 – Items they discussed that need addressing by changing the meeting night were:
- Direct Deposits – need to be made by Wed.
- Transfers – funds need 48 hours to be sure they will be in our account in a timely manner
- Approval of documents – Deb asked if they would be coming to the office on Wednesday for approval of a/p, payroll, correspondence etc. Selectmen discussed this stating they would not; they will do everything on Thursday. However, Deb pointed out that the procedure is for the BOS to approve documents prior to our printing the checks. Chairman Kullgren stated we should work it within the office. Kullgren & Day recall never having to come in on Wednesday when the Board met in Thursday in the past. Deb explained the ACH payments & Direct Deposits were not available then, they need to be administered by Wednesday at 4:00.
- Treasurer – Deb discussed Friday’s are difficult for Katherine Heck and don’t work at all for Ms. Champagne – Selectmen indicated they are holding meetings on Thursday; we need to adjust our schedules accordingly.
Website – Day had wanted Deb to research other options for our Webmaster; she would like to have bids than only Virtual Town Hall. Day recommended Sam McIntyre; he indicated to Deb he could do the job. However, Deb discussed that Virtual Town Hall has done our website since 2004, she explained the amount of time it took to build the site. Deb further explained the advantages to remaining with Virtual Town Hall and that Mr. McIntyre has not gotten back with a price for redoing our site. Advantages of remaining with Virtual Town Hall are:
- Ability to do in house updates
- Accuracy & timeliness
- Minimum cost $30.00/hour for redesigning (per Mr. McIntyre)
- Municipal website vs. .org or .com website
- Other communities have contracted Virtual Town Hall because they like the Town of Greenfield website so much and have mirrored our site.
- Training costs
- Domain hosting
- “1st class” software
- Data from Virtual Town Hall is archived and not easily transferred to another site
Selectmen asked Deb to find out if/when Virtual Town Hall will correct the fact that the site doesn’t notify someone when updates happen and that the search engine doesn’t work properly. Deb will get back to the Board when she has this answer.
Clock – Deb asked what the status of repair to the Steeple clock is. Jarvis has contacted the last clock repairman; he will be calling Jarvis this coming week. Jarvis stated that something has frozen up and needs to be repaired with the gears.
Meeting House Freeze up - Adams reported to the Board the Meetinghouse had a pipe freeze up over the weekend. McGurty helped Jarvis with the clean up – the bathroom will be re-piped, the pipes will be visible, but no freeze ups will take place after it is re-piped, the pipes are currently in the wall and apparently not insulated properly.
Underground Storage Tank – Deb reported that it is time for the corrosion testing for the UST at the Town Office building. The last time this was done, they advised we install an alarm, it was quite costly and the Board at the time wanted to table the expense. The Board instructed Deb to obtain a second opinion from Allan & Mathewson. Discussion took place about the feasibility of leaving the UST in place and installing two 330 tanks in the basement. Deb to report back next week.
Insulation – Selectmen discussed the need for a re-quote for the insulation to be prepared for town meeting. Deb to contact Dan Wolover or Diane Boilard and discuss obtaining quotes from Bragdon, JA Jubb, More-Tite and Duquette.
Muzzey Hill Road – Selectman Kullgren asked Deb to check e-mails and see if she did get back to Myron Steere or not. Discussion followed that the e-mail from Kurt Grasset was received, but not forwarded to Mr. Steere; the e-mail from Mr. Grasset was received early December. Deb will find the e-mail. Kullgren did forward it to Mr. Steere.
Adams questioned why the PSNH bill for the Fire Department is so high. Deb will look into this.
Selectmen discussed the tax collector wage; the approved amount will be $27.89/hour, a minimum of 10 hours a week to be worked. The Deputy wages will be lowered to $2,000.00, the retro difference will be given to Valliere in her next paycheck. The Board will sign a new pay rate form.
Selectmen updated Kullgren about last weeks meeting after he left to attend the School Board Meeting.
John Gryval stopped by to update the board on the School Board meeting.
Adjournment - With no further business the meeting adjourned at 10:00 pm. The next scheduled meeting will be Thursday, January 29, 2009 at 6:00 pm.
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