Minutes
Town of Greenfield
Greenfield Town Offices, 7 Sawmill Road Greenfield, NH
Selectmen’s Meeting Minutes
Thursday, January 26, 2012 – 6:30 pm
Board of Selectmen: Chairman, Aaron Kullgren; Selectwoman, Karen Day; Selectman, Robert Wimpory
Staff: Town Administrator Patt, DPW Supervisor Murray, Greenfield Recycling Committee member Brown, Police Chief Giammarino
Public:
The meeting was called to order at 6:30 PM by Chairman Aaron Kullgren.
Documents for Approval/Review/Signature
The Selectmen reviewed and signed the following items:
A. A/P Check Register
B. A/P Checks & Payment Records
C. A/P Check Register Waste Water Facility
D. A/P Checks - Waste Water Facility
E. Approval of Selectmen Minutes
F. Preliminary Warrant – revised
G. Preliminary Budget – updated and revised
H. State of New Hampshire DOT – Driveway Permit R9-43-1
I. 2010 Attorney General’s letter on ballots and warrants – Review
J. Greenfield Properties Light Pole - Quote
K. Meridian Land Service - Revised Quote
5:50 PM: Selectmen’s Working Meeting: DPW Road Reconstruction Budget
DPW Supervisor Tim Murray presented an alternative plan for road reconstruction in 2012. Tim met with an asphalt and paving company recently to discuss alternatives for road reconstruction without using hot asphalt, which is the most expensive paving application. Supervisor Murray’s original estimates were based on the application of hot asphalt. After discussing different applications Supervisor Murray felt that a cold mix application, which is considerably less expensive, was a better option for the Town. One mile of cold mix cost approximately $89,000 dollars. The cold mix application would stabilize roads while a long-term plan and funding program was under development. The cold mix would last 4-5 years and there would be enough left over after stabilizing Mountain Road that the DPW could also
pave a portion of the distance from Zephyr Lake road to Gould road on Slip Rd.
The cold mix has a smaller grade of gravel, the company would build a pile of tar and gravel on the DPW site, let it sit for a month and then use that for paving, which is rolled out in the same way that hot mix is applied. The pavement would cover the current asphalt on Mountain Rd. from Whitney Drive to a point past Peavey Rd. Ditching on both sides of the road would improve drainage. Once Mountain Rd. and Slip Rd. were stabilized the DPW would move to chip sealing New Boston Road, East Rd. and Russell Station Rd., this would allow these roads to last as much as another 10 years.
After the presentation, there followed a discussion of the amount that would be needed in the warrant article for road reconstruction. Supervisor Murray stated that given the amount of roads that could be fixed with cold mix, if the Board were willing to increase the warrant article from $100,000 to $115,000 then the paving company could leave a pile of cold mix for the DPW to use on other roads. Specifically the DPW would like to shim Slip Rd. from Cornwell to Zephyr Lake Rd (about 2 tenths of a mile). The Board questioned Supervisor Murray at length and calculated the amount of mileage discussed on Mountain Rd and Slip Rd (Supervisor Murray had driven it and it was 6 tenths of a mile for each). The Board asked about Old Bennington Rd and Supervisor Murray answered that they could do some overlay on Old
Bennington Rd if there were enough funds. Selectman Wimpory stated that if the warrant were increased to $125,000 and some funds from the Road Maintenance line item in the DPW budget were available then the DPW could focus on Mountain Rd. and include Old Bennington Rd. for some of the overlay. Selectman Wimpory commented all of the projects were needed. A discussion about the impact of the budget in 2012 was held. There was concern about increasing the warrant article. Selectwoman Day asked what the 2012 project cost from the Road Maintenance budget was going to be. Supervisor Murray said that he had originally budgeted $36-40 thousand but that he was re-working the numbers to see if there was some of that budget he could capture for road reconstruction. He felt that if he could budget $25 thousand between the warrant and the Road Maintenance budget for a pile of cold mix, he could do a number of projects such as shimming Slip Rd. and putting overlay on Old Bennington Rd. The
Selectmen discussed the impact of rising gas prices on the roads. Supervisor Murray said that he felt that the company he spoke with was pretty firm on their prices right now. Selectman Wimpory said that at some point if prices keep rising it would impact the cost of the product. The calculation for the roads was 6 tenths of a mile for Mountain Rd. and 6 tenths of a mile on Slip Rd. from Gould to Zephyr Lake and another 2 tenths of a mile from Zephyr Lake to Cornwell. These distances total approximately $124,600 based on the cost quoted. The Board agreed that they would consider a warrant article for $125,000. Supervisor Murray said that he would try to find an additional $25,000 in his budget for the shim work. Chairman Kullgren said he was appreciative of the work that Supervisor Murray had done on the road budgets. The Chair stated that the decisions being made by Supervisor Murray were feasible and realistic.
A short conversation about the DPW budget was held. The Selectmen inquired about the overall budget and if there were anything they should know about. Supervisor Murray said that he had been looking at using liquid calcium on the dirt roads. The advantage of the calcium was that it provided dust control and held the moisture in longer. This keeps the roads “tighter”. Supervisor Murray said that he had also spoken to Meridian Land Services about their proposal on the Forest Road property. Meridian is willing to put together a large poster board layout of the proposed project and credit the cost toward the overall project at no extra cost if the warrant article passes. If the warrant article doesn’t pass then they would want the Town to cover the cost of $600 dollars toward the cost of the
layout. Lastly, he had spoken to an electrician about the cost of the light pole behind the Greenfield Properties building. The electrician would need to trace the conduit back to the panel to make sure that the conduit in the parking lot actually terminated at the panel. If the conduit does terminate at the panel it would help to keep costs down. Otherwise the estimated cost was put at $1000. Selectman Wimpory expressed surprise at the estimate. Supervisor Murray indicated that they would have to run new conduit and it was just an estimate because there was no clear sense of what was needed until after the site was reviewed.
7:00 PM: Neal Brown for the Recycling Committee
Mr. Brown outlined that he was working to reconvene the volunteer Greenfield Recycling Committee. Mr. Brown provided a list of eight people that were interested in being part of a volunteer group that would work on Recycling Center issues: Jarvis Adams, Diane Boilard, Neal Brown, Jon Eber, Candi Fowler, John Matthias, Myron Steere, and Dan Wolaver. The Greenfield Recycling Committee in the past had been a sub-committee of the Conservation Commission and the members had been sworn in as alternates. The appointment sheets have been drawn up this way and the Selectmen signed the appointments while reviewing the committee’s mission with Mr. Brown. Candi
Fowler has offered be the secretary and while Mr. Brown would chair the first meeting, the first order of business would be to elect a chairperson. The first meeting will be held upstairs at the Town Offices on Thursday night, February 2nd. The Recycling Committee’s first project would be the examination of the Pay As You Throw (PAYT) program that Recycling Center Supervisor Carol Burgess had reported on recently at the request of the Budget Advisory Committee. The Recycling Committee’s plan would be to review the information that Supervisor Burgess provided and to put together the start-up costs so that the start-up could be included in the warrant for Town Meeting.
There followed a discussion of PAYT programs and whether it was necessary to include the start-up cost in the warrant article. A discussion of the bag types that different towns have used was held. There was some discussion of standardizing a bag size that could be purchased at a supermarket and there was also discussion of having Town bags, most likely clear bags, which would have the Town logo, and would then be sold, in various locations. It was suggested that the Harvester Market might be willing to buy the bags at retail from the Town and sell them for the same price to residents to increase traffic at their store. Chairman Kullgren asked what the start-up cost for the program has been in other communities. Mr. Brown indicated that in speaking to Supervisor Burgess he thought that she had called
several companies but she hadn’t been able to get a breakdown of the costs as yet. That was something that he felt the committee would work on in their first meeting. Mr. Brown envisioned the first meeting as a call to order and then he hoped that they would be able to finalize the start-up costs during the meeting. Chairman Kullgren asked who would handle the payments and the storage of the bags. Mr. Brown thought that if the Harvester were interested then they could provide some storage at their store, and the remaining stock would be stored at the Recycling Center. He felt that sales of the bags could certainly happen at the Recycling Center. The Chair questioned if that were a good idea and would it create monitoring issues for the staff since they have other things to do than to make change for purchases. Mr. Brown felt that if the Recycling Center committee members were at the facility to help during the initial bag sale that the Supervisor would be able to handle the
sales of the bags after that.
8:00 PM: Police Chief Giammarino – Warrant Article request
Police Chief Giammarino came before the Board to request a warrant article for the purchase of the new police cruiser in 2012. The Board questioned the Chief on the condition of Car 2 and asked if the current vehicle could last through the year. The immediate feeling was that a police cruiser had just been purchased in 2011 and it was already shaping up to be a difficult year for the budget. Chief Giammarino indicated that the current vehicle had over 140,000 miles and his answer to whether the police department could wait was simply that the car would be unlikely to make it through the year. So the answer was that no, the police department, unfortunately, and understanding that it was tough year financially, would probably not make it through the year with the current car. Even if substantial repairs were budgeted it
would still be unlikely that the car would make 12 more months at the current mileage. The Chief felt that in a couple of months it was likely that the car would exceed 150,000 miles. Selectman Wimpory stated that he felt that in the winter months, especially, the cars take a beating, since they have to sit outside idling. Discussion turned to the line item for repairs, which was at $4500. The Board asked if a new car were purchased did the Chief intend to amend this line item at Town Meeting. The Chief indicated that he would absolutely be in favor of amending the line item. A discussion followed about the extent to which the line item would be necessary if the department had two new cars. There was also discussion about the fact that if a new car were purchased, two years in a row, it would be difficult to get back to the staggered purchase plan that had been originally planned. Ideally, the Board indicated, vehicles should be purchased every three to four years so that there was
sufficient time to save the amount needed through capital reserve funds. Buying two cars so close together would defeat this ability to budget over a long period of time. The Chief indicated that while he understands that there is the possibility that a car could be purchased every four years it was not his preference. He felt that the Police Department takes very good care of its vehicles. The Town entrusts the care of the cars to him and the Chief felt that they could make the cars last much longer than four years. As an example, when he first got here he kept the first car for a total of eight years. This allows the Town to get the best bang for the buck. Selectman Wimpory asked what the cost of last year’s cruiser was with the transfer of the lights. The Board reviewed the budget and determined that with everything included the cost was less than the $25,000 budgeted in the warrant article. The Chief answered that he would prefer to locate a Crown Victoria if possible
since it would make the transfer of lights much easier and cost effective. He felt that with one of the discontinued models they would only have to pay to have for the decals, which were $500 and to move everything else he thought was around $1000-$1200. If we were to purchase one of the newer police vehicles we would be looking at a new cage and other costs since the new models are not vehicles that the Town has had in the past. The one thing apart from outfitting the car that was planned was the addition of snow tires. Chief Giammarino stated that he was not in favor of buying a four-wheel drive vehicle and that to compensate for that he uses snow tires, which he purchases as often as every year. The Board closed the conversation on the proposed warrant article and asked how other things were going. Chief Giammarino said that there were arrests made recently that would be reported in the papers. There had been a string of burglaries in the surrounding area, and in Greenfield,
targeting homes during the daytime. The people responsible were apprehended by our police department, and, the result could clear up hundreds of burglaries.
The Board congratulated Chief Giammarino on his arrests and said they looked forward to reading more details in the news.
Adjournment
Kullgren moved to adjourn the meeting. Wimpory seconded. The motion carried unanimously.
The meeting adjourned at 9:45 PM
Respectfully Submitted:
Aaron Patt
Town Administrator
The minutes are final when approved and signed by the Board of Selectmen. A signed copy is on file in the Selectmen’s minutes.
_______________________ ________________________ ______________________
Aaron Kullgren, Chairman Robert Wimpory, Selectman Karen Day, Selectwoman
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